A New York City detective is following in the footsteps of his father – a hero who died on 9/11 – by joining the NYPD’s elite Emergency Service Unit.
Joseph Vigiano Jr. celebrated his ESU graduation Friday after joining the NYPD more than two years ago and is now assigned to Brooklyn’s Emergency Truck 7 — where his beloved father also spent his first years.
“His smile would have brightened up the whole room today,” Kathy Vigiano, a retired cop and Joseph Jr.’s mom, told The Post of her late husband Joseph Sr., whose firefighter brother John also perished in the terror attacks.
“I am proud, because Joe is a good cop, he was the top of his class in emergency-service school,” the mom said of her son. “But I am worried because of his new assignment, handling the most dangerous jobs in the Police Department.
“However, I do have some comfort knowing he is working with such experienced officers who also worked with my husband.”
“His smile would have brightened up the whole room today.”
Kathy Vigiano
Vigiano Jr. told The Post on Friday, “I’m looking forward to working in the best unit in the NYPD and learning from the experienced officers in ESU.”
Vigiano Sr. was assigned to ESU’s Truck 2 on Sept. 11, 2001, when he was killed while trying to rescue those trapped inside the World Trade Center complex. His FDNY brother John also perished in the horror.
Vigiano Sr. and his widow, Kathy, met while working in the NYPD’s 75th Precinct in Brooklyn.
Vigiano Jr. was 6 years old when his father died.
Shortly before the terror attacks, Vigiano’s father had his son made an ESU-style shirt with Truck 7’s numerals touchingly emblazoned on the collar.
Vigiano Jr. is now also a staff sergeant in the US Marine Corps. Reserves and fought in Afghanistan.
Photos from the Friday’s ceremony, which was held at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, show Vigiano Jr. grinning with his family and holding his own baby boy, named Joseph Vincent Vigiano II.
Also in attendance were Vigiano Jr.’s mom Kathy, his brothers – James, a fellow NYPD cop, and John, a college student – and their grandmother, Jan.