December 01, 2004
Sgt. Christian P. Engeldrum, A True American Hero
We all remember the torment and grief of September 11, 2001, and the pain in the faces of the various police, EMS workers, and firemen on the scene as they struggled with the unalterable fact that four passenger planes had changed the world forever and had taken so many of their badged brothers and sisters with them.
And a great many of us also remember the pride and redemption we felt when we watched that small group of responders, exhausted from digging for the missing and the lost in the ruins of war as they raised the flag, the American flag on a tilted and damaged flag pole in the midst of the smoking rubble.
People who were old enough to remember looked at the tableau and saw this act as a victory, an act of defiance against those who had perpetrated an act of war against out nation. "Ground Zero Iwo Jima" it was called.
We lost a little piece of that history this week.
One of those brave and defiant firemen was Sgt. Christian P. Engeldrum. He was a former policeman, a former member of the Army, and a former fireman. He left the New York Fire Department to rejoin the military and fight in the war on terror, and on Monday, November 29, 2004, he became a casualty of that war.
Sgt. Engeldrum was killed in when when his vehicle came under attack outside Baghdad. With him when he was killed was Daniel J. Swift, who served with him in the NYFD and also left to serve in the military.
Either one of them could have remained in the relative safety of NYC and worked until retirement age. Either one of them could have written a book, made a movie deal, and lived on the stories of their experiences during and after that horrible event. Instead they decided to volunteer and take the war that was brought to them and throw it back to those who brought it.
Now Sgt. Engeldrum truly is in the land of the free and the home of the brave.
So sad, they like Pat Tillman, put the country's security, future and human freedom above the current American ideal of me first, let's pray that their sacrifices are not in vain. I offer my sincerest condolences to their families and thanks for believing in a cause larger than themselves. Rest in peace, they surely are heroes.
Posted by: Jack at December 2, 2004 01:12 AMWhe are a country of great men and women no matter what the MSM and there ilk say.
I will keep there familys in my prayers
Some people say what this county lacks are real Heroes. I say they are wrong this county has plenty of Heroes and Patriots and a great one died on this day December 1, 2004 while serving his country in Iraq. That alone makes him a hero for he made the ultimate sacrifice for his country and our way of life. However, this man did so much more than that on September 11, 2001, he along with many other members of the NYFD charged into the gates of Hell of what once were the World Trade Centers and 343 did not come back along with 2,792 other who died when the planes stuck the towers and then collapsed. In the mist of searching for survivors this, man and two other found a battered and dirty American flag that fell and out of respect for the flag, love for their county, and defiance to bastards that did that heinous act, they hung that flag up for all the world to feel. Did he retire did he write a book no ladies and gentlemen he went to war. Citizens of the United States of America I say ye Christian P. Engeldrum, citizen, fireman, solider, patriot, hero, American, may he always be remembered and never forgotten. Let us not forget wife and two sons and the hard journey that they have ahead of them.
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