![\"FDNYLeahRay4\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/FDNYLeahRay4.jpg\")
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Proud Brooklyn native Leah Ray began her career with the FDNY in 2018 as an EMT, serving her community on the frontlines.<\/p>\n
Photo courtesy of Leah Ray<\/p>\n
Oct. 28 marked National First Responders Day, established by Congress in 2017 to celebrate the nation\u2019s emergency personnel, including firefighters, police officers, EMTs, paramedics and dispatchers, for their acts of bravery and service.<\/p>\n
Proud Brooklyn native Leah Ray joined the FDNY in 2018 as an EMT and later became an EMS Academy instructor. She also serves in the U.S. Air Force National Guard and is currently on active military duty.<\/p>\n
Ray told Brooklyn Paper that she initially wanted to join the NYPD or the U.S. Armed Forces, but at her mother\u2019s urging, she attended an FDNY event in Fort Greene Park years ago. After exploring the department\u2019s equipment, a career with New York City\u2019s firefighters resonated with her.<\/p>\n
\u201cI met firefighters, [and] what they told me was, if you can start out in the EMS and then later on, cross over to fire,\u201d said Ray, who passed the FDNY firefighter exam in 2024 and will begin training once her military mission ends.<\/p>\n
While the job of a first responder can be stressful, Ray said it is also deeply rewarding.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a big deal to help somebody live,\u201d she said. \u201cA lot of people think [FDNY EMT] is just a taxi service. But in reality, if we don\u2019t get there to do the life-saving skills, the person wouldn\u2019t be able to live, because you can\u2019t go a long time without oxygen, or getting the medication, or rendering CPR. It\u2019s a big deal to save lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
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In addition to her FDNY work, Leah Ray serves on active duty in the U.S. Air Force National Guard as a Logistics Plans specialist.Photo courtesy of Leah Ray<\/p>\n
Ray joined the Air Force National Guard in 2020 after a coworker told her about his Army National Guard service. She had considered joining the Army at 18, but family and friends were concerned for her safety.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said, \u2018If I\u2019m going on dangerous 911 calls, I could join the military, I could do anything.\u2019 So the FDNY gave me the courage to [join the National Guard], because I didn\u2019t have it before,\u201d Ray shared.<\/p>\n
Ray applies the discipline she learned in the Air Force to her FDNY work, including arriving extra early for her shifts.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s something you have to do in the military, so I naturally do it at the FDNY. It\u2019s good habits you learn from the military,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n
Being in the National Guard has also given Ray, who once described herself as \u201ca bit timid and introverted,\u201d a boost in confidence. Her FDNY colleagues noticed her newfound authority and poise.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it kind of gave me the courage to become an [EMS] instructor, and it just gives me that confidence that I know how to command a room and bring attention, and I know how to communicate and articulate myself very well because of the military,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/FDNYLeahRay3.jpg\")
Brooklyn-born Leah Ray joined the FDNY in 2018 as an EMT and advanced to EMS Academy instructor.Photo courtesy of Leah Ray<\/p>\n
When she isn\u2019t saving lives or serving in the military, Ray channels her creativity into music. A Bedford-Stuyvesant native, she has loved writing poems and rapping since she was young but was too shy to share her work. Her FDNY and military experience gave her the confidence to pursue music, which she says motivates others and helps her decompress from her demanding jobs. Her music draws on Afrobeat and Drill styles.<\/p>\n
\u201cI get my inspiration from my lovers, my admirers, but also my haters. What I realize is that a lot of times with music, I want people to feel like, \u2018Okay, I can relate to this girl,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cWriting music is kind of like journaling. It\u2019s the same thing; the only difference is that you turn it into a song. So I do feel like it does help with mental health [and] definitely helps me to decompress.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ray\u2019s advice to young people is to not to give in to external pressure and to seek out ambitious, high-achieving mentors.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes we make decisions based on what other people want, and then later on, we regret it. So my advice would be, it\u2019s okay to wait. It\u2019s okay to be patient, because the creator\u2019s time is perfect, always,\u201d she said. \u201cBefore I started working at the FDNY, I started hanging around people from the FDNY. You know, you are who you surround yourself with.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Proud Brooklyn native Leah Ray began her career with the FDNY in 2018 as an EMT, serving her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28259,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[17682,98,100,99,9174,17683,9805,17684,17685,17686,17687,9,24,12,370,63],"class_list":["post-28258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-air-force-national-guard","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-ems","tag-emt","tag-fdny-ems","tag-fdny-emt","tag-first-responders","tag-leah-ray","tag-national-first-responders-day","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-newsletter","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28258\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}