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by MELISSA ANELLI
Sgt. 1st Class Horatio Maldonado doesn't like rings. They're uncomfortable to him, and as a result, he never dons his wedding ring, not even after decades of marriage.
But when he leaves for Iraq on Tuesday, a flash from his left hand will show off a new, white-gold circlet that is most definitely a ring, one he's sworn he won't take off for months under the hot desert sun.
His number called up by the Army Reserves, Maldonado, 50, will travel to the war-torn country for a tour that will last at least 365 days. He'll be part of a new civil affairs unit, working to repair necessary facilities like schools and hospitals.
"The way I see it, we're the good guys," he said.
He and his wife Gloria got the matching white-gold baubles after Maldonado was called into service, and the two will wear them in tandem at least until Maldonado returns.
While the Grasmere resident says he's packing light -- dry socks, sunblock, sunglasses, hand sanitizers and some religious medals will be among his sparse possessions -- there's no question he's bringing extra baggage to the Middle East.
The company he was working with on Sept. 11, 2001 -- Ladder 132 in Brooklyn -- lost six men to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, and now he's working in Rescue Co. 5 in Concord, a house that lost 11 firefighters that day, the most of any Staten Island unit.
And he's already seen what working in the field can do. He says his son, Horatio Maldonado III, a major in the U.S. Air Force prior to 9/11, spent much of his service time bringing al-Qaeda operatives out of caves in Afghanistan.
He came home from the region "looking older, and quiet," his father said. The junior Maldonado is now a cop in the 62nd Precinct in Brooklyn.
"My son says, 'Dad, you've got to flip the switch. You can't be thinking about Mom and me. You've got to go into survival mode,'" Maldonado said. "It's something that has to be done. Political opinions aside, it's important that we do the best that we can."
Maldonado traveled to Puerto Rico to tell his parents that he was going to Iraq, because he didn't think the news should have been handled over the phone.
He speaks in careful, low-toned sentences, but his former students at the firefighter academy say that gentleness belies his real fighting spirit. He's known as a relentless drill instructor who would assign endless sets of leg-lifts to firefighters-in-training while barking, "These are not punitive. These are for fun!"
'THERE WAS A PURPOSE'
"But there was a purpose behind it," said Tom O'Leary, formerly subject to those leg-lifts, now a firefighter at Squad 61 in the Bronx. "It was not easy at all, but there was a purpose."
Maldonado also speaks calmly of the peril he faces. He's heard tales of those doing jobs similar to his in Iraq, who were there to bring relief, but were killed by bombs placed under cars and detonated by cell phones.
"Stay real low, Maldonado," one Rescue Co. 5 buddy advised yesterday, at a sendoff for the firefighter in the Concord headquarters. "Stay low."
His firefighter friends have been extending the send-off as long as possible; they sent him and his wife down to Atlantic City in a limousine and also had a small party for him last week. Yesterday, they received a visit from Rep. Vito Fossella, who handed Maldonado a triangular-folded American flag, and thanked him for his service.
"You're a representative of what the stars and stripes are all about," Fossella said as he shook Maldonado's hand. "You're embarking upon a noble cause."
The firemen are planning on keeping in touch with Maldonado by e-mail, and sending him packages full of the essentials: Toothbrushes, protective hoods, toilet paper.
Yesterday as they saw him off, the guys at Rescue Co. 5 said they couldn't be prouder of their ambassador.
"If somebody had to go and represent the firehouse, Horatio is the person," said Kevin Walker, a firefighter at Rescue Co. 5. "It's hard to let go of him."
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