NEWS | THE NORTHPORT RECORD, APRIL 29, 2004

NATHAN BRUCKENTHAL,
SON OF POLICE CHIEF,
DIES IN IRAQ AMBUSH

Village in shock, mourning after first combat death with local ties

By Michael R. Sisak / The Northport Record

Nathan Bruckenthal, the 24-year-old Coast Guard officer and son of Northport Village Police Chief Ric Bruckenthal, died from injuries sustained when a small boat exploded in an apparent terrorist ambush as he and six other coalition sailors attempted to board it near an oil terminal in the Persian Gulf on Saturday.

Related Story:
Northport Remembers
A Fallen Son
(Record, May 13, 2004)

“My son died in the service of his country,” Ric Bruckenthal said in an emotionally tinged statement delivered before microphones and cameras outside his home in the Steers Pit section of Northport, Monday morning. “He died fulfilling his mission and in anyone’s terms, he is a hero. He has always been a hero to us.”

Flags across Northport have flown at half-staff since Sunday, in memory of Nathan, the first member of the armed forces with local ties to die in Iraq and the first Coast Guardsman killed in action since the Vietnam War. Nathan, who lived near his home base of Dania, Fla., is survived by a myriad of family, including his wife Patricia, who is three months pregnant with their first child.

“The loss of young Nathan Bruckenthal, the son of the police chief, is a tragedy and it really hits home,” Northport Mayor Peter Panarites said as he looked out toward a sullen and soaked Main Street. “In the past week, we’ve been hearing throughout the country many young men and women serving in our armed forces dying over in Afghanistan and in Iraq. This really brings the community to its knees and you realize the impact that the conflict is having on our country.”

Nathan, an imposing force at 6-foot-2, 220 pounds, joined the Coast Guard shortly after his graduation from high school in Ridgefield, Conn., a slice of history-steeped Americana similar to Northport where he served as a junior firefighter and junior ROTC. Nathan resided in Ridgefield with his mother, Laurie Bullock, for a time following the divorce of his parents. He moved in with Ric, in Northport, in the interim between school and the decision to join the Coast Guard, according to attorney Kenneth Savin, a 27-year friend and counsel to the Bruckenthal family. Nathan made a similar decision, to enlist for a second tour of duty, after returning home from Iraq in February.

“He grew up with a father who spent his entire life in public service,” Savin said. Ric has been with the Northport Police for 25 years and Nathan’s stepfather served in the Army and his grandfather in World War II. “His tour was about up and he told his father he was thinking about re-enlisting or joining a police or fire department. That’s what he wanted to do with his life.”

 Nathan served in the Coast Guard for six years. He worked as a member of the Tactical Law Enforcement Team in Miami that intercepted ships suspected to be the conduits of narcotics and illegal immigrants. He had been previously stationed in Neah Bay, Wash., where he met his wife Patricia. They married in March 2002.

According to KOMO-TV in Seattle, Neah Bay Chief Warrant Officer Mike Tumulty remembered Nathan as a prolific public servant who volunteered as a firefighter, emergency medical technician, reserve police officer, and high school football coach.

Nathan was deployed to Iraq last spring and was one of more than 300 Coast Guard members stationed in the Middle East at the time of his death. Nathan was on duty with a team of Guardsmen and Navy sailors in a rigid-hull raft near the Khawr Al Amaya Oil Terminal in Basra on Saturday when the attack occurred.

Navy Petty Officer First Class Michael J. Pernaselli, 27, of Monroe, N.Y. and Navy Petty Officer Second Class Christopher E. Watts, 28, of Knoxville, Tenn., also perished and Boatswains Mate Third Class Joseph T. Ruggiero, 23, of Revere, Mass., was injured and receiving treatment in a Kuwaiti hospital, according to the Coast Guard.

“We are saddened by Nate’s loss, but are inspired by his brief but stellar life,” said Ric, his eyes glistening as his wife, also named Patricia, squeezed his right arm in consolation. “His younger brothers [Matthew, 15, and Michael, 12] and his unborn child carry on that legacy.”

