New ESU cops are ready to face danger

THE DESIRE to leap from a perfectly good helicopter hovering in midair must be in the genes.

NYPD Officer Robert Sullivan, one of 52 cops graduating from the department’s grueling eight-month Emergency Service Unit training school on Wednesday, has an uncle who is a former sergeant in the elite unit. And his dad, a hero city firefighter, once had similar training.

So rappelling down buildings is a bit of a family thing.

“It’s amazing,” Sullivan said. “This is one of the greatest accomplishments in my life.”

Sullivan’s father, Firefighter Larry Sullivan, responded to the terror attack on the World Trade Center and died of a 9/11-related illness in 2012.

“It’s good to know that I’m making my father proud,” said Sullivan, 28. “He was the biggest supporter when I got on this job. He was my go-to man when I had to call someone . . . to talk to someone.”

His uncle, retired ESU Sgt. Thomas Sullivan, beamed with pride knowing that his nephew will forever be called an “E-Man.”

Officer Sullivan, who has five years on the force, sports the retired sergeant’s badge number.

“He’s keeping the name going in the NYPD Emergency Service Unit,” the retired cop said. “I’m glad he stepped up to protect the people of New York City.”

Sullivan isn’t the only one continuing a family tradition.

Police Officer Joseph Nacarlo, 28, another ESU graduate, is following in the footsteps of his father, retired Sgt. Joseph Nacarlo.

Officer Mark DeMarco’s father was also in the ESU. The 27-year-old’s dad was side by side with two other ESU cops on 9/11 when the north tower fell. He was temporarily trapped under the rubble, but managed to escape with his life, officials said.

Of the cops graduating from the specialized training school, 37 were NYPD officers. An additional seven were from the Port Authority Police Department.

The rest of the graduates came from the Correction Department, the MTA Police Department and the police forces in New Rochelle, Westchester County; Jersey City, and Freeport, L.I.

Before graduating, the students showed off what they learned by participating in drills. They dropped from a helicopter, extricated someone from a flipped-over vehicle and simulated a response to an active-shooter incident.

Police Commissioner James O’Neill said it takes a special kind of cop to rappel off buildings and climb bridges — and he’s not one of them.

“When I was chief of patrol, there was a guy in my security detail that was former ESU,” O’Neill recalled. “He had asked me once, ‘Would you like to climb the Brooklyn Bridge?’

“I did the climb and it was worse than I thought.”

Sullivan agreed that ESU is exciting work — but didn’t think the dangerous occupation is hard-wired into his DNA.

“You push yourself, but that’s what getting into this unit is all about,” he said. “But it ends up being a lot of fun in the process.”