Michael Weinberg was 34 years old, and on September 11, 2001, he was not on duty.
He was playing golf at Forest Park in Queens when the first plane struck the North Tower. He did not need an official call to know what to do: he left his clubs lying on the grass, abandoned his car in Long Island City, and got a stranger to drive him to Manhattan. There, he put on the uniform of Engine 1, Ladder 24, and entered the building alongside Chaplain Mychal Judge and Captain Daniel Brethel. His sister, Patricia Gambino, worked in the South Tower.
She walked out. He became trapped beneath a fire truck when the tower collapsed onto the city. Michael made the most important decision of his life in the time it takes to let go of a golf club, and today he is one of the 343 FDNY firefighters who never made it home that morning.