According to Savin, Ric Bruckenthal became aware of the attack through television news reports, Saturday evening. The Defense Department had not released the names of victims and concern arose in Northport that a water attack could have involved Nathan.

Ric received a telephone call at about 12:30 Sunday morning and was told that Nathan had been injured. At 9 a.m., John Healy, the commanding officer of Coast Guard Group Moriches, stepped to the door of the Bruckenthal home, cloaked in full uniform, with a letter of condolence from Coast Guard Admiral Thomas H. Collins.

“When Ric saw him at the door in his dress blues, he asked, ‘Is he dead?’” Savin said.

Nathan’s body will be flown to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware with burial to follow at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. A memorial service in Northport is expected to coincide with the burial, but no timetable has been set.

On Friday, Nathan telephoned his wife three times with a continual message of hope.

“He wouldn’t get off the phone with me,” Patricia Bruckenthal told CNN. “He kept calling me. He told me that he was always in my soul.”

In similar conversations and in e-mail messages to his father and to friends, according to Savin, Nathan hinted at a growing fear of the escalating insurgent violence in Iraq.

“He did indicate, to Ric, that there were certain dangers over there and he recognized those dangers,” Savin said. “He loved life and loved the service of his country and he died doing what he loved most.”

Throughout Northport and the town of Huntington, mourners have remembered Nathan and expressed sympathy to his father, whose suspension from the police force last October and ongoing misconduct trial have made for an already tumultuous year.

“It’s been a tough year for him, for something like this to happen? Oh God,” Fredrick Manning, a neighbor and supporter of Ric, said. “They’re shocked here. It’s a shame. Nathan goes home and then he goes back and a few months later he’s hit… It’s too much for one family right away.”

Case Against Chief Deferred By Mourning

The continuation of a misconduct hearing involving Ric Bruckenthal, the deposed chief of the Northport village police, has been postponed indefinitely in deference to mourning for his son, Nathan, a Coast Guard officer who perished in an attack off the coast of Iraq on Saturday.

The next hearing in the case, in which the Village of Northport has accused Bruckenthal of a series of unethical activities including the improper distribution of overtime and compensatory time, had been scheduled for May 6. On Monday, Village Attorney Michael White submitted an application to hearing officer Terence Smolev and requested a delay. Smolev complied.

“Right now, as a result of the tragedy with Mr. Bruckenthal’s son, the hearing has been postponed,” White said, with indication that representatives of the village and the attorney for Bruckenthal, Barry J. Peek of Meyer, Suozzi, English & Klein, would meet to discuss a future hearing schedule.

“We want to have a time of healing here and we’ll have to re-evaluate everything,” Mayor Peter Panarites said. “The hearing, obviously for the family and the community, has to be set aside and we’ll try to come back to that at a more appropriate time.”

Bruckenthal had been suspended by the village in October and was forced to hand over his badge and gun. The months since have been psychologically trying, Peek said in an interview on Friday, a day before the latest barrage of grief hit.

“He’s been under tremendous emotional strain because of this [case],” Peek said. “He’s putting in the time we need to adequately prepare for this. Obviously he’s spending time with his family, his mind 24/7 is on vindicating himself and clearing his name.”

Now the case, which began with testimony in February — about the time Nathan left for a second tour of duty — has turned from major to incidental as outrage turned to grief.

“That’s the farthest thing from our minds right now,” family friend and attorney Ken Savin said outside the Bruckenthal home on Monday.

In a hearing on April 21, testimony was heard from Northport Police Sgt. Lawrence O’Gara, the acting chief of police, and Sgt. John Schneider, who allegedly received a suspiciously high amount of overtime payment while under Bruckenthal’s command. Peek argued that the village is only now cracking down on the perpetuation of practices performed under former Police Chief Robert Howard.

On Friday, Peek said that the proceeding could last into the fall. It could go even longer now, with an increase in the already fervent public support for Bruckenthal.

“People have be coming to the hearing every day, stopping by, sitting in the hearing room,” Peek said. “He’s got tremendous support. It’s given him a great deal of encouragement to withstand the pressure of having to defend what really amounts to blemish an outstanding record of law enforcement.”