M disclaimer. We'd like to know before the start of this interview that the
opinions about to be expressed by the guest of tonight's Getting Salty Experience Podcast are
that of the guest and do not directly or necessarily reflect the views of the
host of the Getting Salty Experience Podcast. You're listening to the Getting Salty Experience
Podcast. Hello, Hell, Fat Daddy way back in the chat Welcome back
Fat Daddy? By do we miss Fat Daddy? Right? What are you
drinking a little? Elijah Craig? What is that? Suburban gods? They
were palmmering you were in the chat rola right now. That's not like you.
You know, I'm usually on time, but nobody called Pete. Thanks
Thanks, Gabe, reload his money gun? Those battalion cheeks. Oh worry,
we're gonna be Gabe at the Are you coming? You're not coming to
Harrisburg? Are you guns? No? No, just the I can go
away with the unless you guys are buying and maybe I'll go. When we're
going out to dinner with Gabe the first Thursday, I think Gabe Fox He's
Oh yeah, I hope he's bringing his old lady. I don't know.
We'll see what you have. ROSI make you tonight. You were scattered out
of you. He was quick, he was quick. I had Stu tonight.
Stu the reds dude, motherfucker got the red fall. Let me give
it, hold on, let me give it you. Oh wow, that
holy mackerel seventh head. I mean, shine on that day tonight, bro,
I gotta get We're gonna get the woman it in here and get a
puff like the big makeup grill, the big powder puff puff I made tonight,
bro, I made it. I saw that on TikTok. I mean
a giant meatball and a meat loaf. Dig out the inside. You put
sauce, you put drive pasta little cheese on it, and then you pack
it up and they have a cooked past the inside. Oh my, oh
my, guinea side came out roughly came out of nowhere. I thought it
was morning for I don't know what it is. I don't remember what the
test said it was. We got a PhD. Guy, For God's sake,
Why did you get that? How did you get that? Guy?
I gotta tell you, Fireman's got no business having a PhD. He's already
in the pre in the pre show, he was just you could just see
his face, like, what the hell am I doing? Like moron?
Like jump out shrimp right, like PhD, doctor fireman, you got no
business? Yeah? I think he took a chapter out of Jimmy or what's
his name, Jackie Gleason's book, What da Head is a World Common?
Yeah that's what he said. Yeah, not only that, smuck at this
big busy company has gone through a shit ton of fire. He went to
fires Bro. Yeah, some company I never heard of. Yeah twenty Yeah,
you know how way I gotta ask him. He went from two on
nine to one twenty in like twelve months, eleven month. I don't know
how that happens. Right, we had a PhD. We had a PhD.
Like, oh you you're a smucky guy. He's coming only one twenty.
He's got about twenty two kids too. So you college boy over here?
Yeah? Yeah, yeah, all right, let's play the commercial,
so we get Captain Rotans. All right, here we go. We listen
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Find us now at www dot NJFE. Dot com. That's www dot
nj f E dot com. Wonderful quick shout out to Tony B in the
chat guy. Yeah yeah, I gotta get a shout out to the Corona
Tigers. Yeah man, they sent us some shirts sent to anywhere on mine
bro. Very nice. Actually I do that. We have another commercial quick
now we got yeah, real quick, we got we got mister Usden.
Oh you come see us. Yeah, we'll be Yeah. This was our
last show before we get head on the road to Indy. So come on
and see us. All here we go. Come get your autograph copy of
They Saved New York at this year's fd i C twenty twenty four at the
Get Salty Booth is the nation's premiere fire conference, and photographer Glenn Osden will
be there and he'll autograph your book at the aforementioned Getting Salty Booth during exhibit
hours on both Thursday and Friday, April eighteenth and nineteenth, respectively. Each
book will come with a limited edition sixteen by twenty color poster that is suitable
for framing and This limited edition quffee table book features the compelling stories of a
ninety fd and Y firefighters and is almost three hundred pages packed with action photos
from the nineteen seventies all the way up to today's FD and Y fire operations.
Read the personal stories of the men and women who fought the Warriors,
fires, the World Trade Center and Black Sunday tragedies, and almost every major
incident in the last fifty years of the FD and Y. Come see us
at the Getting Salty booth in the hallway outside the main exhibit area Thursday and
Friday of FDIC Week April eighteenth and nineteenth, twenty twenty four. Yep,
and don't forget Friday, Big party. Fire Ninja to get cake, free
beer. Let me see it again, free beer. They got calendar girls
hanging handing out some ship. We do raffles, will raffle a some stuff.
They raffle a some stuff. Good time. What booth to ten thousand,
ten thousand and two, ten thousand two, ten thousand two. He's
shaking his head at me already we haven't even gotten on the road. He's
already shaking his head at me. Which it's exhausting. God, you'll see,
yeah, all right, as he's signing helmets and shirts and everything.
Look at his face like I'll do it guy's coming there to see you and
you the shake the hand. I'm happy to come. I'm sure you except
for the time that he was, I say it. All right, come
up, let's bring Captain roll tents. You ready kick guns? Maybe the
smartest can we have had on the show. Possibly smart like everybody says I'm
smart, not like everybody says, you got that one guns ready? No,
I don't I have it. I can't find it. All right,
all right, coming to the stage f d n Y Captain ritual Tents.
Elijah right here. Oh you got Elijah to absolutely absolutely, guys, I
feel like I'm watching one flip of cougas nestr. I can't stop. Let
Oh my god, you we all know who's saying and who's not. Yeah,
this is the true fire house kitchen right here before we get started.
Kobe, Yeah, yeah, here, we gotta get patriotic. Sorry,
we got 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 eppos, Got there, Darren says, Nail.
They're just like being on shift. Yeah, fat dad, He's going to
be out there too. He's right down the hole from us. Oh which
one the FDI s Yep, Darren said too much glad tonight. Yeah,
we knew that shit was coming. Yeah. Oh see he blocked it out.
Oh there we goes back, all right, Cat, welcome to the
show. Like we always do. Like to go back and some of the
older guys, we got to go back a little further. So we're gonna
go back before we know you got on even the Proby class with Chief Steve
smiling Jack over there. Let's go back even further than Let's go back to
the early days of a young Richard Rotans growing up in what would you grow
up at? See talking No, I was in the Queens, but it
was baptized in Jackson Heights and then we moved out to Flushy and went to
St. Andrews and uh to seventh grade. I was in line to be
a multipoy, believe it or not. But yeah, we moved out to
Setalka in nineteen sixty five. But it was just up and far, that's
all. My father was a cop in one of three. He's finally got
a house, a brand new Volkswagen, and he was a living in the
world in nineteen sixty five. Nineteen sixty five, he started on Jackson Heights,
then he went on to Fruishing before the Asian invasion, right way before
that, way before that. Yeah, I'm allowed to say that. It
was my wife's Asian So I got the Asian con. I could throw that
down Wes to sneak into Shea Stadium all the time, we thought we did
because the cops didn't care. Then we was watching Casey stangle in the Mets
lows all the time they sucked. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, early,
it's good right, Actually moved out to the Boonies in seventh grade.
Yeah, your dad's a cop, right. Any brothers and sisters, what
do you I got two brothers, Bobby and Tommy. I'm the oldest,
and we all went to school there. I mean, you know, Bobby
and Tommy were big sports guys and they were lacrosse heroes, so big time
lacrosse defense guys. And Bobby now is he owns a three hundred and sixty
five seat restaurant. Then my brother Tommy's down to Marco Island living a dream.
Not Island. That's nice. Mark Island is nice. You have Proppery,
the rough mar Island Island. Where's your brother's restaurant? Road up Virginia
and what else? He Uh, we graduated growing up, and I think
he's seventy nine or so. And they opened up a place right across street
from the college. I had like three stools, a couple of tables,
and now we own the block and uh big doing very very good. In
fact, during uh to sleep he sleeps on these right that those boys Coobie.
You know man, his younger brothers don't have a pH d. Oh
God, I knew that was coming. Yeah, it's uh, they're doing
very good. Proud of the guys. Good for them. So what what
gets you involved in the fire service. I never had an inclination to be
a fireman. And you know what, my father died in sixty eight.
He was died in a lot of duty in one of three precinct Vietnam War
and cops with pigs, the whole bit, and a friend of mine,
his father worked at mine. His father got seriously injured. So we were
like pounding around together. And I took off in nineteen seventy to join the
Army Rangers and Fort Benning and the guys who waits for me from the one
of three precinct. They go, you kid, go back and take care
of your mother. So my mother goes, why's become a fineman? I
go, what? So go toe to mister Lincoln's done the block. He's
with the volunteers ever since. Then took off. You know. That was
seventy one one. Yeah, September seventy one and seventy one. Yeah.
It was you know, Valty Firehouse. Kind of slow, but it was
a very rapidly building neighborhood and the college turned into university. We had a
petroleum plant here with fifty huge, large tanks. We had pretty strange but
crazy responsory. We went, you know, from like seven runs a year
till I became a chief in eighty. I was a seven. We were
doing like two thousand. It was nuts, but I really enjoyed it.
I was It was a change my life. As my mother goes, yeah,
I become a fireman and I did well. So kind of work were
you doing then? Capp uh No. I when I was uh in seventy
one, I was grease monkey at one of the local garages, and I
became an EMT and a medic and I did a couple of jobs with like
stat ambulance and places in the Bronx and a. But I became a medic
and then also all nurse off at matt the Hospital and it was kind of
busy because there was no trauma center yet Tony Burke wasn't built up yet.
And uh it was good, very In fact, the women I worked with
this is like nineteen seventy three or so, not too far into World War
Two. One woman was a pow the Battle of Bulge. Two nurses worked
in massions in Korea, and there was three girls that worked in Nam and
I really had a good experience with these tho these late they were tough.
They were really. I was just going to say, you had to up
your game there, man, oh man, you know, and let me
tell you something. Working with women, you'd be sitting there having a smoke
or a cup of coffee in the r all right, And they were geld
teasing because man, you're twenty one year old, stud I know what I
could do with like about It was a good learning experience, especially in the
OAR and work as a paramedic and the war. I brought that skill set
into the fire Service because uh, and I had all the guys coming into
the AR and working in the O that had no lung cancer and other issues
from fighting fires and so on because nobody was using packs. Then I turned
this to tok a fight apartment. The packs were the box in the back
of the rig, you know, and there was huge, huge cylinders,
and we had rubber gloves. We had plastic helmets and I'm telling you we
have You were like a matt lead helt. You were like a match ready
to go. Oh. It was crazy, but you know, I learned
what a couple of guys that were instructors at Yampak and and Nasaura, and
they were tough guys. They were came you know, the Navy, the
military, and uh, we were learned about you know, the Navy bayonets
and pineapples, nozzles and so on. And it's good experience. A lot
of good guys. You know, they're all past. Now. That was
fifty two years ago. So when did you take the test? I took
the test in seventy seven, and I took a bunch of guys from the
island, and I remember the physical fitness test was insane. They had a
ledge walk. I think you really can talk about all the time. I
built a ledge walk with me and Rake Trinkle, who was a retire cap
that I won seventy six. I built the guy thing in my cellar and
I had the pack who went back and forth so many times it destroyed my
my panel panels wall. But when I took the test over it at the
Armory in Brooklyn, Boom, I beat it. I beat the nine seconds.
