Fallen Marine Christopher Slutman 'never sought credit but he always gave it'

FDNY firefighters and U.S. Marines stood shoulder to shoulder Friday in dress uniforms to pay final respects to a man who relished both jobs — and died in service to his country.

As April showers drenched Fifth Avenue outside Manhattan’s Saint Thomas  Church, thousands of FDNY and military personnel were on the street to salute the memory of the man, Christopher Slutman — a firefighter assigned to the Bronx and a Marine reservist deployed to Afghanistan, where he and two fellow reservists were killed April 8 by a roadside bomb.

The funeral for Slutman, 43, was the last for each of the reservists, including for Cpl. Robert A. Hendriks, 25, of Locust Valley, and Sgt. Benjamin S. Hines, 31, of York, Pennsylvania. The men’s convoy was struck near the main American base in Afghanistan, Bagram Airfield.

“This country needs more Christopher-Kenley Aldrick Slutmans,” his best friend of 30 years, U.S. Army Sgt. Bruce Weaver, said in a eulogy. “This country needs more firm handshakes, more eye contact, more truth-tellers, and more people of heart.”

Weaver noted that Slutman’s family has served in all branches of the U.S. military and has lineage dating to the War of 1812. Slutman was the 1,152 FDNY firefighter to die in the line of duty since the FDNY was founded more than 150 years ago, and the fourth to be killed while serving in Iraq or Afghanistan, according to Mayor Bill de Blasio, who delivered one of six lay tributes at the Episcopal church funeral.

“Today our city mourns a hero,” de Blasio said.

Eulogists recounted happier times: when, in 2003, he fulfilled a lifelong dream to join the FDNY; when he dipped his nose into a pink milkshake when other firefighters got ordinary coffee from Dunkin' Donuts; when Shannon, his widow, and Christopher met.

“We’ve lost his crooked smile, his affinity for cheap beer, his attention to detail and cleanliness,” Weaver said.  

Weaver said he sees Slutman in his three young daughters, McKenna, Kenley and Weslynn.

“As we do miss Christopher, all we need to do is look at his daughters to find him,” said Weaver, who held Slutman's widow as she cried while her husband’s American-flag-draped coffin was lowered from a fire truck before the service.

His former boss, Battalion Chief Christopher Williamson of the FDNY, recalled the 2013 blaze that earned Slutman a medal for bravery: the rescue of a woman from a home with high heat and floor-to-ceiling thick black smoke.

“Chris crawled on his belly through the smoke to a rear bedroom and found an unconscious woman,” Williamson said. “He did this without the protection of a fire hose. He dragged the woman back out past the fire and out of the apartment and handed her over to” medics.

De Blasio said she was “a woman who unquestionably would never have made it, but for the fact that Chris was there, crawling through that smoke to find her and save her.”

Sgt. Maj. Christopher Armstrong of the Marines said Slutman wasn't one to "pound his chest."

"He didn’t try to impress or drone on about what he was gonna do," said Armstrong, who fought back tears during his remarks. "He just did.”

Armstrong added: “Chris never sought credit but he always gave it.”

De Blasio, who in 2014 awarded Slutman the bravery medal, said: “He wore not one but two uniforms: as a staff sergeant of the United States Marine Corp Reserve and a 15-year veteran of the FDNY.”

“His brothers and sisters in those families are hurting today, all of you are feeling the pain,” de Blasio said.

The homily by the Rev. Canon Carl F. Turner, the rector and funeral officiant, invoked the New Testament words of Paul the Apostle's Letter to the Ephesians, which uses the imagery of a soldier’s equipment against evil and injustice.

“I think he understood what Paul meant when he said, ‘put on the breastplate of righteousness,’” Turner said atop the church’s chancel steps.

Slutman had worked at ladder companies 27 and 17. He had also been assigned to the 25th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division of the Marine Forces Reserve, according to the Marines.

FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro said Slutman spent his entire career with the FDNY in the Bronx.  

“Chris was a protector of those in danger, a defender to those who needed him, a rescuer to those who needed saving, and a leader who demonstrated his valor on every tour of duty both here and abroad." 

Hendriks, the Marine from Locust Valley, was buried at a graveside ceremony Wednesday at Calverton National Cemetery attended by hundreds. The same day was the memorial service for Hines.

Afghanistan is America’s longest war — declared two years before Slutman joined the FDNY.

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.