The drawing is loosely based on the tattoo that my brother had on his back, a bald eagle with the American and Irish flags worked into its outstretched wings. Brian had this tattoo put on around 1993 or 1994 by world renowned tattoo artist Mike Ledger, and I have to admit I was never a big fan of it. In my opinion it just didn't look right, it seemed a bit too small placed on Brian's broad upper back. As Brian added a couple of more tattoos on his upper arms over the next few years this first one gradually slipped into memory, showing itself only on the hottest days of the summer months. No one in my family could have ever realized how important the tattoo would become to us. After Sept. 11th, we gradually accepted the fact that Brian wasn't going to be coming home alive. He had been assigned to Rescue 1 in Manhattan for a little over a month, but was working overtime that day at his previous firehouse of 3 years located in Queens, Squad 288. No one from 288 or HazMat 1, the company they share their house with, made it out that day. A total of 19 men were lost. After a month we began to consider having a memorial service for Brian, though we wanted to hold out as long as we could for the recovery of his body.

As time went on we realized we needed to hold a service soon, if only so his family, friends and brother firemen could pay their respects and say good-bye. It was decided that if a recovery happened later on, we would conduct a small funeral as a family. We grudgingly picked a date in late November, the 27th, as the date for Brian's memorial. We all started praying a little harder as well, and began making preparations for the service.

As the date approached at the end of November, my family and I still didn't have Brian back. On November 26, the final day of preparations for the service, I spent the day finishing up my eulogy; my parents and sister were finalizing the details and welcoming family that had arrived from out of town. Honestly, none of us were looking forward to the service. We were all set to go through the motions, but we still didn't have him back, which was all we wanted from the beginning. Then around 5:30 PM, not even 2 minutes after my Uncle Jack presented my father with a sketch he had drawn of our two favorite pictures of Brian, the phone rang. It was Capt. Denis Murphy of Squad 288...

"We think we found him"...

You could have heard my father crying from down the block. I have never heard a noise like that coming from my dad, and ran in thinking he had a freshly broken limb. All he was able to stammer was that "They think they found Brian... It's not official but they think they found him!" We absolutely needed a positive ID so we could have him home for his service the next day. If they needed to resort to DNA identification it could take weeks, even months.

For a positive ID, three forms of identification are needed. We already had two, which were the name inside his coat and the wallet in his pants. There had been mistakes already in other identifications, so they needed something more. FF Tim Murphy of 288, who was at the morgue with Brian, communicated with FF Tim Geraghty of 288 and Capt. Murphy, who by now were in my home working the phones and waiting for word.

They began to focus on the tattoos. Murphy asked Geraghty what work Brian had done, and Tim described the tattoos on Brian's arms. He went to our basement and looked at pictures, but only was able to describe Brian's arms. Either he didn't know about, or had forgotten about the eagle on Brian's back. It wasn't in any of our pictures downstairs, and I don't know if firemen spend a lot of time staring at each other's backs. The process came to a pause, as FF. Murphy and the medical examiner needed more information. FF Geraghty called me to the basement and told me what was going on, and then put me on the phone with FF Murphy who simply asked me to describe Brian's tattoos. I looked at the pictures and all I could think of, and reply with, were the tattoos on his arms. I described each perfectly, color for color and where they were placed. Then it clicked. I forgot his back! I quickly described the eagle in full detail, knowing full well this was what they needed and would bring my brother home. FF Murphy brought this information to the examiner and within 10 minutes the phone rang and we had our positive ID.

Brian was coming home...

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