You're listening to the Getting Salty Experience Podcast. Hello, e food like you
nodeed fool a pin the food and a word we go. Welcome back.
Look Rob Froppaccini's in there for Mineberg. Who else? Yeah, I'm my
boy. We got to help a new Welcome back to the Getting Salty Experience
Podcast. It's the only one in the whole wide world that brings Mister t
Fat, Daddy Ray and Gonzo to the kitchen table. Hello, we got
you want would rescue? Four stories? We got? We're covered from nineteen
eighty all the way up to the two thousand and early twenties. Maybe I
don't know, maybe the late probably the late ten that got out in twenty
twenty two. I think two thousand and two. I think he said,
all right, so I'm gonna say that the late two thousands. Maybe I
don't know, but we got him. We got a lot of good funny
stories. You guys want to ask sety questions. We got a couple of
guys who said the questions. But we're gonna have a good time talking about
five stories, talking about rescue four. You know, pop Eye, Popeye,
the Sale of Man. I don't know who the guy in the Salty
Fans page actually asked what an R and what a foremant? But hey,
listen, you know we might we might touch on that tonight. We'll touch
on it. So of course, Louis, you didn't upload the nine point
that that Louis got, did you? Oh? No, I did,
right, So I'm a boy. Louis got a nine pointer. He's got
the house by his house. But now he's heading out to Ohio. I
think, oh, no, no, Iowa. I don't know whatever the
fun he's going. I don't know where he's going. When you have as
much money as him, you can go anywhere, you know. Kind he's
taking his jet, his lear jet out to uh Iowa. So we got
fat Daddy rays sitting in. He might be sitting in for Louise has gone
for two weeks. So you know, let us do with the chat you
want fat Daddy in. Fat Daddy will be in. He'll be in,
He'll definitely be in. He got a very big show next Thursday. We've
got Chief hodgens Uh chief of the apartment, current Chief of Apartment in the
fd O Y So very big show, big big show. How you doing
down there? Guns? You're wearing a hat today. You don't make me
if you see this wig forget about it? Yeah? Is that you halloweene?
What do you go? Oh? God, he look because he was
sticking through its screw the whole shit up. All right, Well, why
are you doing? Lose little zevil point? Oh exactly, taking ship shot
it dead all the time. Good to go. Yeah, this we pay
a little tribute to love. There you go, brother, there you go,
buddy. I listen. We got to get to the commercials because we
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dot com. Somebody said, fat Daddy for President. That great? I
mean, yeah, they saved New York and then we'll be on our way.
Bro, All right, here we go. It is a book that
will perhaps go down as the report for mentioned company eighty two of our generation,
They Saved New York, written by Glenn Huston and Dan Potter, retired
New York City firefighter explores the men and women of the fd and Y and
their respective journeys into the department, from everyone from firefighters on the fire floor
to those who were in positions of command such as lieutenant, Captain in chief
and so on and so forth. This book explores their stories told through their
perspectives. Each story differs, but the mission is the same and the common
theme is this those that put their lives in the line to save their fellow
New Yorker, no matter the cost, no matter the situation, whenever they
were in need. Get your hands on this book today. You will not
regret it. Written by once again retired New York City firefighter Dan Potter and
the concept of photography provided by the one and only Glennis and a member of
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and women of the fdn Y. If you'd like to purchase the book,
you can do so at They Saved and Why dot Com. That is again
ww dot They Saved and Why dot Com? And speaking of which, we
will be out signing copies out for the Joey d Memorial Foundation. Mikey Milner
will be out there along with I don't know how many, but a good
port of the guys who were in the book. So if you want to
come out Saturday night, November fourth, at seven pm at the Krum Fire
Department, tickets for only twenty dollars your cheap basket, So take some money
out goes for a good fun. You get food, drinks, raffles.
Fifty to fifty. You get to come hang out with me. I'm bringing
the wife and the kids, and Mike's bringing his cat. I think,
I don't know, we'll see so come on out and check us out for
sure, for sure? Back fat Daddy Ray stepping in almost last minute,
not quite the last time was last minute? A seven thirty? Yeah,
I did. Yeah. I was like, that's what I told you.
I called you yesterday though, right, did I bunny notice? I could
bunny notice? All right, Ronzon, he's in there. He's a member
of the fire Riders, So so we'll stop bringing him in. All right,
Who are you gonna do first? So I can make sure I'm prepared.
Wow, we have to do seniority. We got to bring the captain
first. So I'm gonna bring the captain. Session here he is, Captain
Resky. Welcome to the stage. So there you are. Who's back by
popular man? How you doing right? Thank you man? And Gonzo you
meant to say, but you know, coming in south, I don't know
who's got more time. Look at this guy. I just saw him in
the backstage, so I want to know, bring in I gotta get this
this nut job in here. Bring him in here. He is, hey,
hi, here, he is a resident rescue Ford you my milna,
what is that? Well? You know, guys, guy, it's always
some great and everything we do in all lives. So hopefully tonight we will
open eyes, open minds, and please open your wallet and buy that fucking
book that Kevin. I don't want to know how you put that makeup on.
So goddamn fast, bro was lightning quick man. You know I started
in fifty and nineteen and we're running, and rest of four was running.
You know when you go there's always a mad rush to the bathroom on a
run. So you get quick at, you get good at. I like
it good all right? You know you look like you remember that the old
Star Trek, the episode of the Star Trek Black Cast. They'll fight each
other at the end. Yes, they is trying to be a down mateon
screwed up. I don't like hydrants? All right? All right? Who
are you going to bring in? Next? No? You tell you tell
me as I have. Well, let's go ahead and we'll bring in mister
Monahan. He let's bring in mister Eddie Monahan. Here we go. Which
one you got? Go is? I gotta keep on it, right a,
mister Monaghan. Welcome to Milner. By the way, everything isn't just
black and white. But I don't know what he's looking at. He was
looking at something. I don't know. What are you doing, Milner?
What are you going? Maury? He's got that the jaw dropping and looks
like I don't know, doesn't see what the fuck am I doing? All
right, let's get remember he was at what thirty six? He was a
rescue four guy when I got the squad. Oh yeah, he's also a
member. I think he's the president. Did he say he's the president?
Yeah, he's the president. He's not this president. He's not man,
he's not the other president. Shut up selling a woman. I'm too far
away from that one. He is, in fact the president of the fire
Rights here he is Jimmy Fanew. So basically we got from like the eighties
covered all the way up. Oh you guys, we'll go through your timelines
and funny stories and fire stories. Guys like scary fire stories. But first
we gotta do what we have to do. We gotta get patriotic. I
have to bring Milner back. He disappeared on us. He's still trying to
you're there. Oh yeah, key, alright, God, let's get patriotic,
do it, brother, here we go. Oh yeah, Oh guys,
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to
the Republic, for which it stands, One nation under God, indivisible with
liberty and justice for all. Wonderful. So we got all over. So
we had the captain on, and we had Mike on a numerous times.
Let's start with Eddie Monahan and a quick little synopsis of where do you start
as a fireman and what year you got to rescue for? Try to fill
us in. Oh, let's see. I came on a job seven eleven
eighty one and got a signed to excuse me, two eighteen engine down in
the Bushwick section of Brooklyn. Worked with a great crew there, Captain Eddie
Gander, and it was great being there. Because I guess we got lucky.
We caught the last end of the war years. So it was like
every time he went to work, you were going to fires, and I
ended up. I spent six years there, and then I lied my way
into rescue for who's the captain there, Joseph up? I made him an
orvary. He couldn't refuse it, did Yeah? Yeah, I made him
an ary. He couldn't refuse. Still and care who the captain was there?
But sooner or later I'm coming to rescue for Do you remember when he
came in? You're like, what I ruined? The day? I got
so much from everybody in the world for taking a fucking midget into the fire?
Yeah, well, how about how about this comment? You know,
captain, we live in a world that has fires, and he's fires need
to be fought with men with hoses. Who's gonna do that? You?
You, milner, I have a greater responsibility than you can ever imagine.
You have the luxury of not knowing what I know, and my existence is
grotesque and incomprehensible as it is to you save his lives. You don't want
me, You don't want the truth, because deep down in places. You
don't talk about parties. You want me on that rig, you need me
on that rig. We use words like stretch of line, clost the door,
kick the route. We use these words as the backbone and the lives
we saved. Neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man
who rises and sleeps underd of every bagon of the fire protection that I provide.
And then question is the matter at which I provided? You just said
you talking about all your way microphone, all the way? Either way,
Why don't give it down? What you think? Drop the mic? That's
it and done. I'm sorry. That's a line, steal a line what
you said. The only the only reason you came there is because you worked
on the freaking railroad on the ground and uh, and I needed somebody.
I needed one guy who would touch touch the third rail for us new wall
fires. For that he fit perfectly. He's perfect in the attic, get
up there what we got there. He was also good for. It's also
good for like and heavy smoking. This is when I needed to get a
breathe out the window. I stand on him and sniff the head out the
window, get some fresh air. That was he tells me a pretty big
backstep. How did you get up there ready? How well? They had
an extra step. It was they step, yeah, step. Ralph the
captain, where's the rest of them? And says, what do you mean?
He goes, I looked. I looked at his transfer It said six
to four, and so it said sixty four inches. So I said to
Ralph, I go, Ralph, I can go everywhere you can go.
You can't go anywhere I can go. That's right. Ralph says to me,
you're right, but I've already been where you are. You will never
be where I am. How yeah, on the minimum minimum height requirement.
When I was getting measured down at the at the armory there they're bringing the
they're bringing the thing down and measure my height, and I turned to this
big black fella, nice man, and they said to him, if that
goes below five four, this is going to be the worst day of your
life, because they're going to beat the ship out of you. And it
stopped at five four in a quarter. So you know what little guy guys
are like annoying gnats. We don't give up. And if you get beat
up, that little guy beat you up. Oh, it's bad and as
a little guy get to ask kick like, oh you beat up a little
guy? Nice, ye beat up a little gun. So for a while,
my claim to fame was the shortest rescue fireman in the city until Mikey
Davis came along and then we were both sure rescue fine, we were bookings.
I think he got stressed a little when Mike Smith was grabbed by the
throat though, and picked them up allegedly. I witnessed his feet were off
the ground. It was thing to behold. It was beautiful. Yeah,
all right, let's go quite on to Jim. Jim started out one thirty
six, Give us what time when you got on the job, when you
meant to rescue for I actually start down in three twenty four. In eighty
seven, uh huh. I was the first proby there. They had seven
years, so it was all old timers there. It felt like it was.
It was actually pretty good for me. It worked out, you know.
It told me the ropes and uh. I got friendly with a couple
of the chiefs in the four six Big Fight, Tally being one big car
guy. I was in the cars. He had me come over driving for
a little bit. Put my paper into the truck, went to one thirty
six, spent some time in Won thirty six and and like Tommy McCarry,
Richie Uler, a bunch of those guys were up at rescue four. I
kind of helped out with Tommy Williams funeral and a couple other things. So
they said, you know, come up and you know, talk to the
captain, And next thing I was up and rescue for who was the captain
there? Then? Uh, well it was Captain Hickey at the time,
and I was friendly with Terry Farrell, So that was kind of like my
inn. Terry talked to you know, Brian Hidy and what year was this,
like I wanted to say around could have been ninety five six somewhere around
there. And so you were already in the rescue when the squads came.
Yeah, I was already in rescue when the squad. What was the thinking
when I know what myce gonna say, but we've already heard Mike, what
was the faking of the rescue when the squad were coming? You know,
it was for me, it was no big transition because when I was into
four to six, I was already working in has Matt and everything else we
did dcon all the time. The battalion provided the manpower, right, so
I already knew all the guys. No big deal for me, right,
But what about the thought of them Now you get another bunch of guys coming
in trying to take a piece of your work or was there anything? I
don't know. Mike probably has more to say about that, about everything that
was his stuff on Mike. So, Mike, what do you say?
What was the feeling when squads came out? Like, yeah, you know
what, I gotta tell you something I looked at. I know, I'm
not here to piss off the extremely stupid unit guys because I know a lot
of them. But I always felt that, you know what, let's get
squads involved, Let's get more people out there, because the problem always was
before squads, rescue was by themselves. Uh huh. So the time we
got the places, it was too late. So by having squads, who
I have no problem with squad I think it was. I'm a positive guy
about it. I always was in favor of it. The more we have,
the more we have a chance to push the tide back out to sea.
And I think having squads and they're still putting them into place like in
Staten Island recently. It keeps them at day and rightfully, so, I
mean, I gotta be honest, we're the best trained. You need a
lot of manpower. Squads and rescues can provide that. We all work together
at the rock for two weeks at a time. And let me tell you
something. To guys to go to squad or rescue, you have a side
job. A lot of guys didn't want to do that because they had a
side job. I mean there were times where you were sent up to now
Wappinger falls up up right, thank you though, Ray you were sent here
there, or you went to the rock for three weeks, or you were
asked, hey, Mike, can you train for a couple of weeks.
