You're listening to the Getting Salty Experience podcast. Hello, Hello Sammy Peters over
chat, Captain Chaos and all you crazy guys and gals in the chat,
and welcome back to be Getting Salty EXPERI it's rough. There's gonna be a
good one. You know what I'm saying. I'm already pumped up. You
pumped up guns got me pumped up already. Oh you want to you want
to go with more time again? All right, here we go. Let
me go back to it because you caught me off. God, I think
you want to play him? Go cheap girls, get out cheating frocking?
What engine goes? Now? Second? Sort? Second? Sort? I
got to take it second and I let it go a little bit more.
That's gone much. That's one of the brothers, and I don't what's want
with that? Wait for the game. Come on Goosebumps station. Yeah,
that was the the nineteen ninety one fourth of July special that they got Goosebumps.
Yeah, I mean excuse me, going oksei'd still what do we say
about this show? Ruff? Guys gotta come on? Want to tell their
stories right because once they're gone. Fortunately, we have a family member and
we have chief Jay Jonas, who is a maniac when it comes to do
in this research. Bro, I'm probably one of the greatest fire fighters in
the history of the job. Unfortunately he's gone, but we're gonna have people
on to tell his story. And this guy got stories, man. I
tell you right now that that post that I put on, uh the social
media, it like blew up, Like I kind of know. I mean,
obviously everybody knows about him, right uh Cam Brown, But I don't
know that much about him, you know what I mean, just even in
the pre show talking to to uh Carolyn, you know, like already you
get an idea just like in the early life of you know, how he
was and you know all that stuff is like that's the stuff I like.
You know, my phone was blowing up today. You got to ask you
if this story was true. You gotta answer that story is true. This
story is true. So what did you what did you ask? You know
a lot we want to just know, you know, if he got beat
up when he was at school or whatever what you say. You know he
did get beat up. He never got beat up. Let's talk about the
guys that he beat up then, all right, plenty of them stay away
from my sisters. See here. Uh right, we got to pay the
bills. So let's play a couple of commercials. Then, oh all right,
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eight nine one seven seven six nine seven. Won the ball? Did you
get that thing? I say you, it's no, it's your I's gonna
give you a couple minutes to upload it, minutes two seconds. We don't.
It's gonna take a couple of seconds. Gonna take a minute, give
me a minute, we'll talk about it. Give me a second second to
us second. So I'm getting phone calls. Let's go come out and see
me and ROOFIEH. February second to fourth, twenty twenty fourth. The Nashville
Coliseum in Uniondale for the Long Island Metro Fire ems X Bowl. A lot
of guys from the show will be there. Milner always comes, Fat Daddy,
Frankie comes up. We got a lot of guys. Why ray,
maybe Johnny'll come. A lot of guys from the show turn out come on
maybe maybe maybe or not. I don't know. There might be some drinking
in the booth. Possibly could be. I don't know. We have a
good time, so come up and see it. It's not a far drive
on the second to the fourth, twenty twenty four Nasau Coliseum. All right,
you don't have to put it up down, so we'll make it it
was. We're we're loaded with pictures, so I would have to delete one.
No, no good, All right, ruff, Let's bring our guests
in. So, not only do we have a man who did some investigtion,
we have a person who lived in the same house as a kid with
him. You know, he was probably stealing food off a plate. Who
knows what was going on in that household? Right, So let's breame in.
Rough. All right, coming to the stage, we have Carolyn Brown
and Chief j Jonas. I called you the wrong last name man, that's
okay. Shorthouse, Yeah, well shorthouse, I'm a brown god dammit.
Stop. All right, let's get to the patriotic before we get lost in
the sauce over here, because we got lots to go through and the chiefs
got to get dinner on the tables having shrimp pomp to night. Oh here
we go, Oh see can see by the Jones? Lie? What's u?
Prole? We had had the Twilight's Last leave me whose broad stripes and
bride stars through the pass five or the red but we watch we're so gaan
Lee streaming had the rockcket raglive the bobs bursting hate gay fruit through the night
that our flag was ste there. Oh say does that stops? Spell gold?
God for the all they and of the bread m j Alton Baldwin.
All right, guys, so Chief, is it fair to say there are
legends and then there are legends on the job, right, and this guy
would probably be in the upper tiers of legends from this job we were an
honor to walk amongst him. Well, yeah, just chea like Chief Norman's
write his book what was it working with giants or something like that? Just
like this guy, right, amazing end. He was a legend when we
were working with Yeah, it's crazy. He was pretty special guy. Well
how special was he? Carolyn? At home? Where'd you guys grow up?
Where did you guys grow up? What was life like? We talked
a little bit about the pre show, right, was he giving you what
Willie's what was? No? No, No, I was a baby.
I don't know. Maybe he did. I don't know. Where did you
guys grow up? We are Queens Village. But when I was five we
moved out here to Westbury and he never and then he you know, he's
crazy and he enlisted in the Marines at sixteen, and yeah he did.
He could. He had to go, you know, he just he needed
it. Anyway he was. I heard that he was, you know,
not doing well and being a high school kid kind of guy. Right,
He never went to school out here, and my dad signed the papers to
let him go and so he went. So that's what kind of So my
childhood I never saw him. Oh wow, how many did a few years?
Yeah? So he was over there? Sorry the national anthem? Yeah,
so he was in Vietnam when I was younger. So what year did
he go in? At sixty and help sixty sixty something. He came out
like, I guess seventy four. So just sixty nine, seventy four something
like that. I'm not even sure those numbers. The Chief will have those
numbers. Yeah, you probably do, everyone asked me. I said,
I don't know, but Chief probably knows. He joined the Marine Corps nineteen
sixty nine, okay, yeah, sixty nine, right, okay, he
went right over to Vietnam from the Chief. No, he did not.
He got an assignment that he hated. They want him, he was smart.
They wanted him to work on computers or something. Those of the papers
my father signed that he wanted to be a grunt. And my father signed
the papers. He was seventeen, Is that right? Yeah? You probably
yeah, yeah, and uh, people to send him to Vietnam, and
yeah, he wanted to be there. He didn't want to sit in a
room. So you had guys trying to get out of it, and you
had him writing letters. My father, My father said, I wrote his
death certificate, you know, al he said to get him in and and
then what happens, right, But yeah, what what what? What?
What was your dad doing? What was what kind of work was he doing?
He's a fair FBI agent. Yeah, in New York. Yeah,
yeah, it goes way back, Mike. I'm sorry. Pat was born
in Chicago because my father had a job there, and then then he worked
with Bobby Kennedy and you know how it goes down the line there and then
uh so he's in d C. And then they came to Queens Village and
that's, like I said, I'm way behind. So I was born in
Queensville. And you had another brother though, right, Mike, Yes,
how where was he older or younger? What was he in the He was
ten years older. They were like Irish twins, you know. Oh yeah,
the old Irish twins going on there. Yeah, almost, yeah,
he was. He was in the ft and wife a little bit. But
then he became a doctor. He was a trauma doctor. He was a
trauma doctor in Vegas. But because of nine to eleven. He died in
twenty twenty because of the cancers, right, chief. Did he ever make
it over to Vietnam? He spent two tours of duty in Vietnam. Oh
so he did those letters worked and he wow, oh my god, how
young he looks. I hope you can make it maybe, right. I
love that picture was all right, you know, so he had he got
up to the rank of sergeant and uh yeah he was the man. He
h yeah, he he was the real deal. You know. He only
did one tour, did two tours, you know, so at a time
when it was going crazy, you know, yeah, sixty seventy sixty nine.
See, even if it took him a couple of years, it was
still roaring. Yeah yeah, yeah. So yeah, he uh just talking
to other guys who knew him, and he always embraced his time in the
Marine Corps, you know that. You know, like he had he had
to get dressed up for in his class as for something with three truck to
go to the commissioner's office, and the guys were kind of apologizing to him
that he had to get dressed up. I'm not I'm a marine, yeah,
Carol. Did he talk about the Marines a lot? No, of
course not. Yeah, those guys don't usually talk out of school. Yeah.
So if he was seventeen, I was seven and six. So so
yeah, when he came back, he told me he didn't even never talk
about it. You could see it. He was angry. Yeah, but
he took that out and did the right thing with it right? Yeah,
yeah, yeah, I just found out he was a tunnel rat. Like
last year really so yeah, I don't know people, maybe people didn't want
to tell me. I don't know why, but all of a sudden I
found out he's a tunnel rat. He wasn't a big guy, so it
makes sense. Yeah, tough son would be though. Oh hell yeah,
Well go back to uh how he got interested in the fire service when he
was living in Queens, in the Middle Village, Queens, he would go
to the neighborhood fire as he jump on his bike, go to three or
four and want lat of one sixty two and they would talk to him about
and he had a he had a scanner in his bedroom. Correct. Oh
absolutely, oh oh yeah. Okay, do you want a cute story.
