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War vet saves gal after fall from ferry

By JOHN DOYLE, CANDACE AMOS and JENNIFER BAIN
Last Updated: 6:38 AM, July 26, 2010
Posted: 3:42 AM, July 26, 2010

An Afghanistan war vet dived into New York Harbor early yesterday to save a woman who had slipped from a ferry and been pulled under a pier near Wall Street.

"I saw her head disappear under the water, and she was gone for a good 60 seconds," said former Navy sailor Nicholas Przybyla, of Brooklyn.

Danielle Julia DiMonda, 33, fell into the water at 1:10 a.m. while disembarking from a NY Water Taxi on her way home from a Governors Island concert.

"He saved my life. People don't do that -- but I guess some people do," DiMonda, a social worker from Manhattan, told The Post.

"You read stories of people jumping into subways to save people. If he hadn't come down . . . no one was doing anything. I felt like I was alone down there."

The ferry was docked at Pier 11 in lower Manhattan when the mishap occurred.

"It was so hot. When the boat pulled in, I was rushing to get out," DiMonda said.

"There was no gangplank from the boat to the dock. I put my foot down and I didn't feel anything. I felt like Alice going through the rabbit hole."

Przybyla said that after DiMonda tumbled overboard, he spotted her bobbing dangerously close to the wooden pilings.

"It seemed like she was kind of struggling, so I jumped in and grabbed her," said Przybyla, 28.

The two were then plucked from the harbor by police rescuers.

"When people fall overboard, it's a big deal and you can't hesitate," Przybyla said.

Przybyla was a member of the Amphibious Ready Group, which invaded Afghanistan in 2001.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/war_vet_saves_gal_after_fall_from_dgWrAJhpmPcaVON2BQyS7J