Firemen

[Power Wagon]

I could not read this without a lump in my throat.

It came from here: http://opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/

Peggy Noonan is a gifted writer.



Courage Under Fire

The 21st century's first war heroes.



Friday, October 5, 2001 12:01 a. m. EDT



Forgive me. I'm going to return to a story that has been well documented the past few weeks, and I ask your indulgence. So much has been happening, there are so many things to say, and yet my mind will not leave one thing: the firemen, and what they did.

Although their heroism has been widely celebrated, I don't think we have quite gotten its meaning, or fully apprehended its dimensions. But what they did that day, on Sept. 11--what the firemen who took those stairs and entered those buildings did--was to enter American history, and Western history. They gave us the kind of story you tell your grandchildren about. I don't think I'll ever get over it, and I don't think my city will either.



What they did is not a part of the story but the heart of the story.









Here in my neighborhood in the East 90s many of us now know the names of our firemen and the location of our firehouse. We know how many men we lost (eight). We bring food and gifts and checks and books to the firehouse, we sign big valentines of love, and yet of course none of it is enough or will ever be enough.

Every day our two great tabloids list the memorials and wakes and funeral services. They do reports: Yesterday at a fireman's funeral they played "Stairway to Heaven. " These were the funerals for yesterday:



Captain Terence Hatton, of Rescue 1--the elite unit that was among the first at the Towers--at 10 a. m. at Saint Patrick's Cathedral on Fifth Avenue.

Lt Timothy Higgins of Special Operations at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church, on Portion Road in Lake Ronkonkoma, out in Long Island.

Firefighter Ruben Correa of Engine 74 at Holy Trinity Catholic Church on West 82nd Street, in Manhattan.

Firefighter Douglas Miller of Rescue 5, at St Joseph's Church on Avenue F in Matamoras, Pa.

Firefighter Mark Whitford of Engine 23, at St Mary's Church on Goshen Avenue in Washingtonville, N. Y.

Firefighter Neil Leavy of Engine 217 at Our Lady Queen of Peace, on New Dorp Lane in Staten Island.

Firefigher John Heffernan of Ladder 11 at Saint Camillus Church in Rockaway, Queens.

And every day our tabloids run wallet-size pictures of the firemen, with little capsule bios. Firefighter Stephen Siller of Squad 1, for instance, is survived by wife, Sarah, daughters Katherine, Olivia and Genevieve and sons Jake and Stephen, and by brothers Russell, George and Frank, and sisters Mary, Janice and Virginia.

What the papers are doing--showing you that the fireman had a name and the name had a face and the face had a life--is good. But it of course it is not enough, it can never be enough.









We all of course know the central fact: There were two big buildings and there were 5,000-plus people and it was 8:48 in the morning on a brilliant blue day. And then 45 minutes later the people and the buildings were gone. They just went away. As I write this almost three weeks later, I actually think: That couldn't be true. But it's true. That is pretty much where New Yorkers are in the grieving process: "That couldn't be true. It's true. " Five thousand dead! "That couldn't be true. It's true. " And more than 300 firemen dead.

Three hundred firemen. This is the part that reorders your mind when you think of it. For most of the 5,000 dead were there--they just happened to be there, in the buildings, at their desks or selling coffee or returning e-mail. But the 300 didn't happen to be there, they went there. In the now-famous phrase, they ran into the burning building and not out of the burning building. They ran up the stairs, not down, they went into it and not out of it. They didn't flee, they charged. It was just before 9 a. m. and the shift was changing, but the outgoing shift raced to the towers and the incoming shift raced with them. That's one reason so many were there so quickly, and the losses were so heavy. Because no one went home. They all came.



And one after another they slapped on their gear and ran up the stairs. They did this to save lives. Of all the numbers we've learned since Sept. 11, we don't know and will probably never know how many people that day were saved from the flames and collapse. But the number that has been bandied about is 20,000--20,000 who lived because they thought quickly or were lucky or prayed hard or met up with (were carried by, comforted by, dragged by) a fireman.



I say fireman and not "firefighter. " We're all supposed to say firefighter, but they were all men, great men, and fireman is a good word. Firemen put out fires and save people, they take people who can't walk and sling them over their shoulders like a sack of potatoes and take them to safety. That's what they do for a living. You think to yourself: Do we pay them enough? You realize: We couldn't possibly pay them enough. And in any case a career like that is not about money.

 

[Power Wagon]

continued

I'm still not getting to the thing I want to say.

It's that what the New York Fire Department did--what those men did on that brilliant blue day in September--was like D-Day. It was daring and brilliant and brave, and the fact of it--the fact that they did it, charging into harm's way--changed the world we live in. They brought love into a story about hate--for only love will make you enter fire. Talk about your Greatest Generation--the greatest generation is the greatest pieces of any generation, and right now that is: them.



So it was like D-Day, but it was also like the charge of the Light Brigade. Into the tower of death strode the three hundred. And though we continue to need reporters to tell us all the facts, to find out the stories of what the firemen did in those towers, and though reporters have done a wonderful, profoundly appreciative job of that, what we need most now is different.



We need a poet. We need a writer of ballads and song to capture what happened there as the big men in big black rubber coats and big boots and hard peaked hats lugged 50 and 100 pounds of gear up into the horror and heat, charging upward, going up so sure, calm and fast--so humorously, some of them, cracking mild jokes--that some of the people on the stairwell next to them, going down, trying to escape, couldn't help but stop and turn and say, "Thank you," and "Be careful, son," and some of them took pictures. I have one. On the day after the horror, when the first photos of what happened inside the towers were posted on the Internet, I went to them. And one was so eloquent--a black-and-white picture that was almost a blur: a big, black-clad back heading upward in the dark, and on his back, in shaky double-vision letters because the person taking the picture was shaking, it said "Byrne. "



Just Byrne. But it suggested to me a world. An Irish kid from Brooklyn, where a lot of the Byrnes settled when they arrived in America. Now he lives maybe on Long Island, in Massapequa or Huntington. Maybe third-generation American, maybe in his 30s, grew up in the '70s when America was getting crazy, but became what his father might have been, maybe was: a fireman. I printed copies of the picture, and my brother found the fireman's face and first name in the paper. His name was Patrick Byrne. He was among the missing. Patrick Byrne was my grandfather's name, and is my cousin's name. I showed it to my son and said, "Never forget this--ever. "









The Light Brigade had Tennyson. It was the middle of the Crimean War and the best of the British light cavalry charged on open terrain in the Battle of Balaclava. Of the 600 men who went in, almost half were killed or wounded, and when England's poet laureate, Alfred Lord Tennyson, learned of it, he turned it into one of the most famous poems of a day when poems were famous:

Their's not to make reply,

Their's not to reason why,

Their's but to do and die:

Into the valley of Death

Rode the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,

Cannon to left of them,

Cannon in front of them

Volley'd and thunder'd:

Stormed at with shot and shell,

Boldly they rode and well,

Into the jaws of Death,

Into the mouth of Hell

Rode the six hundred.



I don't think young people are taught that poem anymore; it's martial and patriarchal, and even if it weren't it's cornball. But then, if a Hollywood screenwriter five weeks ago wrote a story in which buildings came down and 300 firemen sacrificed their lives to save others, the men at the studios would say: Nah, too cornball. That couldn't be true. But it's true.

Brave men do brave things. After Sept. 11 a friend of mine said something that startled me with its simple truth. He said, "Everyone died as the person they were. " I shook my head. He said, "Everyone died who they were. A guy who ran down quicker than everyone and didn't help anyone--that was him. The guy who ran to get the old lady and was hit by debris--that's who he was. They all died who they were. "









Who were the firemen? The Christian scholar and author Os Guinness said the other night in Manhattan that horror and tragedy crack open the human heart and force the beauty out. It is in terrible times that people with great goodness inside become most themselves. "The real mystery," he added, "is not the mystery of evil but the mystery of goodness. " Maybe it's because of that mystery that firemen themselves usually can't tell you why they do what they do. "It's the job," they say, and it is, and it is more than that.

So: The firemen were rough repositories of grace. They were the goodness that comes out when society is cracked open. They were responsible. They took responsibility under conditions of chaos. They did their job under heavy fire, stood their ground, claimed new ground, moved forward like soldiers against the enemy. They charged.



There is another great poet and another great charge, Pickett's charge, at Gettysburg. The poet, playwright and historian Stephen Vincent Benet wrote of Pickett and his men in his great poetic epic of the Civil War, "John Brown's Body":





There was a death-torn mile of broken ground to cross,

And a low stone wall at the end, and behind it the Second Corps,

And behind that force another, fresh men who had not fought.

They started to cross that ground. The guns began to tear them.

From the hills they say that it seemed more like a sea than a wave,

A sea continually torn by stones flung out of the sky,

And yet, as it came, still closing, closing, and rolling on,

As the moving sea closes over the flaws and rips of the tide.



