RICHARD PYLE
Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK (AP) -- The New York Fire Department added 240 new members to its ranks, handing out diplomas to trainees at a ceremony marked by six empty chairs _ seats symbolically held for classmates who died at the World Trade Center.
Thursday's training academy graduates were the first since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, but they still leave the department more than 100 shy of filling all the places of those lost in the trade center collapse. Officials listed 343 firefighters as missing or killed in the Sept. 11 attack.
In addition to the 240 rookie firefighters who graduated, the six who died were awarded diplomas posthumously. The chairs that marked their places were draped in purple bunting and blue FDNY uniform shirts.
``We will remember their bravery in all that we do throughout our lives,'' said Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, a department chaplain.
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani noted that many trainees were assigned to firehouses and worked during the attacks, receiving a special initiation into the perils of their profession.
``You've had to face the worst,'' Giuliani told graduates. ``We always knew we were the best. Now the whole world knows we are the best.''
Family members accepted diplomas awarded posthumously for Richard D. Allen, Calixto Anaya Jr., Andrew C. Brunn, Michael Cammarata, Michael D'Auria and Anthony Rodriguez as their classmates and a packed audience applauded.
Anaya's wife Maria brought her three young children on stage. Her 6-year-old son Brandon, wearing his father's cap, accepted the diploma.
The academy provides 11 weeks of instruction and two weeks of on-the-job training at firehouses, after which the cadets return to school for evaluation. Graduates remain probationary firefighters for one year.
Brogan Healy, a co-valedictorian, said neither he nor any of his colleagues regrets the decision to become firefighters.
``We have entered into a brotherhood and we look to our big brothers,'' said Healy, who moved from California to join FDNY ranks.
The list of graduates also included Edward McMellon, one of four police officers acquitted last year in the 1999 shooting death of unarmed African immigrant Amadou Diallo. McMellon was among the top 200 finishers among 6,000 fire department applicants and began training in July.
McMellon's switch to the fire department was criticized by the New York Civil Liberties Union, organizations representing black officers and firefighters, and Diallo's mother.
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