Today is the birthday of Michael Cammarata of Ladder 11. He was born on October 5, 1978, and would have been 43 years old today. We will never forget the ultimate sacrifice that he made on September 11, 2001. May he continue to rest in peace.
Huguenot resident Michael Cammarata had been on the job only nine weeks when his company, Ladder 11, Manhattan, was called to the scene of the World Trade Center attack. He left a message on his father's voice mail just before 9 a.m., saying he was heading to lower Manhattan because an airplane had hit the Twin Towers.
"Just tell everyone I'm all right," were his last words to his family.
Now Mr. Cammarata is among those missing since the Sept. 11 attack.
Born in Grymes Hill, he moved to Huguenot with his family in 1989.
He was athletically gifted from a young age. He was a South Shore Little League All-Star, competing in the Little League World Series in 1991. The team came in second in the United States and third in the world. His teammate, Jason Marquis, now pitches for the Atlanta Braves.
At age 6, Mr. Cammarata played ice hockey with the New Jersey Arrows-mite, a double-A hockey club travel team that had no losses for the year.
He played for the New Jersey Devils Youth Squirt A Division at age 9. He played junior varsity for Tottenville High School while he was still a student at Bernstein Intermediate, and was on the New York Sharks-Bantam A team, traveling in the U.S. and Canada.
Mr. Cammarata made the varsity team as a sophomore at Tottenville High School, winning sportsman of the team. As a junior in 1995, he won the best defenseman title while playing club ice hockey for Tottenville, and was an assistant captain and an All-Star for the New York Ice Hockey Association. He was named Most Valuable Player (MVP) for the hockey team that year.
He continued to excel in sports as a high school senior. He was team captain and again made the All-Star team and was named MVP and Best Defenseman. He also won the high school hockey scoring title as a defenseman. He was the first Staten Island defenseman to win a scoring title in the New York Ice Hockey Association. At Wagner College, he was named Rookie of the Year in 1996, and in 1997 was the youngest named MVP in Wagner College history. That year his team received the Metropolitan Collegiate Conference Championship title. They made the championship game again the next year.
In 1999, Mr. Cammarata left college to work with his father in the building industry while waiting to be accepted as a New York firefighter, a job he wanted from the time he was a child.
He received a perfect score on the New York City Fire Department test, and was quickly called to duty. He was sworn in as a firefighter on May 3 of this year. He inherited the shield number 1138, which his uncle, Doug Bartucci, had used for 33 years. He completed nine weeks in the Fire Academy, and was assigned to a 14-week training in Engine 28, Ladder 11, Manhattan. He had completed nine of the 14 weeks, and was looking forward to his graduation from the academy. He was a member of the Columbian Association, a club for firefighters of Italian-American descent. He enjoyed playing baseball and hockey and was scheduled to try out for the Fire Department hockey team.
Tottenville High School is retiring his hockey number, 4. Wagner College is retiring his hockey number, 5, in a ceremony at the Pavilion before the Oct. 21 game.
Mr. Cammarata was a parishioner of Our Lady Star of the Sea R.C. Church, Huguenot.
"There can never have been a better best friend than Michael," said his brother, Joseph Jr. "He was not just made a hero because of Sept. 11, 2001 -- he was born a hero." (Staten Island Advance)