Do you want a little story about that? Okay, okay, So I
heard my dad coached the little league, so he would be in the outfield
and whatever, it's just whatever. And then if the the the Engines went
off and he heard that they had a call, he would jump on his
bike and leave. He just like put down his and just leave the game
and follow the Engines. And then they said so they called him ding.
Donk gonna kill me for that one, but yeah, but that's what they
called him. They he would hear the Simons go off and be gone and
all them all over all, right, Like, what do you do with
these two boys in literally they're yours, you know, yeah, yeah,
wow, Yeah, you guys didn't hear about the rescue they did as explorers,
him and Williams. But Williams I didn't hear when they were in Explorers.
They were an explorers and they got to the fire first and they saved
people in a nursing home. It's in the Daily News. You can look
it up, these pictures of the two of them. Little kid, he's
making grabs, bro, some people they grabbed before the fire department got there.
They got there on their bikes and there's a picture of them from the
Daily News and the firemen put their coats on them. Yeah, it's really
cute. I have it downstairs. But some kids, some people, guys
don't make a grab in a whole career. He's making before yeah, yeah,
exactly, him and Butch Williams. Who Yeah, they have a great
picture. That's like, I'm gonna try to look it up at Daily News.
What year was that. Oh gosh, okay, I was gonna try
to pull up a picture of it. True, I uh, well before
well, no, the kids, it's got to be a sixties, right,
early sixties, mid sixties, late late late Wait, no, that's
Vietnam. R. It's gotta your early sixties, sixty five, sixty three
somewhere on there. No, sixty when you go to Vietnam, Like,
would you say sixty nine? So m hmm, yeah, a few years
before that. I don't see if anything comes up. Can you imagine being
a kid a father'st team. He's n FBI. Listen, kid, you
strike out again. I got pictures of your whole family. You're got to
kill them all. I know where you live. Well, his uh,
his, his dad, Carolyn's dad was a former minor league baseball player,
Yes, for the Yankees. Yeah, when it was farm teams. When
it was a farm team, he was a catcher. And he only got
the out beat out by Yogi Burr. Wow, if you've got to be
beat out exactly. And I just heard that like five years ago. I'm
I got it. And the guys in three truck no before I know that.
That's how he didn't get in your family. It's just a gift that
keeps out your full time. Oh and my my father actually had a scholarship
to Niagara playing the basketball. Look at that. And then he became a
baseball player after the war, and then a fed so great man. Next
week you're going to find out that he was one of the first guys on
the moon. Did you know that? I'm strong? What are you talking
about? You know, my dad's name is John Pershing brownn Pershing because my
grandmother had a crush on John Jay Pershing. We're all family there. My
father is forty six when I was born, so we're older family. Yeah,
gonna find out about John Pershing, John Brown. Everything is JP is
John Patrick. Now it's John Pershing. It's like the best name ever over
there. I don't know remember having any minor league baseball players come to visit
you. Yes, oh my god, No, it's not minor league.
Whitey Ford remembers him, Yeah, no, not minor major. White Ford
he caught from my Whitey Ford when he was in the former league. Yeah
yeah, yeah, yeah, and white he always remembered him. We saw
him a few times after nine eleven. He signed some stuff for me when
I was doing fundraising. Yeah. Yeah. When they joined the explorer post,
they were sponsored by Engine three to Zho two and that's when he met
Butch Williams. Right, Oh is it? Yeah? Yeah, you know,
I don't look at all the history just here with They would go to
drills and everything, and they would compete against other other explorer posts at the
Fire Academy on the weekends. What would they have to do stretch lines and
stuff, Yeah, climb ladders. Who knows what they had him doing,
you know, but uh, you know, I I got to you know,
Maddie Daily was one of the guys in the Bronx. You know,
I was talking to him and uh he said he said that, uh,
that Patty Brown kid was thrown in our side. He kept beating us,
you know. Yeah, right, So they have they have explorers in like
every borrow or something. Is that what it was. I kind of get
that feeling. Yeah, they've definitely had one in Queen's and one in the
Bronx. So he's buffing out on his bike making then he becomes an explorer.
That's two tours, and he goes a couple of doors in the Vietnam
and then he thinks he wants to be a fireman. Doesn't this happen to
everybody? He always wanted to be He always did. He always wanted to
be a fireman. Yeah, always. That's why he went Vietnam. He
was expecting to go right in and it didn't happen. So that's where fiber
troll came in. He always wanted to be a fireman. He was born
one. When when he was in the Explorers, he would he would have
the scanner on in his house and if they would hear a multiple come in
from for Manhattan or the Bronx, him and his buddies would jump on the
bus of the subway and go to the fire in the middle middle of the
night. That's a passion, bro. Yeah, I'm not gonna lie.
I used to chase the sign of my neighborhood when I heard her go off.
I was on my little bike and I wasn't working. No, I
wasn't making grands, but I was chasing fire trucks tore over Vietnam. I
don't little mill a couple of yellow bastards, then I'll come back and join
it. Caroly, did he ever join the volunteers out there or talk about
No, No, my brother, Mike was a volley out here. That's
how I know my husband. He was a volley with him, but only
we're only married ten years. So that's another story. But so you fish
from those waters. I see it, and he doesn't watch the show.
Does your husband watched the show? He doesn't know about the show. He's
a volley. No, I haven't watched it. I follow you guys,
but I haven't watched it. No, you know, but we will now
we both will. Now a short house, short house, trying to peek
in here. I've been you guys, Brown, how many times have been
called missus Brown? Like no, no, no, no, I'm no
talking about your husband missus Brown, all of them all of course. Yeah,
he got my dogs now wondering what's going on? Like, who am
I talking to? Knucklehead to the chief? Yeah, earlier you mentioned go
ahead. Uh, Patty Brown being like this guy who was shot showed up
at every major incident. Well it started even before he got on the job,
when he was in the you know, when he's in the Explorer scouts.
That's when the twenty third Street collapse happened in nineteen sixty six and his
uh, his explorer Scouts were able to be in the funeral formation on Fifth
Avenue for the Saint Patrick's Cathedral. And uh. Interesting, one of the
Bronx Explorer Scouts. Uh, a guy named John Ry Carrey Uh became a
Yonkers police officer, and he became a bagpiper for the Yonkers Police Department.
And he asked for and he received permission to play at Patty Brown's memorial service.
And he played the bagpipes, you know, forty five years ago after
they stood at the nineteen sixty six twenty third three collapse, right at the
same spot. Wow. WOWY never knew that, I know, Rinse he
played on wedding there you go. Yeah, yeah, I've never heard that
that story. That's awesome. Yeah, it's the same spot, exact spot
where they stood he got to play at at the well, he can't.
He wants to go right into the fire department. Right, had he taken
the test or before he left? Or how do you get on the job,
because he went to the fire patrol first, right, So he got
out in seventy seven, so he was he had already taken the test.
Uh huh. With the layoffs and the fiscal crisis state, they just they
just delayed and delayed, and you know, uh, I think the last
class is to be hired off the old listen in nineteen seventy seven. So
and that was probably filled with guys who had military time, right, Uh,
you know, they they jumped in, you know, because you had
you know, we'll get into it. Guys like Jay Fischler and and uh,
you know, guys like that had had time and this they they got
into the fire department after that, you know, assuming they got back.
But then he got into Fire Patrol one on West thirtieth Street. He actually
got to Fire Patrol before he went to Vietnam, so he got interrupted when
he was in the Marines. When he was in the Marines, he went
into the third Engineers Battalion. Once he got to Vietnam, and when he
was in Vietnam here and the Combat Action Ribbon and the Vietnam Service Medal.
But when he got discharged from the Marine Corps, he was reinstated in the
Fire Patrol on July eleventh of seventy three. So that' said pretty much just
the time when he got back back to civilian life, he was reappointed on
the same order. Says a well known name in the fire department, Greg
Bucciera. If you know Greg enough, Yeah, trying to get him on.
Let's go. They were both assigned to Fire Patrol one and they both
had ambitions of being fireman in the FDN WINE. They jumped on the fire
department in the empt program and you know they were allowed to jump get in
on that, and both of them took the tests to become fireman. Both
would eventually be called to the FDN WINE. When Patty returned to civilian life
from the Marine Corps, he decided to take up the sport of boxing.
