9/11: We Remember

Feds Finally Agree To Honor Fallen 9/11 EMT

NEW YORK (CBS) ― The federal government has finally agreed to honor a Long Island volunteer firefighter who joined in the rescue efforts on Sept. 11 and died. His family has been fighting for the acknowledgement for quite some time now.

For Jay Winuk, it's an overdue recognition of the heroic actions of his brother. "He ran towards danger because he was qualified, and he knew what to do," he said.

He's speaking about Glenn Winuk, a longtime volunteer emergency medical technician and firefighter, who left his lower Manhattan law office on that fateful morning and ran to help rescuers at the World Trade Center.

Glenn was found in the rubble of the south tower, his identification in his pocket and a medic bag at his side.

"He had surgical gloves on, a surgical mask, the medic bag, and there was a stethoscope right next to him. We know what he was doing, everyone know what he was doing that morning," Jay Winuk said.

Winuk's family asked the feds to recognize Glenn as a "line of duty death" along with the other first responders. But the Department of Justice was hung up on a technicality: Glenn had registered as an "associate member" rather than an "active member" of the Jericho Fire Department.

For more than four years, federal officials said Glenn did not qualify as a line of duty death, until last week, when it agreed to accept a judge's ruling granting Glenn that designation.

"The United States is finally going to recognize him as lost in the line of duty. It's huge, it's really just huge," Jay Winuk said.

With the new designation, Winuk's elderly parents can collect a $250,000 death benefit awarded to all the rescue personnel who died on Sept. 11.

It's also step towards the family's ultimate goal. They now plan to ask President Bush to award Glenn the 9/11 Medal of Valor, given to all the first responders who perished that day. 

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