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Congressional Gold Medals

WASHINGTON (AP)
-- The House on Tuesday approved the presentation of congressional gold medals on behalf of the hundreds of firefighters, police officers, emergency and rescue workers and others who perished after responding to the attacks on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11.

The medal, Congress' highest civilian honor, would also be awarded on behalf of those people aboard United Airlines Flight 93 who resisted the hijackers, stopping them from a possible attack on Washington. That plane crashed in Pennsylvania.

``Today's bill commemorates and honors in the most significant way that Congress can those men and women who laid down their lives on Sept. 11,'' said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., said bronze reproductions would also be sold to the general public said bronze reproductions would also be sold to the general public, with the proceeds going to a proposed memorial at the World Trade Center site.

The bill, passed 392-2, is expected to win quick approval in the Senate. The no votes were cast by Republicans Ron Paul of Texas and Amo Houghton of New York.

The bill is H.R. 3054.

Presidential Valor Medal

SHOWING THEIR MEDAL

By VINCENT MORRIS

April 19, 2002 -- WASHINGTON -

A resolution honoring 9/11 heroes with valor medals was approved last night by the Senate after Sen. Patrick Leahy relented and permitted a vote on the measure. The action came amid word that Attorney General John Ashcroft has begun laying the groundwork to award medals before the one-year anniversary of the terror attacks.

The wildly popular legislation, which authorizes the awarding of medals to families of firefighters, police and EMS workers who died saving others during the World Trade Center collapse, passed the House 409-0 last fall.

Yet it became gummed up in the Senate because Leahy shelved the bill for nearly seven months until last week, when The Post revealed his opposition.

Aides to Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, told The Post he opposed the bill because he felt it undercut an 11-member board that had been created to review valor nominations.

Yesterday, Leahy's Judiciary Committee gave unanimous approval to three versions of the medal resolutions, although most members of the committee did not bother to attend the meeting and no roll-call vote was taken.

Hours later, it was approved by the Senate.

During the hearing, Leahy declared his support for the 9/11 heroes, as did Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), who said the outpouring of support "makes your heart swell."

Meanwhile, Rep. Joe Crowley (D-Queens) says aides to Ashcroft are hard at work on the medal issue, with the goal of minting and engraving medals and possibly presenting them to surviving families before the one-year anniversary of Sept. 11.

Designs for the medals will be announced soon and The Post has learned they will show an image of an American eagle, surrounded by a cluster and a large "V." Each hero's name will be engraved on the back side of the gold-plated medallions, which will hang from broad ribbons.

Medals also will be presented to five yet-to-be-named public-safety workers who had no role in the WTC rescue efforts.

The Post has learned that the 11-member board supposed to sign off on valor medals includes New York's Edward Cardinal Egan.

Heroes' Honors;

Awards, ribbons for FDNY



Copyright 2002 Newsday, Inc. Newsday (New York, NY)...06/01/2002

>By William Murphy; STAFF WRITER

Special decorations will be awarded to active and retired firefighters who died in the Sept. 11 rescue effort or who worked at Ground Zero, the Fire Department said Friday.

A departmental Medal of Valor will be awarded posthumously to the 343 firefighters who died in the rescue effort, according to an order sent to all fire commands.

A Survivor/Rescuer Ribbon will be given to firefighters who worked at Ground Zero from the time of the first alarm at 8:46 a.m. on Sept. 11 - the time that Tower Two at the World Trade Center was struck by a hijacked jetliner - until 10:28 a.m. (Tower One collapsed at 10:29 a.m.)

A Rescuer Ribbon will be awarded to firefighters who worked in the trade center area after the towers' collapse and until 1:28 p.m. the next day, when the last victim was pulled out alive.

A Campaign Ribbon will be given to all firefighters in the department as of Sept. 11 who were at Ground Zero at any point after the attack, and all retired firefighters who worked as volunteers.

"The department recognizes the many heroic acts that took place on September 11th, 2001, and the days that followed," the order said.

Department spokesman Frank Gribbon said the date of the awards ceremony had not been set, but it probably would be in October. The designs of the medals and ribbons have not been finalized.

It has not yet been decided which commendations will be awarded at the public ceremony and which will be given privately, perhaps by a superior officer, Gribbon said.

Fire Capt. Peter Gorman, president of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association, said his union and the Uniformed Firefighters Association had worked with the Fire Department to come up with fitting tributes.

"I think that every member of this department has been at Ground Zero at >some point, and they will all get the Campaign Ribbon," Gorman said.

In addition to the medals from the department, each of the 343 lost firefighters will be given the traditional Medal of Valor from the parent union, the International Association of Fire Fighters.

William Mirro, recording secretary of the rank-and-file firefighters' union, said he had heard some grumbling among firefighters that the annual medal ceremony for valor that is usually held in June had been canceled this year in the wake of Sept. 11.

"Medal Day is usually a positive day and we could use a positive day," Mirro said. "We figured the site would be done by then and it has been."

The Fire Department said the World Trade Center medals would be one-of-a-kind, and unlike most department medals would not count as points toward promotion.

Saturday is the deadline for company commanders to forward reports to fire headquarters on which firefighters qualify for the various commendations.