So then the guy goes, that's phenomenal. Can you show us again?
I go, you want me to break my ankle on it to lose
the job. But there was a tough test, a tough physical test,
and they threw it out later on because it was too hard. And but
I got on the job, you know. And you got on before that
took place. You got in February seventy nine, right, correct, Yeah,
But it was freezing coldly at Randall's Island. I mean they're right there
in your shirts and your sneakers doing push up to like what I kill me?
No slickers, baby, that was the most grating uniform known to man.
Yellow slickers. What the hell? We got one with the helmet too,
right, So it looks like to try out for the FISHTI commercial,
the Fisherman Going and the Fisherman Jove Cluster. It was like humilitate but they're
all civil defense outfits. That's crazy, and it's like going around, but
you know, you have to do what you had to do and then yeah,
your own gearing on. But you know in your class hacked my life.
He's in the show a lot, is it? Yeah, comes on
the show a lot. He was by the Louis senior man in the squad,
was he? Yeah, the squad? Who was the squad? Yeah?
You still got it? He still got it. Where are you cap?
Top left? Is that top left? Yeah, that's the baby face
there. I look at that. Look at those things. You guys didn't
actually go into fires like in training with those things, did you know?
God? No, no, no, we did. Didn't have any life
fires back then. But we had a smokehouse and the guys were kind of
nervous about the smoke shouts. So I said, listen, guys, here,
I gave him each a piece of wet rag. Take this and follow
my lead. Now, the guy that was instructed, he had the pack
gun. You couldn't see ship. So he goes, all right, you
guys, how are you doing? Everybody would take the mad they're a rag
off. We're doing fine. We'll sing up very land. We had a
little it's like, what's going on? He opened the door, he goes,
roads, you're done because we had the rags. Otherwise we'd be dying.
The pH D was already and it was already already. Smart he's wikish.
Smartt says what everybody says. Just a good time, really good time.
So did you know where you were going at that point? Did you
know where you wanted to go? Anything like that? I was asking guys
like, you know Al Jordan Godless assault he was my property lieutenant and his
son is now you know standard Joe John Yeah, yeah, jasonal that he's
had five protection engineer job odd guy. Yeah, that's my guy. Guys
like just to hang around together rough, you know what I mean? Do
you think they're gonna hang around with us? Maybe they may feel smarter,
that's possible. Well, I was. I was talking to a friend of
mine, Jack McCormick at the time. He was with a talking fire department.
He's lieutenant won the way he goes, I'll put you over two nine.
I had no idea what it was, and he goes, it's something
for them. We did one of two trucks time and it was a good
place. You know. I had the great guys who was working with there
Santiamo and Tummy Marks and godless soul. Billy McGovern who was Battalian chief.
I think he was killed in two one. Uh. Uh Joe Barbara Chief,
Barbara, Dennis Cross and uh, you know Eddie Gonzalez. A lot
of really good guys. And I enjoyed it there. And uh, my
neighbor downe the block from my parents, this guy to beat, Peter Greeby,
guy as assault. He was a lieutenant in uh one go over one
twenty eight. I go, sure, it's just a busy house. And
his two sons played the cross of my brothers, so I stopped. I
served the captain and uh and he was a good, great guy and uh
he says much caught over. And then April of nineteen eighty we I want
over the one twenty truck and I was. I mean, that was an
unfortunate year in my view. We had Fitzpatrick mc fizby killed up in all
the rope and that incident started Safety Command, which he followed, he,
you know, got a bunch of very smutch bat time chiefs to to investigate
a lot, to do the injuries and death and so on. Then we
had Devady that was killed over in three three two, and the Italian Prince
chief Toronto, he was killed on Christmas treat. We had the building clubs
run on the block from the firehouse. That was like August thirteenth, nineteen
eighty and uh it was very sad, yeah, in that respect, but
uh, I at one twenty was great firehouse to work a funny it's unbelievable.
But I worked with great guys like you know, Tom Cleary, Pete
McGreevey, Georgie May and Jimmy Menahan's who's absolutely nuts. Well, Louis Montea.
There had to be a wezel at some point, right, it was
before me. It's been like five generations of what cells in that firehouse,
right exactly. And uh, you know I see signing. Anthony Billis said,
yes, he was trying to be funny. Public high school diploma.
I told you, you know, I really I learned a lot over one
twenty. Uh. We worked detailed with one seventy six truck which was insane
two two seven on Ralph Avenue. But Uh, I enjoyed work with him.
I was trying old SAP deals. I used to play around with the
UH scale on it at drills, and I one time I was going to
side the building. I threw the hook of the scalelet over the roof and
its lieutenant chime, Miranda. I got him right in the ass. He
goes, take your ass, Okay, look, get over here. So
but then on one particular night we had running around. It was a busy
night and the lieutenant got hurt. So Paul mcfadd was the acting lieutenant,
and we got a call with one seventy six two thirty two at the time
before they got disbanded, and UH two two sevens coming in and we had
an old hands and arrival down Berger Street and uh, there's people out,
you know the usual, out the fire escape, everybody waving hello. You
waste my delivery. And I go around the rear because it was a vacant
rear, and I see a woman with two kids the fifth floor. Hold
them at the window. Ship So I called it in. I said,
listen, we got a woman at the top floor window. I know that
once my guy and one seventy sixth sense that they're going into the roof.
To the roof, I put the scale line. So I went from window
to window. They'll tell you about the glass. Didn't tell you about the
glass going for the second to the third and fourth floor, and two thirty
three is gonna line on me hitting the fire. But as I go up
there and I finally get the goose neck into the window, not knowing about
a kiddie bar as a climbing, it drops on the foot, so that
my ass up. It's crazy. So I finally get up there, I'm
holding mom, she's giving me the kids. Yeah exactly, and uh but
they don't tell you about the glass and something this old, you know,
well you're practicing, it's just an open window. So I got, you
know, I stabilized here and the guys from the roof they got the kids.
They brought them down and then I come in and I was pumped up.
I was pumped up. So I bring the scale out of the window
and who I bumped into with the scale and it was Lilpi goes, what
do you do with that? So you know, so the guy's rescue too
goes, what is this kid? Doing and they hear the acting deputy chief.
I forget the guy's name. It was a really great guy. He
wrote an article on the Pine Street fire tired as a barrel commander. Anyway,
I dent the end of this a scale letter. So I come downstairs
stinting at attention. He goes, what twenty old feet the hell did you
do to the goddamn scale letter. I'm like, I'm sorry if it was
just an He grabs me by the head, gives me a liplock, takes
a yah. It's okay, fine. So I was going to say you
had to get a medal for that? Did you get something for that?
They wrote me up? But uh, the coz was k me and two
of the guys that wrote for old comes So, why, that's crazy.
That's the eighties. That was the eighties in one twenty right. I mean
you had to do I mean that's extraordinary. I mean that's not something like,
uh, come on, that's pretty that's pus to like that. How
many guys have done that? No, I think only seven of us is
eighteen sixty five, you know, and that's crazy. Another guy that did
it in the seventies and uh, and I grab a scaling ladder, I
said. When he took him off the brigs, I go, I'm gonna
take this home. Yeah, hell yeah. So I took it home and
they gave you the portchi of Fire Department. It's in the museum. That's
cool, you know. So yeah, but I used to like all these
weirdos, like the twenty foot hook. Remember the twenty foot hook. Used
to try and carry it for the end, the twenty foot hook. There
was a lot of towel lines. Oh yeah, you know. There was
a marquee. They had build an explosion around a block and the marquy was
leaning. So I told the chief chief clock, I go listen, I
get this big hook. Good. I don't want to know nothing, bitche
So me and rescue too. At the time they were there. We pulled
the marquee. Now it worked. But I used to like, you know,
like the loud gun. All right, not to me if people realizes
that the loud guns at the job. So I'm in the back of the
rescue two quarters. It's like eighty six or so, and I got the
loud gun out and the cops are coming by and goes, what are you
guys? Car and guns for? I got ahead. They were serious,
like why do I have this rifle with me? And I explained to you,
I didn't realize what it was for. Yeah, right, yeah,
now shooting the rope on top of the Clark lights and so on. Then
we'll take it turns yeah into it? Oh sure you know? So they
the thing is with ECU goes, watch out for rescue too. The carry
guns. I don't want yeah, I don't want to get too far out.
What was it like for you, like in that area when you first
went to one twenty, Like, what was it like? You guys were
doing the probably the most runs in the city, right or one of the
top companies doing the most runs in the eighties. You had one O three,
one eleven, one twenty in the Brooklyn. Then you had the Bronx
companies and so on. It was just nuts. I mean maybe six grand
at the time. I couldn't ex tell you, but it was a lot.
And my first day pulling up to UH to the firehouse, they had
a fire teams. They were just like going with the fires and I showed
up and the one guy goes, we have the goddamn piece of kid,
Like, okay, you run to the back and get the piece and give
it to him. And I go up to the top to my locker on
the third floor. There's a guy on the side. There's a roof like
I sent back. He's sitting there with a sitar playing this Indian look.
As I goes, what's up, man, he was chilling. Yeah,
well he uh he became an office on the job and a lot and uh,
I said, I'm just it was cool, just cool, like picking
avenue. I can't even imagine. I know what it was like in two
thousand. I can't imagine what it was like. In nineteen eighty or so.
It was the kids across the street where I was playing basketball that the
kids in the neighborhood were always watching out for our cars. Never had any
problems, okay. Uh. One day I came into quarters with Jimmy.
Uh oh God, anyway, I bring it to lacrosse sticks and uh,
that's great, firehouse man. I just wanted to share what you're talking.
Yeah, and uh across the street and uh uh Jimmy, Sony and I
are throwing around the ball with lacrosse sticks and the kids in the neighborhood go,
what is that They never see lacrosse stick. So I show the kids
lacross, like show them to played the you know, back and forth.
The following week they all have sticks that they were well one of these balls
at each other. They were good. You know, they're really good.
But uh, you know, I at one one. You know, the
thing I liked about one twenty besides the work. Every time we went to
a job, Peter McGreevy or the captains, whoever it was, they were
always talking about the job there at the scene. I don't care if it's
ice, storm, snow, whatever the case, hot day or whatever.
You're going over everything. Yeah, yeah, And uh, we learned to
use tools and used to our most important tools our brain and uh, you
know, how to pick up a car with a tire and a tire irondor
and a ladder, you know, things like that nature, you know,
and using the the closet door instead of a door into the room for a
guy to put a backboard because it's much narrow in the window. Things of
that nature. That wow, you know, that was very basic to uh,
to the field. And we had really you know, great offices there.