During his time in the Marines, he practiced boxing and martial arts and now
he's going to start working out the famous Gleasons Boxing gym down the block from
Fire Patrol one. His brother Mike would would work out with him in the
ring. Eventually Patty would become a contender in the Golden Gloves Tournament. While
working out at Gleica's gym, he would spar with professional fighters. One of
the most famous firefighters he sparred with was Roberto durant hear in the respect of
those who saw him fight at the gym, I guess that's why he never
got beat up cool. You know, I had somebody had sent me a
text chief that at one time. It's a llegend anyway, that he hit
Duran with a body shot and put him down to one knee, and Durans
never been down before, so I don't doubt it. Yeah, that's a
rocky moment, right, yeah. Yeah. The I remember reading something that
I didn't put it in newsletter. I don't know why I didn't, but
it's a great story. He was working out in Gleason's gym and he got
pummeled and he got his faces all welted up and everything, and uh he
walked up down the block to fire patrol and h he was as happy as
a clam, you know, because the guy who slugged him had some credentials,
might have been reverd of the by somebody who was really uh good,
good. Yeah. Yeah. The another great story. Again I didn't put
it in there, but it's a great story. It was he he was
in three truck and he got deep into yoga, right right, Carolyn,
Yes, very involved in He's on the cover of Yoga magazine somewhere and uh
he uh, I think he was just leaving the firehouse going to you know,
the yoga studio, and uh, the the guy who relieved him sees
saw him in his yoga garb and everything is his matt and getting ready to
go. And the guy who relieved him says, oh my god, Pat
he used to like go to glease his gym and jump rope in box and
guys, and I think and he said, chicks don't go to Gleason's gym
exactly. That's how he tried to get three chunk guys to go to the
to yoga. It's full of chicks. Come on, he was never married,
right, Carolyn, No know that. I didn't know that. Oh
listen, he's going to yoga for chicks. While would he get married?
Bro? You know what I mean? Yeah? Right, Captain on the
why the handsome guy roller, he's very quiet. He wasn't his you know,
yeah, he didn't. He wasn't a He didn't brag about anything.
He's very humble is the word I'm looking for. Yeah, yeah, like
I said, you know, he uh before he actually got on the fire
department, he's he's making grabs, you know. And this was Joan when
he was in fire patrol. They were assigned to some of the same boxes
in their area. There were times of fire Patrol would operate side by side
with the New York City Fire Department. On May nineteen seventy seven, Fire
Patrol one was called Dever Bathhouse Fire at twenty eight West twenty eighth Street.
I wrote a newsletter about that too. On duty fire patrol was Carlos Rivera,
George Menar, Danny Nastro, Jimmy Coyle, and Patty Brown. Patty
Brown made entry several times into the smoke field building. He found two unconscious
patrons in the swimming pool area. He removed them and performed CPR on the
two persons. Patty Brown had to be removed by ambulance after searching the smoke
charge occupancy and performing CPR. And there's him being loaded into the amble.
Crazy man, that's just crazy. I only heard half of that story.
I didn't know was the he's making twelve year old. I found the video.
It's in the blood, right, it's in his blood. Yeah.
I found the video of this the other day with him actually treating him on
YouTube, so it's on there. You got to be in the right place
at the right time. But we say all the time, you got to
execute man. You still have to be able to do that, you know,
it's got to be in there. Yeah. Yeah, to be doing
that before you even actually on the job is like, it's just silly.
This is what it is. This is what somebody wrote. Somebody wrote me.
The fire gods seemed to know when Patty was working. They throw some
airs kicking job out there and say, let's see how he handles this one
I want to execute. You know, you still got to get it.
You could be in the right place at the right time, but and then
I pull it out. You know, these guys always have a nose for
it though. They're always in the right place. Oh, he always did.
He always did. Seems like those war guys too, Like those those
I remember a couple of guys when I got on, they just had a
different swagger. You know, they just were calm and they just yeah right,
but they do it right and they done. They get it done every
time. And you know, even when it was crappy, he just felt
comfortable around those guys. You know, well, in the commer they are,
the more their their antennas are, you know, they're seeing things that
other people aren't. Well focus, right, Yeah, somebody wanted off that
Collins Vera was the same one that became commissioner. No, it was Hank
was asking. Yeah. Jimmy Coyle, who worked with Patty Brown at at
the fire patrol, what asked Patty Brown to be godfather to his son,
Jimmy Coyle Jr. Jimmy Coyle Jr. Later became an FDNY fireman. Patty
Brown uses influence to get him to sign with him at lat of three.
Jimmy Coyle Jr. Was working a lot of three on nine to eleven.
Yeah. I talked to the parents many times that super chat there. My
cousin Paul the Mardies say that, right, who was a close friend of
pat sends his regards tonight. He was Pat's karate instructor. He says,
he will be tuning in for the show. I don't know if I pronounce
that guy's name, right, Apologize if I don't. If I didn't karate
boxing, he was a yogi. Thank you, Tom. Holy crap,
you guys are talking about he taught self defense for the blind. Yes,
I never knew that, and uh I self defense to blind. Yeah,
And I didn't even know he taught karate and all that stuff. To children,
and I didn't know that till a few months after a month later when
I was invited to the whole the whole ceremony, I know, idea,
and they were giving me this karate. He trophies from around the world that
are sent to me in his crystal from Peru. He was in the Sato
Sato Karate, which is worldwide, and I have stuff downstairs, like from
all countries in his honor. Wow. Yeah, And then he was doing
that. I'm like, and all the kids got up and sang. I
was I didn't know what was happening, and we didn't even find him yet.
I'm like, what the hell is happening here? So I was done,
you know, obviously, like what's going on? Like? Who are
these people kind of teaches karate to the blind roof? Yeah? Yeah?
Self defense. I'm like, he didn't teach me self defense? And at
that time I was legally blind. I'm better now, but at that time
I was not. I couldn't see, And I'm like, he didn't come
teach me. He was your self defense? Uh, make well called Patty
listen, I got a problem with Joey's me. You never see Joey again
or my dad, right, yeah, yeah, yeah, that could make
you guys disappear. You know. This is from Scott. Patty brought me
to suspend his bar in the early eighties. When we walked in, he
was like, no him from cheers. Everyone called out his name, and
he just gave a shy wave and grabbed us a seat in the corner.
Oh yeah, I still go there. I was going to ask if you
went there. Well, he took me there when I was in high school
and he was a doorman, and I heard stories there where he kicked somebody's
ass and all that. Of course, chase somebody down the street, you
know. But I became friends. The waitress is now the owner, and
it's called bravest On thirty eight and it's it's yeah Wanda, and yeah right.
I ran into there. I ran into them. I was doing something
for the memorial petitions or something, you know, and we just walked in
there and I didn't remember it, and Patty's pictures all over the walls,
and I was like, oh, now I remember. Yeah, I was
sixteen, I mean I mean friends now, I mean eighteen, I mean
twenty oh yeah, yeah, well yeah, it would have been eighteen then,
so it was easy to get in, right, So chief, he
gets into Provy School in seventy seven, or where we at? Is it
more before that is? You're making more grabs and five patrol as you do
a root profest? What's he doing? Fun? He got through Provary School
without making a grab. Slacker he was. He would carpool with a really
well known guy in Lower Manhattan in thirty three, entry Carlo Reggio. They
were carpooled back and forth from uh to go to Proby School. He graduated
Proby School and uh he got assigned to a lot of twenty six in Harlem,
and Uh, A guy who was in his class before him was Jay
Fishlook there he is, look at him, Look at the chief, holyrel
baby Fish And a lot of twenty six was well known as the birthplace of
latters three. And yeah, o'reagan is that who wrote it? O'Regan?
John o'reagan? Yeah, and he was senior guys such as Bill Stewart,
Larry Fitzpatrick was in twenty six struck at the time. Lieutenants Joke Curry and
Tom Kennedy would make every day learning experience, you know, and uh,
that's it's quite a list of guys got that pick back up again? How
do you get that? Chief? Did you have a hook? Well,
I'm sure his connections with the fire patrol. I'm sure somebody says this is
a good place for you to go. He looks salty there as a proby.
For God's sake, I think it's the Gary Lake Man. It's white.
