Posted by Tony (209.206.216.77) on March 23, 2002 at 23:08:30:
In Reply to: SIX FIREFIGHTERS GRADUATE POSTHUMOUSLY FROM TRAINING ACADEMY posted by AAP on November 03, 2001 at 03:16:39:
: Six firefighters graduate posthumously from training academy
: Source: AAP|Published: Friday November 2, 11:38 AM
: NEW YORK, Nov 1 AP - The New York Fire Department today awarded diplomas posthumously for the first time, to six graduates of its training academy.
: As 240 other rookie firefighters trooped across a stage to receive their papers, empty chairs draped in purple bunting and blue FDNY uniform shirts were reserved for the six
: absentees who were among 343 firefighters killed in the World Trade Centre collapse.
: ``We will remember their bravery in all that we do throughout our lives,'' said Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, a department chaplain.
: The graduates were the department's first since the September 11 terrorist attacks at the trade centre.
: Mayor Rudolph Giuliani noted that many trainees were assigned to firehouses and worked during the attacks, receiving a special initiation into the perils of their profession.
: ``You've had to face the worst,'' Giuliani told graduates. ``We always knew we were the best. Now the whole world knows we are the best.''
: Family members accepted diplomas awarded posthumously for Richard D Allen, Calixto Anaya Jr, Andrew C Brunn, Michael Cammarata, Michael D'Auria and Anthony Rodriguez as
: their classmates and a packed audience applauded.
: Anaya's wife Maria brought her three young children on stage. Her 6-year-old son Brandon, wearing his father's cap, accepted the diploma.
: Fire Commissioner Thomas Von Essen called the graduation ceremony a ``mixed day of joy and sorrow.
: ``If I was a parent I would wonder, 'Was my son well enough trained?' We would never send people out who weren't trained for the job,'' Von Essen said.
: The academy provides 11 weeks of instruction and two weeks of on-the-job training at firehouses, after which the cadets return to school for evaluation. Graduates remain probationary firefighters for one
: year.
: Brogan Healy, a co-valedictorian, said neither he nor any of his colleagues regrets the decision to become firefighters.
: ``We have entered into a brotherhood and we look to our big brothers,'' said Healy, who moved from California to join FDNY ranks.