Marine Corps Veteran and Firefighter & Paramedic. In this informative podcast episode, Kurek, a Marine Corps veteran and firefighter-paramedic-EMS/fire instructor, shares his valuable insights on firefighting, mental health, and the challenges faced by first responders and military personnel.
Kurek explains the station life and how the number of firefighters per station varies depending on the station's size and the manpower available. He also discusses the work shift rotations, which average out to be a 56-hour workweek, and how it can affect the mental and physical health of first responders.
The conversation touches on the mental health struggles faced by first responders and military personnel, and Kurek emphasizes the importance of seeking help and support from peers. He talks about his experience with mental health issues and how being open with his wife has helped him deal with them.
Apart from firefighting and mental health, Kurek also discusses his love for cooking and his upcoming cookbook, the proceeds of which will go towards helping first responders. The conversation also delves into rowing and even British Royal Marines.
Overall, this episode provides a wealth of information on the firefighting profession, the mental health struggles faced by first responders, and the importance of seeking help and support from peers. It also gives a glimpse into Kurek's interests and passions outside of his profession.
Discussion Points for Marine Corps Veteran and Firefighter & Paramedic
- What insights does Kurek share about firefighting, mental health, and the challenges faced by first responders and military personnel?
- How does Kurek describe the station life and work shift rotations for firefighters? How do these factors affect first responders' mental and physical health?
- What advice does Kurek give regarding seeking help and support for mental health struggles?
- How does Kurek plan to use the proceeds from his upcoming cookbook?
- What other interests and passions does Kurek have outside of his profession?
- What updates and events are mentioned in the podcast episode?
- How did Jeremy become a Marine Corps veteran and assistant fire chief?
- What does Jeremy discuss about his experiences in the Marine Corps?
- How does Jeremy describe his hometown of Dearborn, Michigan?
- What firefighting mishaps does Jeremy recount from his time in the Marine Corps?
- What insights do Jeremy and Richard share about their experiences in boot camp?
- What group discussion questions do you have based on this podcast episode?
Feature Video
Transcript
(01:51)
Hey. Welcome back to another episode of the award winning Scuttlebutt Podcast. How are you guys doing? Very good, thank you. Yeah. Before we get started, if you guys are listening on Spotify or Apple or wherever you're listening at, jump over to YouTube and give us a like and subscribe.
(02:09)
We're trying to build our YouTube channel out even though most of our listeners are audio. And also I want to thank our Patreon members. So you know, if you join Patreon and support our channel, that money goes to helping us send veterans and first responders to sporting events which we just purchased season tickets to Detroit Lions for this upcoming season.
(02:37)
So look for if you're in the Detroit area, you're a veteran or first responder and just so happens we have both today as our guest. You're interested in going to a game, definitely. Let us know and we'll put your name in the hat for sure.
(02:54)
Jeremy, we're talking about getting some Detroit Red Wing tickets. Yeah, it's going to be good. Yeah, we're growing. I guess we're going to ask you how do we get in front of your union guys and get them to help support us?
(03:13)
We can make that work. Heck yeah. We got connections. I reached out to some police officers too. I actually met some last when I was in Michigan for visiting my granddaughter and that was on the east side.
(03:30)
And I ran into two dearborn police officers of all people sitting at the bar next to me. So they were super excited about helping too but then when they never respond back so heck with those police guys.
(03:46)
Yeah, I'm sure they're busy. It's all good. So today we're sitting with Jeremy. He's a Marine veteran and he's also assistant fire chief. My hometown, Dearborn, Michigan. How are you doing, buddy? Outstanding.
(04:02)
Thank you. Thank you for having me. Hey, Jeremy. Pleasure. So, before we get started, did you have any updates for us, chaps? I do, April 27 here in Murphysboro. Guys, if you're watching, we have a 92 year old Vietnam War veteran jumping out of a plane and landing in Barfield Crescent Park.