I mean I would sit there and talk to the chief clerk and chief
common like four o'clock in the morning, you know, And one morning I
hear may they may They made ay on our radios of personal radios, like
go ahead to mayday. The guy went down into our cellar for the outside
entrance. He stole radios and he's cold and day days of the projects because
so who at the house watch I don't know, but the guy went down,
took a couple of radios and screaming may day, and they finally caught
the guy. But you know, things of that nature. But we had
Teva Greeby poll Jetta, Oh my god, Bill Beacie was a bit in
chief. Clark Telamundo who passed away. Uh, yeah, Boundman was the
captain the ins when I got there. Then Brendan McCormick was the captain.
Uh. Just a handful of great guys. It's they were just marvelous.
We were always training. But the jokes were just you know, some of
the fine I thought it would great, like Louis Monteion. He's like this,
they're speaking of Louis right there. He got Paro called Parot to the
right, and the guy that's resting on the rick I forgot. I can't
remember his name. But they were all really good guys and always training.
Like I said, these guys were working with you correct, Uh two three
of the guys. Yeah, okay, cap You know what I was just
think like back then, you guys wouldn't have to drill so much. You
would think because you were going to so much work, you know that you
probably would you know, you would run a rest or whatever because you were
going from job to job. But the more guys we get on, that's
almost the exact opposite. It seemed like guys were talking about fire all the
time, right all the time all the time, like you know, like
the officer like the griev jedder Or or Bobby Babstarck with a captain at one
time he came out of rescue for he was a really good guy him and
should be Basil the wolf at a eleven to be Basil. They were both
nurses and he found out that was a nurse and they had their own business
though. But uh, Bob, Bob Sack was a tough captain and he
goes, Dicky, Dicky, take care of your body because your mind's fucked
up. He was a good captain that had Nick Wisconti who travel through.
Yeah, yeah, but they came. I came into work all right,
and I had my wife gave you a sweater as I do only worked.
One said snowflakes on it. It's like going the court of I don't cap
get out, don't ever come in here with that again. My god,
they had. It's just the last of Swiss. But the training didn't matter.
If how busy you were, what did you do? Rotans, what
did you do? Kenny Art? What did you guys do? Why?
What was your screw ups? Why were you this particular safe? But you
were that did you were on trial that everybody wanted to know what you were
doing at the time, and uh it was. It was really good.
And the kitchen at a time we talked about the jobs, constantly talking about
it. Except for this one guy, uh Pete, I'll remember his name
a few minutes. Was a big guy. He always loved his uh this
gambling, his horses, and he's bet on the hose call Dumby dumb dumb,
and the guys are laughing about this guy. He put one thousand dollars
in nineteen eighty one thousand dollars. That's crazy, dump it's great he won.
Wow. He put in the big guy, big guy. He seem
not won a lot of money. But but he was a tough guy,
big guy that you know, there is always one gambler right out out of
all the guys. It's always like one degenerate. There's always a degenerate.
Correction I stand corrected the Uh. We had this one fellow, Tom Cassio,
great guy. I used to terrorize this guy to end. He would
fall asleep and a busy night and I would tape his bed. It was
with the duct tape and he couldn't couldn't even get up, and I would
stead at the end of the dead light into the dead. You know.
But uh, it's that they had this one guy, Bobby west Ball is
a Q ball. He was a nice guy. He came in one night
from a party. He was really he was out of it. So he
always wore a two pay. So the guys with the fishing you know clips
with the fishing line, you know, hold onto his too pay. They
would the engine work down down the Paul exact nature. And you know,
but you look for the you know, you can't shoke anybody your weakness because
they'll just capitalize it, you know. But it's like a gazelle, right,
a bleeding gazelle in the savannah. Oh my god, like the lions
and the tigers and everything. We had this one guy from uh it was
it was it was a detail. It was kind of weird detail. Its
a one thirteenth truck. It was a different battalion, and uh, the
guy's called us up. It goes. This guy is very queasy. So
you really can't talk about getting sick death the other thing I sold you to
know. So, uh, this guy uh not called for a coffee.
He had a bag of stew. He's going, he's this guy's now it's
turning white. Go you okay, you're all over the table. Everybody chipped
in, I'll take this to me, this piece and this just carrots.
You know. The guy just you know, went to you gotta love it.
That's a good one guy before you you went to one twenty, had
the guys in two on nine and one oh five field ORIOC. When you
when you left it one two, well you know it was uh, I
was getting uncoupled about it. But the lieutenant, you know, but the
officer said you'd make it a good move there was no room in one or
two, so that was like a little excuse for the big right. And
uh, but the guys in injury, they all wish be well, you
know, they didn't have any other moss. And the chief said, you
know good, he picked up pervaccas with the captain. He goes, I
did you go into one twenty twenty to come back? That's what he was.
But you know, there wasn't a bit of problem the guys in one
or two, two and nine, dude, gentleman, you know, and
there is another firehouse, but like two O nine, if we did twenty
five other runs a year, yeah, there wasn't that much. We ran
it with the you know what two eleven that were too ten. Once in
a while we'd run it with two fourteen. Then out house right, you
know, and uh, it was good on top of each other over there.
Well that's why too A nine's gone, correct, you know. They
they took away to two O nine and the three four battalion. I covered
in one O two quite a bit, and I cannot say how many times
the truck went out without the engine, like we would go out of quarters,
make a right, make a left, and go towards one eleven every
time, and uh, that's what you know. They talk about how many
engines are around one eleven? For God's sakes, right, they're surrounded by
engines over there, right, two thirty five and to all those companies.
I had a guy. I'm looking at the guys and I was this big
strapping guys. They just Mikey's teaching me how to use the computer because we
were transit for the bells and I had to get used to the bells,
you know, one two, two foot five, one two all way to
ten and nine like right? Two night goes right, and he goes,
this is what you do when you get the run? You go ten to
four cent? Okay, how hard could that be? One O two is
out in the road ten four sending I had ten to send it. They
had no idea. They go to a run now here brooking to one o
two? Well too, because where are you go? That's what you said?
Ten four? Because what do you got? Second a moment arrival Cherry
Bob bears the lieutenant comes home. He goes, your house, watch I
do alone? How's it going? You do that again? I will destroy
you? What do I do? Explains me, goes you don't do ten
Force said, you just let it go. Let it go right. I'm
trying to do the right thing. I'm hitting the bells. Truck goes to
Hey, guys, the guys in the chat we're talking. I saw a
little bit and we've talked about this on the show. Like when you know,
nowadays, if you screw up at a job, like going back to
what you were saying, like everybody would talk about what you did at a
job, right, and then if you screwed up, hopefully in a good
way, the guys would put you on the track and say, this is
what you're supposed to be doing, right, and you could come back pretty
quick in your time, Like you could have a job in an hour,
right, and you can make up for it. Somebody else would be on
the hot seat right nowadays, you screw up, it could be weeks,
months, who the heck knows before you get an opportunity to redeem yourself.
You know, we talk about that, like you guys had that you could
screw up and then and then well, one of my biggest skew ups,
okay, I had two buildings roaring on a very hot summer day on Howard
Avenue, and I had the roof. First time. I got the roof.
All right, So I look, I got three buildings. I'm thinking
three buildings, there's only two. So this jack cane for one O three
and post it for one O three and they're standing at the hooks and I'm
cutting. They going good job. And I did this the coffin cut.
I did every cut by the book. I pulled thing up. Jack was
going, this kid's great. I'm in the wrong goddamn building. I punched
off the ceiling down as a guy. That big strap in Math for America
goes, what I'm gone, I'm real. Oh yeah, that was one
of my brighter days. But I learned fast to make sure. Yeah that's
one for the books. When did when did you start even thinking about were
you studying at all at this point or you weren't studying. I was always
hitting the books just to learn the job, okay, just basically training manuals,
some of the aucs, some of the safety mandals, just to like
to know. I've always had this fear. I mean, especially when I
was working in the hospital. I was constantly reading you want to make sure
I make sure I got the right or equipment for that particular patient. So
I always not to be perfectionist, but I just wanted to do the right
thing. And uh. And then eventually in one twenty, like the later
years, we had a bunch of study groups. You got to realize Al
Hay, Jimmy Menahan, Georgie Meyer, we all became the chiefs or commissioners,
whatever the case may be. And uh, it was a great study
group. And we called Jerry Tracy went away going back and forth, what
did you hear about this? And what information you have this? It was
so like the last year when I went to perform with the Rescue two,
who got pretty heavy. They when I went to Rescue two, I started
the study groups over there. So who you had to go was down he
was there at the time, right down. That was uh, John Vigiano
Richardson and uh, I don't think of the other guys think, but there
were it was a good place. But we were in Calton Avenue and uh
with two ten engine you know, And that was the pain, the ass
every time you got to go back and forth and move the rig out of
the way and so on. It was but that was a good fires I
had. Yeah, that's one twenty Where the hell was this? I believe
that was on I was looking it over look at the background. I think
that was on Junior Street. Somebody sent me this, let me I'd have
to look. Uh who said it to me? I guess they used to
ride or they they used to ride one twenty and they took this picture.
He said that he was at a job or something like that. It could
have been. I'm just standing there holding onto the bulkhead. Yeah. Uh,
the old grief, the yellow flesh lights there on the side there.
Yeah, and I had my elevator keys on my helvet. But I believe
that it's nineteen eighty one. They don't call him on two otis for nothing.
We had. It was an elevator school from the House of Department in
that in our response area, and su was going there. We were going
there and he goes the great class, really good class. So when do
you decide that you want to make the move to two. I was talking
to Dennis Mohica got rest of soul, all right, Dennis went over two
one twenty to rescue two. Now I'm talking to him. Johnson for one
seventy six, Mike Penville one seventy six and Uh. You know. I
was talking to Bob Bapstock. He goes, Richie, you gotta go.
You're a hearts still instructor. You're a nurse. He did some rigging.
You fit the picture, so why don't you go? So I went to
see, uh, Downey, how you doing. You're shaking his head.
Okay, very good, Well we'll get back to you. By the time
I got back to Cortas, Bapstock goes, you must impress him. You're
going over there next Tuesday. That's right. We had him on the show
The cap in two Rights. Yeah, yeah, he was great. Thes
Uh where's he living now? Because he wasn't seldom long Island. I think
he goes back and forth of Florida, doesn't he wrough? I think,
yeah, I gotta get a hold of him. He's uh, I'll get
you number. Smart guy. Really enjoyed working with him because, you know,
both nurses in the basil of the wolf and uh. I asked the
guys when I was in two or nine, because he used to cover one
or two come out of one eleven? They go, what do they call?
The wolf was watching me? He came in, He came in,
He came in with a plate of six cooked chickens. I got a lot.
That's good for the meal because it's mine. I got he ate all
of them, He ate all four chickens, and like, how does this
guy liveblable? But Jenny Bazil we had we had a bunch of pinchers on
the roof. I forget the guys used to fly him all over the place.
