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OUR MILITARY.
- Thread starter 68jk09
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DoD Identifies Army Casualty
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Inherent Resolve.
Spc. Javion Shavonte Sullivan, 24, of Fort Mill, South Carolina, died Jan. 8 in Al Anbar Province, Iraq, from a non-combat related incident. Sullivan was assigned to the 16th Signal Company, 11th Theater Tactical Signal Brigade, Fort Hood, Texas. The incident is under investigation.
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THE "DOCUMENTARY".......This is by far the very best critique I've read of Ken Burns' recent documentary on Vietnam. It's a bit long but this guy Garlock is a great writer.
Worth the five minutes to read. Well written and long overdue.
Propagandists masquerading as historians
by Terry Garlock
Scheduled for publication Wed, Jan 31 in The Citizen, a local Fayette County, GA newspaper
I was only one of many Vietnam veterans who wrote opinion columns criticizing the Vietnam War film by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, opining their work seemed more like propaganda than history. In doing so I occasionally used ?Burns? as shorthand for the pair, to which Ms. Novick emailed me her objection. She is correct, I should consistently include her name as co-producer because she is equally culpable in the hit piece they brazenly call a documentary.
So, Ms. Novick and Mr. Burns, this is for you. My back-handed compliment is that your wholly inaccurate film is a slick rationalization for aging Americans who, decades ago, loudly encouraged our enemy while we were killing each other in combat. For those harboring doubts about actively opposing us in their youth while we served our country in a war, your film may have supplied just the soothing salve they need.
You bent the truth in your film too far, too consistently, too repetitively, and omitted too much to leave any room for me to believe those errors, omissions, distortions, half-truths and complete falsehoods were remotely accidental.
Like a house of distorted mirrors, you portrayed the murderous and avowed Stalinist Ho Chi Minh as a nationalist driven by reunification of North and South Vietnam rather than his real commitment to Communist conquest of free South Vietnam. Your film repeatedly depicted the war as unwinnable, the North Vietnamese cause as just, war crimes between the two sides as morally equivalent, American troops as victims, South Vietnamese as mere bit players, all that and much more of your content completely opposite of the truth. You selected for dominant interviews from the tiny percentage of American combat veterans with a grievance who joined the protestors when they returned home.
I cannot know the motivation in your hearts, but I have the stark impression that your plan from the very beginning was to delegitimize America?s role in the war and justify the anti-war left by very selectively emphasizing negatives and minimizing positives to shape the film?s message to your liking.
There is a tragic irony in protests by the anti-war left and your justification for them. The noble cause of the Vietnam War was trying to stop the spread of Communism in Southeast Asia, especially important given the hegemony of China in the region. Even so, while we answered our country?s call and honorably performed our difficult duty, leadership in the White House and Pentagon created a patchwork of micromanagement and idiotic war-fighting limitations, obstacles that got thousands of us killed while preventing victory. Those egregious and very real failures alone would have been worthy of protest, but your buddies on the left either didn?t notice or felt compelled to manufacture their own demons, like John Kerry?s fantastic lie that we were raping, murdering and rampaging in Vietnam like Genghis Khan.
The outrage is our enemy?s daily atrocities against their own people, juxtaposed against how we Americans defended and helped those civilians in a hundred ways, both ignored by the news media while American troops were maligned.
Ms. Novick, you were just eleven years old when America withdrew from Vietnam in 1973, so you might have missed personally knowing the effects of false stereotypes about Vietnam and its veterans.
Like so many others, I came away from that experience with my eyes opened, having learned by watching young Americans the true meaning of honor, courage and trust. Those men and women were then and still are the finest people of character I have ever known.
I saw my fellow helicopter pilots fly into enemy fire routinely, taking mortal risks to protect civilians and their brothers, and I saw grunts do the same crazy things for each other. I flew gun cover for Dustoff crews braving enemy fire to pick up wounded, and I flew gun cover for LRPs sneaking in enemy turf, the bravest men I have ever seen; if you have an open mind, read Six Silent Men by Gary Linderer to understand how bold our Rangers were.
