THEY SAVED NEW YORK

From They Saved New York,

IF YOU READ REPORT FROM ENGINE CO 82 BY DENNIS SMITH, THEN YOU'LL KNOW THIS BROTHER. MICKEY VALENZANO. MICKEY WAS THE SECOND INTERVIEW AFTER I INTERVIEWED WILLY "KNIPPS" KNAPP. TO REMEMBER, THE WAR YEARS. (Photo Mickey today, below Mickey with his brother Billy in Jill Freedmans book...we got both their stories).​

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The books, "They Saved New York" are starting to arrive at some homes and a couple of my buddies told me they got theirs.
They tell me they are looking forward to reading the stories of the GREATEST GENERATION of FIREFIGHTERS.
These are the firefighters who fought the fires in the busiest time, in the busiest city, in the fire department history.
As many here know, they fought the fires of the so called; FDNY WAR YEARS.

Thank you goes out to Dan and Glen for preserving these heroic and amazing individual stories and photos of the fire service.
The book gives a first hand account of what it was like to be an FDNY Firefighter back then.

Myself (NFD2004) and others here have told some of the stories in the topic "My Younger Buff Years" as we followed the action
But this book presents those stories, along with Glen's photos of the guys that actually did the work.
 
I received my book today.
NOTHING short of SPECTACULAR

Dan and Glenn, as others here have told you fantastic job in putting it together.
Without a doubt, probably one of the largest fire department books I have seen.

Going through it, I recognize some of those FDNY WAR YEARS Firefighters names whose story and photos are featured in that book.
I'm sure many of you will too.
Also interesting, I noticed at least one popular and active member of this site having his story in it.
Do you know who it is ?
 
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Thank you my friends for your kind comments. I know Glenn would agree that this project was a labor of love and fun every single moment. Our objective, as Willy mentioned above, was to capture the stories of a wide cross section of ordinary people who were FDNY firefighters during a special time. From the war years to 9/11 the FDNY evolved in many ways, it was important to capture a first person account of history. I told Glenn upon completion of the project, which took 2 years, was "we caught lightening in a bottle." Hope you enjoy, looking forward to seeing many of you soon! To remember, Dan Potter.
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This is one book that you WON'T finish reading in a few days.
Since receiving this book, I have read a few stories of guys who I met at some point.
With plenty more to go.

There is even a section where Glenn tells his own story of his buffing FDNY days during those very busy FDNY War Years.
A story that I, and I'm sure others, can relate to when he mentions about his buffmobile and his tunable radio to listen to the FDNY.
Making his buff trips and deciding which area of the city he will hangout in, to see the work being done by those very busy members of the FDNY's Bravest.

Along with that is a story of the late FDNY Firefighter Dennis Smith who wrote the first book about the fires of the Bronx called "Report from Engine 82".
It was that book that got so many of us buffs to begin to focus on the FDNYs Bravest.

We know there are so many more individuals, in addition to the 90 members in this book who were a part of those Very Busy FDNY War Years, that also have stories of their own to tell.
But this book weighing 5 lbs and having almost 300 pages - as Dan said "we had to put a limit on those featured in the book".

The stories I've read so far, covering the details of each individual being interviewed certainly gives me a great appreciation for the excellent and detailed writing that Dan undertook to accomplish the writing of this entire book.

This is certainly a book that you will want to add to your other FDNY COLLECTOR BOOKS.

THANKS ONCE AGAIN, Dan and Glenn.

I would also like to mention that with the sales of this book, Dan and Glenn are contributing their profits to the following FDNY organizations:

The Ray Pfeifer Fund
The FDNY Family Transport Foundation
The Lt Joesph P. Dibernardo Memorial Fund
The Terry Farrell Firefighters Fund
 
Thank you Willy for the gracious review. The book project was magical and exciting. I believe we really caught a good representaion of FDNY members from all ranks and era that shared their story and Glenns detail to photography is amazing. See you soon!
 
BOOK SIGNING EXTRAVAGANZA!!...Hello Troops! Happy to announce our next book signing. The location is Coram, LI Firehouse. For those who live up in CT, Mass and RI, the Bridgeport Ferry stops at Port Jefferson, NY...only 7 miles (10 minutes) from the Coram firehouse...easy peasy!! Subjects interviewed in THEY SAVED NEW YORK will also be on hand to sign as well including Chief Frank Leeb (who wrote our forward) will be there signing his new book Cornerstone of Leadership. And if that aint enough, our heroes mentioned in REPORT FROM ENGINE CO 82 will also be on hand to sign your copy. It's gonna be a blast!

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