I think it's quite white. A great interview I did in preparing this
newsletter was with my good friend Ralph Fagel. We were in the same study
group together for years and uh they were young firemen together, and Patty Brown
would not only absorb the lessons being taught to him, he would teach them
to others as well. The proby that came into the fire factory about a
year after Patty was Ralph Fagel. Ralph was assigned age of fifty eight.
Patty would take the time to teach Ralph what he knew. And keep in
mind, he's got one more year on than Ralph, does you know?
Yeah, but three three more grabs too. Yeah. Yeah, he's got
a long history of he's already got a rack on his promium. Yeah.
One time Ralph had the nozzle and was awaiting the forcible enterteam from night of
twenty six to force to open the fire apartment door. Patty Brown was on
that forcible entry team. As soon as the door was forced, Patty put
his head on the floor. He then told Ralph, hey, Ralph,
put your head on the floor and look. Ralph was able to see deep
into the flight by putting his head on the floor as Patty instructed. Ralph
Hagel made some interesting observations about his time working with him. He noted that
Patty had a unique skill set that he brought to the fire ground. He
was able to evaluate a situation quickly. He never saw a firefighter search and
apartment faster than Patty. He wasn't reckless, He just knew where he was
going through his knowledge of layouts and size up and his instincts. It seemed
as if he always knew where to go. Ralph would go on to say
that because Patty brought so much of a unique skill set to the fire there
were rescues that were made that may not have been made if Patty was not
working. Ralph Fagel would continue in his praise of Patty Brown by saying,
if I were trapped to the fire, I would want Patty Brown coming for
me, me too. That's about Wow. Doesn't get higher praise than that,
right, I was just going to say that chief, I mean fireman,
you know, to pick you know, I always say all the time,
you know, who's the top three guys coming for me? You know,
those guys are the real deal guys. And like we said that,
those guys have an instinct for that. You know, they're just always in
the ripe. Seems like they're in the right place at the right time there.
You know, you think they're lucky, but that's not the case.
You know, No, they're not lucky. Maybe a little bit, but
they're making they're making do with every scenario that's possible. You guys, they
got to be in the right spot at the right time. Well he was
in the right spot. Hey, he's always in the right because he puts
himself of the race spot he was. But uh yeah. He would always
stress positioning of individual firefighters. This is a lesson that Patty would pass along
to firefighters when he became an officer. Position position position. Patty Brown of
the Latter six Latter two to six made his first rescue in March thirty first,
nineteen seventy nine, he received the Class A award. A couple months
later, on March seventh, nineteen eighty, he made another rescue in which
he received the Class three. He made two more rescues, one on April
second of eighty one and one on June twenty fourth of eighty one, which
he received Class A awards. People were starting to notice the young firefighter rescue
one recruited Patty and was assigned thereby of eighty two and back then back then
to get a three or an A. But I'm just saying, oh,
yeah, he had those in a couple of years at the firehouse there.
But but to get a medal, then think about like what, I don't
want to take away from what guys do today, but we're going to a
lot less fires than those guys were going to, you know, and his
chances are greater because he's going to more fires. Well, it was,
but it was kind of like old hat, like, you know, how
extraordinary something would have to be back then to warrant an A or three if
I'm saying that correctly, right, I mean they were going to a lot
of kick ass jobs, yeah, and to stick out to be to get
a medal at something. It would have to be really an incredible feat.
I would imagine back then, some guys wouldn't put themselves in right, they
don't want to be well, that's what I'm saying. Like it was,
it was kind of like part of a job, you know what I mean,
extra ordinary. There were lieutenants and captains. They wouldn't write anybody else.
Yeah, it could be the busiest a lot of company in the city
and they wouldn't write them up. That's your job, kid, you have
to write him up. And I'm not again, I'm not taking away,
but if those guys were going to so many fires and it would have to
be something so like crazy to be noticed, That's kind of what I'm getting
at. Like, so to get metals, it would have to be something
so crazy, kidding me two in the same day, kidding, And then
he's asked to be he's asked to count the rescue one and with five years
on, right, chief, Yeah, well you're already noticed. I mean,
you know, oh, he's got to be noted. It has to
be a who. Kevin said something like the only place you didn't make a
grab was in yoga class. For godsake, y good one, good one,
guys, A couple of grand show. Yeah, it's a family show.
Keep on, hey, hey, do try to pose out. So
who was the captain there when they when they recruited him. I think Brian
o'flowery, oh flow, who passed away about a year ago. This tune
last year. Interesting while at a ceremony at the Fire Academy, how do
you ronnic conversation with Lieutenant John Vigiano of Rescue two. Both men were former
Marines that had a lot in common. Lieutenant Giano convinced farming Patty Brown to
put his transfer into a rescue too. The transfer to Rescue Too became official
May eight of eighty three. Wow, he wasn't even a rescue one that
long, Hey, fellas son, Patty Brown, Oh, I'll see you
too, Probably a better jobs right in Brooklyn. But he was, uh
this Brian Flowery right there? Put that back up. Yeah yeah, yeah.
And that's Kevin sha Kevin Shay, Yeah yeah, Kevin Shay with that
head of hand bro look at that guy able to crowd. Yeah, so
he came back as lieutenant though to one. Yes, yeah, well that's
that's a picture. That's Mario Cuomo, right, there the former governor.
Ye, and they were presenting some sort of an award for the rope rescue
on uh uh that we'll talk about in a little while. So we only
have eighty two more medals to go through before we get yeah, something like
that. So this was the picture I was looking before you get I heard
you mentioned Joe, so it was look at that Ashshagan. Yeah, yeah,
yeah, I figured who's the guy next to Joe and the reporter.
I'm not sure. I'm not sure right, Oh, sorry, you want
to go back to that? There you go? Can you make it up?
Sorry? No, not sure, No, no, long time,
okay, I wasn't around then. And I noticed a lot chief on the
job. Is that the military guys, they like to get the military guys,
right, that's they just like the discipline of that. They just like
that whole well, they walked the same right, right. That's what John
Hopkins did with us my career. That's what they just gravitate towards that,
just because like it's the same, you know, same seed, you know.
And I am sure that uh Patty Brown's makeup was his time in the
Marine Corps. Sure that made him a better fire man. You know so.
Yeah, if you're sitting there taking on fire, you know, like
gun fire, it kind of makes fighting fires a little less uh scary.
It's all gravy, right, all gravy, Yeah, all gravy. Man,
you're sitting in a fox hall and then you're worried about down a baseball
gravy. Bro. Yeah, Charlie Chan's running out. You're screaming, bro.
It's the truth. Man. Those guys you couldn't shake them. Man,
you couldn't shake those guys when they can't you know. It was I
only work with a few, but those guys were hot charges man. Yeah,
man, I don't imagine. Interesting. Along those lines of the discussion
was Patty made it to rescue too. He was befriended by fireman Jack Cleehouse,
who was frequently out. Never heard of them, never heard of them.
He's coming looking at him. We are. I would recall how easy
going, uh pat was and he didn't speak ill of anyone. Both men
were Marines and that went to Vietnam. After a short discussion, Jack felt
that he knew him for a long time. So there you go, count
right, woe unassuming guy and just easy that keeps popping up throughout his career.
You know that people expect one thing of him and they meet him and
he's completely He's not an opera singers. Those two guys one and two,
one, two and three. Right, Chief, imagine having a oh my
god, rescue truck full of those guys, go get him. What are
you doing the year the Chief and these guys show up? I mean nothing.
You don't worry about nothing. Oh my god. Whatever the problems I
have, they're about to be solved. Yeah, Oh my god. And
how about you put Chief Downy in, Yeah, Chief Downy, Captain over
there, or Captain Gallagher or any of those guys. Holy mackerel, come
on, yeah, one look at Patty Brown in his class at uniform.
You cannot help but notice the amount of ribbons on his coat. Patty Brown
received all his individual awards within a ten year span of time. Every individual
award was for an act of heroism while he was in the rank of fireman.
Really. Yeah, he didn't get anything after he was an officer.
Wow. Really he He was awarded four unit citations after being promoted to lieutenant.
Oh okay, I didn't know that. Sorry, Well, no individual
awards, you know, let me see that wreck. Can you get that
racked there? No, that's as big as a picture gets. No,
I have a story, a little story. He said he wouldn't wear them
all because they felt too humble to wear them all, because it looked ridiculous.
And other people said, it's like bragging if he wore them all,
and then other people say, well, he would have fell over. But
listen to this. He was awarded seven class bs, four Class a's,
four class threes, oh my god, and one class too. He was
awarded five medal day medals. Can you imagine that? No? I can't.
