2 New York City Firefighters Killed in Iraq Helicopter Crash
March 17, 2018 by admin
Filed under Choosing Lingerie
Officials said that four crew members were from the New York unit. The others onboard included a combat rescue officer, and active and reserve airmen, whose job is to find and recover downed aircrews and evacuate the wounded.
As the hours passed on Friday, the names and backgrounds of the two victims came into focus.
One, Christopher J. Raguso, 39, was appointed as a firefighter in 2005, and worked for many years in Ladder Company 113 in Flatbush, Brooklyn, before being promoted to lieutenant in 2016, and going to work in Queens. Decorated six times for bravery and saving lives, he was a volunteer firefighter on Long Island, where he lived with his wife, Carmella, and two young daughters.
It was in a Facebook post by the volunteer fire department in Commack, N.Y., that Lieutenant Raguso’s life began to emerge publicly. He died “while protecting our freedom,” the post said. It featured two photos of him: one in the dress blues of his municipal uniform and another in an airman’s camouflage.
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The post went on: “Chris was always there to help anyone with anything, he would never say no.”
Another local volunteer department, in Northport, N.Y., posted more photos of Lieutenant Raguso. And a local news website posted a video of an interview Lieutenant Raguso gave in August to a Texas television station, in which he spoke of his efforts to help rescue people battered by the floods of Hurricane Harvey.
The other New York City firefighter who died was identified by his parents and city officials as Christopher Tripp Zanetis, 37, who was on leave from the department, where he had been a marshal in the Bureau of Fire Investigation.
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“He went by Tripp,” said his father, John Zanetis, 73. “Everybody called him Tripp.”
Mr. Zanetis said a military chaplain and an Air Force major came to the home of his wife’s mother in Nashville to convey the news.
The parents, speaking together by telephone, said their son grew up in central Indiana and graduated from New York University. He was a sophomore there on Sept. 11, 2001, and, “I think that’s what made him become a New York City fireman,” said his mother, Sarah Zanetis, 63, who said he had lived three blocks from the World Trade Center.
Appointed as a firefighter in 2004, he was assigned to Engine Company 28 on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. In 2013, Firefighter Zanetis was promoted to fire marshal and the following year was recognized for his bravery as part of an investigative unit. Around then, his parents said, he joined the military and then pursued a career in law while on unpaid leave from the Fire Department.
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He graduated from Stanford Law School and recently started as an associate with the firm Debevoise Plimpton in New York. The firm issued a statement Friday saying it was “deeply saddened” by the loss of “our colleague Tripp Zanetis.”
Mr. Zanetis said his son left for Iraq in the second week in January for his third tour. His father said his son was “a pilot, flies a rescue helicopter, is a cross-fit trainer and he was in excellent health. He was unbelievable. Unbelievable.”
“He loved everyone and everyone loved him,” Mr. Zanetis said.
In a statement, Mayor Bill de Blasio said both firefighters would be mourned. “They are truly two of New York City’s bravest,” he said. “Running into danger to protect and defend others, both in New York City and in combat overseas.”
The New York Fire Department has more than 1,400 members who are either military reservists or veterans, and 62 of them are currently on active duty overseas, said James Long, a department spokesman. Firefighter Engeldrum, who died in 2004, was a sergeant in the First Battalion of the 105th Infantry and was the first New York City employee to die serving in Iraq.
In Iraq, people who live near Thursday’s crash said the helicopter went down shortly after takeoff, Ahmed al-Mahilawi, the mayor of Qaim, said in a telephone interview. The American military uses a base in the area as a logistics center and resupply hub.
Coalition forces sealed off the site, in Anbar Province near Syria, an area that poses an continuing threat to the American-led effort against the Islamic State.
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Preliminary findings indicated that the helicopter may have had a technical malfunction before hitting the ground about 18 miles southeast of Qaim, near a phosphate factory and a railroad station. Among other questions are whether the aircraft could have struck overhead power lines, whose locations are difficult to map.
In a Twitter post, President Trump offered his condolences and said the troops’ sacrifice “will never be forgotten.”
The helicopter that crashed is typically flown by the United States Air Force for search-and-rescue missions and medical evacuations. The aircraft, a modified version of the Black Hawk helicopter, is frequently used by Special Operations pararescue specialists.
American forces and Iraqi partners have been winding down their operations against the Islamic State, but fighters pushed from urban centers in Iraq have escaped to the desert along the border with Syria.
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