Fundraiser Sunday to aid injured LI Marine

Cpl. Ronnie Brandafino had many plans for when he got out of the Marine Corps -- going to school, getting an apartment with a buddy and eventually joining the NYPD, following in his father's and grandfather's footsteps.

But on March 29, weeks before Brandafino, of Farmingville, was to leave the Marine Corps, the helicopter he was riding in during a training exercise in Hawaii experienced a hydraulic failure and crashed.

The accident killed his best friend, Cpl. Jonathan D. Faircloth of Mechanicsburg, Pa., and forever altered Brandafino's future.

Brandafino, 23, a crew chief with Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 363, was thrown from the wreckage, one leg dislocated, the other broken.

He's now recovering at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. But Brandafino, who has extensive nerve damage, still can't feel his left leg and walks with a brace and a cane. His dreams of being a police officer are over.

"It's pretty much not a possibility," Brandafino said in a phone interview. But, he added, "now after being in the hospital so long and seeing all the good work here, maybe I'll be a physician's assistant."

His aunt Suzanne Bennett of Kings Park has been organizing fundraisers for Brandafino's post-military living expenses, including one with raffles and 50-50 tickets on Sunday at the Commack Fire Department. "His whole attitude throughout this thing is amazing," she said.

And the FealGood Foundation, a Nesconset-based advocacy group for 9/11 first responders, has sponsored a website for Brandafino at helpingronnie.com. "It's been great, it's been really wonderful," Brandafino said of the fundraisers. "I appreciate it and thank everybody for it."