I can't. Ten years in ten years, yeah, and ten years.
The fact that he didn't speak anything as an officer is uh, probably
has a lot to do with him. I probably didn't want to put himself
in for anything. He put his guys in. He put his guys in
absolutely. Yeah. And you you want to say, no, it wasn't
me, it was this guy. Yeah. Yeah. I spoke to guys
at three Truck about that, and they said, yeah, that's true.
Yeah, Wow, that's amazing. Man. You don't find you guys like
this anymoment. When he is get back to guys like this in this country,
please for crying out loud. Can you put that put that that picture
back up when with the captain, when he was a captain. Now,
I just want to look at the guy's chin. Bro's just me. That's
my dad too. You look chin. Yeah, it looks like one of
those action figures when you were a kid, A Brown Carolyn, exactly exactly
that. He looks like he's chiseled out of st getting salty Patty Brown action
figure. A million of a Look at the mustairs, right, bouch,
Wow, eighties. Everybody had a mustache in the eighties. Yeah, yeah,
yeah, all right, bothrough the rock Metals nineteen eighty one he got
I got all these this information from Fire Department Metal Day Books. Nineteen eighty
one. He got the Doctor Robert A. Sineli Medal. While assigned to
a lot of twenty six, he was the ov at a fire and upper
floor of six story old law tenement. Fires coming out of the windows on
the fourth and the fifth floors. He could hear trapped occupants on the top
floor fire escape. They were cut off by fire. Fireman's Brown's passage up
the stairway on the fire escape was also walked. Fimon Brown jumped into the
on the railing of the fire escape and grabbed the structure of the fire escape.
He swung on the fire escape from side to his side to get to
make it to the top floor to avoid the fire encroaching on the fire escape.
He made it to the top floor and rescue too. Peter, that's
that's like daredevil, that's a spider man. It's more and more like unbelievable.
You're taking yourself out. That's it. You know, somebody might say
you're making this up. There's no way this guy was swinging, swinging on
his freaking fire escape with his year on. Put that other picture up that
you have God on the Yeah. First, that's why I thought it was
the Balcony's why I grabbed it really quick. But I thought that that was
related to that. Oh God, he was crazy. You gotta be a
little crazy man like you to be all right. Nineteen eighty five, the
doctor J. W. Goldenkrantz medal the signed to rescue Too after being driven
off the top floor of a loft building fire to to extreme heat. He
responded to an urging message from the roofman on the ladder. One eighteen,
he and three other roofmen were cut off and trapped by the on the roof
from the heavy fire condition on the top floor. Fireman Brown went up the
fire escape, past the venting fire and made it to the roof. He
guided the trap firefighters to the fire escape by his boys. He made sure
all the trapped firefighters were off the roof as he descended in the uh as
he wow, uh, take up, come back in all right there where
we send them the pro some of the proceeds of the of the Patty Brown
ashing figure. We're not making that check out the shorthouse, I'm telling you,
jee Yeah, yeah, okay, When did I lose you? When
he was coming back down the fire escape, he went past fire on the
fire skates going off the roofs coming back down up heavy fire vented out the
window and burnt Patti Brown. He got burnt and he was admitted to the
burn center. Mm hm, I remember that. Yeah, yeah, I
didn't touch that beautiful face though, I can tell you that much, bro.
Anywhere it went it was in his lungs. Oh yeah, because he
was while he was yelling to everybody, this is my story. Uh,
it went down the throat the fire. Yeah, and they they called me,
and I'm out here in Westbury and I'm a kid, and they say,
oh, well, we could come get a car for you, and
I'm like, now I'm gonna say I was planning to see him tomorrow with
his girlfriend. I didn't even take the car. I didn't realize how bad
it was, right, So next day I saw him and the burn unit
is, oh, god, awful obviously, and you know he told me,
Yeah, the guys from whatever fire house they brought mckaysey beer and he
was okay in his old days. Yeah, the guys were all here.
Well, you couldn't come last night. I'm like, I didn't know how
bad it was. I was a teenager. The next day and he had
a different girlfriend there. Yeah, probably line them up, Oh yeah,
all right. Nineteen eighty six, The signal seven to seven fire belt club
metal designed to rescue too While searching the third floor of a Brownstone, I
found the hidden stairway up the fourth floor. He and his partner, Fireman
Al Washington, made their way up to the top floor. Heavy smoke and
high hete made their search difficult. Fireman Brown heard the moaning of the trapped
doccupant. He found a thirty five year old man who was burned and unconscious.
Fireman Washington helped fire and Brown remove the victim to the street. Nineteen
eighty eight the Frank Criddle Medal assigned to rescue too. Fiming Patty Brown and
his partner Charlie Williams searched the fire apartment on the ninth war Fireman Williams founder
man mister Wendell Lewis. While removing mister Lewis, another trap person was heard.
Fiming Brown kept removing mister Lewis as Fireming Brown passed the fireroom. The
firefighter, containing the fire with a can, ran out of water and his
extinguisher. The fire blew out into the hallway of the apartment. Fiming Brown
shielded mister Lewis from the fire and his face piece of his CBA got knocked
off. Fiming Brown made it to the public hallway and administered CPR to mister
Lewis. Mister Lewis was revived. Fireing Patty Brown would be treated for first
and second the gree burns and smoking elation. Wow wow, he took his
lumps Man absolutely. The nineteen eighty eight Brooklyn City's Medal while he was assigned
to rescue two fiming. Patty Brown went up to the area ladder to the
floor above the fire. As he climbed the area ladder, fire blew out
the window directly below the tip of the aerial. Fireman Brown dove through the
fire and into the window on the floor above the fire. Fiman Brown found
an unconscious child aged two and followed the voice of Fireman Peter Hasseler Latter one
oh two, who was at the tip of the area ladder. Fiman Brown
headed the child off to Fireman Hassler. Fiamon. Brown went back into the
flat to continue searching for the track occupants. Fireman Brown fathered another unconscious child
aged five. Fiman Brown removed the second latter one eleven's bucket. Fireman Brown
re entered the flat again. This time he found uh the two previous children's
mother near exhaustion. He was assisted in removing the mother by Fireman Joseph for
three GRIBs in world three grabs one five Holy crap, Yeah you and Kidden,
I never heard the whole story. Yeah it is crazy. Yeah yeah.
The fireman Patty Brown would be promoted to the rank of lieutenant on August
eighth, nineteen eighty seven, he would be assigned to Battalion one six as
a covering lieutenant. He would transfer to SOAK on August eleventh of nineteen ninety.
He would eventually be assigned to Letter twenty eight. Is a lieutenant another
great spot back up the hall of him? Yeah, yeah, right,
and here's the rope. Rescue Manhattan Box third Alarm eight three seven on May
fourteenth, nineteen ninety one. On the morning of May fourteenth, ninety one,
Rescue one was dispatched to a structural fire seventh three seven seventh Avenue.
Was Lieutenant Patty Brown covering fire m Kevin Shay fire and Bruce Snowberry. Uh
that that guy in the end of that picture was Bruce Newberry. You go
back yes, yeah, yeah, left yeah, Shall Fireman Pattio keep Fireman
Kevin detail from Rescue two and Fireman Patty Barr, who was a detail from
latter forty five. Lieutenant Brown saw a heavy black smoke coming from the twelve
floor windows of the twelve story building. Through the heavy smoke, a man
could be seen at a window in distress. Battalion Chief John McDermott of the
Knight battalion ordered Rescue one to the roof to attempt the rescue. The members
of Rescue one climbed the stairs to the roof. Lieutenant Brown had Fireman Taldell
and Fireman o'keep go to the floor of the firefloor into attempt to rescue via
the interior. The remaining members went to the roof to start the life saving
rope operation. Lieutenant Brown put a call over the radio that they're starting a
rope rescue. While sizing up the roof, Lieutenant Brown noticed that there was
no substantial objects to tie the rope off to. Lieutenant Brown formulized the plan
to have Fireman Shay lie in the roof and attach the rope to his personal
harness. Three other firefighters would hold down Fireman Shay as Fireman Bar lowered.