We need some guides at the rescue school. You got to go. So
I think the guys that ended up in squads and really were determined, uh
to maybe lose some money when I see their kids all the time, to
do the right thing and become part of a great operation sock right. I
just had a kid telling them the other day from one seventy six truck that
he's thinking about going to SoC And I said, hey, just realize,
man, that there's a lot that you have to put into that. There's
a lot of time like me and Ray went to remember we went to Alabama
together. We went to Uh it's two weeks, three weeks at a time
that you're going to Las Vegas for the radiation school. Yeah yeah, and
and the Bob school yep. Yeah, they loved us, right and I
travel So you know what, Kevin, it is a lot of time away
from your family. Yeah, it's a big commitment. Man, It's a
big commitment. And you know what, it's even more so now. I
mean rest technic is three weeks long. The rest three weeks long. You
guys get extra money, which I thought was a great move by uh the
the last Maya before the other two Democrats. But at the end of the
day, Uh, you have to have your heart involved, your soul involved,
in your body involved. It's as simple as that. It's not the
one of twenty four anymore. You're training, you're going special calls, you're
doing a lot of stuff. Yeah. Yeah, they gotta say all the
squad guys I got along with him, never had any issues with any of
them. I feel like we all worked together. Well yeah, yeah,
And like Mike was saying, you know, you need a lot of manpower
these things. The trench you know, collapsed, you need manpower and even
a road job, you know, I mean so many guys, you know.
Yeah, that was that was why. Well we talked about about the
Twine one sixty. They are the only two companies. They are the only
two companies on the job that are housed with a rescue. And before we
went to Sock, they would drill with us. They could work all the
time in the to rescue, they could do a mutual in the rescue.
Once we went to Sock, they got stopped. And I was shame.
It was a shame because look, there were some guys in the engines that
didn't want anything to do with the rescues, but there were some guys that
liked it. They knew the truck, they knew the tools, they knew
where they were. And I always thought it was it was kind of foolish
of the job not considering like a pilot program and making both of those engine
companies rescue support engines. Because you have a rescue support truck down the road
that never drills with the rescue. They don't know anything about the tools on
the truck. These guys, it's twenty five guys in the firehouse, and
they could be an asset to the rescues and to Sock, you know.
And I never understood why they didn't. They didn't try that out, you
know. And look, some guys in those companies, if that happened,
they say, look, I'm out of here, I'm leaving. But then
other guys that may want to come to a rescue you may say, you
know what, I'm going to go to that company, right and then the
captain in the office and the rescue they get a look at those guys,
you know, And I just think it just enhances those two rescue companies even
more. And Sock, I just want to hit one thing that the point
that Eddie made about pre Sock. I knew everybody in the fourteenth division,
especially the four to six, the four to nine, Jimmy Fanell, others.
Because I wasn't in Sock, it worked with these guys. I knew
these guys. So I gotta tell you, as good as Sock is,
they lost the piece of the puzzle by not allowing guys like me and Rescue
to work with guys like Jimmy or someone else in one thirty six, one
fifty four, whatever it was, three ZHO seven. You need some grounding
every once in a while. What's that? You need some grounding once in
a while. See what the guys are doing. She was going on in
the line companies. You know, well, you know, Rayty to your
let me once say, and I'm gonna let you take over to your point.
Ray. The whole thing was, I knew the guys by their first
names. I knew they knew what I could do. I knew what Jimmy
could do. I'm just using Jimmy as an example. And it worked,
and that we lost that in the transition. I'm say a separate unit.
Don't get me wrong, but we lost our connectivity with the local companies that
we were in with and that's a shame. I hopefully they could change that
somehow. I rest my case. You know. It was in one thirty
six and we spent a year up there. When they read that our firehouse,
it was great. Spending a year with the guys up there and rescue
and everything, you know, picked up a lot of good info. Jimmy
that before on Queens Bullivard. Yeah, yeah, we went up there when
they READID one thirty six. Yea, my first house was two ninety two
and the guy from rescuefore with the guys that taught me that I should go
someplace else and learn the job. And Tommy Williams God rest is Soul,
he's the one that got me in two one hundred and eight. But it
was all from the rest before guys that would said you got to learn the
job, kick, and they taught me so much I just can't you know.
They changed my career. Well, you know, there's always there's always
a given a take, you know, for every action is an equal opposite
reaction. When we went to Sock, the plus side of that was we
in the rescues got to know the guys and the other rescues, you know,
because you knew them a little bit, but you didn't get to work
with them that much. So that was a plus. But again losing what
Mike said, that was the negative, losing losing that local, you know,
knowing everybody in the battalion. You know, So there's there's a given
take on both sides. Yea. When I got the balance and I went
to drive my brother my last year when I was on light duty. I
got to know the guys in three twenty four really well. Like that's one
part that when you have a regular company in the house, I mean,
when you're a SoC company, you'll lose some of that normal everyday firehouse stuff.
You know, like, uh, you know the sports pools and they're
tight. They go to baseball games and they go. We couldn't get a
lot of guys to do that, man, because they're too busy. This
five guys off the chut going here, one guy's going there. You know,
one guy's training here. So it's hard you lose that normal cool firehouse
stuff that happened guys sitting down watching the game. You know, but we're
drilling three hours a day. We had no time to watch the game.
You know. They're sitting on a Friday night watching a football game or a
baseball game or whatever the hell it is. You know. So I really
appreciated that last year. I got really close to those guys in four.
Yeah. Absolutely, don't forget think you're right, But you know what,
we have our special arrangement job as chiefs. Maybe Dane'll some of this will
soak in because we're bringing up great points how to make it work better for
FDM one. So you know the ed's point, Jimmy's raise yours, Kevin
mind. Uh, it is important to have that cunnactivity. And you know,
and I gotta be honest with you. There were guys in Rescue four
that walked around like their ship didn't stink, and be I gotta be honest
with you. You know what the ship did stink? Okay, because you
were just a regular Because I don't know what what my answer would be study
become chief of department. I don't and I don't mean that in a bad
way, if that's the way you want to go go. But in reality,
when you're in the trenches in a rescue or a squad, you really
are with the rest of the guys, the truck and the engine. The
fight doesn't get put out because of squad and rescue gets put out because basically
the first and second to engine and truck do most of the hard work and
then we take up exactly, Mike, exactly right, yeah, yes,
exactly, yep. This is a mystery guest. No is he in the
back? Oh he is? Oh yeah, Michael, Michael, do you
remember you remember the the elephant story and rescue for you, Reder that Captain
Joe screw you don't really how do you feel? All right? So who's
telling the elephant story? Well, you want to tell it? You telling?
All right. We come back from a job about three four o'clock in
the morning, and we're in the back room having it, you know,
having a coffee and what have you, and and yeah, allegedly and Joe
was the boss and he says, you know, just before that run came
in, I was dreaming about elephants. So I kind of did the Irish
egsit out of the kitchen and I went upstairs and I got this airhorn trumpet
and I laid down under his bed in the floor and he came up.
He gets in his rack, lights are out. I'm waiting. I'm waiting.
I'm like, all right, finally I'm ready. And I picked the
trumpet up and I go did he jump jump? I saw him on the
ceiling and he's like, what the fuck? I said, there's probably those
elephants you're dreaming about it, Mike, I can't see the mystery. Guess
how am I gonna ask him questions? I mean, well, if I
if I show it, then everybody else will see who is? No.
No, but can you see him right now? Oh? Yeah, yeah,
I can see him, So just tell him. They gotta be yes
or no questions, and the yes is this and the no is that?
All right? Okay, so did you did you see that guest? I
don't see him? Does he he's there? Okay? Yeah, you got
My screen is too small? Yeah, keep it that way, so because
if I if I show him, they're going to figure out who it is.
So okay, I'll scan to him when you ask the question, and
I'll bring it back just to case somebody. Mike, you want to ask
the first question to the mystery again? Yeah? You you? Did you
retire before two thousand gons? Did you hear the now? No? He
didn't, he did not. Jim, were you the guy in Staples or
the supermarket they used to ask for all the single girls over the intercom?
No, that's a quod question, Jim, I like that. Were you
ever an officer and rescue for Yes, cat cheese man, I saved that
for you to you. He's an idiot, he's a squat. He's an
idiot, all right? To bring him in sick, I know you know
who he is. Jez god, get you, cheese man? Are you
ready for it all? I got a video actually when Cheeseman came for the
first time and he walked into rescue for Yeah, play it bro, here
we go? Uh not just again? You gotta make it louder. Bro
Hold on, I work. You gotta back it up then, brother,
to make it louder. See Phy is because this is loud as I got
it? Is that you? Hello, Mitch? It's not working. Change
much? You remember Cheese Radney's kid brother? My name isn't Cheesy anymore?
Oh? Yeah, geez, he locked you in a dumpster? Is it
not cheese? Look up, Cheese? What are you doing when guys around
on the mat? What are you doing? Yeah? I tired of anybody
like a pretzel? What did you do tonight? I? Uh, A
few people like a smith Wick joke or like a legal choke? What kind
of joke? A good choke? A good chi I don't golf. What
can I tell you anything for pussies anyway? Yeah? Who worked with the
cheese? Jim? Do you work with the cheese? No? I think
I was gone already when he got there. He got there after. Yeah,
the chiefs like recent history these guys are all relicis. Yeah. It's
the difference is that I was I'm not a young guy, but we know
a young finding in three, one, one fifty and all of these guys
are in the rescue and I used to look up to every single one of
these guys from except me. But I can't even look at you. I'm
blocking you off right now. Really, the god, that's disgusting. You
got what year did you get to the rescue Cheese? I went there two
thousand and five? You retire, Jimmy. I retired in two thousand and
five. I did a year down at Roosevelt Island. Yeah, okay,
yeah, so she's just coming in. I've worked with Jimmy a lot on
details and stuff like that. Plus we all went to the rescue school about
the same time. You already you were in soft before that. Yeah,
I was in fifty. You know, he was your two fifty two dude,
an original memor. So what can you ask a question? So you
worked with cvecers? Yeah? Yeah, I mean I learned to say Probie
class led the puss because he has always got my son. Yeah. Now,
and you never worked with the Cheese, right, I was a gay
enough, not too You're just you're just mad because I'm toler than you.
You said you weren't going to bring that up. Alright, So Litsten,
let's talk about some fire stories. Let's get some Rescue four fire stories.
I don't worry Andy, all right, who's going I want to hear?
I want to hear a good fire story from each one of you is from
Rescue four. Maybe one one that sticks in your mind, maybe one that
you're like, was an old ship moment for you, or maybe you know
it was a fire that we have to talk about Jimmy's grabs too. Well,
let's hear about different fire stories. Let's hear one from the captain first.
But you though he was on maybe one that you didn't tell us a
good rescue for fire story? Man alive put him on the spot. You
want to go second, Well, yeah, I was thinking. I wasn't
think because uh there's so many damn all right, Uh, so many to
choose from, somebody to choose from. You want to go second, Yeah,
let me go second. Let me, let me let me want to
who's got one on the tip of the tongue. I'll go ahead. Ed.
We were working one night the duke was the boss, John Dylon,
and when we get a box, we're gonna be first do with to this
box, and two eighty eight, two eighty eight to the first new engine.
We're gonna be the first new truck. We get into the box.
Eighty eight gets in there and actually ahead of us they go in and we're
waiting outside to get a signal, and all of a sudden we hear one
sixty three gives our box number, urging ten to seventy five. Like we're
sitting here, there's no fire. The duke gets on the handy talkie,
calls eighty eight, says, what do you got? You said they got
food on the stove. He said, one sixty three just gave it urgent
ten seventy five. They were the second due truck coming in. What it
was two blocks away. It was a two story frame, the second the
first floor was fully involved. The whole front of the house was fully involved.
We got in there real quick, right with two ninety two, and
one sixty three is now out on the sidewalk with the mother and two kids
giving them mouth to mouth and CPR, and the officer from one sixty three
told the duke there's two more kids in there, so uh myself. The
Duke sends me and Casolino around the back of the building to try and get
up to the second floor. So I go up there. I ended up
going up the stairs. Pete went up, he might have went up a
ladder. And then later on Charlie Pavoni, who was the show for he
went up and I found one of the kids. He was eight years old.
Trying to remember his name now, Joe, you remember, and they
owned the bar. The family owned the bar on Woodside, Finnigan, Jason
Finnegan was his name, eight years old. Brought him out, revived him,
but he died in the emergency room later on, and Charlie brought out
the three month old baby. Charlie stepped in the window and stepped on top
of the baby, and when he brought the baby out, nobody thought the
baby was gonna make it. But luckily the baby did live. But the
reason why Jason died Jason was out of the house, but he went back
in the house to save the baby. Wow. And something that sticks kind
of sticks in my mind, especially around when the holidays are coming up.
