Killed in Iraq, Remembered In Montauk. Coast Guard barracks named for 'shipmate'

On April 24, 2004, Coast Guard Damage Controlman Third Class Nathan B. Bruckenthal was leading a boarding team from the U.S.S. Firebolt. He was serving his second tour in Iraq.

His team was on patrol within the security zone around the Khawr Al Amaya oil terminal in the Bay of Basra when he detected a small, unidentified dhow proceeding toward the terminal. As he approached the vessel, a suicide bomber detonated the explosives aboard it, mortally wounding the young guardsman.

The explosion alerted the terminal's defenses, and as a result two other explosives-laden dhows were destroyed.

On Monday, standing before a peaceful, nearly windless Montauk Harbor, Frank Welch, the Coast Guard's highest ranking enlisted member, thanked the crew of the Montauk Coast Guard station "for doing the right thing for a fellow shipmate." He was talking about Mr. Bruckenthal.

The ceremony was held to dedicate the Montauk station's barracks for unmarried crew in the name of the fallen guardsman, the first member of the Coast Guard to be killed in action since the Vietnam War. It was attended by Coast Guard brass, town officials, and the family of the Long Island native.

Mr. Bruckenthal graduated from Coast Guard boot camp in Cape May, N.J., in 1999 at the age of 20. His first assignment was aboard the cutter Point Wells, which was then stationed in Montauk Harbor. When he was shoreside, Mr. Bruckenthal lived in the barracks for unmarried crew that now bears his name.

Jim Gordy, the chief engineer on the Wells at the time, attended the ceremony on Monday. "He came aboard as a seaman, a white striper, but worked damage control in the engine room as a non-rate," he said of Mr. Bruckenthal. "He was a good kid. I knew he was going to go into law enforcement."

It was the station's senior chief petty officer, Nick Pupo, who came up with the idea of putting Mr. Bruckenthal's name on the barracks. Chief Pupo thanked his crew, who, during the past four months, conducted 85 search and rescue missions, made 253 boardings, and spent 300 hours in training, in addition to preparing for this week's ceremony.

It was attended by Mr. Bruckenthal's father, Richard, the chief of the Northport Police Department. The fallen coastie's wife, Pattie, whom he had married in 2002, and daughter, Harper, who had not been born at the time of his death, were there too.

Two fellow members of the Tactical Law Enforcement Team of South Florida, to which he was attached, also attended Monday's ceremony.

While assigned to the Neah Bay station in Washington State beginning in 2001, Mr. Bruckenthal had immersed himself in the Native American Makah Nation community. He served as a volunteer with the local fire company, and helped with the high school football team. It was on the reservation that he met his future wife, who was there doing an internship.

Rear Admiral David Pekoske, commander of the Guard's first district, envisioned future recruits reporting to the station feeling alone, knowing no one, stowing their gear in Bruckenthal Hall, reading the brass plaque on the bulkhead, and realizing that Nate Bruckenthal, who was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart, was "not a myth," but had been someone like themselves.

Representative Steve Israel, whose Second Congressional District includes Northport, Mr. Bruckenthal's hometown, noted the station's close proximity to the Montauk Lighthouse, which President George Washington commissioned only eight years after the Coast Guard was created.

"American history is filled with moments of light," he said, recalling inspired leadership during the Revolution, the Civil War, World War II, and the voyage to the moon. "It was always about the future. Nate Bruckenthal's light still guides us. The U.S. Coast Guard lights the way for us and always will," Mr. Israel said.

"Far too many people, in my humble opinion, have forgotten," said Master Chief Welch. He was referring to the attacks of Sept. 11, "the catalyst for the global war on terrorism," as he called it.

"We can't bring back the fallen," he said of those who have been killed in that war, but "we can promote life as seen through the eyes of our heroes and heroines."

"Another date was April 24, 2004," he continued. "That day, loss of life and an environmental disaster of unimaginable proportions would have occurred but for a Coast Guard damage controlman . . . whose life ended in valor for a cause."

Monday's ceremony concluded with the wail of bagpipes and the scream of a Coast Guard Falcon jet flying overhead.