Hopefully I’ve made clear in this book how much Erica has changed my life and made me a better person. There is perhaps no greater evidence of how important she is than the fact that this native New Yorker to the bone agreed to relocate to her suburban Cleveland, Ohio, hometown. I also want to acknowledge her parents, Nancy and the late Howard A. Levy, for trusting this ancient mariner to marry their daughter, and my kids, Gabriel, Cruz, Isabella, Simone, and Sol, who despite my eccentricities love their dad and are a Modern Family unit despite their varied ethnic, religious, and geographic backgrounds.
I treasure also the friendship of Bernard Carabello, the former resident of Willowbrook, whose life has been an inspiration; Leo Kayser III, my cranky lawyer and former roommate down on Avenue C; Marty Berman who has been there from the first days of Eyewitness News, and who, with publisher Glenn Yeffeth, had the grit to bring this book back from the dead; and Jon Peters, who still calls me every week to share memories of the old days. My kid brother, Craig, and our partner in peril, producer/cameraman Greg Hart, are very special to me. Neither man ever said no when I asked them to follow me off the cliff.
General John F. Campbell, retired, was a noble and near-constant presence in my life as a Fox News war correspondent in Afghanistan and Iraq from 2003 to 2012. Tracking the meteoric rise of this hero soldier I dubbed “America’s Spartan” as he earned his way up through the ranks from colonel to four-star general was deeply impressive. I hope he runs for high office because he would make a terrific senator. Even more inspiring has been spending long days and nights with our war fighters, young men and women far from home who serve our country with honor and distinction. I cannot walk through an airport in America without one coming up to me and saying we met and maybe took a picture in this or that forward operating base or other deployment.
I want to acknowledge also my boss Rupert Murdoch, who kept me on when so many others bit the dust; the forty-fifth president, who treasures friendship above politics or ideology; my steadfastly loyal Fox News colleagues, especially Sean Hannity, Kimberly Guilfoyle, Ainsley Earhardt, Brian Kilmeade, Liz Claman, Charles Payne, Shepard Smith, Juan Williams, Rick Leventhal, Mike Tobin, Steve Harrigan, Steve Doocy, Bill Hemmer, Dana Perino, Janice Dean, and Arthel Neville; and, finally, the folks who still like to watch what I do, if only to shout their disagreement at the screen. You have kept me on the air for almost half a century.
“Even more inspiring has been spending long days and nights with our war fighters, young men and women far from home who serve our country.” Afghanistan, 2008.