VINCENT G. DANZ: 'A Special
Breed'
Vincent
G. Danz was a member of the New York Police Department's
Emergency Service Unit's third squad in the Bronx. The
elite unit's officers are experts in areas like
psychology, rappelling, scuba diving, first aid and
marksmanship. Officer Danz liked the excitement and
challenge of the E.S.U.
Officer Danz, of Farmingdale, N.Y., was also a
husband, and a father of three daughters, including an
8-month-old. With the two older girls, he liked to watch
"SpongeBob SquarePants," a Nickelodeon cartoon.
"He was a special breed," Felix Danz said of his
brother, who at 38 was the youngest of nine children.
"I'd always ask him if he had any good jobs lately. He'd
say, `Yeah, I had this subway "pin job," ' where some
poor soul was taken out by the subway, or even worse,
still alive.
"The E.S.U. guys are the ones who go on the tracks,
find some way to lift up the train and get those people
out," Mr. Danz continued. "He wasn't boastful. He wasn't
one of those guys with the swelled chest at the bar. He
loved his work and the guys that he worked with. They
would die for one another. I think that goes globally for
the N.Y.P.D. My brother and his partner went into the
trade center without any questions. They knew what to do
and how to do it. Unfortunately, this thing was bigger
than either of them."
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