But uh to be Basil was good and Bob Babistark, they had a
company together. They did, you know, I think medical equipment back and
forth. And then we asked me questions, goes they using his face with
tractors day in the hour? They still do. So we had that little
commonaliti there. But Bobby was a great guy. But that's then they went
to Rescue two and uh so you went the following week. Who who what
are the other guys that were working there when you went there? Over rescue
was David van Vost and we went to propaty school with you know, with
your brother, Pete Harris, Dennis Moheka, Terry hatt and Patty Brown,
Jay Fishler right down he of course Billy Huis in al steinhad Jack Lee House.
Wow. Mike Penner was the bitch there then too. Witch was Uh,
I'm sitting there and he comes in the kitchen and I stand up and
going goes, so, who are you what you got chance for one twenty
walked away like all right, I get to watch stuff like that. So,
uh, later on the the role call it like I said, I
was from City Island something from well, yeah, from him in one O
three and so on. But uh, but they were great guys, and
uh I missed them all. I mean, uh, Jay Fisher, I
don't think J Fishler. We're trying to get him on the show all the
time. At the show, he won't come on. I'm gonna tell you
J Fisher story awesome. We're gonna hit him with it. Yeah, and
he loves it too. I mean he suffered from bed lungs and all the
stuff. But we he gets on, he goes, hey, how you
doing, kid, how are you doing? You got the chauffe Yeah,
so you were talking back and forth about the drill from the rounderberg and uh.
We get a job to go to a third a lawm in downtown Brooklyn,
way down right. So we get to the job and I'm fieling them
out. He's feeling me out and he was pretty good. You know,
he was a good officer on stuff. So he' back. So he goes,
Uh, so where you from rich talking? Oh yeah, so you
know my brother? You know your brother? Yeah, the officially it is
the commissioner out in the campigre. You go, whoa wait a minute,
wait a minute. You're a Jewish guy from Saint James. I thought you
were getting from Brownsville ball. So, uh he's doing good. And uh
I love the death because his brother was the commissioner for Friends Fires Commercy Service.
And I talked to that Dave on and off and he's a smart guy.
In fact, he can't when we see him. He starts telling stories
bubbling out of him, right, But we say, come on the show.
He says, talk to my agent. I can't knock him up.
Crazy. He says, yeah, I talked to my make it set it
up with my agent. But he won't. You sit here and tell me
stories when you're in my boots. You can't. It's bubbling out of him,
you know. Yeah. And then he marries Terry and then they have
a boy, and their boy I think was born at the same time as
your twins. In two thousand and two. Twins are born in two thousand
and two, and his son is about the same age. The same with
Terry Hatton and Beth. They have a girl, Terry, who was born
in May of two thousand and two. So yeah, Jay is uh he's
part a character, very smart, very smart guy. Always yeah good.
I'll call him up get bus and balls, will you without a doubt,
no problem. He's gonna say, talk to my agent. Agent. I'm
gonna say, hey, Ja, this is your agent. You we made
an appointment, we scheduled, schedule, schedule. Uh so I got five
stories for rescue two well rescue we were I first thought it was in Carlton
Avenue there for about six months or so, and uh, I just was
infatuated by the work that we're going to and uh down he tells me.
He goes, listen, we're going to move the firehouse. We're going to
Bergen Street. You know. I just go yeah, I know, it's
pretty sure there is connected me. He because I want to go down there
in size up the building for us. So I go down there and uh,
I see a lot of African American kids. It was one of those
uh oh, that's sent a fire unit. They go and clean up salvage.
Yeah yeah, ye salvage there and uh I hear it. The cap
comes downstairs. Nice guy goes who there for? You? Did? Want
you go to his rescue too? Because you guys aren't moving here. I
don't give a right stairs. This is a very famous firefight unit. And
looking around and the kids that the kids are going like not but uh,
we moved into Bergen Street and uh it was a small firehouse and the rigg
backed into the courts. I'm like, this is gonna capid. You got
like three inches on each side. Literally, Oh my god. But that's
what we've moved in there. And I think I sent you a picture of
the guys in front of Burger Street firehouse, you know, all the rescue
two and uh, you know you did just send me that one. If
you send it to me, I'll pull it up. I was trying to
find I didn't see that test on to me. That's it right. Anyway,
Uh, we had Glenn Harris was working there. He was just insane.
Glenn. I just talked to him the other day, did you I
did? He used to do a thousand set ups every day every day and
he who would you want coming for your cap? I need to say,
Glenn Harris, we have the old school firehouse. But I'm just fent in
the meantime until Coop sent me that Glenn Harris he is uh. He was
a tough guy. He really was tough. You know his father Chief Harris,
and the other fellow another but another chief. They were both engineers.
They designed the rock And I was sitting there one time talking to his father
and he goes, you know how tower Wan is in building one with all
the classes article, Yeah, do you know why it's made that way?
You have a clue. He goes that building one faces the Empire State Building
and it's designs a trappezzour. So if they bomb us and nuclear power up
on nuclear bomb, it's been had over the Pire State Building, it will
deflect off this building. Oh my goodness. But Chief, who's good to
be left? Because I don't give a ship. We just filled it that
way, plant it will be left that's left. But Glenn was he was
tough. It was a very tough fieman. He's just he made a Halligan
tool that was six and a half feet long and he drolled a hole through
it, like go do you do with this? Happened to be there to
drill like a six story h side. Just watch he puts it up,
the window, throws his over bond, he skills out. Where's he going?
I've seen that guy do some crazy stuff. Man. Yeah, but
uh, they called him, used to call him goathead. That was doctor
Dick. He was gouthead. I asked the captain and we used to we
used to ask there was Dick Fray was in two ninety was my chauffeur.
And the guys used to hit him. I mean every day, Hey,
you got any gum on your dick? I mean she never got old.
It was just yeah, but I had, you know, like Terry Hatt,
this is serious. Okay, Okay, Terry, how you doing you
doing? Terry? Okay? So we started talking to uh, you know,
study for lieutenants. You know, we became good friends. And Patty
Brown all day long he's hitting the bag. You know, it's like he's
always hit the punchry bag with a good box box. All right, very
good. And uh his brother became a doctor I think up in Boston.
Michael passed away. Yeah, we just did a show on. We had
a sister on and Chief J. Jones. We did a tribute Showlda to
Patty Brown. Yeah, good guy, Patty Man. Yeah, and he
was working in the that I think that's not him, right, he's the
one that you sent me. I wanted to make sure that I'm not that
particular. We were coming from a face fire. I forget what happened there.
The guy that was riding with us, he was a priest from Pennsylvania,
really nice man, and he was just, you know, seeing how
things are going with the fire service. And he took that shot and said
it to me. I think it was like it's see in nineteen eighty five.
Yeah, I would say, Cap, what do you think, Like,
what was the difference? I mean, you were in one twenty,
for God's sakes, in the early eighties, late seventies, early eighties.
How much more work? Asked that question? Really, where you're going to,
Like you've seen a big difference in the amount of work you were going
to. Well, there was a difference because we were That's all we went
to was work. We didn't get elevated jobs. We didn't go to any
you know, ten ninety twos and stuff like that. When we went out
the door, it was going into a pin job or we're going through like
this, Yeah that's pay route burning the blocks out. Yeah. It was
uh different work because we showed up to the job, especially in Brown's lilt
bedstidos places like that. We didn't expect to go to work. All right.
It's you know, the companies there were just top right, We're going
to one twelve's first student nat and we're just gonna show up and say can
we do anything for you? Can we sweep the floor whatever. But we
got I tell you, I heard these heard stories that yeah, somebody's companiesill
leave the hostline for you get the lot of it. We went to a
few jobs where they did, and I just I couldn't believe it, but
uh, you know it. We went all the way down as Benson Harris.
We went down to uh we had a dives job on Manhattan Beach where
a guy was driving a pipe of cup pulling a hot dogs and he read
the guests strolled into the water and do you pull his body out? You
know the dive teams, and the dive teams say it was Patty Trent.
I used to walk clean underneach bouts and port your father, you know,
dollar a foot and making a couple of bucks. The one thing when you're
in a dive team and you go under water, you're done. No high
rise fires, no nothing, you're done for the tour because there's smoke in
relation that you. I mean, we won't even down like forty feet.
But yeah, we lost one guy in training. We lost one guy who
had killed their training. His name was Dave, trained up in New Jersey.
Went down one hundred and fifteenth feet and he knocked out. They were
not poses, but uh the yeah, huh, I were just saying good
night. Yeah, the uh, the dive team. So I thought it
was very impressive with the cops. I mean they were just you know,
primo, and they trained all the time. And uh once in a while
we run into we exchanged information back and forth because we used to argumentze the
full face mace and we had the bone mics that we could communicate to each
other. And uh, yeah, it was Uh that was a good experience
working with the dive team. And we had only a few jobs. I
mean, if they got we got called to a dive job. It's basically
for recovery. That was about it. But the main emphasis behind the dive
team was to back in the thirties and forties when they built they developed the
dive teams was to under under peer firefighting and who used to train on these
piers and these piers are thick, like I see why they had a stick
because we used to shovel these long PPC pipes on floats to spray waterneath the
periods. We trill on that and it was kind of it was kind of
a unique situation. You said, you worked at the marine units. You
worked with PD Aviation, so it was different because you don't do that normally
from other companies. You stayed to your ownly sponsor if you went basically citywide.
A few high rise fires, which was kind of weird, and we
trained with the birds picking us up at the Central Park and flying us over
a couple of high rise where they would potentially drop us. And the cops
said we would go in first. I go, why is that crowd control?
Keep the people away from you folks, and you commitment on top of
the roofs. So did a lot of good work with the issue. No
problems at all. That's funny. We used to say the same thing.
Roof the further we drive, even though you're driving further, like towards Long
Island. The biggest we would do more, just do more. Well,
those companies were spread out a little bit more too, I think, you
know, when you think about it, even though we're going a long way,
those companies were spread out, you know, even in I'm sure I
don't know how close they are. They're not. They're not in South Brooklyn.
They're not as close as they are, you know in you know,
Bushwick or whatever. Right, So well, you look at the map of
Brooklyn and map of Brooklyn and Manhattan. You can see how the department evolved
where the population was most of Brooklyn and crease of farmland, right, you
know, And when you go but I tell you, but I got promoted
at the rescue two and I'm jumping a little ahead of here. The first
my first tour was in three thirteen. Yeah, talk about in the middle
of nowhere, right, I mean, there's a forest on the ground the
road, right, I show up. It's a Sunday morning. I'm all
pumped up. And right across do you have a travel apires floor is a
bunch of ducklings goad across. Church bells are ringing and there's the cemetery.
That's right, to take a forest over a bird sanctuary to the right,
right. I was talking. Yes, it goes where you go out to
Douglaston. So the guys at the house watch and they signed you know,
the tenor road tans and so on. The guy was you know, he
goes, oh, you must have came on the job my grandson. It
was a time the old time is I think the kid was sixty years old.
