Callahan, Frank

Capt. Frank Callahan, Lad.35 A DREAM REALIZED Frank Callahan, 50, was living his dream. As a boy and a young man he had wanted to be a firefighter. In 1970, when he met Angie Lang, the woman who would become his wife, at a party at a volunteer firehouse in Breezy Point, Queens, he had not yet attained that dream. “He was on the list,” Mrs. Callahan recalled, referring to the men and women who had passed the written and physical tests to be firefighters and were waiting for the call. It came a few years after they met. Mr. Callahan was appointed in September 1973. “That job was all he ever wanted,” Mrs. Callahan recalled. “That was the best thing that ever happened to him.” In the years that followed, the couple had four children: Harry, now 23; Nora, 21; Peter, 17; and Rose, 13. Mr. Callahan was promoted to captain in 1997 and months later was transferred to Ladder Company 35 on the Upper West Side, but the family did not have any big parties. “He wasn’t big on celebrations,” Mrs. Callahan said. A quiet man, Mr. Callahan liked to read about the Civil War or World War II. “He’d rather sit and be home,” said Mrs. Callahan, an eighth-grade math teacher in Middletown, N.Y. As the children grew, Mr. Callahan taught them how to ride bicycles and play basketball. But Mrs. Callahan’s most cherished memory was when her husband and Harry, then not older than 5, worked together on the exterior of their house in Breezy Point, with Harry helping his father with the hammering. “He was his little helper; wherever Dad went, he went,” Mrs. Callahan recalled. “He was very good with his kids that way.” Frank J. Callahan‚ 50‚ captain‚ FDNY‚ Ladder 35. When he joined the FDNY in September 1973‚ Callahan fulfilled his childhood dream of becoming a firefighter. After 24 years in the FDNY‚ he rose to captain and joined Ladder 35 a few months later. A quiet man‚ Callahan shied away from celebrations‚ preferring to relax at home‚ read about history‚ and‚ most importantly‚ spend time helping to raise his four children. Frank Callahan checked to make sure his daughter Nora was OK before he headed down to the World Trade Center from his midtown firehouse on Sept. 11. She was safe, his son Harry told him. She wasn’t working at her part-time job in the WTC that day. The family thought their father, a tough, 28-year veteran of the department, would be safe as well, but Callahan was lost in the terrorist attack that destroyed the Twin Towers. He is survived by his wife, Angela, and their four children, Harry, 22; Nora, 20; Peter, 16; and Rosie, 13. He was 51. “He was a good man, a good firefighter and a great leader,” Capt. James Gormley said. “He was a quiet man, but he always got the best out of his men, and I was proud to work with him. ” Callahan, who lived with his family in Breezy Point, Queens, was a 28-year FDNY veteran who returned to the department even after being laid off during the municipal budget woes of the mid-1970s. His daughter Nora, 20, spoke lovingly about her father’s devotion to his job. “When I first heard about the Trade Center attack, I thought my father’s skills would keep him alive,” she stoically told the overflow crowd. “But then I realized that he was so committed to his job that his own safety would be the last thing on his mind. ” In addition to Nora, the 53-year-old Callahan leaves behind his wife, Angela, and their three other children: Harry, 23, Peter, 16, and Rose, 13. Callahan’s brother-in-law John Lang warmly recalled the fallen firefighter’s love for his family. “Family always came first for Frank,” Lang said. “He loved and would do anything for his wife and children. Yesterday’s crowd frequently burst into laughter when told of Callahan’s penchant for practical jokes. “You wouldn’t expect it out of him because he was so quiet, but he was always playing jokes,” said Firefighter Robert Menig, who served under Callahan at Ladder 35. “One of his best was when he told us that headquarters wanted us to count the trees downtown to improve our preparedness. “Somehow, the boys bought it. “This is where I am (on September 11). This is where my guys are. This is my family,” said Angela Callahan, widow of Captain Frank Callahan of Ladder 35, the ranking officer killed at the World Trade Center from the Lincoln Center firehouse, which at the time had 47 firefighters. A math teacher in Middletown, NY, Mrs. Callahan learned of the attack when her husband called her before leaving the firehouse after the first tower was hit and the lower Manhattan fire companies responded. “When the second tower was hit, they knew it was terrorists and they sent guys from up here,” she said. She said it was particularly painful that bodies from the truck unit (ladder 35) were not recovered although some were found from the engine unit. “We just never got them back. And that was hard for the men. The one thing that they kept saying to me over and over again was ‘Ang, we are looking for them, we are looking for them.’” They had never before not been able to recover their men. They had buildings collapsing. They always go and bring them out. They wanted to do that and they couldn’t and that was one of the hardest things for the guys.”