SIMON CRITTLE and DAVID SEIFMAN
NY Post Online
WABC TV - New York
The 307 probational firefighters are the first class of future graduates since the tragedy at the World Trade Center.
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October 23, 2001 -- The day Robert Whelan decided to join New York's Bravest, his older firefighter brother, Eugene, gave him his own FDNY tie pin.
Yesterday, Bobby, as his big brother called him, wore the pin to his signing-in ceremony as a reminder of Eugene - who was killed at the World Trade Center.
Whelan was among 307 new recruits who joined the city's beleaguered department yesterday to begin the process of rebuilding its ranks.
At an emotional ceremony at the Fire Academy at Randalls Island, the "probies" were the first to be sworn into the department since it lost 343 men in the terrorist attacks.
Whelan, 28, of Queens, said he was disappointed he wouldn't serve with his brother but added, "I think actually we will be together."
"Through the academy and while I am a fireman, he will always be there," he said of Eugene, who worked at Engine Co. 230 in Brooklyn.
Another recruit, Vincent Melfi, 25, from Staten Island, said he thinks about the dead and missing "every day."
"You can't get away from it. I don't think we ever will," he said.
But he said the terror attack didn't dissuade him from trying to join the FDNY.
"If anything, it would intensify it. You know, trying to live up to what came before us," he said.
Firefighter Al Lampasso, father of one of the recruits, Michael, 26, of Queens, was overflowing with pride.
"After all that's gone on, I am very proud. They really don't understand," he said with tears swelling his eyes as he watched his son standing at attention among his fellow recruits.
"My son Michael knew some of the men. But they didn't know the guys like we did - like I did."
The probationary firefighters, whose class is larger than normal because so many men were killed Sept. 11, now face 10 grueling weeks of training in the hope of becoming full-fledged firefighters.
At the ceremony, Mayor Giuliani told the packed auditorium of fresh-faced recruits that all firefighters "absolutely love their job."
"You get to have a feeling that most people wish they could get one time in their life," he said. "You're going to have the fulfillment of saving someone's life."
The mayor added the Fire Department was "totally undeterred" by tragedy.
"We're mournful. We're sorrowful. We're crying, and we always will - but we're stronger than we were before," the mayor said.
Fire Commissioner Thomas Von Essen said it was a strange time to be swearing in firefighters.
"It's an uneasy feeling because it is so different. And yet it's not any different than it had been in the past, as far as what will be expected of you," he said.
He said that two previous classes, containing about 250 rookies, will be permanently assigned in the first week of November.
"We're just slowly assigning and filling in as many positions as we can throughout the department," he said.
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