PERTH AMBOY – PAFD Chief Abraham Pitre spoke emotionally about being dispatched to the World Trade Center to look for his good friend, Firefighter Richard Rodriguez, who was not responding to communications. Pitre recalled that he had fought many fires before and had sustained severe burns in one of them but had never been afraid. This time was different. He was told to have two forms of ID on him – one on the upper part of his body and one on the lower part of his body because of this particular dangerous situation. “I was very scared and when I called my family, I wasn’t sure if this would be the last call that I would be making to them.”
Captain Roman McKeon, Detective and Acting Deputy Chief PAPD spoke about Police Officers being unfairly targeted in Social Media and that the good things the Police do that go unnoticed. He stressed that the Police are here to serve the public.
Officer Jesus Martinez, Detective PAPD, United States Recon, Marine gave a few excerpts from an article, “What My Eyes Beheld,” that he wrote for the Police Magazine, “NJ Blue Now.” (See Page 8)
Asm. John S. Wisniewski spoke about the Battle at Fort McHenry during the War of 1812 and how that was the first time the American Flag was challenged.