Ron served in the 101st Airborne Division of the US Army and then on discharge joined the Fire Department (FDNY). He enjoyed the camaraderie of firefighters, and the opportunity to help people in trouble. Ron also continued to serve in the Army Reserve on a part-time basis. In the Reserve, he attended the Army's highly selective Special Forces school, graduating and joining ODA-122, part of B Co. 1st Battalion, 11th Special Forces Group, in Newburgh, NY.
His firefighting career almost ended for good in 1986 when, trying to rescue a child, he fell from a high building. Miraculously, his breathing-air backpack caught on a drainpipe, decelerating him enough that he was still alive after hitting the ground.
Ron's injuries, including a shattered back, were serious, but it could have been far worse. He hadn't expected to survive when he pitched out of the smoky building. "I was dead and I knew it," Ron told friends afterwards. Ironically, the child he was trying to rescue was already safe on the ground.
Ron had a brief brush with celebrity at that point; the New York tabloids named him "the flying firefighter." Not content to be alive, he vowed to return to active firefighting -- and reserve Special Forces service. His doctors were against it: both professions require carrying heavy loads on the back and enormous physical exertion. Ron might return to excellent fitness, but the damage to his back would leave him in constant pain.
Ron did resume both professions, briefly, before yielding to the medical facts of life. In 1988 Ron participated in his last training exercise with Special Forces. His back injury forced him to find other outlets for his part-time military service, and he wound up serving in military police, and later in counter-terrorist intelligence. At the same time, he left active firefighting, and retrained as a Fire Marshal.
During his career as a Fire Marshal he handled hundreds of investigations and put dozens of arsonists behind bars. He was also involved in several high-profile investigations, including the 1993 terrorist bombing of the World Trade Center. Obsessed with the idea that the terrorists would strike again, he spent hours studying the plans of the buildings, trying to imagine how they might do it.
On September 10, 2001, Ron worked his last normal case. He and his partner, James Devery, investigated a suspicious fire: an apartment flooded because a fire cracked a toilet bowl, and the tenant, a young woman, had vanished. As it turned out, the lady had been dumped by a boyfriend, made a mess trying to burn his love letters, and fled. As Devery recalled, Ron gave the young lady a lot of fatherly advice about relationships, concluding with: "Next time some guy dumps you, buy a shredder!"
September 11, 2001, an airplane struck the 78th floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Minutes later, Ron Bucca and James Devery were already running up the stairs of the North Tower when a second plane struck the other tower, making it clear that this was no accident. Lean and fit, Ron got further and further ahead of Devery, who finally wound up leading a helpless, wounded woman down to safety. No one was sure what happened to Ron after that -- only that he didn't come out of the building before the tower collapsed.
Weeks later, Ron's body was recovered from the ruins of the building. He was killed instantly in the collapse of the tower, along with Chief Palmer and 119 other firefighters.
At his funeral on November 10, 2001, all the FDNY Fire Marshals were present along with over 300 firefighters, 50 Special Forces soldiers, and a unit of Civil War reenactors -- the Civil war was a passion of Ron'ss -- that fired a 21-gun salute. Both the FDNY and the Army presented posthumous awards.
Ron was remembered in other ways, as well. In 2001, 2002 and 2003 at least seven of the members of Ron's old Special Forces team, then ODA-122, took the war to the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and other places. All of them were past the normal retirement point. Ron's name was scrawled on shells and bombs at air bases; yelled in firefights; and spoken to captives who didn't understand.
In early 2002, a tape recording was found by the FDNY that confirmed that Ron, and Orio Palmer, had reached the 78th floor and had made a plan to get the wounded people there out, and to fight the fire.
In 2003, the Military Police named the principal POW holding camp in Iraq "Camp Bucca" after Ronald P. Bucca. Years earlier, Ron had been the first sergeant of a Military Police company led by the colonel who now commanded the camp.
Ron is survived by his wife Eve and two children.
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