The was lowered via the rope to make the rescue. As Fireman Patti Barr
was about to dismount the parapet, he told Lieutenant Brown, don't let me
go. Lieutenant Confidence voice, you're okay. Fireman Barr was lowered on the
rope and rescued by rescue mister Jose Galiagos from the top floor. But now
there was another rescue to be made. This time the victim was on the
exposure four side the What's forty eighth street side. Mister Peter Lewis was in
a precarious position with fire moved closer to him. Well Ted and brown over
the same rope to be used that have Fireman Shay be the rescuer. This
time, Fireman Raymondcormick of lad OF twenty four arrived at the roof and would
become the lowering firefighter. There was still no substantial object to tie off to
biom and Shay would dismount the parapet dangling from the life saving rope. He
completed the rescue of mister Lewis just in time. The remaining firefighters on the
roof would hold down Fireman McCormick during the lowering operation. Firefighter Patrick Barrow would
be awarded the Emily Trevor Mary B. Warren Metal for his actions at Box
three three eight three seven. Fireman Kevin Shay would be awarded the U Bonna
Metal for his actions at Box three three eight three seven. Rescue one would
be ordered awarded a Unit Citation for their actions at the box. I mean
that right there, that's the picture right there. Yeah, that's got to
be, Chief, that's got to be one of the most memorable rescues.
Uh. I mean because it was spelled documented right. There was a lot
of pictures of it. And I was working that day in eleven truck and
the deputy it was an inspection day twenty eight and eleven to go to this
fire Manhattan. I never saw a fire. Yeah, in the World Trade
Center. Obviously capture the imagination of the public. The waters far Oh.
My people were clapping right when film Patty Barnes in the window. It's like
an eruption of applause. I wouldn't hell yeah, yeah, I want to
know how he got his big castalgs in that window after, you know,
Holy carrying him around. He's got a shopping car for him. God,
you've got a short video of that. It's not sure. It's about seven
minutes. If you want to watch it, I have the entire They speed
it up a little bit, just throw a little bit on. Okay,
let me do that. Chief. Every time I everybody, that picture always
comes up. It's like an iconic uh, just iconic uh fire. You
know, sorry, just be careful because you probably get hit up the we'll
just be right with that. Ah, we'll do we won't we bring it
to the end. We'll just hanging off the the grab them. Yeah,
we could do this right right there, right there, explored Wild, the
other victim, weighted day, Okay, desperately trying to get the attention,
like he tries to punch out the glass, right out the glass. Yea,
he mentions it. He doesn't have the greatest grab on this. Yeah,
like that, I can imagine. You know what's so scary? Chief
with that rope on the tension like that? Right, We used to talk
about it all the time. How just it only takes this one piece of
glass to come out of that? Just to say that rope it would be
all was that Manila material. It wasn't even the we have today nylon rope
anytime, give it a wave here you go anymore any other roof because they
couldn't get up here. Now I didn't have Kevin in there too, No
I didn't. We don't want to get any trouble or some copyright. I
played too much. We're trying to interesting both Fire and Kevin Shea and Fire
and Patty bar told me that these two rope rescues were successful due to the
planning, leadership and decisiveness of Lieutenant Patty Brown. Wow. Lieutenant Patty Brown
had a command presence at this fire. He was presented with an unusual situation
to distressed occupants in danger from jumping from the twelve floor. Lieutenant Brown improvised,
overcame and adapted. Well, they didn't have a substantial object, right,
I mean they used that they used human bodies to hold them body weight.
Yeah, said they like lifted up and he thought, go over and
quote unquote they used the same rope to h yeah, you know, to
rescue somebody else, which is uh uh yeah not but I heard they're not
supposed to use a rope twice. Jose was in our limo for the funeral.
Really, is that right? Yeah? Yeah, wow, wow,
Yeah, just a sidebar was detailed to rescue one on the tour was killed
in the lining through the is just make mention of that. So all right,
you know this is stuff that you know, he probably could have got
a medal for that, you know, and he didn't. You know,
the next one certainly could have got a medal for it. He didn't,
you know. So you know, there are fires that he went to that
he could have gotten medals for it, and he passed him off to the
other guys. Yeah that's him. Yeah yeah. Units on the Lower East
Side responded to a heavy fire condition on the fifth floor of a sixth story
old law tenement. Latter eighteen was the second due ladder Company UH. One
of the guys in the Latter eighteen's force Blunty team got the James Gordon Bannon
metal for this far. The FoST Launtry team became trapped on the top floor,
the floor above the fire. Two of the three firefighters lost their helmets
in a frantic effort to fourth century into the air of refuge that while they
were being burned, one of the firefighters forced an apartment doors, saving their
lives. Lada nine made it to the top floor and found the firefighter's helmet
on the floor. All firefighters were ordered off the top floor due to intense
fire extending there. The hallway was now lighting up. As the fire was
extending, Lieutenant Patty Brown of Rescue one made an argument to Battalion Chief Richard
Rittmeyer of the fourth Battalion to go back to the top floor. The thought
was that there was still a missing firefighter. With the discovery of the helmet,
both the Lieutenant Brown and Battanian Chief Rittmyer went to the top floor to
search for the missing firefighter. They were on their stomachs to avoid the intense
heat during the search on the top floor. Eventually, the formerly trapped firefighters
were accounted for in an ambulance and the search was called off. Interesting to
note Patty and Richard ritt Meyer Battian Chief Richard Grittmeyer, who passed away a
year ago at this in nineteen ninety two, with two of the most highly
decorated New York City farmen and the fire department. He had the two of
them coming to get him. Wow, Richie, I got his medals in
thirty one truck when it was South Franks was burning. He was He was
quite a guy, you know. I heard that name too, but I
didn't. I didn't know much about him. And I could I could see
the convent. I just could imagine the conversation that Patty was having with Richard
GrITT Meyer. You're going left, We got to go up there, we
got to go back in. They found a helmet, and I could see
Richie because it definitely out and uh, this is all right, you can
go up. I'm going with you. And right Richie wasn't young man then
yeah, yeah, right, you got And that was relayed to me by
Richie Ripmyer. You know, so pretty special, you know. And Lieutenant
Patty Brown would be promoted to the rank of captain on September twenty fifth,
nineteen ninety three. Same day I got promoted to captain, he was assigned
to the first Division. He would be signed to Angine sixty nine on May
twenty first, nineteen ninety four, but a major fire happened in between the
Watt Street fire. On March twenty eighth, nineteen ninety four, the Watt
Street fire occurred, which took the lives of Fireman James Young of Engine twenty
four on the day of the fire. Fireman Chris Siedenberg of Engine twenty four
would die from his injuries the next day, and Captain John Driscoll of Latter
five would be transported to the Burn Center. Captain Drennan had third and fourth
to bre burns over sixty five the center of his body. Captain Patty Brown
went to the Burn Cider and was a scientist the family Laison. He took
care of the needs of John Drennan and his wife Viena, for the duration
of John Drennan's fight John Drennen Ford a value and fight and on the fortieth
day John Drennan's to come to his injuries. What kind of guy is that?
Were they friends? I think they just knew each other right through the
job. I think he was covering. He wasn't a scientist at sixty nine,
yet I think he was covering in twenty four and five, you know,
and you know, he just knew he wasn't assigned, that he volunteered
to do that, and all the heartache that went along with it, you
know, and trying to you know, trying to keep a Vienna Drennan functioning
well. You know, you know it was if you were on the job
that day, everybody was following you come into work. What's what's going on
with John try? You know, right? And he was neck deep in
it. Uh. There's a rumor out there too. I've heard these stories.
I don't know it's folklore or whatever, that Patty Brown had whispered,
uh to the captain that it's okay, we'll take care of your wife and
kids or whatever it was, and then it's very true. That is true.
My sister told my Mike's wife told him say Tom, it's okay,
you can go. Oh yeah, because they were really good friends and he
was doing this forty day thing with them or whatever forever and I'm at VNA
after nine eleven and uh yeah. And she was a school teacher, so
she wrote and wrote and wrote and uh sweet sweet woman. And he would
go there was that's in the eight line thing too, is it. Yeah,
we don't. Yeah, but he was with the kids every day,
and there's pictures of him playing basketball with them, and he was really They
would go and pray over him joining every day. And then he finally told
it's okay, I have them, you know, I have your family.
I having a It's okay go because like you said, he was so injured,
like so I had to be a company thing. I mean even I
can tell myself as you're speaking like that, if that, if you,
if I was in that situation, you would almost feel, especially a guy
like that, for God's sakes, Who's no, I can't leave my family,
right, Yeah, But if you finally feel like you're hanging on and
you're fighting and fighting and fighting, which he was. He was, you
know, I remembers trying to be some ridiculous number that you know, nobody
ever lives. Yeah, you know, even that long, like to fight
that long. The captain I remember, you know, yeah, for his
family to be you know right, and that is very true. Pat did
say, you know, it's okay, I have your family. You can
go be a piece the whole thing he laid over the back. Yeah wow.
