Semper Fi

 

I do not know whether Sergeant Mike Curtin of the NYPD, a member of the Department's Emergency Service Unit, ever met Muhammad Ali.  I do know that he took Ali's words to heart and he put them into action every day.   He was the Squad Sergeant for ESU's Truck Company 2, which is based on 125th Street in Harlem.  Sgt. Curtin was, in the words of Officer Robert Yaeger with whom he served on Truck 2, "the epitome of an E cop.  He was always thinking on his feet and wanted you to think on your feet too." 

Before he became "Sgt. Mike Curtin, NYPD", he had been "Sgt. Major Mike Curtin, USMC".  He was an active-duty Marine for a dozen years, which service included seeing action during Operation Desert Storm.  

Mike Curtin had been on the job, protecting and serving the people of New York City, for thirteen years.  During those thirteen years, he was sometimes called upon to assist those far beyond the geographical boundaries of New York City: 

In 1995, Curtin was one of the NYPD/FDNY contingent sent to 

Oklahoma City immediately after Timothy McVeigh's cowardly 

bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, which claimed

168 lives.  Curtin, while digging through the rubble, saw a bit of

clothing, the distinctive blue pants with the blood red stripe, and

knew he had found the body of a fellow Marine.  He and his 

colleagues dug for five hours and were finally able to extricate the

remains of 28-year-old USMC Captain Randy Guzman, who worked

the recruiting station in the Murrah Building.  Curtin gathered some

fellow Marine rescue workers.  The body was draped with the 

American flag and solemnly carried out of the still-collapsing building.

If one visits the Oklahoma City Memorial, they will find a section

honoring those brave first responders from New York, including 

Curtin, who took part in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City blast

and later died on 9/11 at the World Trade Center. 

-"9/11 Remembered - Twenty Years Later" 

Bob Martin 

On the morning of September 11, 2001, Sgt. Curtin responded to the World Trade Center following a terrorist attack for the second time, having done so on February 26, 1993 also.  Tragically, unlike that dismally cold February day eight-and-one-half-years earlier, on that beautiful, sun-splashed September day, Sgt. Curtin did not make it home to his wife Helga (a fellow Marine), and the couple's three daughters.  He was killed while rescuing people from the Twin Towers.  He was forty-five years old. 

Sgt. Mike Curtin did, eventually, make it home to Helga and his girls.  On the night of March 6, 2002, ESU members working the site now known as Ground Zero, found Sgt. Curtin.  Immediately, the USMC Public Affairs Office in midtown Manattan, of which Major David Anderson, USMC, served as the Director, was inundated with phone calls from Sgt. Curtin's fellow E cops, all of whom left him the same message, "Dave, get down here - we found the Sergeant Major."  

Mike Curtin's remains were carried up from and out of Ground Zero with the same solemnity and reverence he had himself ensured those of Captain Guzman had been carried out of the wreckage of the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City six-plus years earlier.  When the procession carrying Sgt. Curtin made it to the top of the bridge, there waiting to carry Sgt. Curtin off the site was his ESU Truck - Truck 2.  And when the time came for those who had carried Sgt. Curtin to Truck 2 to climb up onto the Truck to coordinate the handing up of his remains, it was Helga, Sgt. Curtin's wife and fellow Marine, who did it.  

Sergeant Michael Curtin, NYPD - ESU Truck 2

-AK