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American Morning
One FDNY Recruit's Surprising Story
Aired December 22, 2003 - 08:24 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: It's taken more than two years for New York City's fire department to recover from the devastation of September 11. To get back to full strength, the FDNY recruited twice the number of probationary firefighters, known as probies.
This morning in part one of the three part series, CNN's Deborah Feyerick tells one recruit's surprising story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): By his fifth birthday, George Pena, the son of Cuban immigrants, already knew what he wanted to be.
JORGE PENA, PROBATIONARY FIREFIGHTER: I went to school across the street from a firehouse in Queens and I remember in kindergarten by kindergarten trips across the street to the firehouse.
FEYERICK: Pena grew up in Queens, New York, dreaming of fighting fires.
PENA: You know, I remember them sliding down the poles and turning off the fire extinguishers.
FEYERICK: It wasn't until after 9/11, having waited three years, that Pena was called up. The New York City Fire Department was reeling from the deaths of 343 men. In some cases, whole battalions were lost.
(on camera): The Department had to rebuild, promoting new captains, lieutenants, department heads. There were more openings and the rank and file in a single month than there had been in the entire year proceeding it.
(voice-over): Classes of probationary firefights, or probies, doubled to 600.
(on camera): Did 9/11 change or influence your desire to become a firefight?
PENA: It gave me more motivation to be one. I knew what I wanted to do.
FEYERICK (voice-over): And he got his chance. January, 2002, his first day of a 12 week training course at the fire academy, also known as the rock. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is left over from the World Trade Center. Three hundred forty-three firefighters went to work that day. Don't ever embarrass their sacrifice. Don't ever tarnish their sacrifice.
PENA: It's not the paycheck, you know what I mean? Yes, when you get out there and -- the feeling has to come from somewhere else. And I think it's, I think it comes from the heart, really, (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
FEYERICK: But a month and a half into training, it stopped. A call to war. And at age 24, before living his dream, Pena realized his life was heading in a different direction.
Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Tomorrow in part two of our series, we'll follow George Pena as he heads off to war in Iraq.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired December 22, 2003 - 08:24 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: It's taken more than two years for New York City's fire department to recover from the devastation of September 11. To get back to full strength, the FDNY recruited twice the number of probationary firefighters, known as probies.
This morning in part one of the three part series, CNN's Deborah Feyerick tells one recruit's surprising story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): By his fifth birthday, George Pena, the son of Cuban immigrants, already knew what he wanted to be.
JORGE PENA, PROBATIONARY FIREFIGHTER: I went to school across the street from a firehouse in Queens and I remember in kindergarten by kindergarten trips across the street to the firehouse.
FEYERICK: Pena grew up in Queens, New York, dreaming of fighting fires.
PENA: You know, I remember them sliding down the poles and turning off the fire extinguishers.
FEYERICK: It wasn't until after 9/11, having waited three years, that Pena was called up. The New York City Fire Department was reeling from the deaths of 343 men. In some cases, whole battalions were lost.
(on camera): The Department had to rebuild, promoting new captains, lieutenants, department heads. There were more openings and the rank and file in a single month than there had been in the entire year proceeding it.
(voice-over): Classes of probationary firefights, or probies, doubled to 600.
(on camera): Did 9/11 change or influence your desire to become a firefight?
PENA: It gave me more motivation to be one. I knew what I wanted to do.
FEYERICK (voice-over): And he got his chance. January, 2002, his first day of a 12 week training course at the fire academy, also known as the rock. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is left over from the World Trade Center. Three hundred forty-three firefighters went to work that day. Don't ever embarrass their sacrifice. Don't ever tarnish their sacrifice.
PENA: It's not the paycheck, you know what I mean? Yes, when you get out there and -- the feeling has to come from somewhere else. And I think it's, I think it comes from the heart, really, (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
FEYERICK: But a month and a half into training, it stopped. A call to war. And at age 24, before living his dream, Pena realized his life was heading in a different direction.
Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Tomorrow in part two of our series, we'll follow George Pena as he heads off to war in Iraq.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