Yeah, So now we've got a saint to that. Yeah, to
rap. I'm not going to promote anything now, but my brother about me
right now, I'll tell you right now. It's it. My brother Mike
wrote a book about the whole thing, and I think that's in it too.
Oh yeah, oh yeah, name up there at the end of the
show. At the end, I will say it. Yes, it's not
the time, all right. Captain Patty Brown decided it was time for him
to make a move. I think he was trying to get twenty eighth truck
and it wasn't getting it. So, you know, he lived in Stuyvesant
Town in Lower Manhattan. So some pretty good fire companies around Stuyvesant Town and
Patty was scatting him out and he settled on lat of three. You know,
Captain Brown transferred to the first division on October second, ninety nine and
he started covering in lat of three. He became the assigned captain of latter
three on October twenty, first year, two thousand. I was a captain
in a lot of six in the first division at that time. I remember
seeing the department order where he got smacked to three truck. I was stuck
in the first division. Just went up. We got some more cred.
We got some Bona five heroes coming to the first division. It's funny when
Captain Patty Brown was assigned to a lot of three, the senior men and
the company were not sure who they were getting. Again. You know,
they don't know. Patty Brown's reputation certainly preceded him. They thought they might
be getting a John Wayne character. They couldn't have been more wrong. He
came into the new company with a soft spoken way, and he started leading
the best way he knew. He led by example, and he wanted to
make sure that the firefighters he worked with kept up with him. He was
known for talking in the kitchen of firefighters well into the night. So again
I spoke with a bunch of guys from Wide at three and there they felt
like they were cheated. They wish they had him for a while while longer.
Can you imagine being in the fire house he comes in as the captain
bro how much like the hit the lotto? Yeah, the three truckers certainly
had a rent. You know that. They were a real good truck We're
getting Captain Patty Brown, all right. I spoke to them. I spoke
to the guys and like, we thought this giant would come in with an
attitude, and he walked in in his bike shorts and his yoga mat.
I know, Jay, you're talking about Mike Moran. He said that same
thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Mike rand And they expected and then
he was just so he would be with the guys who wouldn't sit up in
his office. He would be the guys who talked to him all the time,
and like you said, teach by example, and if something went wrong,
he would just talk to them, not yeah like okay, maybe this
next time, you know, maybe you should do it this way or do
it that way. Yeah, that's what I heard from those guys too,
same as you, Jay, Absolutely faithful day September eleventh, two thousand and
one. Patty Brown was on duty and lat that's three. After the first
point hit the hotel. Captain Brown was on the department radio telling the Manhattan
dispatch at the plane, just take the World Trade Center for your information,
for your information. By the way, by the way, in case nobody
told you, called you. If you haven't noticed another come respexun by six
thousand, you know, che but oh yeah, by the way, plained
just fluid to the end. The dispatcher assigned Ladder three to the fire,
and I saw Captain Paddy Brown in the lobby of the off tower, and
uh it struck me, you know, because working in the first edition for
a long time. How many guys he had with him, he had both
the day tour and the nights were on the ridge. Yeah, half a
Ladder three was killed on Yeah, they lost like ten guys or something.
I didn't know that. Yes, Kevin, the other officer tent and downdown
and uh, like you said, coil oil, Yeah, on the son
of the of the coil. Yes, very interesting stuff coming up. As
latter three was climbing the B stairway the North Tower at the World Trade Center,
they stopped on the thirty fifth floor. Captain Brown found a working telephone
on the floor and called the dispatcher. He stated, and I quote,
I'm on the thirty fifth floor. Okay, okay, just relate to the
command post that we're trying to get up. There are numerous civilians and all
the stairwells, numerous burn injuries are coming down and trying to send them down
first. Apparently it's about the seventy fifth floor. I don't know if they
they got there yet. Okay, three truck and we're still heading up.
Okay, thank you, Chief about the world right there. Yeah, I'm
on a thirty fifth floor okay, okay, just related the command post.
We're trying to get up. You know, it's numerous civilians at all stairwells
towards burning jury are coming down and we're still head kay here it is so
there is, you know, thirty five floors up. He had the whole
company, he had the day and I grew with him. They were all
up on the thirty fifth floor with him. Yeah. Yeah, yeah,
they I think they lost ten guys. I'm not I mean twelve guys.
Yeah. When the South tower collapse, it closed the North tower would have
swayed violently, I said, the South Tower collapse. I realized that our
lives were an imminent peril, and I ordered the evacuation of my unit Latter
six. In the turmoil, I heard radio conversation between Deputy Chief Pete Hayden
and Captain Patty Brown, and it's tattooed in my brain. Chief Hayden stated,
command post a latt of three. Command post a latt of three,
get out of the building. Captain Brown responded, this is the officer of
Ladder Company three. I refuse the order. I am on the forty fourth
floor and we have too many burned people with me. I'm not leaving them.
Wow, I'll carry that with him with me to my grave. That's
the exact garbage that I used. And I've never heard that before or since.
You know, I refuse the order. I'm not leaving them. I
heard that a few years ago. Really, I only heard up to the
thirty fifth floor. And then someone posted it was not too long ago that
he was. And then I did an interview with BBC and they said one
the survivors said he saw him. Someone got out and they said they sawed
them up in the sixties. I said six floor because he was looking for
Hattan and those guys. Yeah that's possible. Sure, yeah, because that
was yeah there you go. Hey, how appropriate turd chiming. Yeah,
that's that's what I just heard that because I made the shirt I did,
saw this thing with that, and they're like, no, he went way
up further with his guys. Yeah. Yeah, who's the guy in the
middle there, Tim Brown? Brown, Tim Brown, we are buddies.
He's like another brother. Now, yeah, he's another Brown brother. That's
the guy. Uh uh. She wants us to get on the show.
Oh yeah, he looks like get him on. He's he he's awesome.
Go back to the picture before that. He looks like mel Gibson. There
your brother crying out loud. Oh well yeah, well they called him Charles
Bronson up in U in Harlem in sixty nine. In sixty nine they called
him Bronson, and then at that point I'm like Bronson's like, wasn't that
good looking? But now I saw Bronson when he was younger. I'm like,
yeah, he looks he looks like he and wrap your ass up quietly
too, Yes, absolutely, I do a long stretch. Maybe dude down
with dorg while he's doing it. I don't know sttch out it back.
I have no comment on that. The following u members of the New York
City Fire Department were killed in the line of duty from latter three and Battalion
six when the World Trade Center in Ottawa collapsed. Battalion Chief John Williamson,
Fireman John McAvoy, Fireman Steve Olsen, Captain Patty Brown, Fireman Mike Carroll,
Fireman and Jay Ogrin, Lieutenant Kevin Donnelley, Fireman McSweeney, fim and
Jerry Dewan, Fireman Joe Maloney, Fireman Jeff Gidano, and Fireman Jimmy Coyle.
Donaldy was there too. Huh yeah, wow, they were. There
were two common themes that kept coming up while doing research for this newsletter.
The first word was humble. Everyone who knew Captain Patty Brown said he was
humble about his accomplishments. The second was that everyone I interviewed for this newsletter
thanked me for giving them the opportunity to talk about their friend. Well,
we like to thank you because we get to share this with everybody out there
now. Hopefully thousands of guys will see. Patrick J. Brown was an
outstanding leader, a tough firefighter, and a man with tremendous compassion. He
was a righteous man who will help someone in their time and need. We
lost a great man on September eleventh. May rest in peace. Never forget
brother. Know what's up? Chief again? You hear these names? You
know again? I heard his names so often, and I heard so many
good things about him. It's almost as if you say to yourself, it
can't be, you know what I mean, Like you think to yourself,
how could it be? Like you're we're firemen, right, how could it
be? But the more I looked into this before the show and now being
on the show for this time, I mean, it really is. It's
it's a it's it's it's incredible to have a guy like that, like a
true legend. That guy was a true legend on our job in our own
time. Yeah, it was a living legend that I heard after an our
eleven Yeah to turn By saying that he was you know, and uh,
we don't say those things too often, Carolyn. If fireman don't say that
too often about I'm sure I really don't. Not Everyone goes, oh,
well, he's a living legend. We spoke about this before the show.
But you know, every time I would write a newsletter, I come down
to the kitchen and I get a couple of coffee, and the young guys
are like, all right, what are the teaching points of this? You
know, so they can scoop their officer. All right, the teaching points
for this newsletter are, guy, that's the teaching points of this newsletters.