But the men would not stop:



You could mark the path that they took by the dead that they left behind, . . .

And yet they came on unceasing, the fifteen thousand no more,

And the blue Virginia flag did not fall, did not fall, did not fall.

The center line held to the end, he wrote, and didn't break until it wasn't there anymore.

The firemen were like that. And like the soldiers of old, from Pickett's men through D-Day, they gave us a moment in history that has left us speechless with gratitude and amazement, and maybe relief, too. We still make men like that. We're still making their kind. Then that must be who we are.



We are entering an epic struggle, and the firemen gave us a great gift when they gave us this knowledge that day. They changed a great deal by being who they were.



They deserve a poet, and a poem. At the very least a monument. I enjoy the talk about building it bigger, higher, better and maybe we'll do that. But I'm one of those who thinks: Make it a memory. The pieces of the towers that are left, that still stand, look like pieces of a cathedral. Keep some of it. Make it part of a memorial. And at the center of it--not a part of it but at the heart of it--bronze statues of firemen looking up with awe and resolution at what they faced. And have them grabbing their helmets and gear as if they were running toward it, as if they are running in.

 

[Rick Comenzo]

Thanks for the post, our volunteer fire department has attended nearly a dozen funerals in the past two weeks. SAD times, Rick.

 

[Fireman Dave]

Mark:



Thanks for a great post.



Dave

 

[Chad Sheets]

Yes it is good to see their efforts rewarded and recognized. Those men deserve it.



After the Littleton Colorado school shoot out with cops hiding behind firetrucks, fireman standing around, all while bloodied lifeless bodies dangled from windows. Those people should have been charged with impersonating a police officer or fireman.



It was very upseting to see no one charging the school to rescue those kids. That's what their jobs are all about. I am glad to see that not all of Americas cops and fireman are timid when it comes to doing their jobs, and going above and beyond.



I hope the sorry excuses for cops and firemen in Colorado learned something from the brave men who died to help others on Sept 11.

 

[Fireman Dave]

Not so fast, please.

Chad:



I know what you're saying, but I disagree about the Littleton firefighters. Sending unarmed firefighters into that situation would have been a mistake. Getting rescuers killed not only creates more problems (by adding to the victim count), but it also takes away rescuer resources (less rescuers to help the victims). It just doesn't make good tactical sense. That's a different situation than going into a burning structure. While both are dangerous, a burning structure is not intentionally targeting people, so the danger is more predictable and somewhat controlled (although anything can happen - as we saw at the WTC). I wouldn't call the Littleton firefighters less than brave because they didn't go into a hostage situation before it was known to be secure. In my opinion, they did the right thing - as helpless as they probably felt while they had to wait. All firefighters' first responsibility is to their own personal safety. You can't help someone if you're in trouble yourself. That doesn't mean you don't take calculated risks. It just means you don't go into situations where the odds are heavily against you. No flaming intended, Chad.



Dave

 

[Bill Lins]

Perhaps, if and when the towers are rebuilt, they should be named for and dedicated to the firemen and police officers whom we lost there.

 

[FFL8N]

Chad is WRONG!!

Chad,

Before you start telling me what my job is and how I should act when faced with challenges, may you should know a little more about the career you are degrading. It is obvious that you do not understand that it does no good to go charging into a building only to be shot and maybe cause someone else to get into harms way when they have to try to save you. All I can say is, I'm 6'4" and I would like for you to come up and say that firemen are chicken**** to my face! I'm not a very violent man, but I will defend myself and my BROTHERS to the end. In both instances, they did their jobs! In one instance, it took a little planning, in the other, there was no time for planning. That is the job! It is obvious that you do not respect the job or the men! Do not post anything else on the subject since you do not understand the dedication. Sometimes it is harder to do nothing than to rush into a catastrophy and make it worse. Think about it.



FireFighter David Layton..... that is my real name if you want to come SEE ME!



Las Vegas, NV

-- email address removed --

 

[Chad Sheets]

Mostly upset with the police at Colorado.