(04:29)
So it starts at 430, and it's going to be huge. We're partnering with Window World and our VFW Post. We're helping logistics on the ground. So I just got the final word today. Hopefully, we're going to get about 150 people.
(04:47)
It should be good. It should be a lot of fun. And our golf tournament is coming up April 29. We've raised about $5,000 for the VFW. Tennessee foundation. And you guys better bring it because I'm playing and I suck at golf.
(05:02)
So if you guys don't beat me, then you guys suck. Yeah. Well, I haven't swung a golf club in about ten years, but I'm bringing a couple of ringers with me, so I'm looking to bring home the trophy. I'm a hockey player, man.
(05:16)
I'm not a golfer. I take a Happy Gilmore step and everything. Yeah, I like to lose balls in the golf course. Yeah, that's not what I do. So, Jeremy, would you like to introduce yourself? Did you grow up in Dearborn?
(05:34)
Talk about where you grew up and how you became a Marine. Actually, I grew up in the west side of Detroit in the Warndale area, evergreen and Warren for those who are familiar with there and went to Catholic grade school, and had it not been necessarily for my brother, I wound up going to Divine, Child and Dearborn for high school.
(05:55)
Luckily, my brother was the better student. Older than me. I was a legacy. They had to let me in. Had it had it not been for my brother, I'd have been like Floundering in Animal House. Animal House. Thank you.
(06:09)
Thank you. He's a legacy. You got to let him in. I don't think I would have made the cutting score, but grew up in Detroit and again went to high school at Divine Child and went one semester of college at Henry Ford Community College.
(06:24)
Thought I wanted to pursue a career in law enforcement and eventually moved towards federal law enforcement, and for some reason, it just never took off. The classes weren't that exciting. Had some friends of mine, as well as my cousin Jason, who were in the Marine Corps at the time, and say, hey, don't you come talk to a recruiter?
(06:42)
All right, yeah, that sounds great. Let me go talk to the recruiter. I had no idea what else I was going to do. And sat down with the recruiter, looked at the Book of MoS and they said, hey, what do you think you want to do?
(06:55)
What were you thinking about doing prior to coming here? And told them, I was thinking about being a police officer. You want to be an MP? Well, what else did you think about doing? Said, I consider being an architect.
(07:05)
Marine Corps really doesn't have anything for that. We don't build it. We blow stuff up, so well, I'll tell you what, son. You just sit here in this couch right here, look through the book, and I came across the MoS of 7 0 51 70 51, crispy Critters, crash fire, rescue aircraft rescue firefighting, as it's called now.
(07:25)
And I said, hey, this looks cool. These guys in silver suits with fire around them. Let me give that a try. And that's how I got on the Marine Corps. So your recruiter office, was that in Dearborn? No, actually, I went southgate, where my cousin and a couple of my friends went to Master Sergeant Stevens.
(07:43)
He was a gunny at the Staff Sergeant at the time. Wow. He remembers my recruiter's name. That's good. So when I did it, I went through Dearborn, and all the recruiters were in the basement of the village.
(07:57)
I don't know if you remember that. Yes. Soon to be demolished Village Plaza. Oh, they're taking it down. It's supposed to be interesting. Sorry to break the news. Yeah, Dearborn is changing, man. Like, every time I go there, it's a little bit different.
(08:17)
Like the save a lot is all. Tore part It looks like it's going to be a car dealer ship now. I believe it's going to be the Toyota dealership, I think, took it over. Yeah. Which is right next door to the American Legion, which I spent many nights there.
(08:31)
Were you a commander? Right? I was commander. Pretty much every sat in every seat in that building. My pictures in the back room for being Veteran of the Year in 2011. So that's my claim to fame. Yeah.
(08:51)
Dearborn had a really cool city hall until the freaking mayor sold it to some art group. It was amazing building. I was so mad when he sold that. I did like the old building. Yeah, it had character, man.
