SIX FIREFIGHTERS - Graduate posthumously from FDNY training academy

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Six firefighters graduate posthumously from FDNY training academy

RICHARD PYLE, Associated Press Writer Thursday, November 1, 2001 Breaking News Sections

(11-01) 16:01 PST NEW YORK (AP) --

The New York Fire Department on Thursday awarded diplomas posthumously for the first time, to six graduates of its training academy.

As 240 other rookie firefighters trooped across a stage to receive their papers, empty chairs draped in purple bunting and blue FDNY uniform shirts were reserved for the six absentees who were among 343 firefighters killed in the World Trade Center collapse.

"We will remember their bravery in all that we do throughout our lives," said Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, a department chaplain.

The graduates were the department's first since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks at the trade center.

Mayor Rudolph Giuliani noted that many trainees were assigned to firehouses and worked during the attacks, receiving a special initiation into the perils of their profession.

"You've had to face the worst," Giuliani told graduates. "We always knew we were the best. Now the whole world knows we are the best."

Family members accepted diplomas awarded posthumously for Richard D. Allen, Calixto Anaya Jr., Andrew C. Brunn, Michael Cammarata, Michael D'Auria and Anthony Rodriguez as their classmates and a packed audience applauded.

Anaya's wife Maria brought her three young children on stage. Her 6-year-old son Brandon, wearing his father's cap, accepted the diploma.

Fire Commissioner Thomas Von Essen called the graduation ceremony a "mixed day of joy and sorrow."

"If I was a parent I would wonder, 'Was my son well enough trained?' We would never send people out who weren't trained for the job," Von Essen said.

The academy provides 11 weeks of instruction and two weeks of on-the-job training at firehouses, after which the cadets return to school for evaluation. Graduates remain probationary firefighters for one year.

Brogan Healy, a co-valedictorian, said neither he nor any of his colleagues regrets the decision to become firefighters.

"We have entered into a brotherhood and we look to our big brothers," said Healy, who moved from California to join FDNY ranks.

-- Anonymous, November 02, 2001


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