RECOGNIZE ANY OF THESE FIREFIGHTERS FROM OCT. 1975?

(Ed.'s Note: The next-to-last time that the 1927 American LaFrance aerial fire truck with tiller was driven in a parade was in October 1975 in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Brownsville Fire Department. We have tried to identify several of the people in the picture with the help of some firefighters who are still around.

As close as we can come is that the guy in the officer's cap standing by the truck's radiator is Israel Najera and that the guy to his left is Margarito Davila. The man walking toward the front of the truck is tentatively identified as Abel Zapata, who went on to become a fire marshal, but we are not 100 percent sure it's him. And we are stumped on who the guy cleaning the "mataburros," or cattle guard in front with the boy leaning over. Is he his son?

The City of Brownsville has acquired the old fire truck, now fully restored, from the heirs of John W. Brown, of Chambersburg, Pa., who bought it in a local junkyard and spent years and money restoring it to its original condition. A photo of the truck as it appears now is below: