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"I'm at the site right now," Michael Brown says, pausing. He's tired, a little dazed. "I'm at the World Trade Center.
"It's my brother."
They were just two Irish kids growing up in Queens. Fighting one minute, laughing the next, always covering each other's back. Brothers are like that, you know.
Patrick Brown was a year older than Michael. Like older brothers will, Patrick was out in front, always pushing. He not only volunteered for Vietnam, but joined the Marines at 17 and lobbied for a combat assignment.
That's where Patrick Brown, 48, always wanted to be -- right in the middle of the action. After Vietnam, the job with the Fire Department of New York was a perfect fit.
"He always wanted to be a fireman since I could remember," Michael says. More than 20 years ago, Patrick began a career that would see him become among the most decorated firefighters in the history of the city. His exploits splashed across news pages and TV screens. When Time magazine searched for a firefighter to illustrate the most dangerous jobs in America, Patrick Brown was selected.
If he wasn't saving a woman from a...