He
would not have wanted it any other way.
Joseph
J. Angelini Sr. and his son, Joseph Jr., were firefighters, and
neither survived the twin towers' collapse. "If he had lived
and his son had died, I don't think he would have survived,"
said Alfred Benjamin, a firefighter at Rescue Company 1 in Manhattan
who was partnered with Mr. Angelini for the last six months.
The
elder Mr. Angelini, 63, was the most veteran firefighter in the
city, with 40 years on the job. He was tough and "rode the
back step" like everyone else. His 38-year-old son, who worked
on Ladder Company 4 on 48th Street, was on the job for seven years.
"If
you mentioned retirement to Joey, it was like punching him,"
Mr. Benjamin said. Joseph Jr. was proud of his father's reputation
and tried to copy him any way he could, said Joseph Jr.'s wife,
Donna.
And
they never gave up their tools. "Think about climbing 20
stories with bunker gear, ropes, hooks, halogens and other different
types of tools and somebody wants to borrow a tool -- no way,"
Mr. Benjamin said. "You ask them what they need done and
you do it for them. You carried that tool all the way up there,
so you're going to use it. If they thought they were going to
need a tool, they should have carried it up. Joey Sr. always said
carry your own weight. He always carried his."
Joseph
Jr. applied to the department 11 years ago. He got called seven
years ago. "It was the proudest day for my father-in-law.
It was a great opportunity," said Donna Angelini. "His
father was a firefighter and he wanted to be one, too."
Mr.
Angelini, who had four children, taught Joseph Jr. carpentry.
Often they worked on projects together, including a rocking horse.
Joseph Jr., who had three children, had started building a dollhouse
for one of his daughters. Unfinished, it is sitting on his workbench.
Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on November 6, 2001.
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