I saw doctors, nurses and orderlies drive themselves to physical and emotional exhaustion every day as they struggled to send us home alive, and still we found time to send medical help to poor villages where medicine had never been seen. There was much to admire, and when I finally wrote a book my title tells my sentiments: Strength and Honor: America?s Best in Vietnam.
Anti-war voices were overwhelming, and America never knew what a fine job their youth had done in Vietnam, despite impediments imposed by our own government, despite collaboration with the enemy by our own fellow citizens.
When we came home, the country seemed to us to have turned principles upside down. Wearing the American uniform invited hostility while refusing to serve was somehow a virtue. These remarkable troops, young enough to be called boys but now battle-hardened men, never lost a single significant battle against a very tough enemy, but they didn?t know how or want to engage in political argument. And so many like me kept their head down and went on with life. Nobody wanted to hear about our experience anyway, for two reasons.
First, everybody already knew all the answers about Vietnam, they had seen it on TV. Second, in those days the Vietnam War was a shunned topic, something dirty not discussed in polite company.
Even some family members skirted the subject, wary of the rumors they heard about rampant war crimes, drug addiction and vets prone to snap into violence. During his first visit home, Tony Foster?s mother asked him what kind of drugs he was on.
False stereotypes took root from repetition in a media leaning hard against the war. Movies reinforced the lies with absurd stories and unreal characters that indulged Hollywood?s ridiculous fantasies of the war. Period fiction followed suit, and TV dramas occasionally created a Vietnam vet when they needed an unbalanced, unpredictable and dangerous character.
Spreading these attitudes has consequences. Not everyone thought the worst of us, but enough did to change the national mood.
Even small slights left lasting impressions. Jay Standish escorted his date to their seats near the front of an off-Broadway theater, proudly wearing his Marine Corps dress blues, prompting boos from many in the audience. A Sgt. named Chip went to see a Priest for pre-marital counseling wearing his Army dress greens, and the Priest told him to come back when he was wearing decent clothing.
Vietnam vets learned to leave the war off their resume to avoid rejection in the first cull of job applicants. They soon knew to keep quiet in college classes since anti-war professors used their grading pen as a weapon.
ROTC membership plummeted and some professors wouldn?t accept members as students. Military recruiters were ejected from campus. The uniform was not popular, as R.J. DelVecchio learned by hostility to his Marine Corps uniform at the University of Maryland and was advised not to wear it again on campus. Wearing a uniform made some feel invisible waiting to be served in a restaurant.
Drew Johnson, who ferried Navy aircraft to Vietnam over an extended period, returned through California airports at least two dozen times and saw the escalation of vitriol aimed at our returning troops by anti-war protestors who, by my measure, were unfit to shine a veteran?s shoes. Officials and most in the public merely looked the other way while protestors yelled ?babykiller? and worse at returning vets, threw nasty splatter packets at them and frequently used their own spit.
In 1971, my commanding officer told me to remind my men not to wear their uniform off-base, for their own personal safety.
Some anti-war tactics were despicable.. An F-105 fighter pilot I will leave nameless bet his life every time he flew into North Vietnam through the toughest air defenses in the world. When he was shot down, even before his wife received official notification, anti-war activists called to say her husband was a baby-killing a**hole and deserved what he got.
There were many thousands of these uncouth episodes incited by fabrications from the anti-war left, and they were made worse that they were aimed at Americans who served honorably and sacrificed much. And yet every Vietnam vet I know is proud of their service, fiercely patriotic and doesn?t want even a shred of sympathy.
They do want one thing. They want the truth told about them, their enemy, their war.
Now, after forty something years, Ms. Novick and Mr. Burns, along comes the misrepresentation you call a documentary, very pretty but with only fleeting intersections with the truth and reviving conflict long ago buried. It seems, to me at least, that you pre-planned your strategy to build up to your conclusion in support of your friends on the left, ?The Vietnam War was a tragedy, immeasurable and irredeemable.?
