None of us can control the thoughts that come into our heart or our heads. Someone can be "out of sight and out of mind" for many years before their picture reappears on the television sets of our mind.

An unlikely trigger can cause a synapse in our brain and bring back an image of a dead relative of our youth or a friend we grew up with and haven't thought about for 30 or more years.

This happened to me last week and since I am a columnist for the Anton Newspapers, I will gladly share my vision with you. I am not sure if my pal is still alive but I doubt that he is. I think of him only fondly and with great love.

At an autobiographical writing course I am taking at Nassau Community College, I was given the task to write about a second father or a mentor.

Here goes!

I met Colonel Robert White when I was serving a tour of duty as a dentist in Seoul, Korea in 1959. I was 25 and just out of New York University Dental School and he was about 60 and in the US Army only because he had failed in private practice in Idaho. He was the prosthodontist (false teeth expert) in the clinic. He adopted me both as a dentist and as a pal.

We were unlikely comrades but somehow we meshed and formed a strange but wonderful friendship. "They used to pay me in pigs when I was in practice in Idaho. The Army saved my life in more ways than one," he said.

Korea was still technically a battle zone. No final peace treaty was signed. At Panmunjom they still meet today with the North and South Koreans in a shaky truce. Therefore we wore battle fatigues and no dependants (wives and children) were allowed.

I was single and Col. White was married. However, no one was married in Korea. I saw a lot of married men carrying on like college kids in the villages of South Korea.

He was an excellent dentist and I looked upon him as both a teacher and a mentor in the clinic. Outside the clinic we were just two guys having fun in a strange new country.

As we talked, the colonel and I found out about his wife back home. Jessica was her name, and she would murder anyone who called her Jess or Jesse. She was a Marie Dressler type, big and buxom, and definitely no shrinking violet!

Being the friend and confidante of a man 30 or 40 years your senior is not really that hard. Most men are just older boys with better jobs and more seniority.

When Colonel White and I palled around together I always gave him the respect he deserved. That never stopped us from having a great time together.

He once came to New York and I took him to Katz's Delicatessen. His wife Jessica almost crowned one of the ancient Jewish waiters. He had the temerity to put his thumb deep down into her order of cole slaw.

I truly loved thinking about my pal, the colonel and even after 40 years I laugh and get sentimental about an old friend and happy times.