Yeah, going to back and you know the uh, the guy go,
we do house watch in the kitchen. That's fine with me, whatever
you want to do it. When in Rome. Yeah, so uh,
I'm looking at the book and the book is saying that, uh, how
many runs they had? It was very very little runs. So like one
o'clock and at the noon at a nice little tiny lunch you know, with
the sausage and peppers and the chicken. There you go. So we gotta
run. It was three three and all these companies. So I get on
a rig. Where am I? So we get on a rig, wait
and dry drive. You know, are we in Nasa County? Yeah,
Marathon Boulevard, Like where are we going? So we pull up. We
got a ranch, ranch house you got to what is showing fire? So
I call it, you know, I call the whole hands of the arrival
because I know how long these are. The companies have gone. So the
guy go to the I go to the door, popped the doorway into your
company, and I'm looking. They're coming and they finally get to the door.
All right, turn turn the water on, turn the water on a
right, So we go in, make it right, and they put out
through the fire. The guys are good. I hear the sore on top
of the roof. You know, they knocked the fires down. And I'm
looking around. You don't find anybody. I come outside of the time.
She goes, where's the company? He's laughing. He goes, they walked
home. They were calling special in the company to pick up your host.
He walked home. You can't make it up. You really can't make it
up. I think at that time, cap right. A lot of the
old time is when they were going out right, when they were close to
it, timing, or they wanted to just if they worked in busy places,
they would They all came from Long Island. Most of the time.
They would go out to those those houses out there and they would stay out
there, right, and that that was kind of like the retirement. Yeah,
you know, like they were the one guy told me, goes,
listen, you command of Rescue. I don't care if you came out of
the Slow Company. You're young and stupid. We're old and stupid taking easy
others with me. I'll just I'm meeting my bow and knees, you know.
But then I started covering, you know, I started covering to Rescue
four. I started covering has Matt you know, and Hassman eight with Ninja
Company back then, and then I, uh, I was working at night.
I was working at the tour in twoty eight when Tommy Williams was killed.
He's a great guy. Yeah. Anyway, you know, getting back
to rescue. Uh it learned a lot all different tools, like a lot
of gun you know, and uh, the you're working with the Hurst tool
and all these other issues that I enjoyed working with you guys, like working
with the hurstel. Huh. Well the training when you can, I say,
what did that happen? It was just a picture. I found him
like, oh, this is great for the hurstele and you guys are cutting
up training. So I was like I wanted to ask you, cap when
when you when it came time to get promoted, because you're only there a
couple of years, right, and did you want to take the promotion or
did you have any like you were taking the promotion or did you have em?
Yeah, you know because they got the with Jack Lee House and you
know, Charlie Williams and a lot of good guys. Uh Joey Pfeiffer was
under our class. Joey smart guys like he's on a job now as the
commission the commissioner. Yeah, but uh I it was a good training program.
Flips was great. We had guys from Rome and Buffalo and Albany that
at least to call the the cowboys, and uh, I mean the guys
who were just heartless after the annoy guys whore just hordless. But the guys
of State took it his dride and they had this one full of from Buffalo
and he had a lazy eye. Do I go back and forth looking at
me exactly all all the cliches that were just busting his chops exactly until one
day we we're talking about lone to deaths, all right, We're talking,
you know, talking about Tolmundo fitz Petrick Fisby, and then he gets up
and he had one of he's all Southern drawers from Buffalo. So everybody's like,
wait for this guy. He talked about the five guys that got killed
in the propaid explosion and the way he described with the chief of the piece
of two by four, this neck, the whole bit. There wasn't a
dry eye in the house that night. We all got drunk with the guys
from Buffalo. Okay, it was just a I mean, there's a learning
process that no matter where you are, I don't care what you're in Roanoak
or you're in Seattle. You're on a job, you know what. A
friend of mine, Vick Dorman, he was rescued. Four were talking farreming
together. His son went down. I forget where Jenny Charleston, North Carolina
or something like that. He did his mutual swamp with a guy so he
could take his medical up here in the city. Well that day he's taking
the medical. Nine guys in his firehouse and that was the Colas. Yeah,
that was a but they just never know, you know, Patty Brown
and right Trinkle, they just swaps, you know. Yeah, a lot
of three, but uh, come out of rescue and working rescue was a
want to put this up. That accident was with one one eleven Jimmy Birds
and thrown out of the rig. Really that's one of them said yeah,
c f D are you talking about the Carolina right? All right? Oh
wow, yeah, I covered around you know it's lieutenant And then uh,
where'd you get a sign to the witch division? Fourteenth fourteen? Yeah?
And uh, but prior to that, you know, before I commit a
job, I went to my socials degree in nursing and fire engineering at Suffolk
and Cassi Berry was one of my instructives, and Joel Galvin Jump and Joel
Galvin and when they came on the job, uh, Cassabiri was the division
and uh we heard we hit it off real fast, and he goes,
listen, I'm gonna put you to work, okay. And at that year
when I came on a job, I uh to follow you. I get
with the twenty nine because I liked didn't you work? And so I went
to the captain Jimmy's Bulaine, whose brother was a captain of one oh two
at the time when I was there. Him is a guy goes, hey,
okay, you want to come to it, didn't you company I can.
I don't trust anybody. I want to make sure the line goes in.
So he goes, you got it, and uh. There was an
old fellow in the kitchen with a brown bag lunch that was there every day.
It was. It was a retiree, and uh. I introduced myself
to him, and the captain goes, that's a good guy. Okay.
He was saying five times, that's a good guy. So he brings me
upstairs to the office. He goes, look at that picture. Oh just
JFK for PT one O nine. He was the pilot you know, things
that that. Yeah, so it was it used to be people like that.
There was the historical prominence about it. But I went to twenty nine
to Tigers and yeah, yeah, let me tell you something. Not for
nothing. Not for nothing. The biggest group of men I've ever even seen,
let's work with. Yeah, I got there. Always had big guys
over that. Yeah, well Patillas said you be fair on six ft five.
You know. They had a gym upstairs that were ten thousand dollars.
And I worked with guys at Marshall Glen's and We had this one guy who
used to call guns Chris Severe. He got like arms out to here,
you know, and they're just good guys. And we did a lot of
it, did some work in a big area, right, huge area,
huge area, yes, yes, and running around a lot of pullboxes all
that stuff. You have a ton of pull boxes. But I think I
was there maybe four months and in the engine and we get a pull box.
Okay, what else is now? But it was like three blocks away.
I go, I could smell it, and we went down two blocks.
I think it was on maybe thirty seven revenue. I pull in.
Is this Queen Anne is for all? Like a bastard's exposure for Queen Anne
has starting to go. So I transmitted second along of the rival and uh,
you know, I had three Proby's on the line, and but a
guy with one year driving, and I had one senior name with the NASA
would had one year. I went to Patry the spirit or the case did
a great job. They did a really great choice. Not the fire out.
And for the life of me, I can't remember this one. The
two star chief and uh, he comes he was lieutenant I go, you
called in his second alam of the arrival. Well, it's what I had,
Chief, I mean went to a third alng plus while he's busting my
chouce, because I just wanted to make sure. I go, look this
is what I had. I go, can you do the favorite? Chief
intended and goes, ah, what do you want? I go, I
had these four, these four probies the first fight did a great job.
That's their effort job. And he walked away. God manager, Oh my
god, but you had like big fight Tally battalion chief, Martin's battalion chief.
You have really good bit Talian chiefs in the four six and uh,
Kenny, I think Kenny member was working in one thirty six at one time.
If Kenny member was a fireman one seventy six trucks and uh my first
night detail going back to one twenty a little bit. They go, you
go into one seventy six truck. Okay, where is that? You can
probably walk to the to the firehouse. So I go in there and I
opened the door to one seventy six. I go, this is not good.
The housewatch is pitch black. The guy the housewatch she goes hello,
naked naked. So uh, I go, and I got all these close
stars and the ceiling. They can't make this up. You really can't make
it up. And uh, he goes all right, So I signed the
book and I opened the door and it's Billy pressing. He's urinating on a
tire. It's not urine, but you know, I think he's like.
He grasps my hand, Hi, how are you doing? What is going
on? Well? It gets better. I go to the truck office.
I do a truck you know, lieutenant in Vitrio Dance. He throws me
to radio because you've got the roof. Okay, it's my first. You
got the roof. You got hit for the heights. And Loui yor Gear
was working that night. Louis yor Gear is like, you know, the
super comedian. I go to the kitchen door as a safe lock on it.
I go, I'm trying like I hear twenty two forty two three.
It's a guy hanging upside down dresses. Draggon. I opened the door and
there's this guy I think his name is was, big strapping African American guy.
He's dressed in a kk out whipping white guys for a whip. Oh
my god, it's a snake going through the floor. All the animals over
there. They had a parative and the fish tank driving everything over there.
Oh my god. It was a great company to work with. Really.
Yea, yeah, I want to go the next day. That goes on
today to captain Yeah, that goes on today. They uh, they say,
you're staying there for the day tour. It's okay, fine, so
they give me the ov. They still had the phone booths on the ricks.
I remember the phone booth that I remember the yeah, yeah, yeah,
right, were coming back for a run and someone said, Kenny,
mamma is stealing your car. So I'm in the phone both getting my brig
and all of sudden we start moving a guess to get another run. No,
he's just driving, chasing the criminal that stole his car. He finally
got. He pulls around and he's the parkway, bruns into his car and
gots the guy like you you can't make this shut up. You cannot make
that up. Yeah he married a playboy, bunny, beautiful girl. You
can't make that up either. He fast forward, you know, going back
to uh twenty nine. I mean, these guys are good firemen. They
were everybody's always eating good so to speak. When Captain Splaine retired, he
won his favorite meal, meat loaf, So the guys made him a huge
meatload for the shape of a heart we want and then heave and uh boil
fat boil with the captain in the fire vision. I think it was.
They had a retirement didn for him over the Elks Club and they bought ten
fifteen foot heroes that they made heroes out of it, and one of those
peanut butter and jelly, because that's what's playing like DPJ. Yeah, it
was. It was good. It was good, and everybody was studying.
Frankie Johnston we rescued two together. He was in the truck company. I
came home with vacation and the place was too quiet. I go, no,
this is not good. I go upstairs. I opened up my locker.
Now you heard, you've heard matchsticks right rubbing against the flint, Roman
candles, cherry bombs, all those little pup I dove into my room underneath
the underneath the bunk, and they drilled the whole wedding for me, and
they fired more sit underneath them and uh, what can I tell you?
You know? Yeah, the brothers, Yeah, the brothers. How long
were you over there. I was in two eighty nine for a couple of
years. They sent me over with the two eighty eight because one of the
lieutenants died Tennis, I think it was. You know, I covered different
just to cover the spots because uh he was a captain's name Connolly. Anyway,
he was afraid of birds, and I hear some screams. Some falcon
came into his window. Chase that out. But uh, man man,
yeah, but he just recently passed Audie Connelly. He was one of the
guys in the probably school at the lieutenant Uh. But I went back to
twenty nine and uh then what I was in two eight that was when Tommy
Williams was killed. But the guys and has met a great bunch of guys,
really great bunch of guys. In fact, right in the journal,
guy comes into the firehouse with his like a five year old kid. He
goes, can we see the fires? Yeah? Come on in. So
I showed the kid the brig, give the Colling books, the players,
the cat, the whole bit. And did I work with Chief Steve.