Even with 10 episodes over 18 hours, you left out vital pieces of the story. In 1974, in the aftermath of Watergate, Democrats were elected in a landslide and the new Congress violated America?s promise by cutting off funding for South Vietnam?s self-defense. Then when the Communists attacked South Vietnam in massive force, Congress refused to honor America?s pledge to come to their aid. The left?s view seems to be North Vietnam?s conquest had the happy result of reunification. Senator J. William Fulbright, who provided the forum for that spectacular liar John Kerry, said about the fall of Saigon that he was ?. . . no more depressed than I would be about Arkansas losing a football game to Texas.?
Trivializing the human cost of Communist victory, you didn?t mention tens of thousands of executions, the million or so sent to brutal re-education camps, the panicked populace fleeing in rickety overpacked boats and dying by the tens of thousands. You neglected North Vietnam?s obscene practice of bulldozing South Vietnamese graves, and the influx of North Vietnamese to take over the best farms, businesses, homes and jobs in South Vietnam. And you swept under the rug America?s shame, the betrayal of our ally, never mind the genocide by Communists as they murdered two million in Cambodia next door.
All in all, Ms. Novick and Mr. Burns, kudos on the slick appearance mixing photos, film clips, tilted narration and sad music to set the mood for your biased content. I think you have succeeded in making your semi-factual slop believable to a na?ve public, and students in schools you send it to will likely lap it up because they don?t know better.
That means we will need to redouble our efforts to tell the story true.
As I tell students when I speak to them about the Vietnam War, ?Why does this ancient history matter to you? Because you need to know how a false history takes root, and you need to be smart enough to beware propaganda when you turn on TV news.? Or watch a film labeled a ?documentary.?
------------------------
Terry Garlock lives in Peachtree City, GA. He was a Cobra helicopter gunship pilot in the Vietnam War. He can be reached at tlg.opinion@gmail.com
Worth the five minutes to read. Well written and long overdue.
Propagandists masquerading as historians
by Terry Garlock
Scheduled for publication Wed, Jan 31 in The Citizen, a local Fayette County, GA newspaper
I was only one of many Vietnam veterans who wrote opinion columns criticizing the Vietnam War film by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, opining their work seemed more like propaganda than history. In doing so I occasionally used ?Burns? as shorthand for the pair, to which Ms. Novick emailed me her objection. She is correct, I should consistently include her name as co-producer because she is equally culpable in the hit piece they brazenly call a documentary.
So, Ms. Novick and Mr. Burns, this is for you. My back-handed compliment is that your wholly inaccurate film is a slick rationalization for aging Americans who, decades ago, loudly encouraged our enemy while we were killing each other in combat. For those harboring doubts about actively opposing us in their youth while we served our country in a war, your film may have supplied just the soothing salve they need.
You bent the truth in your film too far, too consistently, too repetitively, and omitted too much to leave any room for me to believe those errors, omissions, distortions, half-truths and complete falsehoods were remotely accidental.
Like a house of distorted mirrors, you portrayed the murderous and avowed Stalinist Ho Chi Minh as a nationalist driven by reunification of North and South Vietnam rather than his real commitment to Communist conquest of free South Vietnam. Your film repeatedly depicted the war as unwinnable, the North Vietnamese cause as just, war crimes between the two sides as morally equivalent, American troops as victims, South Vietnamese as mere bit players, all that and much more of your content completely opposite of the truth. You selected for dominant interviews from the tiny percentage of American combat veterans with a grievance who joined the protestors when they returned home.
I cannot know the motivation in your hearts, but I have the stark impression that your plan from the very beginning was to delegitimize America?s role in the war and justify the anti-war left by very selectively emphasizing negatives and minimizing positives to shape the film?s message to your liking.
