Colón’s Corner: A Day with The E-Men

A memorable time at Floyd Bennett Field

I was shocked to be quite honest when I got the invite. Even now after all the work I’m very proud of having done chronicling the FDNY and NYPD?on my podcast, I still find myself surprised whenever the current members of each department reach out. It’s always nice, lord knows I never could’ve envisioned any of it happening in my younger years given how tumultuous my childhood was. Here I am now though and it’s awesome and a big reminder to keep doing what I’m doing.

What invite am I referring to? The NYPD Emergency Service Unit Medal Day courtesy of one of the sergeants in the unit (he knows who he is and much love to him!). Immediately I checked my calendar, and sure enough I was free. After I provided the boss (AKA Mom) with the heads up off I went. Arriving down to Grand Central Station, I got scooped up by a Truck 1 REP and got the ride on over to the Hollywood Truck. After a brief hello to the men and a good-natured breaking of chops, I ventured off with Detectives Chris Williams, Tom Longa, and Greg Welch to Brooklyn’s Floyd Bennett Field. Home to not only ESU, but the NYPD’s Special Operations Division as a whole.

In that car with me was a plethora of experience. To put it in perspective, Detective Williams was the junior man of the three…he has 19 years in the Emergency Service Unit. Longa possesses 22, Welch has 25. The banter on the way down was top notch, all of it hilarious and not fit to print here! I’d never actually been to the field before something that surprised Detective Welch. “This is its own world out here” remarked Detective Longa as we arrived, and he was right. Resembling something of a military base, the field doesn’t even feel like a part of New York City. It genuinely is its own locale.

As the spring wind whipped and we piled out of the RMP with Williams, Welch, and Longa clad in their dress blues, I took notice of the wide range of space the field possessed. It wasn’t just a random stretch of land; this land has produced some of the finest police officers New York City has ever had. Helicopters from the Aviation Unit and motorcycles from the Highway Unit encompassing just some of the sights my eyes bore witness to on our way down to the hangar where the medal ceremony would take place.

Once there, I milled about with Detective Welch, who enthusiastically played the role of both wingman and hype man for me as only he can. Shockingly, many of the guys knew who I was from the podcast. “Love your show man!” said one E-Man. “Great podcast!” said another. “When they heard you were coming down, they said “no way the kid from the podcast?!” said yet another E-Man to me. You could’ve knocked me over with a feather!

Also present there were the men I knew from my?first ride along with the unit last summer?(I’m angling for a second!) as well as my previous interviews with them. Men like Marty Duffy, Tony Otero (another classic guy), Stew Eiel, Chief Wilson Aramboles and the?legendary Lieutenant Al Baker. Additionally, standing right to my left in casual conversation as I stood next to the towering Detective Williams was none other than Paul DiGiacomo, longtime head of the NYPD Detectives Union. “Holy crap Paul DiGiacomo!” I remarked to Williams. “Go for it” he replied. So, I did and I’m glad. He’s a very nice man with whom I enjoyed a brief and positive exchange. Here I was, me of all people, standing in a room amongst giants.

Soon, the ceremony would commence. After a video highlighting the history of the unit, Chief of Department Jeff Maddrey would open with brief remarks. Recalling an experience as a rookie in Queens on a hot summer day in 1992, the NYPD’s highest-ranking officer told of two E-Men who despite the brutal temperatures of the season causing them to sweat profusely lifted the grate of a storm drain to retrieve $1500 of a woman’s rent money. Forever left with a positive impression of the unit, the Chief extolled his praises on the current crop of rescue cops. A deserved and refreshing atta boy, especially in these times.

Then the awards would follow. Each act the men were being recognized for blowing you away. A 2018 rescue of an emotionally disturbed woman from the Statue of Liberty, a 2020 retrieval and rescue of a stranded woman on a mountain suffering from the bite of a poisonous snake, a 2019 rescue of officers and civilians pinned down by gunfire from a madman, a 2015 rescue of a woman caught in the headlock of another violent lunatic armed with a knife. It makes your head spin, but in the same breath, it makes you proud too. If it were up to the guys, they probably wouldn’t even take the medals, that’s not what they do any of that for. Still, it was nice to see them get recognized and to see the happy looks of their families in attendance too.

So concluded the ceremony but not my day. After a good-bye and thank you very much to Longa, Williams, and Welch, I shadowed Zeke Rivelli, a 10-year veteran of ESU. From a picture with and ride in the unit’s military grade emergency rescue vehicle and heavy response truck to a tour of the fleet hangar and specialized training school I got a full plate. ‘Holy crap I’m really doing this!’ I thought once again. Sitting around and shooting the breeze with the fellas I rode back with them to Grand Central.

“Passenger’s seat is all yours” said one officer to me. “You’re serious!” I eagerly replied. He wasn’t kidding! There I was in a van on the way back to Grand Central, NYPD Honor Legion shirt in tow, laughing, joking, and quoting movie lines with four ESU cops as if I’d known them my whole life.

I don’t remember much of the train ride home probably because I was on cloud nine the whole way back. I don’t feel like I deserve any of it to be frank but nevertheless I’m honored and humbled and all I can say is thank you. It hasn’t been an easy road throughout my life as I’ve shared with you all previously. Currently, I find myself on a reluctant hiatus from my podcast as I work towards moving into my apartment. I miss the show terribly and wish I could do an episode yesterday and after going on the hiatus back in December, I admittedly felt I might be forgotten. My trip down for Medal Day showed me I was wrong, and boy am I glad to be.

To the men and women of the Emergency Service Unit past and present who I’ve gotten to know I say from the bottom of my heart thank you once again. You’ve embraced me in a manner in which I could never have imagined and I’m glad and grateful to have earned both your trust and friendship. Even if it was just for a day, you made this nerd from New Haven feel awfully special. It was an excellent day with the E-Men and a great memory that’ll last me a lifetime!

Mike Colón is the host of the Mic’d In New Haven Podcast which can be found on?all podcast platforms?and is simulcast in video form on?YouTube