Out of my 100% total frustration, about 98% was aimed at the cops, and 2% at the fireman. With the kids hanging signs out the windows saying "please help, we are dying" and the cops just taking it all in... that's unacceptable. The killers were dead for hours before anyone set foot in that place. Anyone with any balls would have charged those doors and went in. I dont give a rats harry a$$ about danger, that's your primary job to save lives. That's why we have SWAT teams and HRT (hostage rescue) teams for. That's why we pay tens of thousands of dollars for training and weapons. If the cops wanted to hide out behind the firetrucks for safety, fine. Fire the trucks up, slowly drive up to the front door under that umbrella of safety, then jump off and do your job. That's where my 2%+/- lays with the firemen there. If the cops need a vehicle to get them to the front doors, and thats all thats stopping them, then get that truck moving.



I guess its more personal to me. I had a time in my life where I had "gun and badge" disease and went to work for the Sheriffs dept (I have played both sides of the fence acting as a vol fireman as well). I was disgusted by all the self proclaimed Billy Bob bad a$$es who wore the leather gloves, had the nazi haircuts, always in the gym and taking "whoop a$$" classes every chance they had... . basically Barney Fife on steroids with lots of guns and military type clothes.



When they were not doing that, they were at home reading books on how to kill people while watching "COPS" on TV, dreaming about someday appearing on the show and kicking some crack heads butt on national TV or saving some poor defenseless person from the bad guy.



They always were crying for more SRT/SWAT/HRT team training, wanting MP5's, special assault vehicles and so on. This is all fine and dandy if you have the guts to walk the talk. From everything I have witnessed, anytime real danger shows up, they are hiding well out of harms way allowing whatever to take its course of action. I saw this all over in different departments everywhere.



We use to do these Joint Military exercises between us and the Army. I distinctly remember this one where there was a house in an urban setting. Inside was the enemy with hostages. First we had the house with the hostages, and the Army had to get us out. They spent hours with smoke grenades, tear gas, loud speakers until finally they charged us and it was a big Mexican standoff. They ran out of time.



Next the Army has the house with the hostages and we have to take it. The whistle blows, we rush the house, 5 guys break the door down and rush in. The first Marine takes a fake fatal round to the chest (paint guns), the next Marine takes a round to the outer forearm and gets the gun away from the soldier and kills him while the other 3 Marines kill the other 8 soldiers inside. Hostages were secured and the whole thing took less than a minute.

The Army guys were so mad, they threw their stuff down and a small fight broke out (bad move, we won it too, this time with real combat tactics that leave marks). After everything got settled down and we were broke apart, the Army CO and the Marine CO in charge come down. The Army CO accused us of cheating. He said in a real life situation, that there is no way any logical man would do what we did, let alone 5 people doing it. Our CO tactfully explained in a real fast way that we acted as we have been trained to do, and this is the same action that is taken in real life instances wherever Marines are deployed. Needless to say, we were not allowed to come and play anymore.



That story coincides with the Colorado incident, and the NY attack. If you are trained to do a job, and are expected to do that job in the face of danger, then do it. No one wants to die, but when you take that highly respected position that revolves around danger, you better be prepared to take on all the responsibilities of that job when the time comes regardless of your personal safety and welfare when others lives are depending on it.

 

[Bigsaint]

Chad is right on in regards to the cops

I remember seeing the footage, gun shots within the school, kids jumping out of windows and the cops standing around behind cover. WTF is that about ? How could you just stand there and wait for orders to enter when the shooting is still going on ?



They have come out with new 'techniques' after the CO shooting. The new method, that is being taught to many P. D. 's through out the U. S. is a reactive shooter approach. The entry team is now comprised of four officers and works in this fashion... 3 members walk point, through the school, hunting down and stopping the threat when encountered. The 3 point officers are armed as follows... left point/handgun, center point/tactical rifle, right point/handgun. There's also a cover officer, who walks behind the point officers, covering their backs. The cover officer is armed with a shotgun. This, in theory, does away with the wait realted to a SRT response. The entry team has only one mission, to stop the threat. All casualties that are encountered through out the search are initially left bedhind until the team locates and stops the threat.



Having said that, we still have not received this training in our P. D. Regardless, I seriously doubt that any of our officers would stand around and wait for orders if a school shooting should occur. It just goes against everything that you do and are taught as a Police Officer. While a team approach would be nice, any response by even an individual officer would be better than cowering behind a squad car, waiting for back up. Tactics and officer survival are one thing, kids being shot (and teachers) while you plan your best, safest approach are not always practical. Sometimes, you have to throw caution to the wind, prove that you deserve to wear that uniform and attempt to stop the problem NOW, not at a later date.



