New York crew are lifesavers for troops in Afghanistan, too

FEARLESS FOUR FDNY: New York crew are lifesavers for troops in Afghanistan, too
Firefighters from 101st Rescue Squadron of Air National Guard 'will fight our way in and fight our way out' to get injured soldiers in the war zone
BY JOE KEMP
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
PUBLISHED: TUESDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2012

AIR FORCE MASTER SGT. JAMES MARTIN
Smoke-eaters (from far left) Shaun Cullen, Tripp Zanetis, James Denniston and Erick Pound have saved nearly 100 lives as crew flies into combat zones to aid troops in Afghanistan.

They were the Bravest of rescue operations overseas — a team of four FDNY firefighters flying into combat to tend to wounded troops in Afghanistan.

The smoke-eaters of the 101st Rescue Squadron of the New York Air National Guard were deployed to more than 50 missions and saved nearly 100 lives between September and November while stationed at Camp Bastion in the southern part of the war-torn country.

“Those guys knew that if they were hurt, we were going to come get them no matter what,” said Shaun Cullen, 33, the crew’s captain and pilot of the HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopter. “They knew we will fight our way in and fight our way out. We will come get you.”

Cullen, a nine-year veteran firefighter from Engine Co. 54 in Manhattan, and his crew began responding to emergencies in combat zones in less than eight minutes — about half the Air Force’s 15-minute average.

“We’re all bringing the same way we operate back home and applying it here,” Cullen said. “That brings the level up a notch.”

About five other FDNY firefighters make up the entire 20-man unit of the 26th Expeditionary Rescue Squadron, but Cullen had the only team made entirely of New York’s Bravest.
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An entire rescue crew made up of New York City firefighters in Afghanistan

NY Firefighters Deploy Together
Dec 05, 2012
Air Force News
by Master Sgt. Russell Martin
CAMP BASTION, Afghanistan

Four New York City firefighters, four Airmen, four friends, one team, one HH-60 Pave Hawk -- one crew -- deployed together with the 26th Expeditionary Rescue Squadron to Camp Bastion, Afghanistan, bringing a unique flavor of New York Fire Departments with them.

Capt. Shaun Cullen, Capt. Tripp Zanetis, Tech. Sgt. Erick Pound and Tech. Sgt. Jim Denniston are all members of the 101st Rescue Squadron, New York Air National Guard, and they are all firefighters when not activated. Cullen, the aircraft commander, is assigned to Engine 54, in Midtown Manhattan; Zanetis, the copilot, is assigned to Ladder 11 in Lower East Manhattan; Pound, the aerial gunner, is assigned to Engine 58 in Harlem; and Denniston, the flight engineer, is assigned to Engine 285 in Queens. Back home, they're all from a different "ladder" and a different "engine" designation, but at Camp Bastion they share one, Pedro 24.

"This is a first," said Zanetis. "An entire rescue crew made up of New York City firefighters. We may have different jobs to do, but we all know what each other are capable of and what to expect when we fly together."
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Grieving Together After 9/11, and Now at Odds Over a Firefighter’s Pension

Grieving Together After 9/11, and Now at Odds Over a Firefighter’s Pension
By ANDY NEWMAN
The parents of a firefighter who was killed on 9/11 and the fiancée he left behind are engaged in a bitter court battle over who gets his pension.

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F.D.N.Y. to protect life and property at a superior level of excellence

Within Harsh Report on Fatal Fire, a Nod to Firefighters’ ‘Can-Do Attitude’

By AL BAKER
Published: August 22, 2008
Here is the Halligan tool: a lightweight crowbar-like device used by firefighters to pry open locked doors, smash windows and punch holes in walls.

It hangs on a truck’s side at the headquarters of Ladder Company 1 and Engine Company 7, on Duane Street in Lower Manhattan. And as Firefighter John McConnachie pulls it from the rig on Friday and lifts its 8 ½ pounds up to the height of his chest — like an extension of his arm — he explains its place in the city’s long history of firefighting ingenuity.

“Anytime something happens, we try to do something to make it safer and better,” said Firefighter McConnachie, 46, who has 15 years on the job. “It’s always a hairy situation — if it’s an explosion, a man under a train, there’s a gas leak, there’s a woman in a wheelchair with a broken elevator and we carry her up.”

The Halligan, a combination adze, pick and fork, is made for improvisation. Named for its inventor, Hugh A. Halligan, who joined the Fire Department in 1916, it is well-suited to the men and women who are expected to think fast in a crisis, even if they have to cut corners sometimes.

But while the tone was scolding, the subtext was admiring. The report said the firefighters’ risky actions embodied a culture of positive thinking. “The ‘can-do attitude’ has enabled the F.D.N.Y. to protect life and property at a superior level of excellence since the Fire Department’s inception,” it states.

Glenn P. Corbett, an associate professor of fire science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said city firefighters were known for fearlessness and innovation. Each fire is unique, he said. Conditions can change in a heartbeat.

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NY Toxic Tower Reminders of 9-11 Failures

Fire at WTC building exposes government lapses

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: August 17, 2008

Filed at 3:03 p.m. ET

NEW YORK (AP) -- Every two weeks, firefighters ascend a condemned, black-shrouded skyscraper, checking carefully marked exit signs, a rebuilt water supply system and wide-open corridors. They wear protective suits on floors still contaminated by toxic dust from the World Trade Center.

