MESSAGE to the Fire Department: Bring back the Hookers!
For a mom who lost her son on Sept. 11, 2001, it was the final straw.
In a blatant fit of political correctness, the brass in charge of the FDNY has won a three-year battle with a firehouse in Red Hook, Brooklyn – whose men were forever known as the “Happy Hookers.”
After much resistance, the department painted over the “Hookers” slogan, which had graced the firehouse forever.
Now, the mother of a fireman killed in the line of duty wants to paint it back.
“This is like putting another hole in my heart,” said Dee Ragusa, whose firefighter son, Michael, was killed on Sept. 11.
“Nobody cares about 9/11 anymore. They [the firemen] are just denoted as a bunch of bums. That’s what hurts.”
She has written to Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta, to no avail. Now, Dee is contemplating taking matters into her own hands.
“When somebody hurts me that much, I have to take action,” Dee said, standing with her husband, Vincent.
The Fire Department, stung by scandals involving booze and broads, decided the way to police its people is to erase any memory of whimsy.
And so “Animal House” in The Bronx is no more. “Southern Comfort” in Staten Island was changed after a brawl that ended with one fireman hitting the other in the face with a folding chair. Even the “Foster’s” house, on Foster Avenue in Brooklyn, was ordered to get rid of any reference to Foster’s beer.
But Engine 279, Ladder 131 in Red Hook – the “Happy Hookers” – has only known pain, not scandal.
On Sept. 11, it lost five men. The sight of the “Hookers” truck in the days after the terror attacks gave extreme comfort to the residents of Brooklyn. It was a sign that the men were still here.
The firemen were ordered to get rid of any reference to hookers in 2005. But it took until April 4 for the department to send over a man with a paintbrush and ladder, a department spokesman told me. It’s as if 9/11 never happened.
Dee buried a coffin containing little more than her son’s “Hookers” patch and uniform.
“My son will always be a Happy Hooker,” she said.