There is a tragic irony in protests by the anti-war left and your justification for them. The noble cause of the Vietnam War was trying to stop the spread of Communism in Southeast Asia, especially important given the hegemony of China in the region. Even so, while we answered our country?s call and honorably performed our difficult duty, leadership in the White House and Pentagon created a patchwork of micromanagement and idiotic war-fighting limitations, obstacles that got thousands of us killed while preventing victory. Those egregious and very real failures alone would have been worthy of protest, but your buddies on the left either didn?t notice or felt compelled to manufacture their own demons, like John Kerry?s fantastic lie that we were raping, murdering and rampaging in Vietnam like Genghis Khan.
The outrage is our enemy?s daily atrocities against their own people, juxtaposed against how we Americans defended and helped those civilians in a hundred ways, both ignored by the news media while American troops were maligned.
Ms. Novick, you were just eleven years old when America withdrew from Vietnam in 1973, so you might have missed personally knowing the effects of false stereotypes about Vietnam and its veterans.
Like so many others, I came away from that experience with my eyes opened, having learned by watching young Americans the true meaning of honor, courage and trust. Those men and women were then and still are the finest people of character I have ever known.
I saw my fellow helicopter pilots fly into enemy fire routinely, taking mortal risks to protect civilians and their brothers, and I saw grunts do the same crazy things for each other. I flew gun cover for Dustoff crews braving enemy fire to pick up wounded, and I flew gun cover for LRPs sneaking in enemy turf, the bravest men I have ever seen; if you have an open mind, read Six Silent Men by Gary Linderer to understand how bold our Rangers were.
I saw doctors, nurses and orderlies drive themselves to physical and emotional exhaustion every day as they struggled to send us home alive, and still we found time to send medical help to poor villages where medicine had never been seen. There was much to admire, and when I finally wrote a book my title tells my sentiments: Strength and Honor: America?s Best in Vietnam.
Anti-war voices were overwhelming, and America never knew what a fine job their youth had done in Vietnam, despite impediments imposed by our own government, despite collaboration with the enemy by our own fellow citizens.
When we came home, the country seemed to us to have turned principles upside down. Wearing the American uniform invited hostility while refusing to serve was somehow a virtue. These remarkable troops, young enough to be called boys but now battle-hardened men, never lost a single significant battle against a very tough enemy, but they didn?t know how or want to engage in political argument. And so many like me kept their head down and went on with life. Nobody wanted to hear about our experience anyway, for two reasons.
First, everybody already knew all the answers about Vietnam, they had seen it on TV. Second, in those days the Vietnam War was a shunned topic, something dirty not discussed in polite company.
Even some family members skirted the subject, wary of the rumors they heard about rampant war crimes, drug addiction and vets prone to snap into violence. During his first visit home, Tony Foster?s mother asked him what kind of drugs he was on.
False stereotypes took root from repetition in a media leaning hard against the war. Movies reinforced the lies with absurd stories and unreal characters that indulged Hollywood?s ridiculous fantasies of the war. Period fiction followed suit, and TV dramas occasionally created a Vietnam vet when they needed an unbalanced, unpredictable and dangerous character.
Spreading these attitudes has consequences. Not everyone thought the worst of us, but enough did to change the national mood.
Even small slights left lasting impressions. Jay Standish escorted his date to their seats near the front of an off-Broadway theater, proudly wearing his Marine Corps dress blues, prompting boos from many in the audience. A Sgt. named Chip went to see a Priest for pre-marital counseling wearing his Army dress greens, and the Priest told him to come back when he was wearing decent clothing.
Vietnam vets learned to leave the war off their resume to avoid rejection in the first cull of job applicants. They soon knew to keep quiet in college classes since anti-war professors used their grading pen as a weapon.
ROTC membership plummeted and some professors wouldn?t accept members as students. Military recruiters were ejected from campus. The uniform was not popular, as R.J. DelVecchio learned by hostility to his Marine Corps uniform at the University of Maryland and was advised not to wear it again on campus. Wearing a uniform made some feel invisible waiting to be served in a restaurant.
