Firefighters who Protect NJ Air Guard Now Eligible for State Retirement

The firefighters who protect the state’s Air National Guard fighter wing at Atlantic City International Airport are now eligible for entry in the Police and Firemen’s Retirement System, or PFRS.

The change took effect Monday and follows years of efforts to bring recognition of their work in alignment with peers around the state, the department’s union says.

The 177th Fighter Wing Fire Department is a 23-member, civilian 24/7 firefighting force that serves the guard’s 177th Fighter Wing, a U.S. Air Force component. The group falls under the N.J. Department of Military and Veterans Affairs.

The fire department was started in 1987 to protect the fighter wing, but its members were given unclassified posts called “staff assistants.” The word “firefighter” was literally written in parentheses.

“This classification never reflected who we were or the dangers we faced daily,” according to a statement the union wrote summarizing its members’ actions over the years, partially authored by fire Capt. Kolby Rundio.

Rundio said the department has responded to everything from aircraft crashes and structure fires to medical calls, both on the airport grounds and in the surrounding communities. The department is a member of the Atlantic County Tanker Task Force.

“Yet through it all, our members were never properly recognized as firefighters,” Rundio wrote in the statement.

In 2011, our members put in a request for the state Civil Service Commission to recognize their role. “That appeal was denied, with the explanation that the title ‘Fire Fighter’ was not available for use in state government,” the statement said.

Two years later, the firefighters petitioned to be able to join the PFRS, but the pension system denied it because they were not classified as firefighters. (Members were able to join PERS, the Public Employees Retirement System, Rundio said.)

Politicians and other state officials did not act on their behalf, the statement says. “Time and again, we were told to be happy with what we had and to be careful what we wished for,” the statement says.

Rundio said the fire department pressed on to attain firefighter status, and entry into the proper PFRS retirement system.

Enter the New Jersey Firemen’s Mutual Benevolent Association, FMBA, the state’s largest firefighter’s labor union. In 2020, FMBA reps traveled to the base firehouse to hear their story.

“Even before we were officially affiliated, they offered guidance, advice, and most importantly, hope,” Rundio wrote.

In January 2021, the 177th Fighter Wing Fire Department joined the FMBA, and were given the aptly numbered Local 177. Rundio is the union president.

Last year, the FMBA advocacy led to the department’s firefighters being reclassified with the titles: air guard firefighter, air guard fire captain, air guard battalion chief and air guard deputy chief. (The department’s fire chief is a member of the Air Force.)

“For the first time in our department’s history, our positions reflected the work, training, and sacrifices we make every day,” Rundio wrote in the statement.

And on Monday, Rundio said, the PFRS’s board accepted their titles into the pension. “What we were told for years could never happen, finally has,” Rundio said.

“It was a monumental day for us, history was made,” Rundio told NJ Advance Media.

“We look forward to continuing our mission knowing that our efforts and sacrifices have finally been acknowledged,” he said.

©2025 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit nj.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.