I never forget this kid because of what he did, and it was about
a month before my son was born, you know, And so I always
remember Jason, Jason Finnegan and the heroics that this eight year old tried to
do and gave his life for that. So, but it was just a
crazy thing. Them give it a ten seventy five two blocks of you know,
they rolled into it. How quick did you guys go ten from the
food on stove? Oh, we were out of the area. R we
were gone. Yeah, and when we pulled up, the whole front of
the house was on fire. You know. Uh, So that was to
me, that was like that was of the many unusual ones. That was
kind of like a really unusual because of the way the way it went,
So that one sticks in your in your mind. Yeah, yeah, who
wasn't your next listen, if you asked me, I'll give you a first
one. Okay, go if you want. This is a fire that It
was not a spectacular fire or anything. It was just tragic. And uh,
every time, for some reason that I'm cooking by myself, I think
of these kids. I don't know why I get it's I guess it's traumatic
syndrome or something. But anyhow, way out in Jamaica. I remember the
old station wagons and they had the fall down seat that faced the rear right
the window, and and and the kids would all sit back there and make
faces at your wave and everything, you know. So it was out in
South Jamaica someplace, and there was three little black boys in the back seat,
and somebody rear rended the car. The car blew up, and we
got there and the three of them are sitting there burnt, just unbelievably burnt,
and just like like natural though. They were just sitting there like with
their hands on her knees and and they were sort of like looking at us,
but they were all dead, and but they didn't seem dead, but
they were. They were burnt toward crisp. And I could never ever ever
get that out of my mind. To this day, I can't get it
out of my mind. And that's thirty five at least thirty five years ago,
maybe forty years ago. It's unbelievable. And you know, that's one
of the fires and rescue for that that affected me really to the core,
and it still affects me to this day. For some reason. I don't
know why. You know, so little things like that who's up. I
don't care talking about things that stick in your mind. I think everybody in
that screen can tell you about my career. It's a good band and ugly
all I can tell you. But anyway, we all train on the Wizard
Tour and one time we got a special call to the Rock Winds. I
don't even know if the hospital's still there. Well, apparently someone had put
a i'll be polite, a penis ring around his penis. And when we
do Manka, she's man, you know you're walking with a large penis.
And then you got these six rescue guys, Gualking with the emergency room crew,
the nurses, and you know he may have been cheating on his wife,
who he said so sorry. We had to, you know, make
believe it was a thing because you had to put that some kind of piece
of metal underneath it. So you know, Mike, excuse me, Mike,
who held the dick? How you hold it like this? But Mike
held him, but he was going like this, Mike, stop moving your
hand off, Yeah, and mobilized him. He was standing up and he
had an erection and we were able. Bug Sloan was involved and we came
and we were able to re leave the pressure and give some normalacy back to
the pressure. Oh yeah, I have another storm quickly. Uh. We
were we were in the mid eighties. We were doing a lot of work
in the Rockaways, all right, and Chief Heart, who demoted himself to
be Battalion chief down there, was getting livid with all the guys missing bodies
and rescue four finds. So anyway, we're coming back. It had to
be about four o'clock in the morning, so it does kind of have It's
one penis to another penis, and I'm not a penis, but I'll be
the penis. So we were coming back and Bob Doug sloan again, and
you know, guys like to have fun. So I'm on the back of
the rig like this. You know, we're all sleeping. It's was the
R model, that's how old it was. So I'd like, how do
we do the mid eighties? So I'm sitting back there and I'm out that
god, he didn't put it in my mouth. He takes out his loaf
and puts it in my hand. And at first you don't, you're out.
You go like it doesn't feel normal, but maybe it's just me.
And then Finally we hit a bump and I woke up and there's Doug Sloan's
penis in my hand. So that's my quiet stories. How does that happen
there? There? Wait An, it was your hand, you said,
right, your hand it was in was on Doug's penis. I'm not just
your hand. I got to hurt mouth earlier. I don't know what from
the right side. Well, you know what he's like, Yeah, it
would have been my hand, So you know, I had a tendency to
be a little bit weird, but I definitely wasn't gay. That's what that
great fire story, all right, Jim, I hope you have a better
fly story than the peenus stories ahead, Jim, what do you got,
I'll tell you. Rescue for one man. Uh, it's right on the
other side of Queen's Boulevard and we shoot over there and it's Collie's mansion.
Pretty much fully involved. They can't make the front door two ninety two,
trying to make a push. They can't get in. We're around the side
of the building. Captain Hickey's there. I don't know why Captain Hickey's on
the side. Of course, Captain Hickey endal that were both there and I'm
not sure the circumstances a while ago, but I Captain Hickey goes, what
do you think about put you in that window? And I'm looking at the
window and its flames coming out the top of the window, and I'm like,
okay. You know, I was kind of new there, and I'm
like, all right, Captain says, is gonna put me in the window.
It's a test. Yeah, So up I go and I'm in the
window and uh, I'm searching around. I find a guy on the floor.
I didn't really know the guy at first. I just you know,
felt something. I knew it was a body. So I get the guy
and I'm dragging him and John Gang comes in behind me, so I give
you a hand and John comes in and we passed the guy out and the
room lights up and I just dive out the window and they kind of catch
me as I'm coming out the window, and uh, you know that was
that was really it? You know then? You know, two ninety two
eventually got in. They knocked it down, put the fire out, and
it was a good job. And it was really like two blocks away from
the firehouse, you know. It was that year it got Metal Day got
canceled. There was no Metal Day because we had the Father's Day fire.
We had nine to eleven. Metal Day was canceled that year. Now,
what you did get a metal What were you were? One? Thirty six?
I did get a metal winter As we went thirty six at left rack
that story, quick, bro. We went up on the upper floors,
I want to say, it was maybe about the twelfth floor. And we're
up there and uh, it's bank down the hallway. The door was open
to the apartment, the hallways charged and we get down there. Lieutenant Gonzalez
was working, a couple of the good guys I worked with Polioarcher I think
was working that day. And we make our way in there and Andy knocking
it down with the can and the can burst. The can actually exploded it
in the apartment, and uh, I get past the kitchen and I find
this old woman. It is the can right there he's holding Actually the fellow
holding the can. I'm sorry, I can't remember his name right now.
He's a battalion chief, maybe a deputy right now. Oh, I know
that guy. Yeah, great guy. So I find a woman in a
wheelchair and uh, I pull her out and we get it down and get
an emas and she actually survived. She was in her late eighties. She
actually survived. And uh, that was one of the we went to metal
Day that year. That was a good job. We had a lot of
jobs and left right when it was in three twenty four a nightmare that those
buildings are a nightmare. Man. Old project went off. I'm telling me.
It was like a bomb going off. It was loud. Yeah,
well you didn't kill you? Yeah? Who who is that picture? That
was Jeff? What's the name Jeff? Heis Jeff Meister. Yeah, yeah,
I want to say he's a deputy. Now. Wow, Now who
the black guy on the left, Bro, that's du Ray Smith. I
worked a job where I found him in the chef when he fell through the
shaft, right. Yeah, he got hurt pretty bad there. I think
that was maybe career ending. Yeah. I found him in the cheft.
But it was just a freaking name. I was searching the adjoining and I
hear him screaming. I hear his past along going off. I'm like,
holy shit to somebody in the shaft. It was him. It was fun
hangk down to the ground and he couldn't get up. Because he broke both
his legs. I think it was right, yep. So we had to
break the window and pull them off through the through the window. Remember who
the boss was in that picture, he said, right, Gonzales, Gonzales.
He had a brother on the job too. I think was in one
twenty six. I think it was in office. Yeah, yeah, he
was a pretty hot charge of what happened to him. Yeah, Richie,
like i'd lost touch. He kind of fell off the face of the earth.
Wow, you know, because one thirty six is pretty tight. They
you know, everybody gets together for a lot of things. But I don't
see Richie. Those guys, especially Doosie. It's like one fifty four.
You guys went there. They were doing a lot of work. Then bro
oh we were going there. Yeah, we used to run up a lot.
I used to see your brother all the time. We'd run up there
by one fifty four. The rug, Yeah, I want to say he
was like my last job. I went like, dude, he was working
that job up there. Maybe he had the worst rug you can possibly I
mean, I love him to death. We had the worst rug you can
possibly imagine. He's working out though, right, he was at the short
cutoff shirt. He's had his shut off shirts. But but he was be
smoking a cigarette, drinking coffee while he's working a cigarette. Yeah. Yeah.
So one time I have I have dinner at my house with him,
his wife, my brother Steve, my brothers, and John Hopkins and his
wife Mary. So I told I don't know what I said. I said
something about the rug, and he got fuck pissed off the rug, you
know. So the next day he is, You're a fucking scum bag.
Those people didn't know I had a fucking rug. I'm like, dude,
they didn't know you had a run, I said, The fucking blind guy
on the block knows you were a fucking Yeah, come on, bro,
don't come off in water. Yeah all right, geez, you're up,
kid. Uh. I probably probably the one that sticks out the first,
the most of my mind is the the collapse on Walton Avenue in the Bronx
when we were we were a special called there because the flora collapsed and uh,
when we got there, we parked up on the think it was the
Grand Concourse and then we had to make our way down. Uh the hell
it was John Gain Yeah, John was I worked there that day too,
beato. I'm having brain faughts. Hee hassock. Uh, Brindy C all
those guys so we get in. Make a long story short, forty one
pops out of the billco do off of the basement. Were going shoot the
basement. We breached the wall between the two buildings and we ended up.
Brindc got the lieutenant Harplak complax red his ankle. I said, I'm down
here with my uh proby, my proby. He's got the nozzle. He's
right beneath me. Uh so we uh cut a lot of plywood and stuff
around him. I'm talking to the guy, you know, as clear as
day, and he's telling me the whole time. You know that, Uh
you know, my my cameres me. My nozzle man is right beneath me.
We got to get him out. And uh you know, as I'm
talking to him, I can tell he's like I'm trying to put a mask
on him. And uh you know, now we got guys bringing tools in
cut and plywood cut and lumber. Uh there's other companies above him coming down
below. Uh get him out, you know. And then uh yeah,
I mean that the chief and the soccer tan is trying to pull us out,
and I look at I think it was Jack and Malvern Jack, right,
that's his name. Moment you tell me you got to get out of
here. You've been down here too long. I said, We're not getting
out of here until I get this pretended out of there. And uh so
we stayed down there a long time and Polly eventually got him out, put
him out, A stretcher got him out, and then they get They ended
up getting uh what was the guy's named, Mike Riley out two from the
from up. He's a probe, don't they do the failing new on the
job? Yeah, military and uh, flush, kid, that was it.
You know, that was not so much as far as a fire,
because the fire was pretty much out by the time we got there. But
you know, I'm looking up in the sky basically, and there's I got
read for units hanging above me, and you know, there's there's all kinds
of sheet just falling down. You know, this place is just full of
cann goods and shampoo and slippery and uh, you know they had already pulled
a bunch of guys out. Yeah, but knowing that the lieutenant was alive
when we pulled them out, and I'm talking to him, and I knew
his family. You know, his father was my mechanic and uh so just
knowing that and and you know he didn't survive. Uh that was the amazing
part that She's like he was talking the whole time. Well, I think
what happened was the position of his body. He was talking to me,
he was like laying straight down, but his body was at a ryan angele.
And you know I heard things at the funeral, like I spoke to
the family afterwhids because I'm basically the last person that you talked to him alive,
and uh, you know, he had a lot of internal injuries and
stuff like that. So once they relieved the pressure, yeah, he bled
out. And even though we had, uh they that that rescue metic program
that they were in the basement when we got there, those guys yeah yeah,
yeah, I mean those guys are starting the line on him and everything.