Drew Johnson, who ferried Navy aircraft to Vietnam over an extended period, returned through California airports at least two dozen times and saw the escalation of vitriol aimed at our returning troops by anti-war protestors who, by my measure, were unfit to shine a veteran?s shoes. Officials and most in the public merely looked the other way while protestors yelled ?babykiller? and worse at returning vets, threw nasty splatter packets at them and frequently used their own spit.
In 1971, my commanding officer told me to remind my men not to wear their uniform off-base, for their own personal safety.
Some anti-war tactics were despicable.. An F-105 fighter pilot I will leave nameless bet his life every time he flew into North Vietnam through the toughest air defenses in the world. When he was shot down, even before his wife received official notification, anti-war activists called to say her husband was a baby-killing a**hole and deserved what he got.
There were many thousands of these uncouth episodes incited by fabrications from the anti-war left, and they were made worse that they were aimed at Americans who served honorably and sacrificed much. And yet every Vietnam vet I know is proud of their service, fiercely patriotic and doesn?t want even a shred of sympathy.
They do want one thing. They want the truth told about them, their enemy, their war.
Now, after forty something years, Ms. Novick and Mr. Burns, along comes the misrepresentation you call a documentary, very pretty but with only fleeting intersections with the truth and reviving conflict long ago buried. It seems, to me at least, that you pre-planned your strategy to build up to your conclusion in support of your friends on the left, ?The Vietnam War was a tragedy, immeasurable and irredeemable.?
Even with 10 episodes over 18 hours, you left out vital pieces of the story. In 1974, in the aftermath of Watergate, Democrats were elected in a landslide and the new Congress violated America?s promise by cutting off funding for South Vietnam?s self-defense. Then when the Communists attacked South Vietnam in massive force, Congress refused to honor America?s pledge to come to their aid. The left?s view seems to be North Vietnam?s conquest had the happy result of reunification. Senator J. William Fulbright, who provided the forum for that spectacular liar John Kerry, said about the fall of Saigon that he was ?. . . no more depressed than I would be about Arkansas losing a football game to Texas.?
Trivializing the human cost of Communist victory, you didn?t mention tens of thousands of executions, the million or so sent to brutal re-education camps, the panicked populace fleeing in rickety overpacked boats and dying by the tens of thousands. You neglected North Vietnam?s obscene practice of bulldozing South Vietnamese graves, and the influx of North Vietnamese to take over the best farms, businesses, homes and jobs in South Vietnam. And you swept under the rug America?s shame, the betrayal of our ally, never mind the genocide by Communists as they murdered two million in Cambodia next door.
All in all, Ms. Novick and Mr. Burns, kudos on the slick appearance mixing photos, film clips, tilted narration and sad music to set the mood for your biased content. I think you have succeeded in making your semi-factual slop believable to a na?ve public, and students in schools you send it to will likely lap it up because they don?t know better.
That means we will need to redouble our efforts to tell the story true.
As I tell students when I speak to them about the Vietnam War, ?Why does this ancient history matter to you? Because you need to know how a false history takes root, and you need to be smart enough to beware propaganda when you turn on TV news.? Or watch a film labeled a ?documentary.?
------------------------
Terry Garlock lives in Peachtree City, GA. He was a Cobra helicopter gunship pilot in the Vietnam War. He can be reached at tlg.opinion@gmail.com
- Joined
- Aug 25, 2009
- Messages
- 28,216
Chief.. thanks for posting that
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2010
- Messages
- 1,195
I told my wife the show was shallow and one sided. I called bullshit and am so happy the gentleman with a pedigree (vietnam Vet) confirmed what I was seeing! Thanks Chief for posting!
