Posted by AAP (165.247.12.88) on September 17, 2001 at 15:40:55:
Stoic NY firefighters promoted en masse
Source: AAP|Published: Monday September 17, 11:01 AM
New York promoted 168 firefighters today and no one laughed or beamed with pride. There was only heartache.
These were the replacements for a Fire Department command structure that was eviscerated in a few moments on Tuesday morning, when the World Trade Centre toppled. Their
promotions were a necessity, not a joy.
ãNo one really wants to be here. No one really wante d to be promoted,ä said Jerry Horton, who became a captain during the ceremony.
With nearly 300 firefighters st ill lost beneath the jumbled remains of the twin towers, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani compared the promotions to battlefield commissions awarded during
wartime.
ãWe are shaken but we are not defeated,ä said Fire Commissioner Thomas Von Essen. ãWe stare adversity in the eye and we move on.ä
Von Essen delivered his remarks in a strong, un wavering voice, but his face twisted in pain the moment he finished. He collapsed into a chair on the stage and hung his head as
Giuliani stepped to the podium.
Giuliani hailed the firefighters as heroes, then helped swear the promoted into their new positions.
Some of the men were not there. Some of them were still under the wreckage of the Trade Centre - t heir promotions a gesture of faith that they and some of their brethren will
survive.
The men awaited their honours in a plaza adjacent to the department's Brooklyn headquarters, sitting stoically under the same azure skies that delivered death to their colleagues
five days ago.
No one cried.
The promotions reached all the way to the top. Chief of Operations Daniel A. Nigro was named Chief of Department, the highest uniformed position in the organisation. He replaces Peter Ganci, the former
department chief, who died in Tuesday's attacks and was buried yesterday.
After the ceremony the firefighters chatted quietly with their families. One man tousled his son's hair. Another lifted his daughter to his shoulders. A few posed for snapshots, their faces pale and their smiles
thin-lipped.
This thought was never far from anyone's mind: Less t han two kilometres away, hundreds of their comrades remained entombed beneath a mountain of twisted steel and crumbled concrete. So far only 18 of
the 300 fire department personnel thought to have been lost in the disaster are confirmed dead.
& #147;I need you all to go out there and to help us do the very best we can to get our guys,ä Von Essen said.
Th e New York Fire Department is accustomed to burying its own. A memorial at its Brooklyn headquarters names more than 750 firefighters who have fallen in the line of duty since the department was formed
in 1865.
Never have so many been lost at one time. With 11,400 firefighters on the force, one out of every 38 is either dead or missing. Almost every station house has been touched by the tragedy.
Yet even after suffering such heavy casualties, both department officials and the rank-an d-file said they are confident they can keep doing their jobs.
Under normal conditions, most of those elevated t oday would have been promoted in the next six to eight months anyway.
ãWe're always ready,ä said Antho ny Rocco, who was promoted to lieutenant.