I think he was out of what thirty already? He was promoted. No,
he was there just briefly. I was just just briefly, I think
maybe twe or two months, all right, But then he became a bittie
tree when I was you know, all right, yeah right, yeah,
so I just great guy Steve. But this guy so is he's walking away,
he's taking his son, right, he goes, that's why you should
go to school. They're like, excuse me, and thinking of myself like
wait a minute, wait, let me get the guys come down and shay
hello. So the guys come down, they tell everybody I do the chemicals.
I tried the rig, I do this and that, like all right,
but on the outside, what do you guys do? One guys go
to medical school, three guys own the law firm. Two guys are working
in the marine and whatnot. I go, that's why you should go to
school. That's why I should go to school. Don't listen to this guy
over. Yeah, and I became a chiropractice from how has Meat? What
a chiropractor? The one guy became a chiropractice from has Matt. Yes,
yes, but as unfortunate that that company lost twenty one guys. That was
a shame. But then the ninety three I uh, well, when I
was lieutenant, I guess if you wanted me to take out check out a
stadium and Yankee Stadium because with a lot of disasters going around, they had
a major fire that in the soccer stadium where sixty some of people were killed.
They had the people runned into each other in Brazil, and uh,
you know, I did some work with that, and then he goes,
all right, you're gonna take care of the Steve Will's concert. What the
hell is that? That's you know, this rolling Stones, That's that's a
gig. It's a good gig. I'm there on this on the stage behind
a black curtain, and my kind of part for MESU was there and we
had to brief the celebrities of what they're do in case this and let me
tell you that Nick Jagger was asking point of questions. Great guy, and
uh it was okay, thank you very much, very polite, very pleasant.
And in the following year we did the Elton John and Eric Clapton and
uh they too. Elton John was kind of stiff, but uh, it
was very interesting to see you're behind the curtain. And whenever Clapton started doing
this, you know, eighty five thousand people screaming for you. I can
see why these guys want to be a high on drugs all the time.
It's wild speak crazy, huh it was. It was a good experience on
the big clock too, you know. Yeah, everybody needs a gig that
write a gig. You found yours. And then I got promoted in ninety
three. I got on the job in ninety three. Cap, Thank you,
thank you, thank you very much. What am I gonna do these
guys? Chief? What did you get onto? Cooobs? Ninety five?
Bob, that's my bob, Cap. Yeah, I get promoted to the
captain and Jack Pi comback, had me do a couple of thanks for him,
and then he goes, you gotta open up twoty four mention it.
It's okay, fine, you goes and uh you got You're gonna be the
only captain the job that goes the community meetings. Okay. So I went
there and I called U von Essen, who was the union president at the
time before he became a commissioner, and I said, listen, there's any
protocols would have you bring guys over here, because now you call them up,
you pick your only guys you want. And I did and uh,
how I had been closed. How he calls and closes him under dinkins.
I think it was in nineteen ninety and I opened them up in February of
ninety four, two of ninety four for two ninety four engines, two of
ninety four for ninety four engine right, So how he calls and guard rest
his soul. He was a lieutenant in one twenty when I was there,
he was one funny bastard and uh he was very good. His son came
on a job essentially also he did yep, Yeah, we had him on
the show. Yeah, he's a good guy. And uh they they all
live in Richmond Hill. And so when I opened up the firehouse, I
uh, you know, I had the community people come in and out,
you know, you know, supporting us and so all on. And I
had a quick bunch of guys with the injured company. And then uh I
uh, I was just finishing my second master's degree over John Jay and Steve
King goes like, how you said there? Huh, I like how you
said it in the second message degree. Try to slip it through there,
right, but they uh uh I went over to sainty command was Steve King
and Pete Hayden was just transitioning Steve Kingwin in there, and that was a
very interesting place to work with. We were at Livson Street first and then
we went over to uh nine Metro Tech and uh you know Pete Cancy was
the chief of the department. You know, uh Vonessa was the commissioner.
And it was quite experience, you know, going to all these meetings with
all the big chiefs, learning what's going on behind the scenes, and uh,
you know, we had what's the guy's name rescue for he used to
call sniper. He was killed, but uh, we had these chiefs was
so smart, very very Yeah that mclough. Yeah, and you had you
know, we only went down to one stafety command. It took away the
second one and they were working out of uh Randall's Island, and uh the
guy took my spot, Michie Bevone. He became my executive officer for safety.
But it was it was, it was, it was good. And
then uh you know, my time was up and I went over a small
stint over in sixty five and uh fifty five engines. I walk in the
quarters and I'm signing my name Captain Rotan's and the guy goes, wooh,
I go whoo. He goes the first captain in nineteen ninety eight. This
is like you know, years prior to that, it was Captain Rodan,
Okay. And they used to live on the third floor because captains and the
families are on up. They live in firehouses. And the hand a nice
spiral staircase, the staircase going up. He goes. You know why we
have spiral staircases in these firehouses. They had no idea. He goes horses
the horses right, so because if they would go straight up the stairs,
they couldn't get him down. And the office in fifty five was gorgeous,
had a working fireplace at a veranda looking over forty third Avenue forty first.
I've never been in that firehouse, and I have heard that that is the
play. You were there. You never got We used to get detailed.
Never went on New Year's Evil all the time. Now went there. No.
They used to send my wad to sixty five engine every New Year's Eve
at death left of the ball dropped really great. Five. It was a
good bunch of guys, and a lot of guys worked the theaters, you
know, behind us, behind the curtains. In case of fire with a
car, they would pull them. You know, the curtains drop down a
whole bit. Some of the guys had tuxedos working in certain place, and
that one particular night going into two thousand, we had the command post,
Nick Wisconti the chief, and Shoge the FBI police chief, sanitation chief.
We had all these, you know, like big wigs and so on.
So and the veranda overlooked the forty thirty street. So I told one of
the problem. He's like, go get your tuxedos on, put your towel
over your arm downstairs and ask all the cheese that they come up to.
The commander wants your attendance upstairs. So Santi figured out what's going on.
They come upstairs. I had my white robe and Ascott I had Grandma.
Ye his cigar. Fireplace is going to go. Gentlemen have would drink.
The chiefa police goes uf and fireman, you really got the job. Chelousa
will get you everywhere, and Nick Descotti goes and Moretto I'm in it was.
He was a super nice guy. Was county right, Oh, he
was just he's a gentleman. He really was and he's a guy that was
a captain covering Captain one twenty truck and I came with my snow goes out
something God and then I took that thing off left in the firehouse. Uh
yeah it was. It was a nice firehouse. We didn't do that many
runs. We had the macoci Coli fire. But uh, the one area
why I thought was very dangerous was the Diamond District because they had vassive acids
and uh, all these other bases that they would clean their jewelry whatnot,
so to be very careful as you move a handline in the place. And
uh, it was all security. So if you went into a building,
you're about to make sure that everything that you do is chocked solid because of
the the security they had. And then we had Rockhole Center, you know,
and uh you know all those responsoriaes which we would be an injured company
down there all the time when they do the tree. So it was all
good loco stuff. Really enjoyed. It's like a bizarro world though, right
working in Manhattan, like in the spot like that compared to where you are
right, it's like apples and oranges. Well, you know what's bizarre about
it? Is that the public assembly. I mean, you have these theaters
that are just huge. I mean, how do you operate these things?
And did the high rise fires? And I ab ceed a lot like that.
There was you know, AYB. Seed in the second and the fourth
and the eighth, and I had a good time doing that. I had
one job in a high rise and it was pretty cool, but very very
few fires. But the fires he got I mean just as I got there,
but I think not too long before I got there, they had a
subsell a fire. I'm going up, yeah that. I've had three subsell
fires and one ship fire with John Hughes who got hurt. Very scary,
very very scary. And you think about the job in Newark, like,
what were those guys doing there? They should just stay up the ship.
But that's hindsight fifty fifty. But I had that going there with And then
the one day you had a guy stop over. He goes h Cameron,
You go, yeah, John Onman, I Hey don't John. He was
you know, he was inspected with the PD. Go what do they do?
He goes Monday reporting for duty with Richie Shure. You gotta be deputy
director for OHM. Okay, So that's why I got to Oh yeah,
and would you sure has so all my reports the researcher was doing on stadiums
and also a bunch of GIS systems and communications. He goes, you're coming
to become a deputy commissioner, And that's how I got there in two thousand
and two. Great experience. Did you retire from the job, Like,
how did that? No? No, no, you're detailed. Everybody that
was there, it was detailed, sure, you know, except for like
guys I carried Henry Jackson a few other people that worked there, but ninety
percent of people were detailed from the MS, Sanitation, police, fire ped
and so on. And that worked. Yeah. Pete Picorello was a sergeant
with PD, probably the smartest guys in emergency management. Great guy, you
had this Davis, Andy Grunnwalls, some of these women that were just brilliant,
and uh, you know, they bring me into this room. Is
about twenty my staff there and the all the way, who's this knucklehead?
I go, folks, I may have my degrees and all that stuff,
maybe around the fire service, but you're the smartest people in the country.
Whatever you need, I'm here for you. I go my My motto is
is that if you can't take care of grandma that has an O two West
parade in a wheelchair, they ain't doing that job. I thought this day
was gonna come up to give you the biggest kiss. And uh, but
I treated the staff, you know, because now I'm dealing with civilians.
That was a big change, you know. And uh, even though it's
fire police and so on, the majority with civilians that were expert in the
fields, and it was you know, they had the EOC And it was
a good experience, very good experience because I was now have to be chief
editor of all their plans, which was a lot of them. Then you
were working five days a week, working five days a week, all right,
I would I would have city wide occasionally and they assigned to me this
sogeant and PD Rick Piliki, and we became close friends that I was just
phenomenal. I would beat him in Seaford on Seaford on the Excited Expressway and
he would drive in and we're going together and he's just an outstanding guy.
And uh the fact I was talking to him today, so he was my
exec and uh, on the way back home, he says, are you
tired, yet I believe me goes go to sleep. I put the chair
back down and he would zip through all the traffic whatnot until he got stopped
by highway cop and he woul showed misstage, spared goodbye, just kept on
going. But great guy who he is. And they had a lot of
nice people that Terry went Is from the MS was was there, you know,
just uh, I just missed him all. But you know, move
on. You like doing that work. Well, I left when I retired.
I created an agency for emergency management and they created a graduate degree programs,
you know, so it's I really enjoyed emergency management and I had a
good time there. And unfortunately we were there, we got whacked to do
the World Trade Center during nine eleven. That was a nightmare of itself.
So you after you retired, what did you want to retire though after two
more years? Any reason? Well, when I was in after you know,
the nine to eleven disaster, I want to go into them, can
do that, but the new mayors at their own people come in and then
they went back to headquarters. I worked on the Pete Hayden I feel that
she's doing the McKinsey report. And contributions to the nine to eleven Commission.
And we did that, and then one day I got a phone call from
a deputy first deputy executive from Nessa County. He goes, can you stop
by West Street? I thought I was sorry about West Street downtown? I
go, I gotta turned around. It goes not a Westreet, NASA.