- Joined
- May 6, 2010
- Messages
- 15,693
A TRIPLE WAR VET....RET LT COLONEL FLOYD J. CARTER SR / NYPD DETECTIVE.....REST IN PEACE LT COLONEL....THANK YOU FOR YOUR AMAZING SERVICE.....PRAYERS FOR THE COMFORT OF THE FAMILIES.... www.nydailynews.com/new-york/floyd-carter-sr-tuskegee-airman-nypd-vet-dies-95-article-1.3867333
https://patch.com/new-york/glencove/s/gdn9h/106th-ang-members-killed-in-iraq-helicopter-crash?utm_source=alert-breakingnews&utm_medium=email&utm_term=weather&utm_campaign=alert
106th Air National Guard Members Killed In Iraq Helicopter Crash
A Long Island firefighter was among those killed when the helicopter hit a power line.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
UPDATE
https://patch.com/new-york/new-york-city/fdny-lieutenant-among-7-killed-iraq-helicopter-crash
FDNY Lieutenant Among 7 Killed In Iraq Helicopter Crash
Lt. Christopher Raguso was also a volunteer firefighter on Long Island.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Helicopter-Crash-Iraq-Death-New-York-FDNY-Westhampton-477110893.html
2 FDNY Firefighters Among 7 Killed in U.S. Helicopter Crash in Iraq, Sources Say
106th Air National Guard Members Killed In Iraq Helicopter Crash
A Long Island firefighter was among those killed when the helicopter hit a power line.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
UPDATE
https://patch.com/new-york/new-york-city/fdny-lieutenant-among-7-killed-iraq-helicopter-crash
FDNY Lieutenant Among 7 Killed In Iraq Helicopter Crash
Lt. Christopher Raguso was also a volunteer firefighter on Long Island.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Helicopter-Crash-Iraq-Death-New-York-FDNY-Westhampton-477110893.html
2 FDNY Firefighters Among 7 Killed in U.S. Helicopter Crash in Iraq, Sources Say
Signal 5-5-5-5 has been transmitted, it is with regret to announce the death of Lt Christopher J Raguso, appointed March 8th, 2005, which occured March 15th, 2018, from injuries sustained while serving on active duty in Iraq with the New York Air National Guard.
Signal 5-5-5-5 has been transmitted, it is with regret to announce the death of Fire Marshal Christopher T Zanetis, appointed September 12th 2004, which occured March 15th 2018, from injuries sustained while serving on active duty in Iraq with the New York Air National Guard.
Lt Christopher Raguso:
FM Zanetis/Lt Raguso:
https://nypost.com/2018/03/16/fdny-firefighters-among-dead-in-military-helicopter-crash-in-iraq/
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/03/16/us-military-aircraft-crashes-in-iraq-officials-say.html
106th Aire Rescue Wing:
http://www.106rqw.ang.af.mil/
Signal 5-5-5-5 has been transmitted, it is with regret to announce the death of Fire Marshal Christopher T Zanetis, appointed September 12th 2004, which occured March 15th 2018, from injuries sustained while serving on active duty in Iraq with the New York Air National Guard.
Lt Christopher Raguso:
FM Zanetis/Lt Raguso:
https://nypost.com/2018/03/16/fdny-firefighters-among-dead-in-military-helicopter-crash-in-iraq/
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/03/16/us-military-aircraft-crashes-in-iraq-officials-say.html
106th Aire Rescue Wing:
http://www.106rqw.ang.af.mil/
Raguso, who lived in Commack with his wife and two daughters, celebrated his 39th birthday the day before the crash, and he spent some of that day on FaceTime with his two daughters. The girls are somewhere between 4 and 7 years old, Quigley said.
?He was a total family man. He spent a lot of time with the department and when he was off, he spent it with his family,? he said.
In a brief interview Friday, Laura Raguso of East Northport confirmed that her son was among the victims.
?I just can?t talk right now,? Raguso said through tears.
Quigley said Raguso was attached to a search-and-rescue unit. He was an engineer on the helicopter and also manned the gun on the side of the aircraft.
?Anytime he was asked to go and serve he never turned it down,? Quigley said.
The two men knew each other a long time, so Friday was a day of grief and memories. Quigley recalled that they had spoken only two days earlier.
?He sent me pictures of him shooting, you know, practice shooting, and I sent him pictures from when I was in and we were joking back and forth,? said Quigley, who had served as a Marine in Iraq. ?And I just said keep your head down and be safe. That was it.?
