Kevin Smith - he would have been an interesting guy to have a conversation with.

Kevin Smith , was 47 when he died. He was from Mastic NY. and had 8 children. He was in the Marines for 2 years and became a firefighter when he left . In the early 80's he became a charter member of the NY Fire Department's Hazardous Materials (Hazmat -1) unit. Then, after the first trade center bombing, in 1993, he was detailed to the mayor's Office of Emergency Management and was, says his wife Jerri, trained in combatting terrorism.

"He was a dedicated public servant, a smart man, a street-wise firefighter and fun to hang around with. Those bastards killed a good man", says F Smith, a firefighter who knew him.

"He was very kind-of-military about everything," said Jerri his wife, "He took everything seriously and put 100 percent in everything he did."

The last Jerri heard from him was when he called her at 8.50 am on the morning of 9/11 "He had called to say a plane had hit the World Trade Center and that he was heading over there." (American Airlines Flight 11 a Boeing 767-223ER tail number N334AA hit the North Tower of the WTC at 8.46)

"Anytime there was any large incident in the city, he would call me before I heard about it so I wouldn't worry,"

Kevin Smith is presumed dead in the terrorist attacks, the circumstances of his death remain unknown. A Memorial Service was held on October 6th, 2001

The New York City Office of Emergency Management was formed in 1996 by Executive Order and reports directly to the Mayor, and was based in what we now call WTC7 , or Gingerbread Tower. They are now located at 165 Cadman Plaza East which is the former American Red Cross Building. The current commissioner is a Surpeme Court Judge, lifelong New Yorker , Commissioner Bruno and was Commissioner of the New York City Fire Department on 9/11.

The commissioner led the City's response to the Queens blackout in July 2006, which left more than 100,000 residents without power for several days.


UPDATE

The eagle eyed, sharp brained, aangirfaan kindly points us to this story at 911blogger

The Firefighters' Union is holding a bipartisan election forum on March 14, 2007. They have invited several presidential candidates, but not Rudy Giuliani......

"His actions post 9/11 rise to such an offensive and personal attack on our brother and sisterhood — and directly on our union — that the IAFF does not feel Rudy Giuliani deserves an audience of IAFF leaders and members at our own Presidential Forum.

...and this leads us to the indefatigable David Hawkins, Forensic Economist at Hawks' CAFE Foundation Scholar, Cambridge University "Did Teachers' Banks Sponsor Boeing 9/11 War Games? ... and much, much more.

Including Thomas P Barnett who described 9/11 as the "first live-broadcast, mass snuff film in human history."