AMAZING LIFE

Bravest killed in Iraq is feted as LGBT hero

gay, said he met Zanetis when the rookie came to his battalion and asked to be assigned there. They quickly became friends.

Portello said it was a while before he even knew his friend was gay. He said the department didn’t care.

“From what I can tell, the work really comes first,” Portello said. “As long as you do what you do and do your job, nobody cares if your gay. It was just part of who he was.”

Portello was one of many mourners shoehorned into Rise, a gay bar in Hell’s Kitchen.

There, they swapped stories, sipped drinks and reminisced, laughing and crying, sometimes all at once.

Zanetis was one of seven people killed in Iraq March 15 when their U.S. military helicopter hit a power line and crashed during a troop transport near the Syrian border.

Also killed in the crash was FDNY Lt. Christopher Raguso, 39, who also worked as a volunteer firefighter in his hometown of Commack. Raguso and Zanetis were members of the 106th Rescue Wing of the Air National Guard based in Suffolk County’s Westhampton Beach.

A graduate of New York University and Stanford Law School, Zanetis was on unpaid leave pursuing a law career.

Zanetis’ parents said he had musical talent as a young child and sang in the high school choir. He dreamed early of becoming a firefighter, and even went on runs with the fire department in the Indiana town where he grew up.

Zanetis, a New York University grad, lived in a dorm near the twin towers when terrorists struck on Sept. 11, 2001.

“The one thing I remember him saying after 9/11 was that he couldn’t help, because there was nothing to help; nobody to help, because everybody was dead,” said Zanetis’ mother, Sarah, 63. “He decided he wanted to do more. There's no changing his mind when he wanted to do something.”

Zanetis will be saluted Thursday during an 11 a.m. processional ceremony led by the FDNY from Engine 28 Ladder 11 to Washington Square Park.

Zanetis’ father, John, said his son’s path wasn't exactly what he expected.

“I always figured when he graduated NYU the first thing he’d do is go to law school,” the proud dad said.

“When he decided to be a New York City firemen, those people put their lives on the line all the time. .”