^^^^ It saddens me to hear the news that Billy (Ratso) has passed. Like chief Jack had said, He spent 33 years on Watkins Street from 1967 to 2000, can you imagine the amount of fire that he saw in all those years. I was lucky enough to have worked on Watkins Street for 10 years (87-97) and have many fond memories of Ratso and his stories. He introduced himself to me on my first day there, welcome to Watkins street and I won't hold it against you that you're in the truck. Billy took great pride being an aide in "THE 44 BATTALION". As chief Jack also alluded to he helped many chiefs and officers, that is true but most important he helped the brothers. One quick example would be a "secret memo" came down from the upper powers of the department that the chiefs had to conduct unannounced visits to the fire houses to make sure that the members were in their proper work uniforms and that the chiefs had to file reports to the division and the borrough. We had great chiefs in the 44 and they didn't care about what you wore as long as you did your job and yes, we had alot of fire duty. But we had one chief who was a short timer and was rapidly plotting his career to make it to the top. Hence, an 8 pm uniform check of all the companies in the battalion. Ratso was working that night and he stopped at the house watch and told the house watchman to call all the companies and warn them about the uniform check. The chief was sitting in the rig saying "cmon Billy lets go", Ratso told the chief "I have to use the "sh**ter" , I think it was something I ate something that didn,'t agree with me". Fifteen minutes later, Billy come down and off they went. When they returned, this chief was not happy that all the companies were in compliance with the uniform code. Ratso had a grin on his face from ear to ear and gave the house watchman a great thumbs up. That's just one example of the pride Ratso had for WATKINS STREET. When I transferred out, Ratso said to me "I won't hold it against you that you are going to a Rescue Company" and then gave me a big hug.. REST IN PEACE BROTHER