IKIMULISA SOCKWELL-MASON
NY Post Online
October 25, 2001 -- James Coyle was born to be a firefighter - but he "died a hero," his friends recalled at his funeral service in Brooklyn yesterday.
More than a thousand people crowded into and around St. Thomas Aquinas Church in the Flatlands section to say goodbye to the 26-year-old rookie, who was on vacation the day terrorists crashed jetliners into the Twin Towers but still joined Ladder Co. 3 that morning to save lives.
"He was a very, very brave man," Mayor Giuliani said. "Being a firefighter was his calling. James died a hero."
The mayor asked the congregation to honor Coyle with a standing ovation. The applause lasted for nearly a minute.
At the front of the church, near a big color picture of Coyle, sat his helmet and an urn filled with ashes.
"I will never walk in front of a firehouse again without thinking, thanking and praying," said the Rev. Daniel Gatti.
Coyle's friends remembered him as a good-natured, beer-guzzling buddy who'd give the shirt off his back to a friend in need.
"I don't know what it's like to lose a son or a brother. But I know what it's like to lose a great friend," said firefighter James Dunn.
"He was the greatest guy in the world," Dunn said. "Who else could drink a pint of Guinness in a mere 15 seconds?"
In East Islip, L.I., nearly 600 family and friends of Firefighter Thomas Kennedy filled St. Mary's Church - and the street outside - to mourn the fallen hero.
The Rev. Steven Peterson eulogized one of the Bravest from Ladder 101 while the skirl of bagpipes echoed throughout the church during the early evening service.
"The church holds 375 to 400 people, and it is packed," said one church official. "And another couple of hundred firefighters are on the sidewalk outside."
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