“My fundamental duty is to serve humanity…” We all stood. “All rise and raise your right hand”..The clatter of the old wooden auditorium seats clapped and banged as the entire academy stood as one. “Repeat after me..”, said the Chief officer in attendance. The thunder of male voices rang through the auditorium. Our families sat […]

In the early days of America’s war with Japan, the U.S. Marines assaulted the atoll known as Tarawa.  As a young Marine I was taught to revere the name, remember the sacrifice.  It was an incredible sacrifice for a rotten hunk of coral.  But the men that stormed Tarawa, young and old Marines, felt it […]

I had intended to post my speech here today.  But the editing is all messed up and I don’t have time to fix it.  I will repost after I return home.  It has been an incredible honor to be asked to speak today.  Needless to say I am humbled and a little quiet today.  My […]

Did you know who the procession was for last Friday?  Did you hear the drums beat, the pipes calling, take note or shroud your badge?  No?  Not the usual coverage, I agree.  A slightly more subdued affair.  Still I would have liked to have known. This past Friday, the New York Fire Department members gathered […]

Several years ago, I didn’t know anyone in the Chicago Fire Department. Now, I would call at least one a good friend. The world has been changed and along with it, so has the American Fire Service. If a brother wants to be a part of the nation of firemen, he or she can be so easily..

I gathered the shift together to tell them we would soon hear a single tone out over the house radio to mark his passing. I didn’t even get finished telling them before it began to sound a long, long, mournful tone. He was gone.

” The fireman I was before 9/11 is not the fireman that I am now. That changed in an instant. Before both towers had gone to ground, I had become a different fireman. For myself and thousands of other firemen, we had not only a career changing moment, but a life-changing moment. All things that had been before were somehow less intense, our current time, began when the towers went down.”