But you know, sometimes there's certain things you just can't control, you
know that. I mean that every every August, I reached out to the
guys that worked that fire, Jarnie Kaines and the Vito and Jerry Osha and
all those guys, just to let him not said. And this is what
I said to him right after the fire. I got him all at the
back of the ring. I said, look, yeah, I've been to
a lot of these days, I said, but I've never been more proud
of the actually said my men did that day. And I think that's you
know, a lot of the guys, you know, Mike and Captain Sam
was safe. Yeah, the guys in the rescues and the spies that they
will go one hundred and fifty miles an hour to get you know, to
get the job done until they're at the point of exhaustion. Yeah. Yeah,
I think I think I had to send Will Hassek to the hospital because
he was like his body was shutting down. And we all should have gone
to the hospital. It was shitty down there, man, all of the
f I had a headache for a weekend. I should have gone, you
know, I should have gone to the h had the Patrick yep, you
know, but I'm mistubborn Guinea and uh I didn't go, and did anyone
else. I don't think that we don't let hash to get that he was
he was the only one that would stick from that get him and sending you
reach out. We gotta get Johnny Gain on the show. He keeps telling
me, I'll get Johnny Fay. I gotta say one thing. Listen to
all these stories. You know what, It's funny. You know a lot
of people that are watching this show perceive us going to talk about this big
fire, this big this, this big that. But it seems to be
a commonality among most FD and Y guys. It's those little jobs that stick
in your mind, right, And I think that's important because it shows how
humble we are, how focused we are, and it's those little things that
mold us into what we are as firefighters and officers. And I'm just gonna
add this one thing and then you can move on. Kevin. It's a
mundane story. I was detailed to Squad one. Alf's was divorce and we
get an EMS. Cool because I think at those days, in those days,
squad one was knocking them dead with ems. So we go to some
spot in Brooklyn, I think it was the first second floor. We go
in there. I think she had been dead for a while. We did
the vitals, nothing there. She died of AIDS and all I remember is
looking up. She was in bed, looking up to the bedstand and seeing
a photograph of her when she was vibrant, beautiful and didn't have AIDS.
So, you know, I think we're like I said, we're all humble
guys. You know, you know you can read all the books you want
and watch all this stuff about FD and Y, but the commonality that was
on this screen is what makes FD and Y unique. I'm sorry if I
started step on dose. We see a lot, but we treat every incident
the same one thousand percent, five thousand percent. We go out of our
way to do the job, and unfortunately there are a lot of line and
duty in deaths and FD and why. But we're all proud of what we
did. And one more thing, everybody on this screen gives back in their
own way. We all play it forward, and that's the key to success
of fdmy. We all give back, whether it's coming on this show,
which is a home run Kevin, or lecturing, writing books, volunteering in
a local fight department. We all do our share to bring what we know
forward to the next generation, to make sure that we all play it safe.
That's what I tell guys when I try to get him on the show.
I'm like, listen, you're not doing it for yourself. We're not
look here to really talk about rear per se, but it's what you can,
what you can say for posterity, what you could because once you're gone,
your stories are gone, your teachings are gone, your lessons are gone.
The only way you can, you know, live forever, is by
sharing your stories. You know. I try to tell these chiefs like,
I don't want to I don't want to talk about myself. I'm like,
you'ren't really talking about yourself. You're talking about guys who made you who you
are, and you're passing it down to the next generation. You know,
the chiefs, company officers who were the only as good as the guys behind
you, you know, make every exactly you know, And I think I
think it's our job as guys that came through. I mean, Joe,
Captain Hasson came through the whole war years, and he's got stories that can
blow all of us out of the water. And he's he's passed those stories
on and he taught me how to how to be a great, how to
be a good fire, and how to pass things on. And I and
I always thought that that was our job, even when we left the job,
pass on your knowledge to the new guys, because you know, when
you looked at nine to eleven and the amount of guys we lost, not
only the three hundred and forty three guys that died that day, how many
guys rest before died that day seven I believe was it seventh seven? And
but not only those guys, but the guys, the guys that retired after
that. The amount of experience that this job lost after nine to eleven was
just unbelievable. You know. I remember when you were retired, you could
go back to the firehouse for like five years and there'd still be guys there
that you worked with. When I retired, I went back like a year
later, there was nobody there that I worked with it except I think Michael,
you know, and that was something that was totally that was a new
experience for I think for a lot of us. Yeah, it was devastating
at that time. I was a fineman uh in two fifty two, and
then I got promoted the weekend after nine to eleven, and then within three
or four months I was back as a lieutenant and scart when I was sent
back that to rebuild that company because the same thing. We look, not
only did we lose the guys that got killed that day, but guys that
retired and stuff like that. And for me, it almost became like like
that groundhog day every time I go to work to be a new guy.
Okay, we got to spot all this training over again, you know.
And it was you know, three you know, three years of that,
and when I got the opportunity to go to rescue four, it was like
it was like, first of all, it was a dream come true because
I I wanted to go there as a fine and I wasn't able to because
you know, at the time, there was no movement in the rescue at
all. So when I was able to go there, yeah, but you
got stuck with me, Joe. You know, it's one of the things
I wish. I wish the job would allow guys that went through all those
years to come out to the fire academy and talk to the new guy and
tell tell these new guys, you know, teach them, teach them like
history and tradition of this job, what this job is about, you know,
because I always believe if you don't have this job in your heart,
you don't belong on this job. You know. It's Jack Cleehouse's father coined
the phrase when he was on the job. It's not a job, it's
a way of life, and it is. It's caught. It's like becoming
a priest, you know, it becomes your way of life. And a
lot of guys come on the shop and they don't know that. What's that?
I watch that priest ship, all right, but a clergy man,
how's that? Do we correct that? Good job? But these are things
that I think need to be passed to these new guys to let them know
the history why we are who we are, why this department has the reputation
that it has, and the reputation of this job was built on guys for
the past, you know, one hundred or one hundred and fifty years,
the things that we did, you know. And and a lot of guys
come on this job today and uh, they don't know that. They don't
know the history of the job. A lot of guys don't even know why
it's fd N Y and not n Y f D. I gotta ask that
question. I gotta ask that question by a guy. Yeah, it's it's
in the it's in the city charter. When they turn of the century when
when all of the boroughs and kind of became part of New York City.
In the charter, it says there shall be in New York City Police Department
and there shall also be a fire Department of the city in New York And
that's why. And we're the I believe we're the only fire department that are
recognized fire department before the name of the city. That's another thing that makes
us unique. You know, what guys need to thank God is to get
Insult the Experience podcast for guys to share these experiences. So many guys could
meet history for the job. And like I said, I look back at
my time as approbing one of the guys I made such a big difference in
my career from what he taught me. Was guy a lieutenant in rescue Foroe
named John Dylon, and he was just such a personality, such a source
of information. I just think that we should talk about him a little bit
because he was such a fountain of knowledge and such a character above everything else.
Can I tell Duke story story? Did I tell you the story when
I was on before about Duke? When when I when when they sent me
to rescue four to straighten him out, didn't I tell that story? I
think, yeah, Well, anyhow, you know, when that what the
hell is his name was getting promoted to his five five, I think I
told the story. There was five five rescue captains. They were all Irish
and and the Colombians were bitch in the morning, and Ray Brown was running
rescue services at the time, and he was complaining to me that didn't know
what to do and all that stuff. So I said, well, I'm
a member of the Colombians and I'm a member of of the Emeralds, so
put me in there. And they can't. They can't say nothing. He
don't want them to can bitch, you know. So so I get interviewed
by o'rour to be the captain of rescue for and he says, well,
you got the experience, you get this, you get that. He says.
Uh, he says, but we got a lieutenant that it needs to
be straightened out. If you tell me you can straighten him out, well,
uh, you know that's your We'll let you be. We'll give you
the we'll give you the spot. And he says John Dylon, I said,
oh, I won't have any problems straighten him out or anything. But
he didn't know that. He's one of my best friends. I'll take care
of that kind straight him out. So when I got guy says, John,
don't don't fuck up for a while. All right, you got a
story? This, this is funny. We're up on Woodside Avenue and uh,
it's the middle of the day, stopped at the traffic light, and
the Duke looks over and there's a gypsy cab office there and there's a gypsy
camp parked in a hydrant. And the Duke yells back to me, he
goes, get this summons book. I get the summons book. I come
out. We walk over there and this Asian fella comes running out of the
gypsy cab store. And the Asian guy wants to know if I speak Spanish.
So I'm like, wait a minute, we're in America. Where are
you from? And he goes, Korea. I go, so your Korean?
And you want it all if I speak Spanish. So the Duke says
to him, license and registration, and he gives it to the Duke,
and the Duke looks at him and he goes, you're from Korea and the
guy goes, oh yeah, yeah. He goes north to south and the
south and the duke goes walking for you move it off, com bastard,
Bobo. You gotta say, Jesus, I forgot already, forgot ready because
I'm empty. One thing about over there at the Rock when we were having
sensitivity training when bringing the women on, Oh oh oh, that was a
great one. Do you remember that one, Mike? Yeah, And I
tell him before we go over, no, nobody say a fucking word.
Don't say nothing, no questions, no nothing. We'll be out of here
in no time, you know. So Dylan's with us. I guess they
sent them over and over time for sensitivity training. So we're sitting there and
uh, the guy starts it was a it was a red head. I
think it was a red headed, a red headed woman. She was a
psychology psychologist. And she says, you know, she starts with a bullshit
about the women and there's the the egal and blah blah blah. And she
says, before we start, though, is there any anybody have anything to
say about this? And Dylan raises his hand and I said, oh,
that's it. That's the end of the world for us. We'll be here'll
fucking She says, yes, Lieutenant, what is it? He says,
we don't need no fucking women on this. Didn't tell him take up.
No, They kept Ustadt about five o'clock. They wouldn't let us go.
They dreamed us in one one way after another. Unbelievable nod. Holy it
almost sounds like the Duke. Everybody, Mike, did you have a Duke
story? Well, the only I have a few, but the one that
stands out, and it's only recently after he died, uh kiddy. His
wife died, so the family sold the house in Holbrook, and he invited
me over and I didn't know why other than I knew Duke and I was
a pool bear at his uh funeral And they had UH about thirty or forty
years worth of firehouse and fire engineering nearing magazines, which I now have,
and I thought that was great to have them because they were going to throw
them out. So my goal is down the road, once they get the
new library set up at the Rock, which I think it's transitioning. I
believe right, Ray, Yeah, it's a well Chief sleep, they transition
to go to electronic so yeah, yeah, I get that, everybody.
Yeah, but I'm hoping to talk to Frank. I may see him on
Saturday, he'll be here. Listen. I have a ton of these magazines
and get filled with a lot of dmy stories, pictures, et cetera.
And I would love to donate it to the library for the Rock, but
I gotta say about that at a really good price. Look, I want
to interrupt you. Yeah, go ahead. You don't want to donate it
to the Rock. He wants to sell it to have somebody take him out
of your house. That's all you gotta. I got it. You got
nobody tell him about the company qualified Shelff you see. See. Well,
listen, I will tell you a story about Duke. Duke was Uh,
he was a teetoller. I'll say it quite what everyone when they worked with
Duke, he was drinking a six pack of butt every night. He wasn't
he take one but wrap it in the city supply brown paper towels. Yeah
yeah. And he'd had one beer in his car, hot dungeree jacket and
we would drive the entire night fires whatever he had the one beer. Everyone
thought they had more than one beer. He never did more than one beer.
Uh, but he he did have a gentleman Bill Billips great guy became
the QCC became the Qualified Cooler Carrier and Bill billups and he's a guy,
the most religious guy. Bill another name from the Uh would always stuff it
with ice, a couple of buds and uh that was Bill's nickname. The
qc C the Qualified Shelfer to qualify Cooler Carrier. And like I said,
Duke had one beer bringing upstairs type away on the typewriters. But it was
only one beer. Uh. You know he was mister Hurst tool. I
mean even he repaired the site right, he worked for That's what made him
sick was the constant exposure to the hydraulical fluid. I think you're right in
some sort of sickness. But he would get a special called into the shops
to work on tools, where he comes to the fire house and work on
odd tools. Uh. He was just a you know this, I gotta
tell you something. I think you got a picture of him there Gonzo,
which because I was looking for that, because I was like, man,
did I label this thing? Because I had the John He's not in the
John genes pick right, No, yeah, I have them the ones that
we just went through. I was I was looking for I'm like, I
know I had something. We just talked about him. Jack Dugan is there,
Tom Williams is there. Toby Williams not the great guy guy, but
I was. They were the lieutenants for me. I'm telling you what an
easy job I had with Williams and the Duke and Jack Duggan, and then
we got yeah, I had a great, great, great bunch of guys,
had a good one something. It wasn't one of your traits. And
the pictures was it? No, no, no, he's up by then.
Yeah. I was just trying to you got that. I'm sorry.
I could have sworn we said that. I thought I duke by himself.
That's what I thought. It was. Okay, thank you, Chief.
Yeah, you know usually I'm well prepared. Chief. I don't want to
hear that. I guess you didn't have a test in pictures, did you.
You didn't have a chief day. That's the problem. I had a
squeeze in his hair. He can't think I'm gonna kick your ass. Damn.
You know what I wanted to say. Also, while gons is uh
looking for that picture desperately, I'm like the thing too about guys telling their
stories like those years where guys who are going to fires all the time that
ain't coming back in any time soon. So you know, they don't have
that fire experience. So these stories are priceless. You know what they can
take from these stories or the old school tip of the day, or you
know, I get emails all the time from guys saying, oh my god,
you know I listened to the show. I learned so much from the
show. Because I don't I don't believe that we're going to have those warriors.
