Starting as a high school cadet and progressing through the ranks to chief of department, volunteer firefighter Richard Kroebel, of Islip Terrace, was all about the job behind the Thin Red Line.

"Being a firefighter for him was a special calling," said one of his sisters, Catherine Kroebel MacArthur. Echoed his son, Richie Kroebel Jr., "He was devoted to the West Babylon Fire Department, doing anything he could for it."

Like all volunteer firefighters, Richard Kroebel worked a regular job in addition to his firehouse duties. Yet even before his employment as first, an overnight security guard at what was then the Sperry Gyroscope Corp. in Lake Success and later as a union steamfitter, he knew his calling.

"He started with the Junior Fire Brigade in high school," said his son, referring

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