(09:05)
This new building just looks like it looks like a box. Yeah. Don't even get me started. Jeremy? Yes, sir. As we roll on, how long were you in the Corps? Four years. I was in 94 to 98. Okay. Where were you stationed at?
(09:29)
Went to boot camp, Paris Island. Then, of course, I went to combat training at Camp Geiger there in North Carolina. Did my MoS school at Nas Millington for a month down there in Tennessee. Millington?
(09:43)
Yes, sir. I was just talking about Millington. I bought my mower from Millington from the PX there, and. It was a good time. Only there for why? Believe it or not, our MoS school at the time was only a month long, so I didn't get to spend a whole lot of time.
(10:02)
Didn't have a vehicle, so I didn't get to really experience the town. But that's okay. From there I went to Iwakuni for the first year. I was in did deployments to Thailand for Cobra gold as well as Korea.
(10:17)
And then I spent the last two and a half years. Years and the wonderful stumps of 29 palms. How long were you in Korea for? A little over a month. Right on. Where the whole chaps go? He just dropped out.
(10:33)
What part of Korea were you in? Trying to remember that's one thing. Now I can't remember. Sorry, guys, I had a little bit of a delay on my thing. I had to get rid of it. Chaps to be eligible for the VFW.
(10:57)
How long do you have to be in Korea? 30 plus 60 plus days. 60 a month or a year? Yeah, I was in Busan, Korea, like, 100 years ago. That rings a bell. Wow. Shots fired. Hey, he's been doing it all day to me today, so I need to get him back.
(11:26)
Yeah, he got mad at me because I called Tun Tavern a gay bar. Oh, my. Them'S fighting words, sailor. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Jeremy. Thank you for having my back on that. Seriously, man, you don't say that shit on Facebook.
(11:47)
You still got a weird delay going, man. I know. I don't know what's going on with my thing, but turn your blur thing off. I think that's always it. Okay, hold on. Let's go with the camera. Virtual background.
(12:07)
We got to look at your mess. Is that better? We'll see. Is that better? Yeah. For some reason, that blurs, dude. Every background slows my shit up. Now I have to make this room look good, because it looks like a yeah.
(12:26)
Beautiful. I got one downstairs. I'm just going to have to bring it up for you guys. Damn. Well, since I'm on here, I got to give a shout out to Mike Ryder, my coworker, who actually made that flag. As I said, for my 40th birthday party, my wife surprised me.
(12:42)
So give you guys a little backstory on that. I was actually in my instructor coordinator class, EMS instructor coordinator with my coworker. And I happened to mention to my wife that one of my coworkers made the flags, and little did I know that she contacted him behind my back.
(12:57)
And while we're in class, they're texting back and forth, trying to get my flag for my 40th birthday. Had no idea the entire time. And birthday came. My wife says, I need to borrow your truck. You don't like to drive my truck.
(13:09)
What do you mean you need to borrow my truck? Kind of struck me odd. So she says, I got to go pick something up for you. Okay. Came back. And there we go. It's nice, man. I like it. Beautiful. Pride and joy.
(13:24)
There's two things wives can't do, though. They're not allowed to touch your truck or your barbecue grill. Okay. Katrina would kick your ass for saying that. That's my wife. She would definitely have words with you right now.
(13:43)
I like to stay in trouble. So did you actually get to fight any real fires? In the Marine Corps training fires Galore never had. I actually had only had one crash, luckily, AVAP Harrier, when I was out in 29 Palms went down.
(14:04)
We were sitting at our ready alert spot on the runway, which we called Hot Spot, watching the planes take off and land for a couple of hours in the nice 110 degree heat of the Mojave and happened to look out this way, which would have been north of the airfield.
(14:18)
And we see a plum of smoke. And 29 Palms, of course, is one of the largest base the Marine Corps owns, 926 sq mi of Mojave, where they have the war games, the CACS, and blow everything up. I was there two times.
