Not One To Brag

 

Battalion Chief Joseph Ross Marchbanks, Jr.

Battalion 12 - FDNY

End of Watch:  September 11, 2001

At the time of his death at the too-young age of 47 on September 11, 2001, Battalion Chief Joseph Ross Marchbanks, Jr. had spent slightly less than half of his life protecting and serving the people of New York City.  A native of the Bronx, he qualified to join the NYPD and the FDNY in the very same week, opted to become one of New York's Bravest, and never looked back.  

In the span of his twenty-two year in the FDNY, Chief Marchbanks was promoted on four separate occasions.  Although he had earned the rank of Battalion Chief, in which capacity he served out of the Harlem firehouse that is home to Engine 35/Ladder 14/Battalion 12, he preferred to be called a firefighter, for that was who he was and that was what he did, irrespective of rank.  

He also loved being called "Dad", which he was to his two kids Lauren and Ryan, and "Husband', which he was to his wife Teresa.   The family lived in Nanuet, where Chief Marchbanks helped coach Lauren's softball team to a championship.  

On what proved to be the final day of his life, Chief Marchbanks had just begun a 24-hour shift, relieving his friend and fellow Battalion Chief Fred Scheffold, when the alarm rang.  Both men hopped into the truck heading downtown to the World Trade Center, riding together to help save others.  It was there they died.  

Chief Marchbank's wife, Teresa, noted that her husband was never one to brag about himself (although Lauren's exploits on the softball diamond were another matter altogether).  Instead, he allowed his actions to speak for him.  On that terrible Tuesday morning twenty-one Septembers ago, they spoke so loudly that all these years later they continue to echo and to reverberate.  

May it be that they always do so. 

-AK