Inspirational members

When I joined the fire service 16 years ago, I was first welcomed by my chief. He just looked like a chief, with this big thick mustache and smoked his cigarettes. Tall guy about 6'3", real gruffy voice. Scared the crap out of me, but then I realized he was the coolest. Every call we went on he would encourage us to get involved and during meetings, no one would dare speak out of turn. If he wanted something done, we would work on it immediately. During his reign as chief, we lost a member in the line of duty, ole chief made us proud by dedicating ourselves even harder for the loss of our guy. Just an inspiration to my career and I followed his path after he retired. My question is, do any of you have a member or officer that was a big inspiration to you?

0 members like this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by John Crabbe on July 24, 2009 at 8:43pm

Much like you, it was my first chief. Easy going, very approachable and very, very knowledgeable. It was great experience just being to learn from him, learned a lot about pumps and rigs when he needed to work on one of the rigs. Excellent teacher, was patient and took his time to those needing it, and he had a quick wit making him just fun to be around. When it came to a scene, you couldn't ask for a better IC, calm and collected, yet looked out for his folks. Truly an inspiration.