(14:31)
Hate Cabs. I hate 29 palms. It's got its advantages. So we're looking out there, I see this plume of smoke, and I said, hey, they don't normally bomb out there. And before we knew it, air traffic control was coming over the radio saying, Crash, crash, crash.
(14:46)
AVAP Harrier and next thing you know, we're jumping through the desert and going to check where the pilots at. Luckily, he ejected safely and that was really the only major mishap. Had some other stuff in there, but the only crash did you guys use?
(15:03)
Yes, we did. We had a F then we still used halon on our trucks and PKP. Some things have changed. Okay, you're going to have to explain AFFF, because I know Fleet knows what is I have no idea what that is.
(15:17)
So aqueous film forming foam is a special foam that's utilized for flammable liquid fires. So the foam sits on the water, the fire, the fuel, and it doesn't allow the vapors to come up, so it keeps the vapors suppressed and doesn't re ignite.
(15:33)
Wow. Yeah, it's all over aircraft carrier, which now we know Richard has also got those wonderful PFAS in them. That the forever chemical that is causing cancer. Yeah, isn't that awesome? Yeah, we used to bathe in that stuff.
(15:50)
Great. Yeah, exactly. You should talk to the VA, see if you got any of those 21 different diseases for the Pact Act. You might get an increase in your disability if you have it. Already been following some crash through pages on Facebook and social media of individuals that have sought out the VA for certain things.
(16:13)
So we're working on it, they're aware of it, but like everything with a VA, things are moving slow. Knock on wood. So far, even being in the fire service now for going on 26 years, I haven't had any symptoms.
(16:26)
Not to say, but Phil Smith has been there. If I needed any help, you point me in the right direction. Yeah, good. That's great. Fantastic. Yeah. Phil Smith is another Marine. He's the commander of the American Legion right now, and he's also yes.
(16:43)
No, yeah, of course. I think he did almost 30 years in the Marine Corps. I think 27 years. Wow. I don't remember. Just retired as a master sergeant. Yeah, he's been there for a minute. He's actually who gave me your number there, Richard, when I was in for my wife's birthday.
(17:03)
Yeah, I was just in Dearborn last week for work, and I saw him for a minute. Good man. I asked him to be on the show, but he said he forgets too much. I don't know if that's old age or just being a Marine.
(17:17)
Probably a little bit of both. Right. So how did you take boot camp? So you're 18 years old and you jump in and some dudes screaming at you for what? Twelve weeks? 1313. Oh, 13. Damn. Yeah. Don't shortest boot camp.
(17:42)
Okay. Out of all the services, all of them and. Well, I was kind of surprised myself. I was an athlete. I wasn't a great athlete by any means, but I definitely put some time in prior to going to boot camp, trying to get in as best shape as I could.
(18:00)
And a few weeks into boot camp, I was promoted to platoon guide, where I subsequently was fired probably every bit of 26 times as guide for God knows what. But it came down towards the end. They fired me.
(18:23)
They brought me back. They fired me. They brought me back and fired me. Brought me back. And towards the end, senior Drill Instructor brings me in the house and he says, you're going to be the guide for final drill.
(18:33)
You're going to be the guide when graduation. So we got to give everybody an opportunity at a leadership position. So just so you know, you're good to go. Now get the hell out of the office. Yeah, sir.
(18:43)
And that was it. I exceeded any expectations of myself graduating with that. Had a great platoon. Still keep in touch with three of my squad leaders, as well as a couple of other people on the platoon.
(19:01)
They're almost 30 years later and one of the highlights of my life, no regrets whatsoever. I don't want to say boot camp was fun, but it was by no means as difficult as I expected to all that mental game up there.
(19:18)
More mental than it's a mind game. That's right, for sure. Actually, it's funny. We had one of my guys in my platoon in boot camp. He said, mind game him to the draw instructor, that guy was scrubbing the deck for probably about a month, like with the scuzz towels.