A year ago, more than 100 firefighters ran into the partially demolished building during a fire and had trouble finding their way out. Thick, plastic sheets meant to contain asbestos on some floors also held in smoke. Two firefighters died on the building's 14th floor when their oxygen supply ran out.

The Aug. 18, 2007, fire at the former Deutsche Bank tower across a street from ground zero exposed the incompetence of multiple government agencies assigned to near-daily inspections of the building, which was being dismantled. It also unmasked a questionable subcontractor and the Fire Department's failure to point out dozens of hazards -- including the cutting of a pipe meant to supply water to fire hoses -- before the blaze.

''The community had been raising red flags for months and sometimes years'' about the toxic tower, said environmental activist Kimberly Flynn. ''It's a mystery to us how you can have the number of inspectors that ... were practically living in that building and have that level of disaster.''
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Northern Ireland Centre for Trauma and Transformation

As you look at this picture from New York, I'm sure you're wondering what it has to do with Northern Ireland. Later in this article, you'll see what ties it all together. The obvious connection we tend to miss is that trauma does not know national boundaries. It does not know one skin pigmentation from another. It does not know gender or sexual preference. PTSD is all inclusive.

PTSD does not just strike the individual exposed to the event. It hits everyone they come into contact with. Their families get hit with the blunt force of a sledge hammer as they understand their life has just changed because of an event they had nothing to do with.

In my case it was Vietnam. I was just a kid when that was going on, yet years later the Vietnam war changed my life when I met my husband.

For others it's the same story. Today we focus on Iraq and Afghanistan veterans coming home changed by the traumas of combat. What we don't realize is that there are thousands of people all over this country who meet these veterans without a single clue of what is coming with them. They fall in love without seeing the pain buried behind the smiles. I get contacted by people all the time who are just getting involved with combat veterans wondering what they can do for the veteran at the same time they are looking for help for themselves. They see past the pain seeing the whole person and they love them. They have seen their own lives change because of love.

For the people coming into contact with Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, it's not much different. What is deep inside of them is still there but it's trapped behind the walls their mind has built to protect them from suffering more pain. Human nature always finds a way to inspire hope within them and they try to find happiness. They try to build relationships seeking what we all need as humans.

Sometimes the symptoms of PTSD arise years after the event. As you'll read later, people are still discovering that the events of 9-11 changed them the same way the events in Belfast changed the survivors there. It happens with any traumatic event. It's up to us to make sure that when we do come into contact with people wounded by the traumatic event that we hold their hand and take them to the help we know they need. kc

Horror, despair and how help came from Omagh

Thursday, 14 August 2008
While the Omagh outrage wreaked devastation its legacy has also helped others traumatised by horrific events around the globe. Kerry McKittrick hears about a unique form of cognitive therapy which was developed after the bomb


David Bolton is one of the founder members of the Northern Ireland Centre for Trauma and Transformation in Omagh where a special cognitive therapy, which is based on counselling, is used. He says:

The Omagh bomb was a different situation from something like the Enniskillen tragedy. When the Poppy Day bomb happened, there was very much a sense of ongoing war. With Omagh, there were ceasefires and the Good Friday Agreement had been signed four months before. The Enniskillen bomb had revealed the obvious physical impact of a bomb, but we weren't sure what the psychological impact would be.

I got involved in Omagh an hour after the bomb went off. I led the team that was based in the local leisure centre that evening. It was being used as an information centre for relatives to go to. It was immediately clear that this was an appalling tragedy and that conventional services wouldn't be able to cope and additional ones would have to be laid on.

The Monday after the bomb, myself and my colleagues met with the then Secretary of State, Mo Mowlam, to discuss what would be needed in terms of mental health. She asked us to present her with a plan within three weeks.

What happened was that the temporary group, the Omagh Community Trauma and Recovery Team, came into force on the Tuesday, three days after the bomb. At that point this was a multi-agency response, not just us but services like GPs as well. That group existed for three and a half years, and during that time we saw over 700 people. A large proportion of people came in with problems such as stress and mental health issues. Others came with practical problems such as unemployment. We were a group for mental health, but we didn't turn anyone away. We were an obvious first point of contact for people who needed help after the bomb.

In the early days we did studies into the impact of the bomb on the local people and their families. These studies were singularly important in how we approached people. They brought together the wisdom and experience of the local community, and the excellent work of the local services.



We were very lucky for with this information, and with the help of the cognitive therapy from Oxford University, we were able to develop a cognitive therapy technique tailored to the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder people were suffering after the bomb.

The one event that sticks in my mind was when a schoolgirl brought her friend in by the hand and asked us if there was anything we could do for her. That particular moment made us all very emotional as it showed us how family and friends were reacting and supporting others through the tragedy.

The permanent centre, the Northern Ireland Centre for Trauma and Transformation, was driven by two main concerns.

The first was that the treatment developed would not be lost and the second was that there would something that came out of the tragedy that would make a contribution to all of the communities in need, not just Omagh. This is how our humanitarian work started.

We've developed our humanitarian work to bring the treatment to other places that needed it. I remember sitting in the office of the New York Fire Department after 9/11. We were looking out of the window at where the Twin Towers used to be, having a very moving conversation with members of the Fire Department and their clinicians.

It was this conversation that led us to invite representatives from the Fire Department, Police Department and Port Authority over here to see what we had done.
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