{"id":530163,"date":"2026-03-29T23:50:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T23:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/530163\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T23:50:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T23:50:15","slug":"islanders-surprise-active-military-fdny-bravest-with-touching-gift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/530163\/","title":{"rendered":"Islanders surprise active military FDNY Bravest with touching gift"},"content":{"rendered":"

A humble Long Island hero who is active-duty military<\/a> and an FDNY Bravest recently got the surprise of a lifetime from the New York Islanders: a new pickup truck he desperately needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m on top of the world right now,\u201d lucky Isles diehard and married dad of four Joseph O\u2019Brien, 36, told The Post after team hockey legend Butch Goring<\/a> escorted him Wednesday to the blue Ford F150 STX with custom seats upholstered featuring the club\u2019s logo.<\/p>\n

Active-duty military and FDNY Bravest Joseph O\u2019Brien got a new pickup truck from the Islanders. Dennis A. Clark for NY Post<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien joined the FDNY in 2022. Dennis A. Clark for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Butch handed me those keys, I was like, \u2018No way.’\u201d<\/p>\n

The hockey team could not have picked a more deserving person.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien, who has four young daughters, runs the Vice Doughnuts & Coffee shop on Farmingdale\u2019s Main Street when he\u2019s not with the Army Reserve or working for the South Bronx\u2019s<\/a> Ladder 31, where he has spent time patching up his 2007 Toyota Corolla.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was starting to go,\u201d O\u2019Brien said of his wheels. \u201cI use that as my main commuter to get to The Bronx every day.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving a new truck is perfect timing. It\u2019s crazy,\u201d said the dad, who is goalie for his firehouse hockey team.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien joined the FDNY<\/a> in 2022, one year after starting Vice as a food truck, which later grew into a prime real-estate brick-and-mortar in the heart of town in 2023.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien, a dad of four, runs Vice Doughnuts & Coffee and serves in the Army Reserve and Ladder 31. Dennis A. Clark for NY Post<\/p>\n

Isles legend Butch Goring with O\u2019Brien and his family during the big reveal. Dennis A. Clark for NY Post<\/p>\n

As a member of the Army Reserve, O\u2019Brien was previously assigned to guarding \u201chigh value targets\u201d at Guantanamo Bay over a decade ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw a lot of other detainees that were responsible for 9\/11, which was probably one of the craziest things I\u2019ve seen,\u201d said O\u201dBrien, who is also from Farmingdale.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a New Yorker, it kind of hit home seeing that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pulling the goalie\u2019s leg<\/p>\n

Throughout his service to the nation and New Yorkers, O\u201dBrien always quietly carried his role.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really don\u2019t like wearing the uniform out in public just because you get all the attention,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien\u2019s wife, Gina, who does the baking at Vice, finally wanted her valiant husband to have a moment of his own. So she wrote to the Islanders and explained why he was worthy <\/a>of recognition.<\/p>\n

The team responded.<\/p>\n

It first created the guise that Goring was doing a small-business spotlight on the shop and wanted a tour.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just grateful that they were coming here to do the business spotlight,\u201d said O\u2019Brien, who raised money for the family of slain NYPD Officer Jonathan Diller of neighboring Massapequa Park<\/a>.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien got to tell the Stanley Cup winner all about his own passion for hockey and how he had been assigned to Ladder 31 \u2014 the same number his favorite goalie, Billy Smith, wore for the Islanders.<\/p>\n

The firefighter even tried recruiting Goring, who touts a championship ring, for some upcoming games that Ladder 31 has.<\/p>\n

While they were yucking it up in the back of the store, Islanders staff drove up in the big four-wheeler donated by Hempstead Ford, with mascot Sparky the Dragon riding on the back. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe did not know what was going on. He had no idea,\u201d Goring said.<\/p>\n

Goring, Isles mascot Sparky and O\u2019Brien and his daughter. Dennis A. Clark for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m kidding him about negotiating for some donuts, and all of a sudden I go, \u2018How about this [truck]?\u2019 \u2026 There\u2019s no one more deserving than people like him.\u201d<\/p>\n

The shock and excitement on O\u2019Brien\u2019s face said it all, as loved ones and close friends from the firehouse all came out for the special day. <\/p>\n

It especially hit home with all of the uncertainty in the Middle East<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf things escalate in Iran, they could call me up tomorrow and say, \u2018Hey, we\u2019re sending you.\u2019 That would be devastating,\u201d O\u2019Brien said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just so great to have everyone in the same room, all my brothers from the firehouse, my family, my girls. It\u2019s just amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A humble Long Island hero who is active-duty military and an FDNY Bravest recently got the surprise of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":530164,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5110],"tags":[61057,12962,58080,5,122,9955,19193,14690,18321,3328,159,5190,5189,4,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-530163","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-islanders","8":"tag-coffee-shops","9":"tag-exclusive","10":"tag-ford","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-islanders","13":"tag-long-island","14":"tag-metro","15":"tag-military","16":"tag-nassau-county","17":"tag-new-york","18":"tag-new-york-islanders","19":"tag-newyork","20":"tag-newyorkislanders","21":"tag-nhl","22":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116315149070073266","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=530163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}