2009 New Jersey FMBA Valor Awards

Kevin, Scott and I were surprised and humbled when we were notified about the honor of being recognized at 2009 New Jersey FMBA Valor Awards. When we read the definition of "valor", we felt a swell of pride.

"Once a year the New Jersey State
Firemen's Mutual Benevolent Association
takes time to recognize and honor select individuals
whom have given and taken their responsibility
to protect the life and property of their fellow man
to an extraordinary level..."

Sgt. Andrew Brown 1/509th Airborne Infantry
Killed in Action Iraq 08 Oct 04

"Valor" is the exact word that we would define the sacrifice made by Sgt. Andrew Brown. The life and valor of Sgt Andy Brown were the reasons for getting T-Shirts for Troops off the ground.

"Everyday the dedicated members of the fire service
risk their lives
to protect the property and well being
of the citizens of the community
they serve.
They selflessly brave untenable conditions that few would dare to endure."

Captain Kevin Moore & Scott Zabelski, Blue Wave Printing

Captain Kevin Moore, retired from North Hudson Regional Fire & Recuse will be honored with the 2009 Brotherhood Award. He was nominated by North Hudson Regional Local 26. Peggy Dreker and our friend and printer, Scott Zabelski were nominated by Trenton Locals & 206 for the Humantarian Award.

The true honor of this award goes to the members of the New Jersey FMBA who continue to support the Troops everyday.

New Jersey National Guard’s 1-150th Assault Helicopter Battalion

New Jersey A Co 1-150th Avn

The Trenton FBMA is at it again as they distributed shirts to the New Jersey Air National Guard deploying to Iraq.

The New Jersey Air National Guard consists of over 9,000 Guardsmen from New Jersey. The NJ Air National Guard is governed through the NJ Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. On the home front, the Guard is responsible for Homeland Security tasks in New Jersey.


The New Jersey Air Guard has flown over 17,000 hours in the Middle East during ongoing operations for the Global War on Terrorism.

Paul Palombi and the Trenton Local 6 & 206 distributed shirts at the New Jersey National Armory in Ewing, NJ. WZBN TV -25 Trenton was on the scene to catch the distribution. Check it out here!

Thanks to Paul and his fellow firefighters for there continued support of T-Shirt for Troops.

You Have to Be Kidding Me!

The hands down winner of the "You Have to Be Kidding Me" award goes to Paul Palombi and Trenton FMBA Locals 6 & 206, Hamilton FMBA Locals 84 & 284. The efforts of these departments, organized by Paul Palombi and James D'Errico has been just amazing!

The goal of these locals was to see that every soldier in the New Jersey Army National Guard unit based at Fort Dix, and being deployed in June, would leave with a New Jersey FMBA T-shirt. That is over 3,000 shirts that needed to be funded!



The effort went far beyond that objective. The firefighters sent over 3,200 T-shirts to the 50th Infantry Brigade Combat Team from New Jersey.


If that wasn't already enough to stand up and cheer, the firefighters also sent 100 T-shirts to the Air National Guard, Special Op's Flight Unit, 227 SOF, out of McGuire Air Force Base.

Maria and Paul Palombi with members of the NJ Air
National Guard wearing NJ FMBA t-shirts as they load one
of the planes that they will deploy

Firefighter Paul Palombi with Lt. Col Kerry Gentry, Commander
and Master Sargeant Lisa Sylvester of the NJ Air Guard.

Thanks to Paul and all his men for the unending support of "T-Shirts for Troops!"

Hamilton & Trenton FMBA - Just Unbelievable!

Trenton Locals 6 & 206, Hamilton Locals 84 & 284 FMBA have combined forces and the results are just unbelievable!

Paul Palombi told us at T-shirts for Troops that the Locals had sold over 500 shirts in the first week and another 125 to date. The Locals realized they had the support of the community and have just order 500 more t-shirts! That would be a sale of 1175 t-shirts!!!! That is just amazing.

The T-shirts are going to the 50th Infantry Brigade Combat Team. The combat team, a New Jersey Army National Guard unit based at Fort Dix, is scheduled to deploy more than 3,000 members in June for arrival in Iraq in September. The FMBA Locals of Trenton and Hamilton want to be sure each solider will have an FBMA t-shirt packed in their bags.

The Trenton Times recently did a wonderful story about the great efforts shown by these FMBA members!

The shirts can be purchased from any career firefighter in Hamilton, or by seeing the career staff at Hamilton's Station 18 (Colonial Fire Co), or by calling them at 609.586.5454. In Trenton you can call city firefighter Ron Hubscher at 609.575.8138 or Paul Palombi at 609.209.1988.

We will keep you updated on this amazing effort when communities work together to support the Troops from New Jersey.