I could be wrong, but you know, hopefully, hopefully. Yeah,
you know what, Kevin, I kind of believe. And Ray I
think they're gonna come back because the commercial real estate is tanking in New York
City. Uh Uh, the city is taking all these immigrants that can afford
it. Uh. They're asking all the police cops, I mean police fire
ems, et cetera, et cetera, to cut the budgets. I think
the city is going to have some tough times. It could, but I
did a lot of research. I don't want it to happen, but I
can tell you something. I don't think that John Lindsey Lee is are that
far away. Because Mayor Adams Urry I think there's gonna be problems. I
think a lot of them have changed, you know, the the welfare system
has changed, and that they're not getting paid to relocate. I think that
there'll be a lot of less incentive to burn buildings. But I think that
I think there'll be a lot less maintenance, and I think that there will
be more like the lithium battery fires. I think that the general situation will
lead to more fhives, but I don't think it'll be the same situation as
the that time. That time in the sixties and seventies, I did a
lot of research on it, and there was so many contributing factors that created
the perfect storm. Like Ray said, incentivizing people to burn themselves out,
uh, the the insurance, Uh, the different things with insurance that was
going on with these with these landlords were getting paid astronomical fees for a piece
of ship properties where they have you know, Gomez burning them out, and
uh, the city looking to burn people out. It was cheaper to burn
them out than that to move them out. So there were so many contributing
factors. It wasn't just economy, it wasn't just immigrants and all of the
ship. There were so many things that played a part in the Warriors that
I don't know if that's ever going to come back like that. So it
might be the reasons, uh that it could happen, you know, but
not those reasons anymore. Right. So, like I said, that's why
these stories that you guys tell, I mean, they're invaluable. I mean
for these I would love to talk about. It doesn't involve penises, does
it mean, Mike, Because I don't want to hear another penis story Boston.
So if you want to tell that story, Joe, please, I
didn't. I didn't tell that story before. We bet. We bet the
Rescue two in Boston on the eighty six World Series and Mets against the the
whatever the Red Sox so uh so was whoever won had their choice we'd go
there or they would go here and we get T shirts. Right, So
the Mets pull off that miracle, uh and we ended up we decided to
go to Boston and and hang out with them and Rescue two and they would
give us all T shirts. So we went up. How many guys might
maybe fifteen twenty guys, I don't know how many. Yeah, with a
lot of guys twelve a dozen guys. We go up and we they were
in a firehouse there and were treated to a great dinner and everything. So
we go and then we go out down to Fanuel Paul. So I tell
these guys, I said, this is Irish joint. You know, this
is Irish. We're going to the Russian Dew with black Rose. That's the
translation, because everybody here is Irish. So my name is Joe Shannon.
I'm not going to be jokes that song and in the Russian du I said,
Joe Shannon. So we go in there and as Irish footballers in there
as everybody the places rocket and rolling to the rafters, bang bang bang bang
as usual and ends up everybody falls by the wayside. They fall by the
wayside. Now it's late at night and there's four people in the joint,
me and Mike Miller and two nice blonde Boston girls, nice Irish lasses.
So so me and Mike I'm making really really good headway. We're on the
cusp of you know, success of euphoria. And uh so finally the girls
ask her name and I said, I'm Joe Shannon. You know, Oh
that's great, you know, And he said, well, I'm Mike Miller.
She says, well, what's Mike Milner? She says, well,
he says uh. He says, well, my mother's Irish and my father's
Jewish. And this girl looks at him. She says, I hate fucking
New York Jews. You're out. Wow, you should have said Michael Milner
for Christ Mike, I thought I almost dropped dead. Poor Mike, he's
just like what I thought, went like this, Oh my god, and
he says, I'm proud of my heritage. But that didn't work. They
turned on their heels and left. The two was standing there by ourselves,
and there's two schmucks in the bar late at night. It's about two or
three in the morning. So now we got no place to go. The
boss clothes me and Mike go out, and we're looking around for someplace,
and right, no place except downstairs basement Chinese restaurant. Right here, here's
me and my old stood of the mickey downstairs at the fucking Chinese restaurant.
We should have been upstairs with the two blonds colleens, but we were,
and we got to you know, charming the servants, fucking some gooey and
fried rice and stuffing some gooey You wishing the broads were eating some gooey that
night? Problem you were eating something to some dumb bucks to go. Yeah,
you find that picture? What are you doing? I don't see it
in here, a single photo. So I actually sent you something. Yeah,
that's what I come on, Pete, I mean Gonzo beat you.
Here's the duke and on the left. Yes see, we don't have a
single picture of him all the way on the left, all the way on
the left looking good. Dare boy. Who's the guy between Mike and the
duke, Mike Loftist. It's a chief of the Yeah, Mike. And
who's the other guy. That's Billy Billups. Oh that's Billy Billips. Yes,
sir nice. He became a red or something right, well, he
became a eucharistic eucharistic minister in uh st you of Lincoln Church and Huntington and
he comes up to me. He was a bay constable and hunting in Harbor
and he comes up to me and he says, Joe, Joe, he
says, I'm now a eucalyptus minister. Right. It was right out of
uh what the hell was there name that show? But the way they talked
that, but that's what he said, Oh, Billy Miro And who's the
other you know, loftus you I don't know who the guy in the yellow
shirt is a green shirt. Who's the guy in the yellow shirt he looks
for Yeah, as you said, Joe's on his on his name, Oh
yeah, Joey Yeah, Joe Jesus. He was from by the rest of
four. Yeah, yeah, street Truck Billy I thought he was. I
thought he was the one twenty six guy, Billy Billy. Oh he was
in the union, right, Well, that doesn't even look like Richie Yulaw
long ago? Is that seventy six seventy fifth anniversary? I think anniversary?
So when was that Richie? Next month? Down so south right when I
got there, Richie should be on the show, which you gotta get Richie
on the show, bro one of which his gang Johnny gangs big Richie Schmidt.
That's the seventy fifth anniversary. Yeah, yeah, Joe Gandiello ran.
Who's the who's the guy between Richie Schmidt and I forget the lieutenant's name?
That's a solid right, yeah, Sally oh ship, Yeah, he's in
the know. Who's in between Sally and Richie Schmidt. I don't know that
game. I'm not sure who that is. I think he hears the party
photo Obama, Hey got Kevin. Yeah, I just want you to know.
Joe's a very pious man. Okay, Joe, who oh, very
pious man. I think his sisters and none. Right, Yes, he
was actually he was actually going to become a priest, wasn't he. Yeah?
I was, Yes, I still I still may. Yeah, I'm
thinking about it. Don't chase the altar boys around the altar and grand by
the organ. All right? You heard that, Joe, I'm listening.
Don't chase the older boys around the altar and grand by the organ. All
right? And really she's a sweetheart. Yeah, I mean your your Your
sister's a sweetheart. I met her a few times. Yeah, she's great.
Yeah, yeah, she's crazy, she's she's wonderful. Thank God for
her. She makes up for me. Where she worked, yoke, I
think Sody, you were Lincoln. Now. She worked in that parish right
next to one twenty truck for twenty twenty something years, twenty five years,
straight down the block from one twenty truck. Is it Catholic church there?
Yeah? She was there for twenty twenty five years. Wow. Then she
came out to Huntington doing the work of the Lord. Yeah. I think
Jim's bringing that over to the fire riders. He wants to do the work.
Yeah. Who I see all the time, you boy, you believe
in that? Who rides all the time for mccarto, Yeah, all the
time? A lot of wire riders. He isn't fire riders the trick.
He comes around all the time, come hey, runs down raffle everything.
And he's tough man, just like he was at the fire house. He's
tough. Yeah. It was changed life. He left your son. Yeah,
it's tough. His brother not too far after, after nine eleven,
Yes, yeah, and I don't know you know this he does. He
did. His brother passed away not quite a year ago. Brother was in
the s U I think. Yeah. Yeah, mccondle's story. He tried
to He wanted to go knuckle up with me one time, bro in the
TV room. Yeah, so you had to talk with him, dude.
He was sitting in the recliner the lazy Boy, and my buddy Blaze was
laying sleeping in the couch and I was gonna go over and I was gonna
fought right and blaze his face. But I didn't know he wasn't sleeping.
He was pretending to sleep. So when I pulled my draws down, I
went the fought on him and he he kicked me, and I wound up
fought and write. In Phil mccaudall's Faith film, the only dead part was
he dude, this is what he I don't know if he's still heavy.
He couldn't get out of He couldn't get out of the recliner. Bro.
He was like, I'm gonna fucking kill you. He couldn't get out of
the record. He's still still like that. He's got a lot of health
problems right now, Phil, but he's still is a great guy. Man.
Yeah, you don't know. I know this story about Phil on nine
to eleven. Supposedly he got an early relief because he had a dentist appointment
yep, and missed nine to eleven. And I think it was two or
three weeks later his son was killed in that car crash. Yeah, you
know, uh, just strange. He's the only guy in Asthmad that missed
that, you know, and that happened to him. There were two guys
that were working that day that missed it. Bobby, Bobby Hunter and Costan
Castagna. They were in the rig and they pulled the rig away. They
were there when the when the building. Yes, was the resource and one
guy was the show for something. I don't know what the fuck it was.
Something that the survivor is guilt. Bro. I was just gonna say,
survivor's guilt. Uh. That's a big issue with guys and women across
the country. I mean, I have horror stories of my own with the
vivor's guilt. All right, take care of that colostomy bag at the end
of the day. You know, there's a lot of guys that teach line
of duty, may days and all that, but they don't talk about the
after effects. Okay, and believe me, Uh, I'll use Pete McLaughlin
as an example when he died at that fire. Kenny Mammon, who was
my best man at a wedding. Uh right, which wedding? There are
tons of battalion chiefs offices that just said, you know what I had,
I missed it right on my head. We said, which which wedding?
Oh? All right. The the issue is that every one wants to discuss
the elephant in the room, which is survivors guilt. Okay, because Mike,
can I interject absolutely, I mean rest before has so many wanted do
that's when you were there and when all you guys were there. It just
it has to be part of the the burden of the firehouse. And I
think it's just something you guys should address to us. Well, thank you,
ready, Eddie, And I just sent a uh A sheet with the
will the plaques from uh A Rescue for I believe there's ye had. There's
fifteen plaques on there, okay, a couple of guys, uh two guys
that died in World War Two from the engine, right. But we sent
we sent a replica of the the Wall of Honor out to the Hall of
Fame. Cool and they go ahead, Mike, No, no, go
finish it. I'm sorry. They they they put it up where the rig
is on display in the Hall of Fame. And and I got to tell
you when we went out there a couple of years ago, right, Michael,
that they did some job. And yeah, yeah, so I think
that was a good thank you. Go ahead. I was just yeah,
and it was a good thank you. And I want to address race point
because he brings up a good one and I'm not here to have any to
give me sympathy. But I got to tell you something. I'm not the
only guy on the job, so believe me, I'm not saying anything that
other people haven't gone through. But when I go to that firehouse on nine
to eleven, I look at that plaque wall, fifteen of those plaques,
I work with those guys. Yeah, you know, and it's a heavy
burden to handle, and I want everybody out there to understand something. You
know what you know. You may want to call me a clown or I'm
a big mouth. We don't want to hurt hear about fdn Y, But
at the end of the day, I want to tell you something. My
goal in life, and it's a pleasant goal. And it sounds bizarre,
but it's a pleasant goal. I do want to talk about the horrors because
someone's got to do it, and I speak for everybody on the screen,
so I'm not taking any extra burden or anything of that nature. But at
the end of the day, if you want to be a firefighter in this
country, you got to expect that it could happen to you at any time.
Okay. You can train, you can train on may Days how to
get guys out of a basement or a roof or whatever it may be.
But at the end of the day, no one can prepare you for the
after effects, which includes the why am I alive and he's dead? That
survived guilt follows you forever might Besides that guilt, go ahead, please all
those horrors, guys that deserve to be remembered, that their sacrifice, their
their personal lives, their family, how they lived, what they were in
the firehouse. That's the stuff that has to be remembered. That's stuff that
has to be carried on. That's the stuff that this show should talk about
as often and as much as we can. Ray, let me tell you
something, and you know, I'm not going to be morbid or melancholy.
I'm not Ray, and I have gone out and I've seen most of the
guys here here, Eddie and Joe more than other guys on the screen.
I'm a pretty upbeat guy. And one of the reasons that you got to
be upbeat, because you know what, I ain't gonna let the devil beat
me. Okay, because to Dray's point, you got to get out there.
You gotta play it forward. And I gotta tell you something, Kevin,
and you can tell Louis too. I got to tell you something.
