Hardcore Heroes (6 x 60’, HD) EP. 1 - BATTLING THE ELEMENTS: CAPTAIN JACK PRITCHARD / JOHN KELLER CAPTAIN JACK PRITCHARD – FIREPROOF Standing all of five foot five and weighing in at a little over a hundred and fifty pounds, Pritchard served with an elite unit of the FDNY that specialized in showing up first to the scene, pulling people out of burning buildings while the structure collapsed around them, and then getting the hell out before they were crushed to death by flaming cinderblocks or asphyxiated from an insane amount of smoke inhalation. Pritchard prided himself on being the first man to pretty much every major fire in Brooklyn, never backed down from a fight, never took sick time, once had two ribs broken in a fist fight with his commanding officer, and routinely preached that there was nothing a firefighter could encounter that couldn't be solved with two Asprin and a healthy amount of burn cream (they say that his entire upper body is covered in scar tissue because despite his many visits he never stayed in the hospital long enough for his wounds to heal completely). He won medals for many of his daring rescues, including saving a disabled boy from a raging fire without an oxygen tank and saving the lives of four firefighters on one of the most tragic days in FDNY history, digging men out from rubble with his bare hands and dragging them to safety while ignoring massive burns all down his arms and chest. Pritchard's most famous action took place in July of 1998, when the Jolly Rogers were called to a massive fire in a six-story apartment building in the heart of Brooklyn. When Jack leapt out of the fire truck cab he was immediately met by a woman screaming that her baby was trapped up on the fourth floor in a smoke-filled room that was also on fire. Captain Jack didn't hesitate. He told his men to get to work, then immediately ran up the stairs without bothering to grab a hose or a mask or an oxygen tank. He charged up to the fourth floor, and saw smoke pouring out from under the door of the apartment. Unable to smash through the locked door, and with time running out, Pritchard suddenly noticed that the woman's keys were still in the lock on the door, so he took his bulky gloves off, turned the key, opened the door, and was almost knocked unconscious by a backdraft fireball exploding in his face. But nothing was going to keep this madman from saving the baby inside this place, and Jack immediately dropped down and began crawling through the black smoke towards the sound of the crying child. He made his way to the nursery, where he found the baby laying in a plastic playpen. The flames and smoke were so intense in the room that there was no way for him to pull the kid out of there without it catching on fire, so, even though he wasn't wearing his gloves, he grabbed the melting plastic playpen with his bare hand and began dragging it out of the room. Burning the crap out of his hand every step of the way, and sucking down unhealthy amounts of carbon monoxide, Pritchard dragged the playpen through the apartment, calling out to his men to meet him at the door. With the playpen (and his hand) melting under the insane heat, Pritchard toughed it out, pulling the kid to safety and getting the baby out of there alive. For his actions he became only the second New York firefighter to receive the Bennett medal twice, and the first one to ever receive three Class One medals for "extreme personal risk". JOHN KELLER – HURRICANE KATRINA HERO Keller, the 6-foot-7 ex-Marine who rescued 244 of his neighbors at the American Can Company apartment complex in Mid-City, emerged as one of the most memorable heroes of Hurricane Katrina. When the first floor of a five-story building flooded, leaving many of the 500 residents (who were mostly elderly and handicapped) stranded, he took charge. First Keller assessed the health of each remaining resident. He spray painted the names of medical supplies they desperately needed on the roof in hopes that rescue helicopters would drop them off, but when no help arrived he swam to the hospital to get them. Next he gathered all the weapons in the building and formed a mini squad who protected the building from the chaos raging around the city. Keller was on 24/7 patrol looking out for thieves who were attempting ransack the place – when he came across a group of burglars beating up one of the residents, he overpowered them and ordered them to leave. He passed police in a boat on one of his trips to the hospital who offered to evacuate him but he declined. Before leaving the police gave him their guns saying “you’re going to need these.” Keller says, “What made me stay was the old people. I just realized that nobody else in here could have gotten those people out. They would have sat in here for five more days. And they didn't have five more days.” In another instance, he was helping some residents evacuate in a rowboat when they were headed past a dangerous part of the city. A man with an automatic weapon approached them in the water demanding that they get out of the boat and give it to him. Keller (also armed) refused and told him he would come back and save him after dropping off his residents. A gun fight ensued and Keller was able to injure the man and safely row away. “When you’re a few days in without food or water, its dog eat dog.” Five days after the hurricane, Keller had overseen the evacuation of all 244 people in the building. He carried many to the roof (on his back) where they were airlifted to safety. EP. 2 – SOARING TO NEW HEIGHTS: JOE KITTINGER / JOHN STAPP JOE KITTINGER - SPACE JUMPER To call former command pilot Joseph Kittinger a daredevil is an understatement. He was the subject of harrowing experiments conducted to research the physiological effects of space on a human and the communications/logistics systems needed for sending a man so high. His most famous mission (Excelsior III) took place on August 16, 1960 where Kittinger (in an open gondola) was lifted 102,800 feet into the stratosphere by a helium balloon. The only thing protecting him from the deadly stratosphere was his pressurized suit. If the suit ripped or his helmet opened death would be almost immediate. This wasn’t a job for the faint of heart. In fact, in a previous jump an equipment malfunction caused him to lose consciousness. The automatic parachute opener was the only reason he lived to jump again. Kittinger made history for highest balloon ascent, highest parachute jump, longest drogue-fall (four minutes), and fastest speed by a human being through the atmosphere. Kittinger's records for the highest ascent, highest parachute jump, and fastest velocity stood for 52 years, until they were broken in 2012 by Felix Baumgartner. Kittinger mentored “Fearless Felix” along with a team of scientists, engineers and doctors who spent five years preparing and training for the jump. Baumgartner, inside a space capsule, was carried up 128,100 feet to his jump point by a large helium balloon. The mission had some obstacles including weather conditions and a foggy faceplate but Baumgartner wasn’t going to let that stop him. He forged ahead and everything went smoothly until he began to spin out of control while still in the stratosphere, but eventually he steadied himself. After four minutes and 20 seconds of free fall— with about a mile left to go in the jump—Baumgartner released his parachute and landed safely in the desert of New Mexico. With Kittinger’s guidance, Baumgartner made the jump of a lifetime, becoming the first man to break the speed of sound during free fall, though Kittinger still holds the record for longest free fall. “Records are meant to be broken. And better champions cannot be found than Felix Baumgartner,” Kittinger said. Baumgartner hopes to mentor someone else to break the records, “I want to inspire the next generation.” JOHN STAPP - THE FASTEST MAN ALIVE After the Second World War, Doctor John Stapp, a military MD and biophysicist decided to take it upon himself to make the world safer for the men and women of the air force. At that point in history if anything happened to your airplane while you were traveling at high speeds you were pretty much a goner. Stapp’s mission was to design a new type of ejection system that would allow fighter pilots to escape from falling aircraft before it was too late. The only problem was there wasn’t anything on Earth that moved fast enough to test his theories. So Stapp found 2,000 feet of railway track and designed a rocket sled that would run along the track at over 600 miles an hour. Understandably the first tests of this new rocket train used crash test dummies. And during the first catastrophic tests the dummies literally disintegrated. Eventually the team had worked out most of the major mechanical issues but no one really knew what would happen to a human being under these conditions. Good thing Doctor John Stapp was badass. Stapp stepped up and chose to strap himself into this nearly supersonic train for the betterment of mankind.