A series of caches commemorating the 343 firefighters that passed on September 11th, 2001. This is going to be a series where one cache is dedicated to every firefighter that fell that day. With each cache, a biography of the firefighter who gave his last act of valor will be placed in the summary. Please take the time to look through some of these biographies. You will be searching for a pill bottle sized cache.

Gary R. Box

Firefighter

Fire Department of New York

New York

Age: 37

Gary R. Box was born on May 12‚ 1964. He was raised by his parents and his grandmother Alyson Box who adored and encouraged him.

Gary attended Wantagh High School‚ where we first met. He was an excellent student who had no lateness or absence on his record. He maintained an A average‚ was an honor student and managed to accelerate and graduate a year early ranking 24 in a class of 391 students.

He attended Delehanty Automotive School and became an auto mechanic from 1984 till 1991. Although he was successful at this career it was not challenging enough for him and he needed a change.

He worked as a tile-setter for his cousins and though he thoroughly enjoyed their company and the trade‚ he wanted more. Upon recommendation from firefighter friends‚ he applied to the New York City Fire Department and became a probationary firefighter in February 1996. Immediately Gary knew he had found the career he had been seeking. His companionable personality‚ great intellect‚ and mechanical abilities all came together in the job.

The training required hard work and dedication‚ nothing suited him better and it was wonderful to see him so interested and engrossed. He would always say a good tour was to fight a fire‚ help somebody‚ or make someone laugh.