Firefighter Richard Allen
Ladder 15
Laid to Rest on
March 11, 2002
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.
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