Fire department badges everywhere sport certain insignia which designate the rank or position of the bearer. In all departments, including Hamden's, lieutenants have one bugle (horn), captains have two, and chief officers have three, four or five (depending). The insignia on a firefighter's badge is usually the traditional "scramble" or "cluster," consisting of a helmet, pike pole, axe, bugle, and ladder.
Hamden's fire officer badges have always had their bugles. However, for nearly a half century the badges of Hamden's firefighters were numbered. When numbered badges were introduced in the early 1940s, the numbers only went as high as No. 20. By the early 1980s, they went as high as No. 115.
You could usually tell how long a guy had been with the department by looking at his badge number - the lower the number, the greater the seniority. Every year or so as veteran firefighters retired, the Chief collected all the badges and then reissued them, with almost everyone receiving a lower badge number. If no one ahead of you retired, you kept your present number. New hires would eventually be assigned the higher badge numbers that were collected from the previous group of rookies.
The most junior member of the department had the highest badge number which, by January 1981, was No. 115. The most senior firefighter of the department always wore the coveted badge No. 1.
Firefighter Joseph ("Joe Marks") Marchitto was Hamden's first firefighter to wear badge No. 1. After Marchitto, the distinction of wearing badge No. 1 passed to Firefighters Frank Nolan, Clem Kammerer, Walt Thomas, Mario "Bucky" Serafino, Wilbur Baker, Art Smith, Fred Fletcher, Dave Howe, and Hugh McLean.
After Ff. McLean retired in 1987, Hamden Fire Department badge No. 1 was assigned for the last time, to Firefighter John O'Hare. The badge was presented to O'Hare following his retirement on October 31, 1991.
Hamden's numbered badges disappeared shortly thereafter, when the department ordered new non-numbered generic shields that looked more like a cop's badge. Fortunately, HFD's badges were redesigned in recent years and now more closely resemble the original badges. But, alas, there are still no numbers.
