First met Ralph on March 9, 1958 starting a night shift at Engine 5 in Inman Sq. I had just been promoted to Lt. and he was starting out as a "probie". We sat down with the crew and he being the new man most of the talking describing the job was directed to him. Our first run turned out to be false. The second run turned out to be a smoky mattress fire on the first floor of a 3 family occupied dwelling. Not being the first engine on the scene we ran a small line to the front door. Ralph was eager to move in and get a taste of the real thing. I told him to stand fast when I reported to the incident commander. When I returned and told him to return the line to the apparatus I could tell he was upset but said nothing. A few shifts later I brought the subject up and asked him what upset that particular time. It was just that he wanted to move in on the fire. I gave him my reasons why I held the line back - there was already one line in the door way and that the incident commander would have ordered our line either to rear of or above the fire. He understood and as we continued to work together for 4 years and he became one hell of a good firefighter. It had been a pleasure to work with him. For some reason I always addressed him as Mr. Underwood - both on and off the job. I have been retired for 21 years and shall never forget my friend and co-worker, Mr. Underwood. May he rest in peace.