Two months ago, the Commack firefighters threw Raguso a going-away party.
?We celebrated up in headquarters with all the members of his department,? Raguso said, ?his family, his friends.?
LT Ragusa - Previous deployment:
WATCH: Commack Firefighter Deployed In Texas Describes Life-Saving Efforts
The local firefighter was deployed with the U.S. Air Force 106th Rescue Wing to help rescue victims of Hurricane Harvey in Texas.
By Priscila Korb, Patch Staff | Aug 29, 2017 5:11 pm ET | Updated Aug 29, 2017 5:17 pm ET
https://patch.com/new-york/commack/watch-commack-firefighter-deployed-texas-describes-life-saving-efforts
A local firefighter who was deployed with the U.S. Air Force 106th Rescue Wing to conduct lifesaving rescues in Texas recently described the details of the efforts to save the victims of Hurricane Harvey during an interview with a local news outlet.
Lt. Christopher Raguso, of Commack Fire Department's Engine Company 4, was interviewed on the Central Texas news outlet, KCEN TV, on Tuesday where he provided details from the rescue mission he performed over the past few days saving infants, toddlers, young adults, elderly people and more.
Raguso was part of a team who helped save people stranded on the roof of a school.
"We would get general information from the dispatchers and we would try to get on station and do our search and once we would find them then we would develop a game plan on how we were going to rescue them, how were going to get them in and most importantly how we were going to get them out," he told KCEN.
WATCH: Commack Firefighter Deployed In Texas Describes Life-Saving Efforts
The local firefighter was deployed with the U.S. Air Force 106th Rescue Wing to help rescue victims of Hurricane Harvey in Texas.
By Priscila Korb, Patch Staff | Aug 29, 2017 5:11 pm ET | Updated Aug 29, 2017 5:17 pm ET
https://patch.com/new-york/commack/watch-commack-firefighter-deployed-texas-describes-life-saving-efforts
A local firefighter who was deployed with the U.S. Air Force 106th Rescue Wing to conduct lifesaving rescues in Texas recently described the details of the efforts to save the victims of Hurricane Harvey during an interview with a local news outlet.
Lt. Christopher Raguso, of Commack Fire Department's Engine Company 4, was interviewed on the Central Texas news outlet, KCEN TV, on Tuesday where he provided details from the rescue mission he performed over the past few days saving infants, toddlers, young adults, elderly people and more.
Raguso was part of a team who helped save people stranded on the roof of a school.
"We would get general information from the dispatchers and we would try to get on station and do our search and once we would find them then we would develop a game plan on how we were going to rescue them, how were going to get them in and most importantly how we were going to get them out," he told KCEN.
- Joined
- May 6, 2010
- Messages
- 15,693
5-5-5-5... LT. CHRISTOPHER J. RAGUSO and FM CHRISTOPHER T. ZANETIS .
It is with deep regret that FDNY announces the deaths of Lt Christopher J. Raguso of Division 13 in Queens and Fire Marshal Christopher T. ?Tripp? Zanetis of the Bureau of Fire Investigation. Lt. Raguso and Fire Marshal Zanetis died in an American military helicopter crash in Iraq on March 15. Lt. Raguso is a 13-year veteran of the Department; Fire Marshal Zanetis is a 10-year veteran. ?Lt. Raguso and Fire Marshal Zanetis bravely wore two uniforms in their extraordinary lives of service ? as New York City Firefighters and as members of the US Armed Forces,? said Commissioner Nigro. ?The hearts and prayers of the entire Department are with their loved ones and with the families of their 5 fellow service members who lost their lives defending our country.?
. . . . .
Lt. Raguso was appointed as a Firefighter in March of 2005, assigned to Ladder 113 in Flatbush, Brooklyn. In September, 2016, he was promoted to Lieutenant and assigned to Battalion 50 in Queens. On 6 different occasions he was cited for bravery and life-saving actions as an individual Firefighter or as part of a unit.
. . . . .