(19:35)
Remember those scuzz racks? Yeah. Bear crawls with those. Yeah, but no, I agree with Jeremy. I thought boot camp was fun. We had three hots and a cot, and then we went to Geiger. He went to Geiger. I went to Geiger.
(19:55)
I went to three eight after Geiger, December 17, 2004. And Jeremy, where did you go again? You went to iwakuni first. Yes, Iwakuni, that's right. I've never been over there. I wanted to go there, but they said, here's your wish list.
(20:14)
I said Hawaii, Japan, camp Lujune, where they send me. Camp. Fucking lujune. Yeah, that's right. You're going to be deployed in January of 2005. Good to go. Awesome. I put Hawaii on my wish list, too, and I didn't get it.
(10:57)
How long do you have to be in Korea? 30 plus 60 plus days. 60 a month or a year? Yeah, I was in Busan, Korea, like, 100 years ago. That rings a bell. Wow. Shots fired. Hey, he's been doing it all day to me today, so I need to get him back.
(11:26)
Yeah, he got mad at me because I called Tun Tavern a gay bar. Oh, my. Them'S fighting words, sailor. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Jeremy. Thank you for having my back on that. Seriously, man, you don't say that shit on Facebook.
(11:47)
You still got a weird delay going, man. I know. I don't know what's going on with my thing, but turn your blur thing off. I think that's always it. Okay, hold on. Let's go with the camera. Virtual background.
(12:07)
We got to look at your mess. Is that better? We'll see. Is that better? Yeah. For some reason, that blurs, dude. Every background slows my shit up. Now I have to make this room look good, because it looks like a yeah.
(12:26)
Beautiful. I got one downstairs. I'm just going to have to bring it up for you guys. Damn. Well, since I'm on here, I got to give a shout out to Mike Ryder, my coworker, who actually made that flag. As I said, for my 40th birthday party, my wife surprised me.
(12:42)
So give you guys a little backstory on that. I was actually in my instructor coordinator class, EMS instructor coordinator with my coworker. And I happened to mention to my wife that one of my coworkers made the flags, and little did I know that she contacted him behind my back.
(12:57)
And while we're in class, they're texting back and forth, trying to get my flag for my 40th birthday. Had no idea the entire time. And birthday came. My wife says, I need to borrow your truck. You don't like to drive my truck.
(13:09)
What do you mean you need to borrow my truck? Kind of struck me odd. So she says, I got to go pick something up for you. Okay. Came back. And there we go. It's nice, man. I like it. Beautiful. Pride and joy.
(13:24)
There's two things wives can't do, though. They're not allowed to touch your truck or your barbecue grill. Okay. Katrina would kick your ass for saying that. That's my wife. She would definitely have words with you right now.
(13:43)
I like to stay in trouble. So did you actually get to fight any real fires? In the Marine Corps training fires Galore never had. I actually had only had one crash, luckily, AVAP Harrier, when I was out in 29 Palms went down.
(14:04)
We were sitting at our ready alert spot on the runway, which we called Hot Spot, watching the planes take off and land for a couple of hours in the nice 110 degree heat of the Mojave and happened to look out this way, which would have been north of the airfield.
(14:18)
And we see a plum of smoke. And 29 Palms, of course, is one of the largest base the Marine Corps owns, 926 sq mi of Mojave, where they have the war games, the CACS, and blow everything up. I was there two times.
(14:31)
Hate Cabs. I hate 29 palms. It's got its advantages. So we're looking out there, I see this plume of smoke, and I said, hey, they don't normally bomb out there. And before we knew it, air traffic control was coming over the radio saying, Crash, crash, crash.
(14:46)
AVAP Harrier and next thing you know, we're jumping through the desert and going to check where the pilots at. Luckily, he ejected safely and that was really the only major mishap. Had some other stuff in there, but the only crash did you guys use?
(15:03)
Yes, we did. We had a F then we still used halon on our trucks and PKP. Some things have changed. Okay, you're going to have to explain AFFF, because I know Fleet knows what is I have no idea what that is.