And so this guy, Tony Cancillari, who was retired NYPD lieutenant, who
started talking. He goes, we had to recommend it by a lot of
people to start urgency are going watch? He goes to emergency management. Sure
can you do that? Yeah, I can do that. Once I got
the back in from the county executive because let's go meet him. I go,
who is he? I didn't know it was Tom Swathy because you know,
I was so busy with the nine to eleven issues, And so he
gave me a job. When can you stop? I go about next month
and we got finished with all my stuff at this job, and I credited
the agency in two thousand and two, and well, cat, bring me
up to speed. What what what were you doing at that? Like?
What do you what do you do that when that's happening? What do you
want in that county. Well, I had the first of all, I
had to go through the legislative body to get approved. Right. That was
one of the big hurdles because you had the Republicans and the Democrats, and
the Republicans were nine the Democrats were ten, and uh, they were busting
my chops. And one guy says, well, you Democrats are all the
same, Like, oh, the Democrat, I'm an independent. What are
you talking about? I go, why are you guys fighting them? To
go? New New Jersey, New York, Connecticut. They're all got emergency
management now in the city. Why do you fight? Is this dumb?
But that so we got they finally improved, and then I had to bring
his staff and Rick Biley, he was my guy from New York City.
Oh he was my first deputy. Greg Karen here and Jerry went is that
people that had a lot of experience. They brought in a staff and then
they we had a facility at the jail downstairs at fifty five onred script foot
facility the jail, and this guy Riley said, you got it's yours.
So we had the brick and mortar, We had the first EOC. We
started doing our plans, we started training anything that was evolved. It just
took a lot of work in those four years and we cut it up and
running and it was good. It was a good experience. But how often
can you say that you created a government agency. Yeah, well that's one
of the things you were talking about. The money you could design, No,
No, all deside treat was that I had to get grants, emergency
management grants. I had FEMA grants and funds. So the first year all
my salaries were paid for, you know, and I didn't needed any money
for the facility, but like that money through the state centers that will give
me a hundred fifty k here on fifty k here. So the first two
years I was not too hurry for the cash. And then eventually the budget
starts coming in. Then you have to work with that. So there's a
lot of challenges. Budget, staffs, brick and mortars, EOC plans.
We created Neessa County's first emergency operation plan. Now, according to the Disaster
Act, got to go to b we had to submit All emergency managers have
to desmit their plans every December. So December two thousand and three, we
submitted our first plan I get a phone call from State Emergency Management. Hey,
the commission we got this plan first? Yeah, what do you think?
But what do you want us to do with it? I call you
guys are supposed to get it every year we do anyway, It is what
it is. But did you have did you have like a cash of tool
like were you doing any of that stuff? Or who had that stuff for
National County? Like who would have that if you were if you had an
emergency, who were you going to? You're just you're just setting up the
p D and all that is that. What what we did was that the
Emergency Operations Center. Terry went was one of the guys. He would call
all the agencies and find out what do you got, what's your skill sets?
What's your equipment? And I called I SAT. I had a meeting
with with the guy that was the commissioner for Nanessa County property you know,
well, buildings and whatnot. He's kind of choking, what do you want
me for? I go, you have buildings? Yeah? I go,
well, case you have disaster, where am I gonna stockpile of my medicine?
We're gonna stockpile of my equipment? Oh? So there was a leading
process for a lot of people, and uh it worked out good. I
had a couple of people in the fire service and the police service they cut
slightly because they felt they should be the commissioner. But I think Tom brought
me in because I was an outsider and I had no connectivities to Nansa County.
So uh and he was he was a he was a good guy to
work for, you know, the county executive now was the congressman and so
on, you know. And I worked with a few legislators like, uh,
well Magano, he's doing time of state. But uh, you know,
can you read that there, Hank m I asked it was difficult to
set up emergence besiege and since all fire departments of volunteer, No, it
wasn't you know. What it was is that when we set up the plans,
right, if it's a coastal storm, for for a hurricane or for
blackouts, I would bring in the far Commission and then tell all these fellas,
this is what these are plans. What do you think, all right,
what opera? What can you be doing during a hurricane or blackout?
In the case maybe we had the H one N one Uh, the tobacco
and we had to give out the medications. We did that at this Arcountic
Community College. But the volunteers, they they you know, it was like
sixty four volunteer fire departments. I think it was, you know, twenty
five police departments. They had two cities gardens, uh Long Beach and Glen
Cove. So it was like a mini state of like one point six million
people. So I you know, with the volunteers being I was a volunteer,
they knew what I knew the jug and so it was pretty good.
They they got a coupley of plants and it worked out pretty well, especially
the two tall trees. The guys Maguires are Freeport, they were they're pretty
good. Two tall trees. Yeah, we'll see I would usually see Ray.
Yeah, we see him every show. But you can't miss him soon
as you walking that hole on areas. That's actually that's small hands. Yeah,
small hands. I hate shaking that guy. SA seventy two departments.
Hank m thank you corrected. I think it was seventy sixty four villages.
I know it's been just two thousand and six and it left. That was
a Delphi. Hank Mulley is one of the senior guys. He was in
your proby class. That's what I said. Okay, right, right,
So you left the two thousand and six right, and then you went to
a Delphi correct and that's when you made an OEM management program. The how
it started was that we did a drill on a pod. How how fast
we give up medication? So they used the school nursing to be victims to
give medications. So the provost, Marshall Wells, doctor Marshall Ball, said,
listen, can you make a class or two for us? How about
if I do a whole graduate degree program. And that's what I did.
I did a mass's degree in emergency management and I worked that well, and
I did it for two years. And then this one fella, Kimrarelly,
you know I would meet him once in a while. He goes, I'm
going to build his research facility in bet Page called the Applied Science Center.
Can you give me a hand? So I co designed if I and it
was it was not I wouldn't call it the spooks, but we had a
lot of classified areas in the facility. We had what's called skiffs, secure
communication information facilities, and we had a lecture room with one hundreds of the
chairs and seats that they could convert into an EC in twenty minutes, so
that we had satellite communications. We had communications that weren't even down on the
field yet. And uh, you know, we had a lot of people
from the academia. The agency's FBI was there a lot. In fact,
the FBI barred my facility when they had the Gilgo murders back then in twenty
twelve. When he first started finding these people, and I gained the case
of the place, I go, here's a skiff, here's a lot of
combination, and just go to town. Two weeks later they came back,
goes here you go, Director, we we can't stay anymore. We talk
about some guy with the chief Burke chasers out of there. That's okay,
And we found out later on all about that guy. But it was a
great facility. And then Nasser County OEM moved into that facility, you know
which Jim Callahan, because I left OEM in two thousand and six, I
asked Jim Kellen, can you take my spot? Because he was an attorney
specialized in mergency management law. He was also emergency manager Melbourne and Uh.
He was a pretty shock guy. But unfortunately he died of cancer a few
years after that. And then the following guy, this guy, yeah,
Craig Craft. He took a spot and he died of cancer after that.
Sec I want to leave a bug or something. So the other guy that
was Morelli is another guy in now. So it's but the Applied Science Foundation
was a great place to work. We we uh managed the Hurricane Lee and
Hurricane Sandy out of that place and fever brooked. It was as Fiva came,
there, goes, where can we put our facility? I go take
the auditorium, That's what it's made for. And he were like, you're
kidding me. They were like a seventh heaven. We fed him. They
had bunks, the whole bit. So they were there for the directionstics of
all of that is like incredible. Until you're doing that, it's really just
insane. Well, you know, being at the facility was my responsibility,
and the logistics was for may Infinancer County. They were just elated that they
had a connection the county. And then at every other day we would have
both county executives. We had Homeland Security director what was the name told get
a name right now. She came up. The two governors, Governor of
New York, governor of New Jersey, they were there. Mary Cromo was
there and uh, I'm there in my office there and I'm the time I
had these wastes and have a little exercise there you will spiders. Hey,
nice ways you got there that come on in. We'll sitting there having a
couple of coffee. By an hour, people look at who's the governor.
Who's the governor? So sitting there with the governor Cromo at the time,
nice guy, you know, you know it's uh, he just was down
there. Support was going on with the two county executives in the city,
and uh it was good, you know. Then then they eventually had to
close the place down because they had the financial crime. The guy that started
the place died and the north of Grumman moved out. That was ouran coontenant.
So they eventually close the place. And then from there one it was
two uh Department of Health over in Queens exceed Apartment Health. Oh so Jack
to Night's started where you began yeh home, yeah, right, it was
on Uh, it was like right at the foot of the Queensborough Bridge.
Oh, I thought it was there's another one Department of Health. It's it's
they're all over the city, but this was the main headquarters. I was
working on a program called the Post Emergency Canvasine Operations PICO, and uh,
very smart people, very smart people, and they were very good with the
incident command system. That's they were very blessed people, you know. I
mean, you know, you plussed my chest, but the PhD. Everybody
there at PhDs and you would nevern't know anyway, just go downstairs. I
have a burge and a couple of couple of beers. You know. You
were just natural, natural guys and girls. You know, they were very
smart. You mean, it wasn't like doctor, doctor, doctor doctor.
I know. But then I would go into the briefing room and there's this
one girl FROMCOIS. She's up there with the advanced statistics telling us how fast
we would move these medications whatever, and like, okay. My first graduate
degree was in Holy shit, I remember this ship. You know, all
this mathematics that we're talking about. They they're just they're just good. They
really were. You know a little story with nine to eleven. After I
was managing the eoc overt Pirty two and the reason why we get pinty two
because of we're going to do a drill there on twelfth. How fast we
give out medication, Whichie sure goes. I want to go down to the
landfill and see how things are going. They go down to the landfill.
And since Staten Island and I go to this Butler building and I go in.
I thought I was walking into the screen set as sopranos. I mean,
it is pussy. There is tonally the whole bit, and it got
all this mathematical equations on the board. Hey what about its true? This
hero about God them equation? How fast we get like this kind of insane?
But uh, I was very impressed by sanitation, sanitation police, the
sheriff, great agencies. They couldn't do enough for you, you know it.
But the nine to eleven issue, that bad time really was bad time.
You know we were in Tallis seven when we got hit, you know
wow. Yeah. In fact, uh I thought my two sons, Richard
and Danny, were there. They were looking for me. They were told
I was wiped out advice at first, and we finally met each other on
West Investie Yeah, these two guys and Danny on the left. He goes,
damn, he should go home and think Mom's worried. I go,
you think, but yeah, they were to see I think I know of
rich I don't know how where if he was in once you said he was
one seventy six, rich one seventy six, and they did a lot of
cover in the one fifty four. That's what I have to know him.
Yeah, And Danny was in two ninety nine before he became lieutenant over in
the caveman over thirty five. He should be promoted the captain any day,
now, you know. And uh six, Yeah, And they teased my
one son, Michael, who of that's that's Richie in me. That's in
nineteen eighty five. You know, I have a picture. I have a
picture of him being held by Georgia Gynon in one twenty Georgie guy is holding
him up, and then later on Georgia Gunny was a lieutenant on seventy six.