I want to tell my kids by twelve or thirteen year old, do you
want to be a Patty Brown or do you want to be this guy sitting
over here? You want to be Brown? All right? Who you know?
I heard people saying do a Patty Brown and not fire department Like that
would mean you gave sandwich to a homeless guy or something that was doing Patty
Brown. Yeah, because you always helped out like that too. He's a
humanitarian like crazy, which I only found out later. But yeah, there
was a teacher that text me or contacted me after nine eleven and she says,
yeah, I teach my school. She's in Pennsylvania, or something my
kids would do with Patty Brown today, which would mean you do a good
thing for someone else. I'm going to ask you guys in the audienceverybody was
watching, and after this with ten twenty thousand shared this one, Share this
one with everybody. We can get more guys like this, you know,
or even half like a quarter like this, this country, in this world
will be a lot better. I just it. Yeah, I just watched.
Glenn just wrote geez, what an amazing life. I just wantch I
watch it every year and I get joked up. It's a wonderful life,
right for Christmas. That guy, your brother, had a wonderful life.
I mean he really did, short short but yeah, he had a wonderful
life. Man. I'm glad we got to talk about to I'm glad we
got you on the show tonight, Miss Shorthouse short House. Well I know,
and he's six four, so i'm missus Shorty now in Mustbury. We're
Shorty taller than me. Before we get too, I wanted to talk about
it. Go back your other brother. I'm sorry I won't. Mike,
Mike, Mike, what did you uh? What was the situation with him?
The whole story, Well, he was on the pile. He went
in because he had moved out. He was doctor in Vegas. He got
home so forever, but he went to three truck he had to find because
he's not a New Yorker, And they got him on the truck's pickups whatever
to go down and to the pile and dig. And he put on a
t shirt and went down with them and with Bobby Burke was with him and
you know, just put his shirk go. And so he did that for
the two months. He was you know, whatever was help a few months,
and then around maybe twenty eighteen, he was. He was here in
twenty nineteen, Jay, you were here at the party that Mike was here
at my house? Yes, nine eleven celebration I have every year, right,
and Mike was that's the last time. And then he was hurting.
But it took him down. The cancer was so ferocious and paint, it
took it all over his body. By twenty twenty weeks gone from the cancers
from the eleven because there, oh God, and he became you know,
he was not there anymore. He drove cross country to Yeah, you know
the story, right, that's in his book too. We have to promote
his book. What's the book? What brothers do? You want to pick
it up? Hold on? What brothers do? Okay? And the money
goes to the Sila Foundation. What brothers, don't. He left it for
the Silla Foundation. So anything sold now goes Silla Foundation. We'll put it
in the description. Yeah, and he describes everything and the new version he
did right before he left. He put in his trials from it. But
especially Fireman. Anyone who reads it, it's like one twenty hours, they're
done. They cry, they laugh. It's very funny too, Yeah,
because my family's very funny. There's a lot of uh drinking and like that.
Oh no, not not eleven because my family are cops and they had
they were our escort to the city and all that crap, and they he
was down there trying to trying to find him. Yeah. Is it on
Amazon? Is it on Amazon? Okay? Absolutely, people get that out
there. What did they ever find the guys from three Truck count Uh,
Well, in the book you'll find out, though I don't know. I
know. They found Pat shoulders and below his head was crushed. They found
him in like December, November, December late right, Yeah, anybody who
was Yeah, so they were because they were all the way up there.
It's just everyone was crushing. Uh. But they did find part of them,
So that was good for us. I guess you have to services like
have one. Yeah, we did his service, his funeral quote funeral mass
service Saint Patrick's of course on on his birthday was November ninth, so it
was eleven nine and uh yeah, we did his service and they're like thousands
of firemen there and it's amazing, and but I would we don't know what's
going on, like I don't, it's crazy. And then we had a
big coalition after at the Hilton and thousands of people and it was just nuts.
But then in December, after they found him, do you know the
whole tree story, they planted the tree in Celzer Park. Oh my god,
you have so much more to know. Planted the tree and my brother
Mike in Central Park at the Grand One, and of course it's got moved
over. They put his tomb, his stone in there. He did everything
and we had like twenty people with us and we did it. We had
another service at Campbell's with a coffin and then a few of us walked up
the block and they planted a tree. It's so crazy. You have to
get the story, guys. You had to get contact Gonzo from three Chuck,
Steve Gonzales. Seriously, you need this hysterical I was home. It
was actually on CBS or something like. So they planted everything, put his
stone in that my brother Mike wrote, and so we went and we spread
his ashes. It was the coldest night in December. It was a full
moon. Few people. Ven Adrenna was with us, and she sang the
marine hand like it was oh my god, crazy. And we had the
ashes that we got, which were hill yeah, and we threw it up
and it just glowed like crystals in the air and with a full moon on
the coldest day of the year. And it was a scene out of a
movie. And I said, that's what he would want, like a scene
out of a movie. Yeah, it was amazing. That's cool. But
a great guy. Yeah, and he's touched so many people. It had
no not even fires, as I said, like the homeless and the kids,
you know, teaching himself to find all that stories I never knew about
until after nine eleven. So mm hmm. I still hear stories of course.
Great research. Yes, thank you, Jay Chief. I think I
like this tribute type of show. That was great. Jake, thank you
so much. I just want unlearned so much from me your research. Thanks.
I started doing it when I started doing the newsletters, you know.
I the first one I did was a tribute to Andy Fredericks, and then
uh, I did oriole Palmer and yeah, I think we got to do
more. Let's do Orio Palmer. Then next didn't he get up the highest?
And yeah, I did Billy McGain, Billy Burke, Billy Burg.
I made friends with his brother, well, he was fighting the museum stuff,
you know, the memorial stuff I did begancy we have we have a
lot more to go. See if we can get some of the family.
I mean, I think that's the best part, is you know, having
having a family member as the inside. Uh yeah, I get Burg's brothers
called the name Michael. He's awesome movie school book. I did right,
Downy did right? You did? Wow? Yeah? All right, Now
we got to call up Chucky for Joe. I use them for a lot
of the right make the call again. The next one we'll get the chief
j Jonis and we're doing on Downy, I'll get him. Wow. Could
you imagine that one? Holy? Yeah. I started doing it because you
know everybody, you know three forty three they just come out and say,
I wish they would say three hundred and forty three rather than just the numbers,
because it sounds so dispassionate, you know. And uh that the amount
of guys that that that guy who were outstanding human beings and they were gone
in an instant, you know, and people have to know about that.
They do. People absolutely know about that. I like that one. You
know they say all the time that they throw on their phrase never forget,
never forget, never forget. Well, you know what we're knock going to
forget. We're to do a show on all three hundred and forty three if
we have to, so jeez, get that type of get that computer going,
let's palm and get on it. Get about the game tonight. Do
you have anything to plug besides the Winterhouse, the Florida Winterhouse? Uh?
No, all right, I uh yeah, Mike Brown's book was excellent.
I used you. No, and uh, if you if you have some
access cash with a with a uh with your tax returns coming in tunnel to
twis, please absolutely. Let's try to get him on. I went to
Proby school with him, Steven Seller, get his get Frank one. I'm
gonna try to get a contact. Yeah, Okay, im his number.
Shoot it to me after the show. As many years ago I had his
number, but okay, it might be the same. All right, thanks
for coming on, Chief. We're gonna work on. We're gonna do the
downing one next we'll get you. Yeah, i'd like to hear that one.
And Carolyn, thank you, Oh, thank you you come on the
moose over there again, Moose short house. I'm a brown god, damn
it. And he knows it. And he knows it. You enjoy that
shrimp palm and oh that sounds good. Thank you so much. Man.
I got Billy Bingo on Thursday. He's yeah, I think I think I
met him. What was that? God? Bless you? Thank you,
brother, appreciate it. See how Westberry. I'm out there all the time.
Yeah yeah, yeah, you're gonna be at the coliseum too, right,
Oh yeah, come and see us at the both Carolyn. Yeah,
bring Shorty over there. All right, guys, Rookie, you got anything
else? No, it's it. I enjoyed the show. I'm so excited
about this new segment headed by Jay Jonas. He doesn't even know it yet,
but you guys Thursday, thanks for tuning in. Like I said,
Spread this podcast around. Don't be shy, spread it around. I'll see
you. Stay long and go, all right, everybody, we'll see it
the big one. Thank you, guys. Loved it all right, guys,
in honor of tonight, this is three truck Thank you. Good night,