Firehouse serves feast to Silver Star recipient

Published: May 31, 2008 | 7091st good news item since 2003

Heroism was the hot topic around the firehouse kitchen Tuesday night when the headquarters crew hosted Cpl. Moses Cardenas and his family at a firehouse pasta dinner.

The celebration was a homecoming for Cardenas, 21, who grew up in Fullerton before he joined the Marines and earned a silver star for saving his sergeant’s life on an Iraqi battlefield last August.

“I’m a former Marine who served in Central America, and my son is serving with the Marines in Iraq,” Fire Chief Wolfgang Knabe said before dinner. “Once a Marine, always a Marine – and this is our present to Moses and his family.”

After feasting on the firefighters’ spaghetti, salad and bread specialties, Cardenas boarded a hook-and-ladder truck for a six-block ride to City Hall where he was presented special recognition from the City Council – and added honors from the Fullerton Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Legion Post.

“It’s amazing to have my hometown recognizing me after living here my whole life,” Cardenas said. “I really appreciate the honor.”

Standing nearby, his mother Angelina Martinez, said: “When Moses was very young, he said he wanted to be a Marine, and this is his dream come true. For me, the important thing is he survived.”

Published in Heroes
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