Fire Marshal Zanetis was appointed Firefighter in September of 2004, assigned to Engine 28 on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. In 2007 he transferred to Ladder 11, located in the same firehouse. In April, 2013, he was promoted to Fire Marshal and assigned to the Bureau of Fire Investigation?s Citywide South in Brooklyn. In 2014, he was recognized for his bravery as part of an investigative unit.
. . . . .
Lt. Raguso and Fire Marshal Zanetis are the 1,148th and 1,149th members of the FDNY to make the Supreme Sacrifice in the line-of-duty. The last member of the Department to die in the line of duty was Firefighter William N. Tolley of Ladder 135, who died on April 20, 2017. The last member of the Department to make the Supreme Sacrifice while in active military service was Firefighter Christian P. Engledrum, who was killed in action on November 29, 2004 in Iraq. Currently, 62 FDNY personnel are on extended military orders in the branches of the US Armed Forces, serving around the world. There are more than 1400 FDNY members who are military reservists or veterans.
Lt. Raguso of Commack, New York, is survived by his wife, Carmella, and their two daughters, ages 6 and 5.
Fire Marshal Zanetis is survived by his parents, John and Sarah, of Carmel, Indiana.
Funeral arrangements are pending.
REST IN PEACE BROTHERS.... THANK YOU BOTH FOR YOUR SERVICE BOTH MILITARY & FDNY...PRAYERS FOR THE COMFORT OF THE FAMILIES.....NEVER FORGET !
It is with deep regret that FDNY announces the deaths of Lt Christopher J. Raguso of Division 13 in Queens and Fire Marshal Christopher T. ?Tripp? Zanetis of the Bureau of Fire Investigation. Lt. Raguso and Fire Marshal Zanetis died in an American military helicopter crash in Iraq on March 15. Lt. Raguso is a 13-year veteran of the Department; Fire Marshal Zanetis is a 10-year veteran. ?Lt. Raguso and Fire Marshal Zanetis bravely wore two uniforms in their extraordinary lives of service ? as New York City Firefighters and as members of the US Armed Forces,? said Commissioner Nigro. ?The hearts and prayers of the entire Department are with their loved ones and with the families of their 5 fellow service members who lost their lives defending our country.?
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Lt. Raguso was appointed as a Firefighter in March of 2005, assigned to Ladder 113 in Flatbush, Brooklyn. In September, 2016, he was promoted to Lieutenant and assigned to Battalion 50 in Queens. On 6 different occasions he was cited for bravery and life-saving actions as an individual Firefighter or as part of a unit.
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Fire Marshal Zanetis was appointed Firefighter in September of 2004, assigned to Engine 28 on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. In 2007 he transferred to Ladder 11, located in the same firehouse. In April, 2013, he was promoted to Fire Marshal and assigned to the Bureau of Fire Investigation?s Citywide South in Brooklyn. In 2014, he was recognized for his bravery as part of an investigative unit.
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Lt. Raguso and Fire Marshal Zanetis are the 1,148th and 1,149th members of the FDNY to make the Supreme Sacrifice in the line-of-duty. The last member of the Department to die in the line of duty was Firefighter William N. Tolley of Ladder 135, who died on April 20, 2017. The last member of the Department to make the Supreme Sacrifice while in active military service was Firefighter Christian P. Engledrum, who was killed in action on November 29, 2004 in Iraq. Currently, 62 FDNY personnel are on extended military orders in the branches of the US Armed Forces, serving around the world. There are more than 1400 FDNY members who are military reservists or veterans.
Lt. Raguso of Commack, New York, is survived by his wife, Carmella, and their two daughters, ages 6 and 5.
Fire Marshal Zanetis is survived by his parents, John and Sarah, of Carmel, Indiana.
Funeral arrangements are pending.
REST IN PEACE BROTHERS.... THANK YOU BOTH FOR YOUR SERVICE BOTH MILITARY & FDNY...PRAYERS FOR THE COMFORT OF THE FAMILIES.....NEVER FORGET !