When he takes the stage at his graduation ceremony Thursday, FDNY Probationary Firefighter Aric Tegtmeier knows that somewhere his dad, an FDNY firefighter killed on 9/11, is grinning from ear to ear.
“I was talking to my mom about that the other day,” Tegtmeier, the son of Firefighter Paul Tegtmeier, said Wednesday. “She said that if he was there he would be smiling.”
“That’s what I remember most about him — his smile,” added the 24-year-old newly minted firefighter, who was just 6 when his father was killed in the terror attacks. “He was always happy and that smile could brighten a room. I keep that in mind and it always helps me get through the tough times.”
Aric’s father was assigned to Ladder Company 46 in the Bronx when terrorists drove jumbo jets into the World Trade Center. He and members of Engine 26, where he was temporarily assigned that day, raced down the West Side Highway. He never returned home.
Paul Tegtmeier was one of the 343 FDNY first responders who died when the towers collapsed. His remains were never recovered although the equipment he was carrying was found, bent and broken, in the debris.
The 41-year-old firefighter had joined the FDNY just 18 months earlier. For 20 years, he watched his number creep up the list of potential new hires. He was just under the age cutoff when he was finally called to the academy, family members recalled.
For days after his father’s death, Aric, then just 6, spent most of his time on the front lawn of his family’s Hyde Park home in his mini firefighter coat and helmet putting out imaginary fires like his dad and his mother, a local volunteer firefighter, relatives remembered.
He wore his bunker pants during his father’s funeral as he walked up and down the lines of firefighters honoring who were honoring his dad with a final salute.
Like his father, Aric was a volunteer firefighter for Long Island’s Roosevelt Fire District. Two years ago, he became an FDNY EMT and jumped over to being a firefighter as soon as he was able.
“It’s a dream come true,” he said. “I don’t think the full effect has hit me yet. Maybe when I walk the stage it will.”
Aric said he wanted to be a firefighter even before his father’s death but in the years following 9/11 his passion for the job grew.
“The way everyone reacted and took me under their wing...I got to learn a lot more about the brotherhood, that everyone is there to help each other," he said. "That really made a difference for me.”
FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro said that Paul Tegtmeier “instilled the notions of bravery and service in his son.”
“With his graduation, (Aric) made his father, and all of us, incredibly proud,” Nigro said.
Aric will have a wing of supporters at East New York’s Christian Cultural Center when he and 186 other probationary firefighters are officially sworn into the department Thursday. His mother, sister, grandmother and girlfriend will be cheering him on along with members of Ladder 46 and Engine 26 who knew his father — and watched Aric grow up.
“They were there for the Christmas parties and the FDNY functions. They would even reach out to me during the school year and make sure my grades were good and I was keeping out of trouble,” he remembered fondly. “When my grandmother passed away, they were pallbearers.”
Once graduation is over, Aric will be assigned to Ladder 58 in the West Farms section of the Bronx — a short distance from his father’s old firehouse.
“Everyone is welcoming me, that’s for sure,” he said. “I’ve been to a few different parts of the city and there’s at least one guy in each firehouse who remembers the last name. They’re all excited that I’m finishing probie school.”
———
©2019 New York Daily News
Visit New York Daily News at www.nydailynews.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