You guys blew a little more hot air into my life. And I mean
that in a good way, because you gave me an outlet to say to
other people out there. You know what you can do it If a guy
like Mike Milner or anybody else on the screen can get by a line of
duty death and survive and talk about it and play it forward on a positive
note, you can get by. There's people out there that want to help
you, want to talk about it, and to raise point again, Kevin,
this is a podcast that people should pay attention to. Okay, I
don't care if you're the chief of Florida, Keith Lee who wherever it may
be. Everybody out there, you got to know that you've got a million
history and you've got to be compassionate, and you've got to realize that if
you don't have a mental health program in your department, you're missing the point,
because that's not the battle. Nobody can get by a broken leg,
spine injury, blah blah blah. It's this. If you can't find a
way to get to that guy's mind or that woman's mind, get them back
to full duty. Then you're making a mistake. Let me say, have
like all the guys here that we can talk like this and you know we
have to canceling keeps us together. Yeah, let me give you two points
on that, Mike, You're right. The first one being Gray Brown's name
before and uh, I mean here was the guy he was, Uh he
was caught for the rescue. One was the Brown great un he was service.
Yeah. When he retired he became a counselor a lot Yeah me too,
you know. And uh, and that is how you you know,
paying forward. I mean he was, he was a great guy. I
used to go and talk to him once twice. Sometimes you know a lot
more than than you know. When uh, when I had my first line
of duty death and when I was a two eighteen engine and so after the
fire, the senior man, a guy named Marty Keane, he came to
me and he said, uh, hey kid, how you doing. You're
doing all right? Now. I had been in the volleys and had line
of duties. You know, civilians naturally, you know, and this was
a civilian. It was my first I had death on the job. But
Marty said something that I always remembered, and I always passed it on to
guys because I thought it helped me. He said, listen, if this
is bothering you, one thing you got to remember is you didn't start the
fire. And if you went out there and did the best job you could
possibly do, then there was nothing else that was going to happen. You
know that these these people they were going to die no matter what happened.
And I always remember that. I always tried to pass that on to guys
that you know, had their first death on the job, you know,
civilian death. And I always told them just remember, as bad as it
is, you didn't start the fire, and we did the best job we
could do to save these people, you know. And I just think that's
something the guys should keep in the back of their head. They didn't start
the fire. Yeah, well it was. And I was. I did
my thirty day detail in forty two trucks and Captain Johnny John McDonald he was
working. He was working either the UFO or whatever, and forty two trucks
I worked the night before they had that job was right across the street.
From the fire houce if I was on the top floor or now I was
on the fifth floor, sixth story isolated buildy. So being a pro b
whatever, I put my stuff back on. I went across the street,
I went up the ladder, helped the roofman out, and then we dropped
down and I could hear the guys on the fire floor working on somebody in
the hallway. Make a long story short, it was Captain McDonald. He
shoved his came in an iron man out of the way, out of the
hallway, saved their lives, but he got caught in the flashowds. So
in the aftermath of this whole thing, you know, you got one half
of the fire house. You know. Now now you've got five offsters gonna
come down to an interview. You got these guys. Everybody wants to see
what you have to say. And you know, some guys are saying,
don't tell them he did anything, and the other guys are saying this,
Yeah, it's like one of those things that you know, you got to
talk about it because otherwise you just think, is it something I did wrong
and something you know somebody else did wrong. That was my first line to
the death in the fire department. It was you know, it was a
horrible experience, you know, and I wouldn't wish set upon anybody, but
you know, you want a life. Do you know what happened postscripts of
that? His U I used to help his widow out a bit, and
she was a Lebanese lady, and she moved to Bakersfield, California with their
two and the one boy became a fire setter, and he was setting fires
all over the place. And because because he couldn't get over his dad's death.
There's a tragedy, a double tragedy right there, you know, and
they couldn't help the kid. I don't know whatever happened to him. I
don't know the final resolution, but he was he was in very big trouble
out in Makersfield for setting fires. Yeah, you know, I mean as
fireman, and you know, you work with these people. I really didn't
know the captain that well. I worked with a couple couple of times.
He was UFOU in forty two trucks and you know, and I was on
a thirty day detail there, but I didn't, you know, And the
way it happened was just yeah, because it was just a routine fire.
That's what I will say. He saved that out of guy's life. Two
guys. Yeah, came in the shutting back all the way right. We
found him in the They found him in the UH. It was an old
war tenement, and they found him in the the front room, half in,
half way. He got caught in the flesh. Yeah, it's just
say yeah, yeah, Mike, what I wanted to tell you. You
guys see what came out October thirty first in the City of Baltimore. Changed
the subject for a second. Yeah, yeah, it's almost yeah, yeah,
people in Baltimore. Huh. Some more people are gonna die in Baltimore.
Oh yeah, I mean that's crazy. Yeah, you know. I
mean you can't go in and get him unless you see him. Yeah.
It's an over and it's an over reaction. It's an over reaction to what
happened. No, No, I think they lost those guys. But it's
an overreaction. It's not an overreaction. They can't do any better. They
don't know any better, they don't have the resources. It's a total lack
of a committee from the city to the UH, to the fire department and
Yah. In terms of expertise in terms of technology. The city failed the
fire department, and that now the fire department is going to fail the people
of that city because now it's an exterior attack. Yeah, you know,
Ray, I know it's not the fire I mean, it's not blaming anything
else but the city. They failed, the city to fail, but not
to change the story. I have a somewhat interesting story that includes Miller and
indirectly includes Finel. All right, let me let me just tell you what
before you get into that. I want to tell you my perspective on survivors
guilt, because Mike was talking about it and it is important. So I
was supposed to work on the eleventh, but I was doing personal training in
World Gym. So I had a couple of wealthy clients, uh females who
were married to doctors, and I wasn't giving them the time that they needed.
So they said they were going to go want to somebody else unless I
trained them. So I called up the firehouse and asked somebody to work for
me that day, and I happened to be Joe Hunter, who took my
tour. So Joe Hunter works that day, and of course, as we
know, Joe Hunter loses his life and Mike, it must have taken me
at least ten years. Every nine to eleven, I'd be cursing God,
why why? Why? Why? Why? Why? And I don't know
what happened. Something clicked in me and said, you know what, maybe
instead of saying why, why, why, maybe I should thank God because
I've met my wife, I had two beautiful kids. I was able to
see my other two kids grow up. So maybe there was a reason.
Maybe I should be thanking him instead of fucking always asking why, why why,
and just change my attitude about it, you know, And ever since
then, and I've kind of been at peace with it, you know.
So that's just my story, my own personal story. You have to look
at that way I always was told in the beginning, this is a long
process that many of us note, including you, Kevin, It's a long
process to get better, to make yourself as full as whole as you can
after a traumatic event. I'm not religious, but I will tell you one
thing. The way I look at it, and I think you alluded to
it without saying it is that God or some other power, there's a reason
why you're alive, Okay, And for me, I can't speak for anybody
else. I like coming on the show. I like letting my heart bleed
in front of everybody that wants to listen to me, because if there's one
person, two people, three people, that all of us on the screen
can help when they have a problem, a dark day, a dark week.
That's the end of the day. We did all my job. We
played it forward. You know when when you loads a friend at work and
you come back with three instead of four, it's a that's an emotional toll
that you can't describe to people unless they've been through it. Okay, so
unless you've been through it, it's not gonna happen to me, or I'm
not gonna worry about it. But when it hits you in the face and
you're by yourself, you're going to wakes, You're going to funerals, you
have to deal with the widows, the children, blah blah blah, and
your own demons. That's a long, hard cline to get over. And
uh, you know what, I gotta tell you something between this show,
Uh, the guys on the screen, especially Eddie and Joe and Ray because
I hang out with them a lot. Uh, and and just the friendship
and family of FD and why I mean you can knock us from being the
biggest. Oh wow, you're full of ship. But I'll tell you one
thing. When guys need help on f D N Y, we're there to
support him and ain't fucking other department in my opinion, that could stand up
to our reputation of lifting us up out of the dock to bring us to
light. Enough said, not only is the biggest of the woman, we
have a heart of gold. Mm hmmm. No, I just on the
same subject my saying. And I tell this the people you know, we
talk about God. Now, I'm a somewhat religious guy, and I got
maybe because I'm getting older and looking for a pass through the gate, you
know, I I hope. But you'll tell people don't believe in they say
I don't believe to stop you listen. I'll take it anyway I can get
it, Eddie. When I become a priest, come and talk to Okay,
you know what, you become a brother. Back to what I was
saying, people that say they don't believe in God, I'm like, all
right, let me explain something to you. If you don't believe in God,
and shit goes wrong in your life. Who do you get angry at
the tree in the front of your house, your car? You know,
your neighbors. I said, you know, I've had a lot of tragedy
and and all of us have had tragedy in our lives. And like Coops,
you used to say why God? Why God? Right? But he
understands that He expects you to do that. But you have somebody to go
to. You you want to go into the church, you want to yell
and scream at the crucifix. You can do that. You can do that.
Maybe that'll help relieve things. But that's why you have to have some
kind of belief in whatever God you believe in. But if you say I
don't believe in God, well, when tragedy hits pal, no lost,
you got no place to go. Yeah, but who's the first guy?
Because here's the thing. I got jammed up while I was on the job,
right, I got arrested for a pretty serious thing. Who's the first
person that you're making deals with? Bro? Like every time every time I
the other I used to say that, please let me get out of here,
Please gotta let me. God never gave us anything that we couldn't handle.
That's why we're all here because we were meant Yeah, we were meant
to do the job right. We have a job to do, you know,
and Michael's right, we got to do that job. Well. I'm
would say somebody edin Ray just said, we do have a burden that city
finding. Okay. Uh. We have a history that's long, tough,
worthy heroic guys, and believe me, guys that I couldn't even kiss their
ass as far as they're heroics and their ability to do both the unthink and
undoable. But at the end of the day, once again, the eyes
on this screen go out of their way, and I want to I want
to just say this, Ray does it in his own way. Cheese Man,
Eddie, Joe, Jimmy with the fire Riders, me talking about mental
health here and there. We all give back in our own way because if
we don't play it forward, guess what, it doesn't go anywhere. It
doesn't go nowhere. So getting Salty Podcast allows us to vent laugh, laugh
at ourselves, which I'll tell you, if you can't laugh at yourself,
you're doomed. Do it every day. Bro kill me but me talking,
help me, help you for watching us because again, we lead by humility,
and that's the key word about fd M Y. We are very passionate
with our job, but we have humility that goes beyond the pale. There
is that a bragging among us. Okay, we go out the way,
Ray, come on, you know better than that. We will do right,
okay, And that's what makes different from every other shop in the world.
We go out of our way to get that hand out there to help
the brother and sister make it through the day. Well, you know what,
you know what FDMY stands for Forever dedicated, never yielding. That's a
good one that's coming up with these days. I'm gonna steal a thing you
started beginning of the show. Put it on a T shirt, bro,
that's what you can put down. I can't use f d n Y on
a T shirt. I'll get sued. Well, so watched, so watched.
How much could they get before ed Oa? Oh god, yeah we
did that one. Yeah, we did that one rescue for. But if
I got, if I got the time, I got to tell the story,
I do it. It was my first job in rescue for I show
up a rescue for twenty after eight Eddy Sirie is covering the Duke's vacation.
What do you walk away? What after walks away? Many kidding me?
I'm so anyway, at twenty minutes to nine, it's ten seventy five rescue
get out. So we're getting on the rig and any Serie hands me the
rubber band with the floor on it. He goes, put this on your
helmet, and we're going out to Jamaica Avenue to a job in a multiple
dwelling. Halfway there it goes to a second alarm. We get there and
Siri tells me and Charlie Pavoni get to the top four, let me know
what's going on, and so we do. And I have no idea what
I'm doing. I'm an engine man. So we get to the top four
and we find fire was in the shaft and it broke out into every apartment.
So with that now we call for a line. So the stairways getting
clogged with guys try to get up the stairs, and here comes to seventy
before they were a squad up the stairs and they can't. They're like halfway
up the stairs and the stairs of jam, the hallways jam. So I
over the railing, I said to the kid on a nozzle the prov and
Jimmy, now you know what I'm talking about. I said, give me
the nozzle, climb over the rail and I'll give it back to you.
He goes, I'm not giving you a nozzle, all right, I get
it. I go, look, kid, if you don't give me the
nozzle and climb over the rail and you ain't gonna get the water on fire.
He goes, I'm not giving you the nozzle, you know. So
I a few other words. So I take the four off and I go,
you see that tek two days ago I was in the engine. I'm
not going to steal your fucking nozzle. Get up here, give me the
nozzle. And so the officer finally says to him, give him the nozzle.
