New Haven Independent

The event was held Friday, just hours after another detective was brought down in an ongoing FBI corruption probe into the New Haven police department. Chief Francisco Ortiz was the only speaker to mention the scandal; he said briefly that the event that evening was a nice escape to the “horror stories” coming out of the department. It did, however, remain to be the elephant in the room, which gave the evening a bittersweet feeling.

At the beginning of the ceremony Whalen and Costin were paraded to their seats by a firefighter and police officer dressed in Irish kilts, playing the bagpipes.
Sergeant Costin, with imposing credentials and an affable smile, spent almost all of his time at the podium thanking loved ones. He was brought to tears when he asked for the remembrance of fallen fellow police officers, and ended with a thank you to his family, “And lastly, my loving wife Anna, and my beautiful children Kelly and Colleen, in the words of Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys, God only knows where I’d be without you.”
A mix of light-heartedness and melancholy was a steady current throughout, and served as a reminder to the nature of working in public safety: great closeness, and great loss.

Firefighter Whelan (pictured) has yellowy-white hair, and pink skin, the subject matter of a firefighter’s earlier joke. Whelan addressed his well-known enjoyment for practical jokes.

“To all my fellow firefighters, who feel I set you up with my ball-breaking, I want you to know, I did it because I like you. And after tonight, I am going to approach our profession a lot more seriously, no more ball breaking, and I will treat the officers with a lot more respect, well maybe.”

He too became emotional when he read his list of lost and injured coworkers.

At the Knights of St. Patrick Hall, there were two different parties. Dinner tables stretched almost the entire length of the Grand Hall, and this is where the majority of those in attendance sat.

At the end of the hall was the bar, a dimmer, more crowded area with three televisions that played the Yankees playoff game. A walk through the bar revealed expletive-laced conversations aimed towards a blown lead in the 8th inning, and the smell of cigars stuck to several of the men who had stepped out to smoke.

When Costin and Whalen spoke, the men around the bar would gather at the back of the auditorium. As the honorees mentioned those they currently work with, the acknowledgements were aimed almost always to the line of men in the back. After the ceremony, group pictures and handshakes, the two honorees looked like men ready to get back to work

“It’s a great honor to be with the past recipients who have won this award, it’s a great honor,” said Sgt Costin. “Now lets get back to the grindstone. We’ll try to get these problems that we have in the department right now cleared out, and go forward. We have to progress and go forward.”

Firefighter Whelan traded stories with friends after the ceremony, and he parodied what Costin said about the award.

“I find it’s a great honor. Thirty-two years on the job, I’ve watched other recipients win, and I’ve always looked up to them, so to be part of that team is a great accomplishment.”

Whelan received a travel golf bag from other firefighters, and in several ways the event felt like a retirement party, but he assured that was not in the immediate future.

“I still love what I do. I have never woke up and said to my wife, ‘I don’t feel like going to work today.’ The reason is I work with a great bunch of guys.”