Firefighter James Coyle
Ladder 3

Memorial Service held
on October 24, 2001

IKIMULISA SOCKWELL-MASON NY Post Online October 25, 2001 -- James Coyle was born to be a firefighter - but he "died a hero," his friends recalled at his funeral service in Brooklyn yesterday. More than a thousand people crowded into and around St. Thomas Aquinas Church in the Flatlands section to say goodbye to the 26-year-old rookie, who was on vacation the day terrorists crashed jetliners into the Twin Towers but still joined Ladder Co. 3 that morning to save lives. "He was a very, very brave man," Mayor Giuliani said. "Being a firefighter was his calling. James died a hero." The mayor asked the congregation to honor Coyle with a standing ovation. The applause lasted for nearly a minute. At the front of the church, near a big color picture of Coyle, sat his helmet and an urn filled with ashes. "I will never walk in front of a firehouse again without thinking, thanking and praying," said the Rev. Daniel Gatti. Coyle's friends remembered him as a good-natured, beer-guzzling buddy who'd give the shirt off his back to a friend in need. "I don't know what it's like to lose a son or a brother. But I know what it's like to lose a great friend," said firefighter James Dunn. "He was the greatest guy in the world," Dunn said. "Who else could drink a pint of Guinness in a mere 15 seconds?"

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