The War Years

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FDNYSTATENISLAND

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Quick question: Just out of curiosity, how did the war years get their name? I want to say because of the Vietnam War during the 60s and 70s, but am not sure. Makes sense to me. Also, are the 80s considered part of this era? I know the 90s were clearly not but was never sure about the 80s. I am particularly curious about that because that is the time period my grandfather was on the job, late 70s to late 90s out of 148 truck. Thanks!
 
FDNYSTATENISLAND said:
Quick question: Just out of curiosity, how did the war years get their name? I want to say because of the Vietnam War during the 60s and 70s, but am not sure. Makes sense to me. Also, are the 80s considered part of this era? I know the 90s were clearly not but was never sure about the 80s. I am particularly curious about that because that is the time period my grandfather was on the job, late 70s to late 90s out of 148 truck. Thanks!
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IMO the War Years in the FDNY were definitely not based on Viet Nam but rather on the significant increase in Fire Duty in NYC....it basically  started in 1965 then continued until at least 1977 & later depending on where you worked.... after the Blackout in '77 & the Tenth Alarm Bushwick Fire  & right after when the Fire Marshal's were increased from a few to over a hundred thru the Red Cap Program where they flooded the streets & made arrests for any violation of the law Fire related or not....also at the same time the insurance companies were cracked down on for paying out money arbitrarialy  for suspicious Fires.
 
I definately agree with Chief JK, the "War Years" in the FDNY was all about the workload increases and the amount of running and working the companies all did, not related at all to the Viet Nam war.
A lot of companies experienced huge increases in runs and workers, while the City experimented with different programs to balance out the workload (i.e Interchange, TCU's, Adaptive Response, etc).
 
Jimmy Breslin (Daily News Reporter extraordinaire )said in his 1966 23rd st fire editorial "fireman dont go to work, they go to war: 68 is right on da money
 
Also, if I may add, the War Years weren't exclusive to New York City. As Willy D(nfd2004) will tell you, large cities like Boston, D.C., Detroit, Philadelphia, Chicago, Cleveland, and even Los Angeles were all receiving increasing amounts of fire duty from the late '60's to the late '70's. But the northeast in particular was where it was really burning. Places like Newark, NJ, Bridgeport, CT, Yonkers, NY, and Providence, RI each saw their own "War Years" with increasing amounts of fire duty, especially toward the later half of the 1970's and into the early 1980's.
 
My father was a WWII veteran and then experienced the FDNY "War Years" from its beginning in the later 1960s, through the 70s, and retired in the mid 1980-s when fire activity was still very high in many sections of NYC.  His first night as a new BC in Brooklyn in 1970 he had 5 all hands.  He felt he worked in war zones.  He loved the action and compared firefighting to warfighting. He would describe the block-by-block destruction of NYC neighborhoods beginning in the mid to late 60s as war damage - like the cities destroyed by bombing and the battles of WWII.  In his retirement years, he described these years as "the War Years" because of similarities with WWII.  Many of the other firefighters who were on the job in the mid 1960s were also Veterans from WWII and Korea - and I remember many also describing this period as their firefighting war years - to differentiate from their military war years.
 
Mack....What Batt was your dad assigned to....There were many a great chiefs that went thru the war years and always kept there cool no matter what the story was....They were great
 
Dad assigned to 41 Bn.  Then 43 Bn.  Finished in 23 Bn.  Also spent lot of time covering all over when made a chief.  I have an old map where he marked each bn he worked at.  All boros covered. 

Another reason they were the "war years" - he was attacked at an all hands fire in a marina - owner was drunk - attacked him, knocked him out and broke his jaw. Unprovoked.  I was there as a kid riding.  We had to wait in hospital ER for Medical Officer who came from an attack on a Manattan FF the same night.  A homeless person put a meat hook in his leg while he was stretching a line in a vacant building. 

Attacks on FFs were not uncommon.  Mary Celic L 18 was killed 1977 in Alphabet City fire by gang who torched stairs while company was operating in vacant top floor tenament apartment.  The "War Years" is an appropriate title.
 
Nice Mack it's cool that you still have the map, treasure it. Looking back on this all, it is clear to me now why these decades bear the name. Brutal, tough, busy, incredible working conditions. I've seen videos on the areas hardest hit with fires during the time and I don't second guess why some consider them war zones. Thanks again everyone for their input.
 
"The War Years" - Chief is right on the money about Jimmy Breslin's remarks.

There was no official rendering or proclamation of the term "War Years"  It just seemed to be an approppriate title which was embraced as the years of greatly increased fire activity continued.  There was a growing awareness of the fire plague that NYC faced as the 1970s rolled on:   

In 1972, BBC produced a TV documentary for its ManAlive series "Bronx is Burning"

In 1972, Dennis Smith's book, "Report From Engine 82" was released.

In 1977, world-wide viewer of a Yankees' home world series game witnessed the glow of Bronx fires and there is an alleged comment  by Howard Cosell that the Bronx was Burning. http://nypost.com/2010/05/16/why-the-bronx-burned/

Also in 1977, a book was published "The Bronx is Burning" (http://www.amazon.com/Ladies-Gentlemen-Bronx-Burning-Baseball/dp/0312424302/).

 
Another comment about the war years.  Everyone had unique perspectives in which they witnessed or participated in the overall FDNY "War Years" experience.  Like any battle summary, soldiers fight and remember the battle differently from different parts of the battlefield.  Same in NYC.  There were differences seen in different neighborhoods in different boros.

Some limit the FDNY War Years to the neighborhoods hardest hit in the S. Bronx and Brooklyn.  Although companies in these areas consistently had 6000 to 9000 runs a year, and although Brownsville and Bushwick and the S Bronx were incinerated - many other parts of NYC experienced arson and fires and destruction.  Many companies ran 4000-plus runs a year and never even made the top 25 list of busy engine or truck companies.  Many companies in slower neighborhoods were interhanged  or relocated frequently into high activity fire districts.  Fire supression resources were severly restricted in most NYC neighborhoods resulting which made fightinh fires more challenging. 

The FDNY War Years were difficult in all boros. 
 
Mack I agree completely with your comment that the War years were hard all over the city.  In addition to all the running that companies did we also had the mass Firehouse closings in July of 1975 that wiped out alot of the less busy  companies for at least a couple of days. I believe it was over 20 fire companies closed at the same time.
 
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