I'd spent the day swimming, playing football, and catching Frisbees. It was orientation week for the freshman class at Brown University, and we were on a school-sponsored outing. On a sunny September afternoon in 1979, I stood at the water's edge of 1st Beach in Newport, Rhode Island. Read an excerpt from 'The Men We Became: My Friendship with John F. One of his closest friends, Robert Littell, writes the story he says has not been heard, the story of the man he knew and the bond they shared.

Kennedy Jr., his wife and her sister - but he's hardly left the headlines. It's been nearly five years since the plane crash that killed John F.