So the kid climbs over and I hand him the nozzle back, and
I said, listen, we're gonna open the door. You're gonna go down
the hallway. We got fire in the bedrooms in the back, okay.
So I don't look over my shoulder. I just asked him, as I'm
opening the door, are you ready? And he goes, yeah, I
opened the door and all the shit comes out. The nozzle falls on the
floor, I'm looking at the kid. He won't have his mask on,
like, all right, get your mask on, let's go. And he
did a great job. So at the end of the job, when the
job was all over, I searched him out in the street and I said,
you know how you doing. You're doing all right? And he goes,
yeah, go ah, you did a really good job there. And
I said, look, you know, we don't steal nozzles here, you
know. And I said, but what you learn? He goes, well,
have my mask on and don't stand up when you open the door.
I said yeah, I said, you got to be down on your knees
all the time because people waiting to get rescued aren't leaning against the wall.
They're on the floor, you know. So he goes, thanks a lot,
and I leave now with that. In the middle of the story,
Milder was on the first floor apartment and the deputy came in and the deputy
is kind of chewing out the truck for missing the body, missing the victim,
and Mike says to the deputy chief, you want to calm down a
minute, and he goes, yo, why what? He goes, well,
just calm down and take two steps back, and he goes, why
should I take two steps back? He goes, you're standing on the body.
The chief did the door. Now let's fast forward some thirty five years.
Jenny Fanil, Greg Fagan from Squad Won and myself. We're going out
to California to the Grand National Rose To Show. And here's a fourth guy
in the car on the way to the airport. He's retired from the job.
His name is Frank and I think it's Frankie's last name, but Jimmy
knows him. He's good friends with him. Yeah, Aliata, Yeah,
there you go. We're telling stories, fire story, so I tell about
my first fire and rescue four. Frank turns around me, he goes,
you want to know something. I go what He goes, I was the
proby. Wow, Wow, thirty plus years went by. I never saw
the guy on the job ever. Again. We're going on vacation together.
He was that proby and he said, you know what I always remembered about
that job. I go what. He goes that you searched me out and
asked me if I was okay, he said, And I always did that
after a job. I searched the probs out to see if they were okay,
and asked them if they learned anything. Yeah, so about passing it
forward? Yeah, you paid it forward. Bro. It's like Mike Miller
saying hello to me when Rescue four and one sixteen a fight. Mike Milder,
Nice to meet you. Like, wow, look at this guy.
His grandfather was Captain Kennedy of Rescue four. He got the Bennett Medal and
the Archer Medal. That's a Victoria Victoria Kennedy remember, yes, yes,
yeah, yeah, that was outside Victoria Joe. Wasn't that the call him.
We call him an outside of something. Guys were taken down that that
was Kennedy. He uh, I think he was. He was a captain
of uh tru uh what you know, the guys on eighty second Street.
Yeah, Kennedy's remember Howie Kennedy. Yes, And the firemen were trapped in
the cellar in uh in the Storia and they put the portable ladder and he
climbed down and he stayed down there with him, and he took the hose
line with him and he got him out. I don't you don't remember that?
Huh? No? That was eighty six, eighty five, eighty six,
eighty seven. I don't know, but I know how he very well.
Oh Victoria, is he still around and get him on the show.
I don't know, I know, I know, I know him, Kennedy,
I know how he very well. He lived in Levittown, I remember,
I don't know. We passed away and I'm asking. See what she
says, Mmm, Gordon Bennetty. He did a great job. Excellent old
school tip of the down to ask Jimmy a little bit about the fire Riders.
How you got involved with that, bro? Yes, you know,
I always wrote, you know, Michael, I rode my motorcycles at a
firehouse all the time, and uh, you know, after I retired,
I was kind of like looking for some way to be involved, you know,
and I just hooked up with a couple of guys and I said,
you know, come riding with us, join with us, and uh,
it wound up being a good thing. We have like two hundred members and
we meet for lunch, like every Wednesday, we'll meet up state for lunch
and ride guys get together, or we'll do like a funeralized school or some
kind of fundraiser. Still really involved it, like downtown things like that,
and uh, it's like the kitchen ta table all over again. When you
meet with the guys all over the country. We go everywhere. You guys
take donations, good connection, you know, you guys take donations great,
Michael tell you you know, like rescue for I always had a tag time
going back there, especially when the widows were there and stuff like that.
I didn't know what to say to any of them. You know this here
it's like more my speed, you know, and it just worked out for
me. Cool. Do you guys take donations, Jimmy, We do a
raffle every year and most of that money we give away. We get the
family transport things like that. You know. How do guys donate or help
out the fire Riders. They can pick a raffle. They go to website.
You want to buy a raffle. Buy a raffle? What's the website?
Just win you could win a twenty twenty four motorcycle or you can take
two thousand dollars. What's the raffle? What website? Where is it?
It's uh, you know in New York cityfire riders dot com. It's one
hundred dollars a raffle. We sell five hundred raffle. But Uh. You
know, guys, at every meeting we have we meet once a month for
a regular meeting, guys raise their hand, you know, we want to
donate to the turkey trot that's coming up. So we get too fifty to
turkey trot, you know, whatever it is. Somebody raised their hand,
we give them the money. Can a good group, are you guys like
at ten ninety nine we take donations, Like five organizations don't really take donations.
We just do the raffle. That's it, you know, to give
money away. Fire riders what is it? Fire Riders New York City,
n y C. Fire Rights. I haven't here, Yeah, i'd like
to were probably people were watching, uh talking about Howie Kennedy. I just
want to tell them my like we're with his wife, Janet Ferryman. I
don't in case they will be interested in that, but I know, well
his daughter is actually in the chat cap. So yeah, certainly that he
passed away in twenty fifteen. Yep, yeah, well I know his wife
when we were teenagers whoa had a quick little story to how things happen.
You know, everybody always sees that three forty three on the clock or at
nine to eleven. Right, so we just had Uh, we're big supporters
of tunnel to towers in the city, so we get rained out this year.
So a lot of us are older. Now we're not gonna ride motorcycles
in the rain five o'clock in the morning to get into Manhattan. So one
of the guys is tight with the Family Transport. It says, all right,
I'll get a van. So Family Transport drops off a van and we're
all getting in the van and we don't even realize it's one of the guys
that were on on the fire ride is from Staten Island that passed away.
It's his van with our sticker on the side. I don't like we wind
up with this van that day to take us towers. Yeah, it was
like, you know, you know, you know Frank Scilla, Do you
talk to Frank Scilla? If Frank you know, he's so big now you
don't really get to see him all that show organization kind of thing. I'd
love to get him on the show if you can get him, because I
went to Proby School with his brother, so I would love to get him
on the show. If anybody knows him, Yeah, go ahead, I
get involved for one second. First of all, I want to tell you
Jimmy Fanell. I admya Jimmy. He does a lot of ship. He's
a great right just great great work. You know, he's you know,
he's a he's a humble guy like all of us on the screen. But
I got to tell you something. I admya Jimmy and the rest of the
guys because they they bust their balls. I see him out in the cold
weather. You know, they go to places and funerals. I'm not going
to show up today. And we all fall into that category occasionally where we
don't go. They're there. Number two, I just want to say one
thing. I want to just give a shout out to Mary Fayhee, Denise
Ford and Roselle and Daldell. These are three widows I only can speak for
a rescue for that have always gone out of their way, show up,
do the right thing. And that's the other issue with FD and Y and
all the fight departments in the nation. When you have widows like the three
I mentioned, Denise, Roselle and Mary who have lost their husbands, whether
it's nine eleven or Father's Day, they are exemplary. If I can use
that word of what you do. Absolutely, thank you Ray. These women
they are more of a man than I am. Okay, because they go
out of their way. Thank you great. I always like the comment they
go out of their way to do the right thing, and they don't have
to. They can just disappear, and many widows do. But three I
just brought up, Denise, Mary and Lose Ellen. They go out of
their way to make sure me not only speaking for me right now, I
feel comfortable, I'm still Mike. Can I say something, yes, sir,
go right. I think that those three guys found great wives and we're
blessed as we are to happen. Yeah. I seen these foot all the
time. She lives in Long Beach. I love home. She's so great,
comfortable. Kevin Ray and the rest of you guys, you know,
and that's not that's a luxury when you're the survivor, and then in that
their husbands are dead. So hey, Mike, you're still there's yeah,
yeah, I got it's got a question for you on that are any of
those Do you know of any of the widows involved in counseling and being counselor
you know, because I'm just saying we're talking about counseling, and I'm thinking,
jeez, I wonder, you know, if there's a place for them,
if they wanted to be to talk to maybe guys on the job that
have survivors guilded and now you're talking to the widow of a guy who gave
his life on the job. Maybe you know, they could have some some
other way of looking at it different than we look at Hey, listen,
Eddie, absolutely, I mean if it wasn't for my ex wife, and
I'm not going to go into details because Kevin's gonna bust my balls about Jews,
but at the end of the day, you know, well, everybody,
if you don't have that sufficient that help you to get you through the
grind. And you know what, I think Ed made a good point where,
uh, that's another thing maybe FD and Y and other departments can do.
Get the widows involved, okay, because they're gonna have to talk to
the next set of widows that diet line of duty with their husbands or their
wives or their significant others. So I think it's it's important that we include
everybody playing it forward, whether it's the kids, you know, lives you
know, not just talking to the other widows. But widows talking to firefighters,
they're having a tough time. Yes, you know, because you get
a different view, you get a different view. I think in a perfect
world that would be great, but so many women are so devastated by their
loss that they can't and they help them. It might help them too,
are you're right? Well? Right, you know, I think that I
think that we we we shouldn't accept any help that they give us a ray,
find it a way forward, because it's so devastating to so many of
them. Yeah, well, we should let them know that they're invited two
take part in the counseling of firefighters or or other widows and stuff. We
should at least reach out and let them know that that we you know,
we want them, we want them, we want them working along with us.
You know. No, let me let me just say, you know,
uh, these the guys that we talked to, you know, after
eleven they were all uh certified counselors. If that's such a thing, that
would probably work in a group setting. But you know they can they could
offer any counseling advice, per se, they would have to go into like
a group setting, you know, where there was a you know, a
regular psychologist or acts involved. I would imagine, yeah, yeah, maybe,
yeah, just just sharing their perspective could help a lot of people too,
you know, just yeah, I'm talking if I'm talking to you,
or i'm talking to you that well, that's one thing, you know,
but you know, to be into if it's I got the counsel you that
they had, you know, a whole different situation. You know. You
remember, we blessed because we have the climate to help us, and the
widows don't have anybody the widows. The widows have a police fire Widows organization
that's very strong and very charitable. I haven't heard much from I used to
deal with them years ago, but I since i've uh you know, taken
up a lot on my career and all that stuff, I haven't been involved
with them. But they were very very strong, Uh, and they were
a great organization. I assume they still exist, but I'm not sure there
wasn't Wasn't that mainly for for widows of firemen who died now the duty?
Uh? That organization, I'm I'm sorry, I'm not sure. I'm yeah,
yeah, weren't they you know, for like non mine of duty?
Yeah, I think you're right. I think it was. I'm not sure.
I don't remember, but I did a lot of party travel the work,
and they were very good. When I ran a scholarship fund and all
that stuff. I don't know, but it been. It's been a long
time, so I'm not I can't really speak to it, you know,
I'm not sure. It's me a long time. You're only like forty one
years old or forty two or something. Well, yeah, would I've been
around a while, you know, you know on those things like lyne of
duty. I'll tell you something that haunted my first wife rest of her soul.
Joe, you were in my house the night Tommy got killed. You
and and Jesse came to my house. Yeah, and we were waiting to
go over the King's Park and the helicopter came across. And it was maybe
twelve thirty or so at night. No, yeah, and well, anyway,
I remember Joe said, all right, it's time to go, and
Marie said, how do you know? And he said, that's the helicopter.
Bring in the chaplain to tell Tommy's wife. Well, Evan, when
that happened, my wife used to say to me, when you're at work
and I hear a helicopter, I get terrified. Oh my god. You
know every time she heard a helicopter at night and I was at work,
she was terrified. Yeah, you know because of that night, because of
that night. Yeah, that was a bad night. Yeah, I remember
that. You know. It's just you know, something that I would never
think of, you know, you know that's what we do. But you
know that was her as a civilian here in a helicopter at night, terrified.
