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BITS AND PIECES - 5/25/2008
(by Howard Ball - OpEd Columnist - May 25, 2008)
Local heroes remembered
This is a time when we remember America's heroes. This year the people of Ringwood and the Skyline Lakes Fire Company will also remember Fire Lieutenant Robert Jenkin, who was killed in the line of duty on June 16, 1978. It was 30 years ago but it is as real as yesterday for the brothers and sisters of the fire service, who will gather in a memorial service on June 14.
Members of the Skyline Lake Volunteer Fire Department will join fellow firefighters from Erskine Lakes Fire Company, Stonetown Fire Company, the Ringwood Ambulance Corps and the Police Department to lay a wreath on the Jenkins Memorial on Edgewood Road off Skyline Lakes Drive near the firehouse.
RJ was struck by an out-of-control vehicle on Route 511 at the scene of a brush fire just before midnight on June 16, 1978. He was pronounced dead on June 17. His widow Elaine and children Robert and Tracy are expected at the service. It is ironic that RJ died on the day of his 17th wedding anniversary.
Our heroes do not ask questions or engage in political debates. The soldiers and sailor who gave their lives on "D" Day were fighting for what they knew was right, Robert Jenkin was doing what the firefighter fraternity knows is right.
He could have been home in bed at that hour of the day, but he chose to respond to the call of the community.
Mayor Walt Davison will speak. He will probably speak of the love that poured out when RJ was taken. The news report of his death starts out, "To know him was to love him." Writer Gilda Walton goes on to say, "RJ is Robert Jenkin, a volunteer firefighter who couldn't turn his back on someone else's need." When he was struck down, RJ was in the front line for America. You may hear the sirens wail and rollover and go back to sleep but America's real heroes, the police, first aid and firefighters, are protecting and serving. RJ was the only Skyline Lakes firefighter to die in the line of duty, but you can check the rosters for surrounding first responders and find other heroes. Remember what the witnesses said of the first responders at the World Trade Center: "We were running out; they were going in."
When Father Kevin Downey says his prayer, I am sure that Father Mychal Judge will smile as he looks down from heaven. He was the first casualty of 9/11. He died while administering last rites to a firefighter. Mike was a fire chaplain and a smoke eater to the soul.
Firefighter and Eagle Scout Kevin Kyle will unveil a new park sign, which he and other Scouts erected, and it will be beautiful. Chief John Durand and Commissioner Richard Peplowski will speak of RJ with love, but in the end RJ will make his own memorial.
Over the 30 years since he was killed, people have not forgotten the man who cared for those around him. The park and the sign are deserved and proper but the love he left in the heart of firefighters will live forever.
God bless our American heroes and God bless America.
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