Ready to Serve His City, Firefighter Must Serve His Country First

Joseph Carpio was planning on fulfilling a lifelong dream next month, when he was scheduled to be sworn in as a city firefighter with the rest of his class of 30 “probies.”

But then another obligation intervened: a few weeks ago the 24-year-old Newark native, a sergeant in the US Marines, was called to serve a tour in Afghanistan beginning Wednesday, city officials said. 

So the Newark Fire Department decided to expedite things a bit.

Carpio, who served in Iraq in 2008 and 2009, was sworn in Tuesday, the day before he deploys and on the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

The significance of the date was not lost on fire officials, who gathered at the city clerk’s office at city hall for the brief ceremony.

“It’s an honor and a privilege to be sworn in today,” Carpio said of the anniversary that holds a particularly special meaning for firefighters. Along with thousands of civilian victims, 343 members of the New York Fire Department died at the World Trade Center site on that long ago Tuesday morning.

“Ironically it’s because of 9/11 that I joined the service,” Carpio added.

“This is a unique day for this to happen,” said Fire Chief John Centanni. 

And Carpio also belongs to a unique group. The , the first time in recent memory this has been the case. The department has approximately 600 members.

Carpio’s fire academy class presented him with a Bible signed by each of them, said Capt. John Brown.

The department has made hiring veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan a top priority, Centanni said, adding that the department has worked with the GI Go Fund, a nonprofit agency based at city hall, to actively recruit service members.

Carpio was joined at Tuesday’s ceremony by his wife, Jennifer, and their two children, two-year-old Samantha and Joseph, six months.