Yeah, you know, kind of on like a lighter note, like
how many guys kids are in four now right? Yeah? Yeah, we
got kids all over the job working with it. Yeah. Yeah, that's
a great thing, the legacy fireman. I I you know what good came,
you know, some good comes out of it. Yeah. New worked
there about six months ago. We got Garrett did have Hickey, tons of
guys with the rest of Citizen two, right, Harry for eight. Yeah,
he's a big kid, man. I see him in the gym,
Harry Ford, the big dude, toughestiman I have man I ever met,
Harry Ford. H Yeah, and some of the best one mins I ever
heard too. Give the toughest, the easiest way to do it. You
know what, Harry Ford stories could go on all night. I think Harry
harr used to call these two boys and jacko yes, and so him and
Denise they go when they pick up a brand new Mercury Voyager van and they
put the kids in the back in the car seats and they drive down the
block and Harry pulls over to a bakery and he goes in and he gets
two chocolate chip cookies and he comes out and he gives them to the two
kids, and Denise says to him, what are you doing? This is
a brand new car. He goes, we might as well get it over
quickly. I ahead, Mike, say you how he falls to get late?
We got well. I probably said this already on the show. But
in the I guess the mid to late eighties and early nineties on fourth Rescues
would get a suburban rusted out and we will transfer stuff over there into the
suburban. So you had to throw in six guys and then the tools,
so it wasn't much room. So Harry, who's a big union guy,
wasn't too thrilled about that. So John Weishet was the lieutenant at the time,
so he was all, hey, we took care of it. Rescue.
We're gonna give you a regular rescue back up instead of a suburban.
So why he sent me and Harry, I to this day, I don't
know. So Harry and I took the rig after we stripped it to the
shops. Get the shops, and the guy pulls out a rusted out old
suburban. Okay, so what do we do? Well, Harry had the
answer, Mike follow me. Now, Harry had caves the size of Clydesdale's.
I mean, he was as strong as an ox. That's why you
call him Harry the Horse. So we walked back from the shops in Lowland
City to rescue for the Woodside. Now that's a fucking hall okay. And
I had a hard time, and I worked out all the time to keep
up with Harry. But we got back. The door were open stairs,
Lieutenant White Shike thinking everything is cool. Harry and I walk in. Harry,
where's the rake? John? You're lucky I didn't have my wallet because
if I did, Mike and I would be at a bar. So that's
another Harry story. I work with Harry hand full times. He used to
tell me all the time like he'd be sitting there eating ice creamy stuff at
the table. You want some. I'm like that. He was cool,
what you want and die when you're supposed to, all right, Harry quote?
Yes, yeah, I think I said you a good picture Harry and
a tire shot fire in Jamaica. Okay that one way? No, you
just said any I don't know what you're talking about. It this is what
I have. Yeah, there was. There's another one there. There's a
tire shop fire and Harry is in there. The toughest fireman I've ever met
my life, the toughest man I've met my life. Yeah, you have
another one. Guns you can't. I'm telling you. If they didn't get
downloaded, maybe that's what happened because I downloaded everything. It's a strong possibility
we got to go to the old school tip of the day. I think
I sent all my pictures to your email me. Yeah, I think they
sent them to the get in Salt the experience. So that's maybe we're gonna
do another show. So without a doubt, this is like a part do
another show with these guys. Everybody except geez, you gotta with a photograph.
You can't. I don't have them. No, nope, nope,
all right, the old school. Who's got an old school tip of the
day? Does anybody have an old school tip of the day? You know,
I told you to get these guys asked you if they had an old
school tip of the day? I did you got. Who's got one?
First check the gostick ladder before you climb over the top, and you're gonna
end up in the backyard. They got one? Yeah, let me hear
this. Hold on a minute, Hold on a minute. Go it's time
for the rules tips of the day, go ahead. I think an important
thing, especially now because fire duty is down, is training. Learn your
tools. Drill. Uh. If guys don't want to drill, get out
there and pull a tool off. I said, you know, you take
a Halligan tool. Halligan tool is not only just for forcing the door.
Think about how many other things you can do with that tool, and especially
the guys in the trucks because that's where the tools are, you know.
But I think I think drilling is very, very important because we don't have
the fire duty that we used to have. And uh, and and always
ask the senior man, excellent, let's go to Jim. Jim, you
haven't jumbo slice. Let's every dollar old school tip of the day, day
day, take it away. I just say, listen to senior man,
listen to what gets told. You know, shut the fuck up and listen.
Yeah, you got two hours and two ears and one mouth for a
reason. That's right, all right, solid advice. Mike wagging his tongue.
I'm gonna give it a lot, a little, a little tripod Mike
was the first old school tip of the day on this show. Yes,
wow, thank you. The first couple of episodes we didn't have the old
school tip of the day sound. But don't get up the rig without the
camp. I'll leave it at that, all right, Yeah, I got
We're gonna even even it blows up, you know, in your face,
take it out of the fire. Howay, jeez, it's time of the
day and here cheez, can you just get over your echo Chambers' school tip
of the day. Okay, let it go, all right. When I
was young, young sir guy showed me how to how to do some work
on the electrical motor when I was in the Navy, And afterwards he said,
what I just showed you today you should pass on somebody else. Whether
you work with him for a day, you know, a week or a
month. I said, that's how this tradition continued. And that's the same
way it is in them. Yeah, you get a djil coming in and
you're doing a drull, include them in the drum. Make sure they know
it. You know, it just keeps on going. That's it. That's
what he's saying. We have sponsor tonight who is actually sponsoring the old school
tip of the day guns sir, And you don't have the text do you
have for that? Because I don't have it, the text or the whole
infandel. Actually I can pull it up after we try to play this why
and then read it for me in your best producer's voice. Let me see
what it's actually here. It's going to be. I'm trying to pull it
up. That thing ended quick. Yes. So this is a club started
by a guy named who's in Squad one the collective the Ft Collectors Club at
the Ft Collectors Club, and it's all about collecting the what do you call
it? Coins? It's called the fire Department patches and challenge coins. The
Collectors Club works directly with local firehouses to get unique and exclusive patches and challenge
coins from how firehouses across the US. No need to risk buying counterfeits coins
and patches online, and no more stopping by the firehouses just to find it.
What they sorry, what they are out on a call. That's a
little bit word of that, and start to grow your collection today. And
how do you do that? What's the email? You know what? They
did not include an email here everyone, I tell you what, there's no
email here. I mean you can hit up, you can hit all right,
here we go. I'm gonna do this guy right here, I'm gonna
put this email mister Thomas, who's guys is a chief? Gonzo is a
chief? Well it shows yeah, Well you're as good as your your troops.
If they don't, you can't go anywhere. Well I got It's like
that old black lady said in the hallway one time, everything was okay to
the motherfucker in the white helmet showed up. Somebody turned around and said,
chief, that would be you. This is what gods. Go home and
get your fucking shinebox. Wait, you dick, both of you. We
don't have any Yes, that's it. I just put it in the check.
Yeah, and we got one more. Let's do the old old school
health and safety tips stand by, here we go, I have one of
my own. The First Responders Center for Excellence is a not for profit organization
dedicated to protecting their lives and livelihoods of first responders. Their education and research
initiatives aim to bring greater awareness and understanding the challeng just the health, safety
and well being of firefighters, EMS personnel, and other first responders too.
They are an affiliate of the National Fallen Firefighter Foundations. I'm not going to
read off the old school health safety tip. I'm just gonna say one because
we talked a lot about mental health tonight, and I'm going to bring up
a story that I tell back has to be ninety thirty years ago, maybe
longer longer than that. Thirty forty years ago. My father was a retired
fine and was going in for a quadruple bypass. And I had never in
my life heard my father tell me he loved me. He just wasn't.
He was old school, like the old school firehouse mentality. So he's sitting
there waiting to go in and my mother's dad and I turned to him,
I said, hey, dad, I love you. So what he what
he does is he looks at my mother goes, what's the matter with this
kid? Is he a fag or something? What's his problem? So that
old school mentality is just that old school mentality. They didn't believe in talking
to somebody. They didn't believe in anything like that. As far as mental
health, that's bullshit. That's old school. That's out the fucking window.
You need to talk to people, just for all the ship that we talked
about tonight, bro little things that who is that right there there? He
is? Yeah, little things that you need to put in a place somewhere
or file somewhere, like the like the captain was talking about. You know,
he remembered those those couple of kids sitting in the backseat. You gotta
be able to put those someplace and be okay with yourself. So I don't
want to hear that old school that you're too cool, you're too tough for
your whatever. It's to seek out uh any kind of mental health. So
get out there and talk to somebody. And that's my old school health and
safety tip. True story. All right, guys, thanks for coming on.
Great show. Got Bob cheez Man being the surprise guy, Jimmy anytime
so you guys, are you working on? John game He's you know,
get John g get Richie. We need we need those too, John Gee,
there he is, Richie. Smid's still working. Thanks inviting me back.
Look, Johnny Gamee just just texted me great tip. I got another
great tip, John Gay, I love you. Get your ass on the
show. Come on alright, So I'm gonna work on. Uh, we
don't have a guest for Monday. I'm gonna fill in the blanks. Louis
away hunting. I don't know if he's gonna get on. I doubt it.
So we'll probably have my man Fat Daddy racing and we make a suggestion
you can yeah, not Milman. I thought he was gonna take a shot
at me. You know you said that, and he wasn't funny funny as
Bro, I don't know what you're talking about. Mila kills me, you
know what, John, that's why you don't watch them ahead, Jeez,
what you're gonna say? You know what John Gain used to call driving me,
but driving miss Daisy. You can tell all those stories if he comes
on the show. Bro, you want to find the level. That's a
good one. More thing, guys, if you're gonna order on the website.
You want things personalized for Christmas, get out there early and do it
because I'm not changing myself to the gravy table for like eight hours a day
and I'm not gonna get you call me the week before Christmas and you think
I can get that before Christmas. Fuck? You know you're not getting before
Christmas. So order early that or they Saved New York will also uh yes,
but before that. It will also be available on the Getting Salty Apparel
website. If you want to buy that book on the website, we will
be carrying it. And if you want to come out and see us,
we will be out there. And where is it Saturday? Me and Mike
Milder will be hanging out there chilling, and a whole bunch of other guys
will come out and see us. Yep, excellent, just one question.
Yeah, give me change. I'm mister T bro Halloween costume. Mister mister
T. Come on, I'm gonna beat up the food. You know,
my kids didn't even know what hey boys hold on like mister T. Like
who's mister T? Like what you know? Mister T is? What cools?
You know? That T shirt we talked about there forever dedicated, never
yielding. Yeah, the job can't sue you because it doesn't say f D
M Y. It says forever dedicated, never yielding. I might use that.
What do I gotta give you? Don't give me? Not come on,
give you something, Get out of here, send it to the towers.
The other I want to get him on. Anybody who knows Frank trying
to get I want to get him on the show so we get the Oh.
Also, one last thing. I am real close to getting Greg,
the guy who wrote back Draft on the show. Oh, really close.
We could talk to him about what the experience was like right now and all
the other ship. Yeah, yeah, I can tell you one thing.
It's gonna have an announcement probably within a month. Ed. I'm having a
baby. He's coming out of the closet, all right, all right,
okay, America, Yeah, we're I'm working on I'm working on a project
for Chief. Now you maybe forget his name. Chief. He's working on
the project for It was Michael's. You really couldn't put it together, Bill,
thank you? Okay. Bill. Now working on a project with the
Fihan family to make a life size bronze statue of Chief Bill Fihan, and
we're hoping to get that done within the next year and that it'll be out
with the jobs permission, out of the Fire Academy, because I always thought
everybody knew him. He was like the godfather of the fire department and a
total gentleman all the time, and I just thought it was an honor that
that should have been bestowed on him, since he was also the oldest member
of the fire department who was killed on nine to eleven. Statue definitely a
great man. So we'll get that done. We were having our first meeting,
I think in a couple of weeks and uh, you know, so
there'll be more to come, you know. I'll let you know, Koobs,
you can bring it up here. But I think it's a great honor
to do to to Bill fee Hen, you know, because he just he
meant so much to this job, you know, and he came on a
job as a prob and went on to be the fire commissioner, you know,
and and uh, but he always wanted to be called chief. He
always liked being called chief. And the reason why he liked to be cold
chief because he because he earned those titles. He said, you know,
I was appointed commissioner, but I earned the that's cool. I went to
school with Johnny fee Hint to Provy school, so that's cool. Yeah,
he's a chief on a job. I know we'll get him when he's retireed.
Also, a captain said Zone. So so the girl in the chat
said that Janet is still alive. She lives in Where does she live?
Oh, I just said I put up there the hello for him, but
let me go back to it. And she also says, so, well,
that's Kennedy. That's pretty good. That's nice. I want to let
you know that's really nice. Ain't doing it knowing Joe sing Johnet single,
Oh you never know what's going on? For help? Thank you, guys,
enjoyed this thoroughly great guys, Thank you guys. Don't don't you guys
hang up? Don't hang everybody, Yes, don't I hang up, guys
healthy, I'm gonna do the post show again, so don't don't go anyway.
Guys, will see you on Monday until the stay low and go alrightyone
to have a good night and