Man In Full: 9-11 Firefighter dies in Iraq

I have no commentary. This hurts. Christian Engeldrum was a "Man in Full". In the truest, fullest meaning of the phrase. My keen condolences to his family, New York, the Military, and Firefighters in the US.

A NEW York firefighter who responded to the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center was killed in Iraq while on Army National Guard duty, city officials said today.

Christian Engeldrum, 39, was killed on Tuesday when a roadside bomb exploded near his convoy just outside Baghdad. Another New York firefighter, Daniel Swift, was injured in the attack.

"Christian Engeldrum spent his life protecting the people of this city and protecting democracy," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement.

"I join all New Yorkers in mourning his loss and pray that his family find comfort in the innumerable ways he touched so many lives," Mr Bloomberg said.

Three years ago on September 11, Mr Engeldrum's fire company arrived at the World Trade Center just as the first of the twin towers was collapsing.

He later featured in a well-known newspaper photograph as one of four fighters raising a torn American flag over the rubble of Ground Zero. "



And now this...

" December 2, 2004 -- The grieving widow of hero firefighter Chris Engeldrum will have something to remember him by forever — his yet-to-beborn child. Sharon Engeldrum has known for three months that she’s been carrying the baby of
her husband, who was killed in a terrorist attack in Iraq on Monday. The stunning secret got out yesterday —

“They are expecting another child,” a city official told The Post. A family member confirmed the news but declined to elaborate. It will be the couple’s third child — joining sons Sean, 18, and Royce, 16. The 37-year-old widow, still reeling from her husband's death, has kept the miraculous news a closely guarded secret.

The baby was conceived when the Army National Guardsman briefly returned home from Iraq in September.

The firefighter-turned-soldier was excited at the prospect of becoming a father for the third time, according to another source, and he had shared the news with his soldier buddies. "