KA2OTD.org
Lt. Robert D. Cirri
Memorial Repeater Group
Serving
Northern NJ and the
441.250
MHz and 53.77 MHz
A message from
the Curators of the Lt. Robert D. Cirri Memorial Repeater Group
Having to write this
is one of the most bittersweet moments in my life. The fact that I’m doing this
means my best friend, Bob Cirri, no longer walks with us.
Bob was one of
thirty-seven Port Authority of New York & New Jersey police officers who
were murdered on
Bob remained
missing in what had become “Ground Zero.” For those of us who responded there
for consequence management, it was known as “the Pile.”
If you’ve seen
the pictures on the news, or on TV, you only see a small, two-dimensional image
of what is really a hill of ruin, strewn across several city blocks in Downtown
Manhattan. Many of us had hoped for victims to be pulled from the ruins. Sadly,
we waited and precious few were being found alive in the Pile. Rescuers dug
franticly, while doctors, nurses and paramedics stood by waiting and hoping
they would be able to help keep someone alive.
On September 12th,
as I sat on the edge of my bed glued to the New York City TV stations via
satellite, my phone rang. I had been expecting orders to mobilize. I belong to
an emergency response team and we were already on alert. I saw the Caller ID
and knew it was Bob. He must’ve been working for the last 24 hours and just
gotten some downtime. I’ll bet he was going to tell me what’s going on out
there, and I was going to tell him I’d be there sooner or later. When I got
there, I’d call him on the repeater, find him and get together if he had the
time. Another ring came through before I got to the phone. It was Eileen, Bob’s
wife. “I wanted you to hear it from me first. Bob’s missing...
.”
Two weeks later,
I ended up deploying to
Months passed and
Bob remained missing. He was memorialized before Thanksgiving in services
attended by his brothers and sisters in law enforcement and
Finally, a call
came on February 10th, nearly five months
after cowards hijacked two jetliners and flew them into the mighty symbols of
what
In an instant, I
felt a conflict of emotion. Should I be sad? The last five months have been
very empty ones. That’s not because my other friends haven’t tried to offset
the hurt, but because the phone hasn’t rung with that familiar voice on the
other end. Should I be happy? Can anyone really feel happy in times like these?
As I was being torn apart by having to choose an emotion, an overwhelming
feeling of relief ran through me. Within hours, the troops were mobilized once
again. We were enroute to bury our friend and Brother. He’s finally come home.
As I said at the start, it’s a bittersweet moment at best.
Details of how
Bob was found emerged. He was a member
of a team trying to evacuate an obese woman to safety. As newspapers and TV
would report, they were steps away from exiting 1
We curators are
three amateur radio operators who stepped beyond the typical amateur’s role of
public service. We are public safety professionals with backgrounds in
law enforcement, the fire service, emergency medical services and emergency
management. We are both salaried employees and volunteers in our fields. We are
committed to preserving the memory of our friend and to stand up in the role he
created.
The identifier on
our repeaters continues to have Bob’s own voice. It will remain that way. We
love to hear him and, sometimes, it reminds us of a time not so long ago when
we would put our callsign out on the air and hear, “KA2OTD”
replying in a playful tone. The worst thing ever would be to have his voice
fade from our memories.
We strive to keep
these repeaters on the air and keep them the home of the region’s public safety
professionals who are licensed radio amateurs. You will not be hit up for “memberships”
or “dues” here. There will be no club politics. If you’re a cop, firefighter,
EMT, paramedic or emergency manager – career or volunteer - or someone who has
an interest in these activities – this is a place where you are welcome. We’d
rather have thoughtful and honest recreational conversations than inane
sessions of ham radio boilerplate. When the repeater is needed for additional
public safety communication applications, it’s there. Those have been the rules
of the repeaters for the past eighteen years. They haven’t changed.
We strive to
interest public safety professionals in amateur radio and interest licensed
amateurs to serve their communities by taking deeper roles in public safety.
Nobody did this better than Bob. We’ll try to live up
to that, but they’re mighty big shoes to fill.
We further strive
to be there for Bob’s family when they need us. They’ve always been our family, too. We all grew up together
and spent some pretty wonderful and pretty awful times together. That’s what
families do.
Finally, we will
learn from the lessons Bob and his compatriots have taught us, for if they didn’t
teach us anything, they died in vain. We will educate ourselves to the best of
our means, examine our failures, strengthen our weaknesses and never allow
history to repeat itself on our watch.
Please use the
repeaters. When you do, don’t just remember Bob. Remember all of the valiant
people who were murdered on September 11th, and how fortunate we
were to have had them in our midst, albeit only for such brief time.
Fraternally
yours,
Steven J. Makky,
Sr., KA2AYR
Presiding Curator,
Lt. Robert D.
Cirri Memorial Repeater Group,
Fmr.
Paramedic, NYC*
Ex-Chief (1988),
FOP
Lodge 15,
mbr. Radio Club of
