NYFD Battalion Chief John Moran (Freeper BCM) Perishes In World Trade Center

NY Daily News ^

[AppyPappy]

The bone-chilling wail of bagpipe playing "Amazing Grace" echoed through a Queens church yesterday as yet another fallen firefighter from the World Trade Center tragedy was memorialized in death.

It was yet another day — of many more to come — for Masses and memorial services for both heroic rescue workers and innocent civilians lost in the flames and collapsing towers.

At the memorial Mass for 49th Battalion Chief John Moran, his younger brother, Firefighter Michael Moran of Ladder 3, recalled how he spoke to his brother by cell phone after the second plane crashed into the Trade Center.

"I told him to be careful," the younger Moran told mourners, including his brother's wife, Kim, and two sons, Ryan, 7, and Dylan, 4. "I didn't see him there that day, but now I see him all the time."

The memorial Mass at St. Francis de Sales Church in Belle Harbor, Queens, was conducted by the fallen firefighter's uncle, Father Paul Moran, who called his 42-year-old nephew's last assignment a "mission of love, to save life, not destroy it."

Mayor Giuliani called for a standing ovation for the 20-year fire veteran, who held a law degree from Fordham University and was injured in the Father's Day explosion at an Astoria hardware store that killed three firefighters.

The mayor said while Moran's two young sons may not fully comprehend all that's happened, "The thing I want them to understand for their entire life is that their father is a great man."

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It is believed that John Moran is BMC. We have a picture from a freep Posted Here. Here is his Fire Dept Memorial http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/f dny/html/memorial/wtc/moran_jo hn_bc_bat049.html. Here is a google search of his postsHere

I found these:

To: ELS

This was the best time I've ever had in the pouring rain! I was shouting so hard that I can hardly speak today. While the chants were great and certainly got people's attention, I personally loved it when we sang "America the Beautiful" and "God Bless America." I think that really stopped people in their tracks (and completely confounded the liberals).

32 Posted on 11/27/2000 15:45:04 PST by BCM
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | Top | Last ]

After the Bush victory:

To: AndrewC

My fellow Freepers, who sustained me through all the insanity.

24 Posted on 11/27/2000 19:20:44 PST by BCM
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | Top | Last ]

BTW I found this one as well:

To: bcjohnson

God bless you, you will be missed.

4 Posted on 01/03/2000 22:37:18 PST by BCM

John 15
My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

[FreeReign]

I can't tell you how often this has been on my mind these past three weeks, since Silly first began to track down the city freepers who hadn't posted in a while. I was so relieved that everyone had been accounted for. Now this. And now I wonder, how many lurkers (in a building the size of the WTC, it's hard to believe there wasn't ONE person who lurked), how many commuters from Jersey and Connecticut, how many people who may have been in town VISITING from out of state, and not told anyone from FR about their travel plans?

Freepers should be required to document in their wills -- how they didn't mean to leave FR, without saying good-bye.

Good-bye BCM & Chief Negotiator....

[snickeroon]

May God bless and hold with love this hero's family, until they join him again. It seems, in the thought that "All things work for good for them that love the Lord...." only fitting that these brave souls will be standing at the top to help the stragglers and the strugglers on their climb..... This brother has left us all with a challenge, now we must all spend what time we have remaining striving to live up to the example that he leaves us all as his legacy.

[isthisnickcool]

This is a long thread. I don't even have to read all the responses to see what kind, gentle and caring people come here to FreeRepublic. God bless you all and God bless those young children, their mom and family. We will remember Chief Moran in our hearts and prayers. Just breaks my heart.

[mcenedo]

I will say some extra prayers for John and his family. I have children the same age as John's, so this particular tragic story makes me realize how lucky I am.

May God bless us all.

[kayak]

Thank you! And now the tears are flowing again after seeing those three new names on the Wall. I'm feeling so many things and just don't know how to express them all ..... sadness at their passing, thankfulness for their lives, anger, grief, joy that we had them here to share with us for a while ..... so much more. May God be with their families and give them peace and comfort!

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

I've found this address for Battalion 49, where we can send cards and letters to Battalion Chief Moran's fellow firefighters.

BATTALION 49
112 Seigel St.
Brooklyn, NY 11206-3304

[Republic of Texas]

Thanks for the post. We must all continue to fight the good fight for our fallen brother, Chief Moran. He is an inspiration for us all.

[kayak]

Thank you so much for that address!!!

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

God bless you! Thank you for posting your story about your friendship with BCM. He will be remembered as one of the Sept. 11 fallen ones and a hero to us all!

Are you one of his fellow firefighters? If so, did I get the street address correct in the post above? I know there will be many of us who will want to send cards and letters to the Battalion members who lost one of their brothers.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Good going! That's the kind of charity to which I will readily donate! Thanks SO much for posting that information. It's nice to know that nearly every penny of every dollar goes to the families.

[la_liberte]

"Let's hope that his sacrifice will serve as an example for the rest of us. There are perilous days ahead, and the more John Morans there are among us, the more assured we are of victory over the enemy who took him from us."

That is my prayer too.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

What do you say we start another thread with the Battalion mailing address and the Firefighters' charity information posted together?

[Clintons Are White Trash]

How tragic! I'm newer here, but the information available makes it obvious this was one special man. God speed BCM!

[Interesting Times]

They ran up the stairs, not down, they went into it and not out of it. They didn't flee, they charged.

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The pieces of the towers that are left, that still stand, look like pieces of a cathedral. Keep some of it. Make it part of a memorial. And at the center of it--not a part of it but at the heart of it--bronze statues of firemen looking up with awe and resolution at what they faced. And have them grabbing their helmets and gear as if they were running toward it, as if they are running in.

-- Peggy Noonan

[Taliesan]

Go, Chief, knowing your sons will use your story to teach their sons how to be men.

[The Thin Man]

This is so very sad. BCM was a true hero.

[eternity]

Post 190. Makes it all seem so real. BCM Rest In Peace.

[Uncle Sham]

"As I mourn his death, I am unspeakably proud that a man of such courage would see fit to keep company with us. He died a national hero. If I can do as much with my life as he did with his death, I will have succeeded beyond my wildest dreams. "

It simply cannot be stated any better that this. Thank you, Physicist. Thank you, AppyPappy for honoring your friend at such a sad time. Thanks, most of all, to BCM for blessing our world with his act of unselfish bravery.

[kayak]

Peggy's entire essay is a beautiful tribute to the members of the FDNY, including our own BCM.

Peggy Noonan: Courage Under Fire

[Jimbaugh]

"It is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points how the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly...who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at best, knows the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat." - Theodore Roosevelt, 1910