I'll tell you right now, it's one of the toughest guys I've ever
met. I think Georgie. Yeah, man, his father was a lieutenant
two thirty one and his grandfather was on a job too, you know,
so they could have a big family. His son, I think is ready
to retire. I think his son is over to City Island. Yeah you
know, but uh, great great guy. And uh Georgie's still recovering from
the cancer. He's doing good. In fact, I was talking to today.
We'll get him on that field. It yeah, but we got to
get Jay, doctor j here's a big question. When you left the fire
apartment, did the name doctor Dick travel with you stay in the fire apartment
When I went to om and and uh in Nasa County. Some of the
guys are on the job want to go to the meetings. You got to
say the good with the bed. You know. It's uh even out here
in the island and the volunteers that they bust my chibout it. That's all
right, Come on, man, come on, what what what's the Roadtanser
Associates. That's the consulting from right, there's a consulting. I was doing
a few companies on business continuity. Yeah, yeah, I wish you know,
it's a it's oh god, he's like leaning back. You got a
little I mean, my heart got bro, he's got to make your money,
right, you got to keep up for that ship. Yeah, but
it's a slowly good chill. I'm doing some work here and there, trips
and drips. But how many kids you got? Got? Fourteen? Fourteen?
Yes, yes, my my wife and I my wife if her husband
died when she was pregnant with a ninth when he was thirty nine years old.
And then we met later on in nineteen ninety six. I had my
three and her nine. We get married. It was great. I mean,
she's a doll, she's phenomenal. My kids went to school with her
kids, so and I lost my dad, they lost their dead, so
that that connectivity there, they knew. I was empathetic to what's going on
right right, And then after our three day honeymoon in the city, we
took all twelve kids down to Disney World. But when I was in safety
command at the time, this guy owns is another captain, great guy.
He goes, you go to Disney World. I'll be right back, okay,
two hours later and he goes, my brother was an executive in Disneyland.
He goes, He's sending you twenty tickets. Wow, you know,
so all I needed was like about well, it was fourteen of us at
the time. I needed eight more tickets. Now, my two sons,
my step son and my other son, Ritchie Mike. They went back to
Disney World where we're at the hotel. I go, just be back by
twelve o'clock. I look out the window at five o'clock in the morning,
I see these two knuckleheads climbing up the trellis int their hotel homes. So
I eventually go over there and they see him. I go, guys,
are going to the beach out of the planket. Richie hates me into his
stack of tickets. They met a couple of girls that were leaving and they
got their tickets. That didn't spend a dime at disney World. Hey,
it was great. You know, we had a good time at Disney World.
What are the age ranges from what to what? The twins will be
twenty two in August and the oldest one is going to be forty eight.
How many grand babies you gotta have, like a gazillion grand babies? Number
sixteen it's coming next month. Congratulations. Yeah, it's the breeding. You
don't do that. They do that. And they got a few more things,
so get'll be getting married. So I don't, Trish. I go
listen. If they all get married, they have three kids, that's forty
two grand kids, you know, and all the kids, that's seventy two
people that did the table. I know that. Well, there was seven
of us. My mother's got twenty two great kids in like fourteen or sixteen
great grand kids, and so one hundred for you, one hundred for you,
and we got to do that. Yeah, that's why he's got to
do the consulting. Was going to say, you need another job. You
see the picture behind me. Yeah, that's a wedding. That's just the
kids. Oh my goodness, Grace. Yeah, yeah, family. But
you know what, like by Trish would alway say, they're all productive citizens.
Oh I why to tell my kids all the time, my wife,
that's our job to make you have to be productive citizens. That's where I
fell them all the time. Yep, and I will cap huh, how
old are you? I just turned seventy in August. It look great,
you know, it's uh. I'm hanging in there. And he turned seventy.
They found some little minus skins cancer in the back of the little brain
tuba, which is fine, it's not cancerous. And I had to go
for major surgery by blown out. They shall harnie otherwise, I'm still you
don't got any stretch, do you? Uh? Fourh we beat you rough
see wanted to be a yeah, no, not too long ago. I
had that done, you know. So Okay, I get up in the
morning, my wife kicks me out the bed, go to work, you
know. But yeah, it's all good stuff. Me and I married a
great girl. She really is outstanding, you know, I got it.
We got a little question from David James. I don't know if you know.
He says, hey, Rich, you still have those beads in your
pocket? You had them one twenty by rosary beads. I guess that's what
he's talking about. He says, beads. Beads. Well, I had,
you know, a string of rosary beats. His string wrote because you
couldn't hear me those beads, is what he's saying. So I'm assuming probably
that's probably yeah, because Tom Cleary got his soul. He had rosary beats.
There were a bit of cloth, you know. So like my father
came to me because in Korea, if you don't want to write a lot
and tell them enemy that you were. Ah. So my sons that went
to uh Iraq, in Aghanistan, in Iraq, they had this same thing.
And I tell you my one boy that's uh, I mean Richie,
Danny, you know, Michael. I'm proud of all these guys they just
uh, they were. I'm concerned about them because they're in homes white as
you know. But my one son, Michael was in the Marines in Iraq
and then Felujah. His first gig is that, you know, he had
to stand guard of the post coming and this one guy did not want to
stop and he told him stop stop and he can't up going had to take
him out first, first shot. And the people in the neighborhood wanted to,
you know, put him to court and hang him. So he went
through his routine in Iraq and he comes home and his friend gets axed in
the head for moal through precting. I've remember that a few years. That
was one of the guys he worked with. And I said, you know,
Mike, you know you've been to Helen Back. Your friend gets hurt,
you wanted to kill you in Iraq and all that stuff, and I
mean you, okay, Bill's character really know all the boys are like that.
I mean, rich you would call me up, asked me questions and
back and forth, and Danny would call me, and I started to realize
they were listening to my war stories because Daddy is in the Caveman. They
had a truck that was going through Central Park to get stuck under those those
ramps. You know that by Dispatches office, the truck had stuck underneath the
bridge on the Central Park. So what you do, Dad, I gotta
let the tires out. I know you did that one time. And rescue
too good for you? You know they remember see that. Yes, I
got a good oak. You've done. Okay there, Bud, God bless
him. Uh I love And when Richie called me up this morning, he
goes, Dad, you're on that podcast? Are you kidding me the hell
out of that? While you can, you still got to do one more
thing. It's that time. Time, It is that time, and it's
time for that. Oh take it away. The tip of the day is
just to live right. And then all the guys and girls are out there
and fire and the m s and the OAR and the r just keep on
studying and just keep on practicing, and that's all you gotta do because that's
the most important thing, is to keep sharp, and that's why you'll survive.
That's the only tip I got. And love your family. That's it.
Family first, and work and country, work, church and home and
country. Man like that. Now, if you want to join a nice
template, give you a call, nic. What do you got I got?
I got nighted last year, did you Yeah? I did have to
call you, sir rich Now so well, let me ask you a question.
Where's the oc of the Covenant? Is it underneath where he was crucified?
M hmm? Can you show me the secret handshake? Enough? You
know the treasure? Do you know where the treasure is? He's going to
get it. He's going to get it. Nice Capta had a good life
man, all right? What does he got to hat? Oh he's gonna
knight us right now? I kid you not. Are you gonna knight us
right now? All three of them? Oh, he's got it? Look
at that. Yeah, go ahead, hit me up, hit me up,
let's go. If you're good right here? Well, you see,
don't I'll bring you a soul me do this? Okay? In the middle
are two men riding a horse. Yeah, because a nice Templar when he
started, We're considered poor and they shared everything. So the nice timp has
been around, and I was it's part of the family, the Swiss family,
because my family's in Switzerland. And uh, my kids think I'm nuts,
but that's okay, Well we're nuts. Yeah, gotta be a little
bit to do what we do. Yeah, right, So then they often
comment, is not on Oak Island? Is that? I don't think?
So come on now, you're rude. It for me, I haven't waiting
for the fine cash for like fourteen years. I'm getting hired. I found
nothing. My wife goes, why is the watching that job? They canna
find it soon. I know they gotta find something, find a coin,
if something christ I don't know, all right, so go ahead. It
would be sir Dick if we have to go get him. Love it.
You gotta love it. That's a cap. It was a pleasure to have
you on. It was really enjoy it. You had a great life you
had. Uh, you've still got a lot lot going on. Still,
I've been blessed. Look, I've been very blessed. And uh, like
I said, if I had a chance to do it again, I'd do
it again. You know. I mean I worked with some really great men
and women. Got rest his souls especially, you know the nurses, you
know, a battle of bulge in Vietnam and Korea. You know the guys
that I worked with in one twenty two on nine rescue the whole whole department.
They were just great guys, you know. And I keep on thinking
about it. And your brother, you know, the chief, he's they
love the death, you know, mister serious, but he's very small,
mister happy. Yes, there he is. Yeah, but it's all good.
And do you chieve them in Florida? It's not by milcaol Island.
Say well, my brother Tommy, all right, well it's about an hour,
about an hour and a half. Take you over there. Yeah,
define you'll let you think we're funny here. Tommy is a stand up comic.
He is one sick best and he has a party every year at his
house and he has a band called the Old Geeesus And every year I have
three of these and it's to sing uh. You know, sweet Caroline,
I knew you're going to say that. How do I know that not going?
Neil you gotta go, and Neil you gotta go. And if he
has about maybe like eighty people there. They all go nuts and uh and
my wife's standing there just shaking a head as usual. Yeah, you know,
that's what they do when we do what we do. Yeah, all
right, So we won't see you guys on money Day or Thursday. We'll
see you the following Monday. We're going to be out in Indy. Come
and see us out in Indy. I believe ten thousand and two. You
got it right, ten thousand and two. You're gonna be able to pick
up one of these bad boys right here. The pizza cutas will be with
us, don't you worry. They will where we meet. Not only will
that cut a regular part, it'll cut out Sicilian, it'll call it Grandma.
So don't worry about it. Broel like pizza will send you a pizza
cuta. You got it. We definitely will tell you what. All right,
guys, we'll miss ship. Maybe we'll have a good time. Cat,
thanks for coming on. Really appreciate it. I appreciate it too.
It's but a great night. Thank you very very much. It really quick,
did you did you see this? Really quick? We're gonna see that
somebody. Somebody was arrested pullet. Somebody stole the boat. We're gonna go
on in August. Somebody stalled the boat. The email is in the getting
Salty in Salty Dog email sent to us, like where'd they take it?
Right? They fucking m rand it up on the land. How the hell
did they get it? How did they get the things started? Like?
What the Helliday? Go? Read the thing in the email? Why did
that happen last night? Yeah? I can't it's hilarious compliments of peewee in
the chat. Well he said it to me. I can't even make that.
That's crazy, man. All right, ladies and gentlemen, gentlemen,
lady, until we see you a week from Monday. From Monday, all
right, hey, cat cap, thank you. We'll see it the big
one. Everybody. You got it, all right, guys, he's the
top floor. Good. I thank you,