NY FD Promotes 168 to Rebuild Officer Ranks

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http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/17/nyregion/17PROM.html

Department Promotes 168 to Rebuild Officer Ranks By EDWARD WYATT

When 168 officers and firefighters were promoted yesterday, there was the usual mayoral speech about leadership and responsibility. But unlike those at other, usually joyful, promotion ceremonies, the speeches by Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and top Fire Department officials were delivered through tears, resonant with urgency and trepidation, pride tempered by loss, and words of battle, comradeship, risk and courage.

They were, in many ways, the words of wartime. Mr. Giuliani cited Churchill and Pearl Harbor as he spoke to a group of officers, outfitted in their crisp dress uniforms, who will replace a command structure shattered along with the World Trade Center, and who will lead a department devastated by the single greatest loss of life in its history.

"In the last great attack on America, the attack on Pearl Harbor, the first casualties of that war were the members of our United States Navy," Mr. Giuliani said during the ceremony at the MetroTech Center in Brooklyn. "They wore a uniform, like you do. In this war, the first large casualties are being experienced by the Fire Department of New York City.

"The Navy regrouped, it fought back, it won the Battle of Midway and it turned the tide of the battle in the Pacific, after it had been devastated," Mr. Giuliani said. "The New York City Fire Department is being re-formed today. It reminds me of battlefield commissions during a time of war."

After six days of rescue efforts employing thousands of firefighters from New York and other cities and towns, Fire Commissioner Thomas Von Essen said it was essential to quickly rebuild the command structure that was decimated by the terrorist attacks. Five of the department's most senior officials, including the chief who specialized in directing rescues from collapsed buildings, were lost, as were a dozen battalion chiefs.

"I walked that site this morning, and it is getting more and more difficult to believe that we will recover as many of our men as we would want to believe," Commissioner Von Essen said. "We need you to help us attempt to recover the rest of our men that are missing. We need leadership. We need structure. We need you out in the field as fast as possible, and that's why we brought you in here today."

Daniel A. Nigro, 52, of Whitestone, Queens, was promoted to chief of department, the top-ranking uniformed fire official, replacing Peter J. Ganci Jr., who was killed on Tuesday in the collapse of the trade center's north tower. Previously, Chief Nigro was the department's chief of operations, and was widely praised for his oversight in 1996 of the merger of the city's troubled Emergency Medical Services into the Fire Department.

Chief Nigro joined the department nearly 32 years ago, on the same day as Salvatore J. Cassano, who yesterday replaced him as chief of operations. Mr. Cassano, 56, of Staten Island, oversaw the department's Y2K preparations and OpSail 2000. But department officials said his most important credential was his experience overseeing the department's First Division, whose territory includes the World Trade Center and the other high-rise buildings in Lower Manhattan.

Six battalion chiefs were promoted to the rank of deputy chief, and 29 officers rose to battalion chief from the rank of captain. Also, 61 new captains were named, and 70 firefighters were promoted to the officer's rank of lieutenant. A department official said that as many as half of those promoted yesterday were filling positions that were occupied by men who remained missing after the trade center's collapse.

As a brilliant sun shone down on the unshaded plaza in front of the department's headquarters at MetroTech Center, where black-and- purple bunting, to signify mourning, hung over the front entrance, Mayor Giuliani, Commissioner Von Essen and Chief Nigro each remarked on the incongruence of applauding the advancement of men who are still seeking to rescue those they are replacing, while the city and nation mourn those who have been found.

"But I will not apologize for that," Commissioner Von Essen said, "because we need you to help us attempt to recover the rest of our men who are missing."

Lt. Fredrick N. Fuchs, newly promoted from the rank of firefighter, said the small comfort of having family nearby was the comfort that eased the greater pain. "Typically, this is a very happy day," he said. "But tomorrow, it starts all over for us. It's difficult to operate in such circumstances."

As they milled about after the benediction, the officers were instructed to stand by for orders. Turning to a deputy, Chief Nigro said simply, "We've got to give these guys assignments."

-- Anonymous, September 17, 2001


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