Fireman 1st Grade Mike Mullarkey stood in the tunnel of Giants Stadium in dress blues. His company, Engine Co. 230 in Bedford-Stuyvesant, lost six members in the World Trade Center attack. "We wish we were there," Mullarkey said, solemnly. "Not them." Firefighters Mike Carlo, Lt. Brian Ahearn, Ted White, Eugene Whelan, Frank Bonomo and Jeff Stark are buried in a pile of twisted steel and concrete 11 miles away. The members of Engine Co. 230, and many uniformed officers gathered for yesterday's pregame ceremony at Giants Stadium, could not understand why they deserved to be cheered by 78,451 people."We're working so closely with incident, we don't get a chance to know what everybody else is thinking," said Insp. Ron Wasson of the Police Emergency Service Unit, which is missing 23 officers. Yet when they marched onto the field during the pregame ceremony behind Tony Bennett and the Boys' Choir of Harlem, chants of "U-S-A, U-S-A" overwhelmed the scoreboard's broadcast of Don McLean's "American Pie." Fans decked in red, white and blue clambered to their feet and cheered. In the upper decks, one group held aloft a giant American flag. "As down as everybody is, it really made you feel good inside," Wasson said. "I've never heard a roar like that." A video presentation melded messages from presidents and statesmen with music. John F. Kennedy's "Ask not what your country can do for you ..." followed Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I have a dream ...," while Lee Greenwood's "Proud to be an American" blared from the speakers. When the Giants burst onto the field, they exchanged their helmets for NYPD, FDNY and Port Authority baseball caps, then shook hands with the officers standing stiff and straight at midfield. Linebacker Jessie Armstead patted Mullarkey on the shoulder. "They're the real warriors," Armstead said. "When we walk onto the field, we know we fight to the end, but we will get to walk off this field. Them guys, when they go to work, they don't know if they'll come back to the house." After a moment of silence, Bennett, wearing a Giants hat bearing an American flag, broke into an a capella version of "America the Beautiful." "I wish it was the national anthem," Bennett said. "It really explains what a magnificent place we live in." The Boys' Choir of Harlem finished with a stirring rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner." Darnell Norman, 14, a choir member, said, "I felt by singing, I provide a lot of feeling in their hearts." Mullarkey savored the moment. He led his company off the field, fighting tears. "It was a little scary, but it was beautiful," he said. Most of the firefighters and police officers will return to Ground Zero. They search tirelessly for the missing because to stop would be unthinkable. "The show of support from everybody, from the ironworker who helped dig people out, to the kid selling lemonade, really keeps us going," firefighter Joe McKay said. His company, Engine 201 in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, continues to look for Lt. Paul Martini, John Shardt, Greg Buck and Chris Pickford. "The biggest thing for us," McKay said, "is we want to be the guys that carry our own guys out."

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