* * * * * For the next few days, Athena and I enjoyed the delights of Manhattan’s theater district. When she hustled off to Vegas, I hooked up with Scott Wallace, the other first officer I was partnered with for ground school and simulator training. He was another Yank in his late thirties, of medium height, built similar to a wrestler, with blond hair and crisp blue eyes. Scotty and I used our per diem to rent a house for the next couple of months at Long Beach, right next door to Atlantic Beach, in Nassau County, south of Long Island. We soon learned from the locals at the deli on East Park Avenue, that we were in the middle of historic mafia country. In fact, this is where the Corleone Compound was supposed to be located, in the movie The Godfather . The ...