Thank God that Trump is a man who respects and honors the men and women in law enforcement, military, and emergency crews such as yourself.
What you just explained about the dangerous contact you had with psychos as part of your job is something that is not widely known. Thank you for explaining it.
BTW, are there any good books out there that tell some of the real stories of firemen like yourself?
The experiences vary so much even on the same department if it is a large one. We had three “battalions”, each had very different characteristics. The culture on the department changed so much during the time that I was working that it almost seems like I worked on two different departments. I read some good books when I was first starting out many years ago, but the experiences of the authors was very different from mine.
My approach and motivation for the job was different from many of my coworkers. Sadly there are many of mustache wearing, big pickup truck driving, know-it-all union goon types who are firefighters. The way they see themselves and their job is very different from how I viewed my duties.
When I retired the greatest compliment that I received was from one of my chiefs who said to my wife, “If I ever need to have a heart transplant, I only hope that I will get a slice from someone who had a heart as big as Steve's.” My goal was to serve our community as best I could. Throughout my career my wife had to put up with me helping out and sometimes even taking home people who I met on the job who were in trouble. One time we had a 90 year old WWII veteran with us for a week while I tried to get him placed in a veteran's home.
My grandson who is just turning 15 is very focused on becoming a firefighter. He is already planning on going to a university in Alaska which has a great program. His other grandfather is a Vietnam Vet and is a former chief of a rural volunteer department. My grandson is very involved in their volunteer program and actually has rank. They actually bring the kids along on calls and assign them tasks after they arrive. It is a great program, but the department and the culture is completely different from what I am familiar with.
Firefighting is a little like the military in that the experiences even in the same branch can vary widely. I got attacked here by someone who said she had relatives who were firefighters. I mentioned that I was on several calls during my career where the police had told us someone was dead when they actually were still alive. This was a frequent enough problem that our protocol was to always confirm whether someone was dead regardless of the determination of the police. But this person said that her relatives said that this had never happened.
Some of the stations on our department were incredibly busy, and some not as much. Some rural departments can go days without any calls. When I first started Our city was going through a violent stage, I went to stations where we had several stabbings or shootings a day, sometimes right outside the station. I went to bed early one night and got up because I thought the other guys had the volume up too loud on a war movie. When I walked into the “day room” they were all laying on the floor and they told me to, “Get down dummy!”, “Can't you hear the shooting outside?”. These days we tell newbies about it and they can't believe it.
I know many people who appreciate the books from author Earl Emerson who was a firefighter. He worked for Seattle and I think that some of his books were about firefighting. For all I know some of these TV shows and movies might be accurate in spirit to some people's experiences, just not mine. Sorry to go on so long... if I do find a book that captures an essence that seems similar to my experiences I will let you know.