I have yet to encounter a school shooting, needless to say we all hope it never happens again. I have been shot at and I have been in the position (with 3 other officers) to make a quick plan and initiate same. While the supervisors screamed into the radios from H. Q. to await a SRT (minimum of 1 hour response as we don't have our own) we ignored their inadequate orders as the shooter was not only shooting at 4 cops, but all the citizens and their houses/vehicles in the area. In the end, we took him down, no one was injured and we were applauded and received Gallantry medals for our actions. Had we waited, God only knows what might have happend.



I'm not a hero and not SRT trained, but I am a street cop, just like those guys in CO are/were. They should have done more IMHO.



Scott W.

Semper Fi

 

[DRR-24V]

I guess I never saw the video, and was unaware of this situation. I can not imagine any CHP Officer or any Deputy I have ever worked with hiding behind a fire truck in this situation. (The Firemen should stay out of it) The LAPD guy's did not run and hide from those guy's with the full autos in that bank robbery. There is a time when you do what you have to do. It's called In The Line Of Duty.

 

[tntway]

Chad's entitled...

to his opinion. that is why this country is the greatest in the world. what makes it even better is that we can disagree with him if we so choose. i read his post three times and NOWHERE in it did i see

him refer to firefighters as chicken$h*t. i see no reason to make threats. in my OPINION (that i am entitled to BTW) the only mistake the FF's at Columbine made was that they were TOO close. there was no fire at the time, the scene was not secure.

they should have been out by the road and that fault lies with IC.

that's Incident Command.



look at chad's avatar. i have the utmost respect for him. i also

have the utmost respect for my brother FF's everywhere (had to get that in before i get flamed).

 

[DRR-24V]

FF1607,

You took Chad's post too literally. He is UGLY, but he is still one of the good guy's.

 

[Fireman Dave]

Enough yet?

Hey guys, I'd like to request that we get back to the original post on this thread. It was beautiful, so I hope we can appreciate it and maybe leave the Columbine debate to another time or thread.



Thanks,



Dave

 

[Chad Sheets]

Wow. Dyslexic is what we call people who write words and letters backwards. I have no idea what you call a person that has a problem reading something and wants to add words to it. Lack of reading comprehension skills I guess. Reminds me of all the people getting hyped up misreading post, wanting to fight over the Dale Earnhardt incident.



I wont apologize for calling you a chump, chickensh**, sissy or anything else you might have gotten out of my post that my fingers did not type. I wont apologize for stating the facts of Colorado, and I certainly wont apologize for degrading the fireman career path... cant apologize for something you did not say or do.



As far as having no respect for the men and the job, that's your opinion. I cant change that with words I type on this screen. I am not a full time fireman, just a volunteer, so I cant speak about it with the same amount of knowledge as you have so eloquently done. I do however think I have a pretty good understanding of the basics of the job and the dedication it requires on a full-time, and even part time scale. Thats why I made the observations I did about Colorado... I have earned the right to speak on the subject with more knowledge than the average guy who is saying the same things.

I have never respected a person just because they belong to a "group", and I never will, and I have a very hard time with people who think they should get respect because they belong to a group... . do something to earn it (I respect Veterans, but some definitely deserve it more than others based on the conditions they served under and the jobs they did. I dont know of too many cooks who have nightmares about seeing potatoes boil). I do however respect groups and what they stand for as a whole. The people who make it are another story. Kind of like what we got with Clinton. I had the highest respect for the office he held, but I had no respect for him.



I dont know exactly what else to say. I dont feel an apology directed specifically to you is in order, being since my post was not directed specifically to you. I have had nothing but praise to say for the men and woman in NY, so an apology to them isn't called for either, and I cant think of anything else to say that wasn't said in my last post regarding the firefighters.



If I upset you, sorry about that. I am sure a guy of your eagerness and willingness to fight would have handled the situation 100% differently, I am sure you will go far in your career field. I do respect the obvious passion you display for your job. People like you are what makes the "group" look good in the publics eye as a whole. Take some of your own advice though. Dont go inviting people to come see you for a fight. Not knowing what's on the other end is no different from blindly rushing into a burning building without knowing all the facts. You might get burnt or cause someone else to get into harms way when they have to try to save you.

 

[Crash_AF]

Firefighters

At the NYC memorial, can we have a plaque inscribed with the fireman's prayer and one with the policeman's prayer??



As for the Columbine mess... do keep in mind that Littleton is a suburb of Denver and that we Coloradans don't get much of the big city action like the rest of y'all. They screwed up and they know it. Let it rest so those of us who saw it can put it behind us and get on with life.



Sherry Hinson