by J.M. Kearney

This is a chronicle of an earlier era, a very different era in the FDNY...and in the Fire Service overall.  It's an era that, in retrospect, looks like one of, "reckless abandon," compared to today's "Safety (meaning 1st Responder safety) First" era, BUT it wasn't.  It WAS an era when the life and property of civilians we were paid to protect came, first, second and third and our own safety sometimes came in 4th.

But it wasn't a reckless age, far from it.  It was an era when firefighters were expected to take calculated risks.

It was a different era, populated with "dinosaurs," men who fought fires through the FDNY's "War Years," who instilled "the right way to do the job," in their charges.  They were wildly irreverent, shamelessly politically incorrect and fiercely independent decision-makers.  They were decisive and adept at sizing up risks.

This is a chronicle of that earlier era and those characters, whom I believe shouldn't be forgotten.