Michael Curtin: Always Ready and
Thinking
Water
recoveries. Auto extractions. Cajoling deranged gunmen
into straitjackets. Talking jilted lovers down from a
ledge on the George Washington Bridge. As squad sergeant
for Truck Company 2 of the Police Department's Emergency
Service Unit, Michael Curtin never knew what kind of
risky rescue operation he and his men might be asked to
perform on any given day.
But he believed in being prepared. On Sundays or slow
days, when New York residents managed to keep themselves
out of mortal peril, Sergeant Curtin, 45, a former marine
who served in the Gulf War, did not let his squad members
just sit around. Instead, he would drill them on old
skills and teach them new ones &emdash; like how to wire
a police van by tapping into a telephone pole.
"If you wanted an epitome of an E cop, that would be
Michael Curtin," said Robert Yaeger, an officer with
Truck 2, using the police lingo for an Emergency Service
Unit officer. "He was always thinking on his feet and
wanted you to think on your feet, too."
Not that Sergeant Curtin was all work and no play. At
the end of those Sunday morning training sessions, he
would fry up an outsize Marine Corps breakfast for all:
sloppy eggs, sausage and bacon seasoned with his favorite
red, blue and green spices.
On Sept. 11, Sergeant Curtin, the father of three
athletic teenage girls, was due back in the kitchen of
his home in Medford, N.Y., again -- this time, to make a
birthday dinner for his wife, Helga.
.