(15:17)
So aqueous film forming foam is a special foam that's utilized for flammable liquid fires. So the foam sits on the water, the fire, the fuel, and it doesn't allow the vapors to come up, so it keeps the vapors suppressed and doesn't re ignite.
(15:33)
Wow. Yeah, it's all over aircraft carrier, which now we know Richard has also got those wonderful PFAS in them. That the forever chemical that is causing cancer. Yeah, isn't that awesome? Yeah, we used to bathe in that stuff.
(15:50)
Great. Yeah, exactly. You should talk to the VA, see if you got any of those 21 different diseases for the Pact Act. You might get an increase in your disability if you have it. Already been following some crash through pages on Facebook and social media of individuals that have sought out the VA for certain things.
(16:13)
So we're working on it, they're aware of it, but like everything with a VA, things are moving slow. Knock on wood. So far, even being in the fire service now for going on 26 years, I haven't had any symptoms.
(16:26)
Not to say, but Phil Smith has been there. If I needed any help, you point me in the right direction. Yeah, good. That's great. Fantastic. Yeah. Phil Smith is another Marine. He's the commander of the American Legion right now, and he's also yes.
(16:43)
No, yeah, of course. I think he did almost 30 years in the Marine Corps. I think 27 years. Wow. I don't remember. Just retired as a master sergeant. Yeah, he's been there for a minute. He's actually who gave me your number there, Richard, when I was in for my wife's birthday.
(17:03)
Yeah, I was just in Dearborn last week for work, and I saw him for a minute. Good man. I asked him to be on the show, but he said he forgets too much. I don't know if that's old age or just being a Marine.
(17:17)
Probably a little bit of both. Right. So how did you take boot camp? So you're 18 years old and you jump in and some dudes screaming at you for what? Twelve weeks? 1313. Oh, 13. Damn. Yeah. Don't shortest boot camp.
(17:42)
Okay. Out of all the services, all of them and. Well, I was kind of surprised myself. I was an athlete. I wasn't a great athlete by any means, but I definitely put some time in prior to going to boot camp, trying to get in as best shape as I could.
(18:00)
And a few weeks into boot camp, I was promoted to platoon guide, where I subsequently was fired probably every bit of 26 times as guide for God knows what. But it came down towards the end. They fired me.
(18:23)
They brought me back. They fired me. They brought me back and fired me. Brought me back. And towards the end, senior Drill Instructor brings me in the house and he says, you're going to be the guide for final drill.
(18:33)
You're going to be the guide when graduation. So we got to give everybody an opportunity at a leadership position. So just so you know, you're good to go. Now get the hell out of the office. Yeah, sir.
(18:43)
And that was it. I exceeded any expectations of myself graduating with that. Had a great platoon. Still keep in touch with three of my squad leaders, as well as a couple of other people on the platoon.
(19:01)
They're almost 30 years later and one of the highlights of my life, no regrets whatsoever. I don't want to say boot camp was fun, but it was by no means as difficult as I expected to all that mental game up there.
(19:18)
More mental than it's a mind game. That's right, for sure. Actually, it's funny. We had one of my guys in my platoon in boot camp. He said, mind game him to the draw instructor, that guy was scrubbing the deck for probably about a month, like with the scuzz towels.
(19:35)
Remember those scuzz racks? Yeah. Bear crawls with those. Yeah, but no, I agree with Jeremy. I thought boot camp was fun. We had three hots and a cot, and then we went to Geiger. He went to Geiger. I went to Geiger.
(19:55)
I went to three eight after Geiger, December 17, 2004. And Jeremy, where did you go again? You went to iwakuni first. Yes, Iwakuni, that's right. I've never been over there. I wanted to go there, but they said, here's your wish list.
(20:14)
I said Hawaii, Japan, camp Lujune, where they send me. Camp. Fucking lujune. Yeah, that's right. You're going to be deployed in January of 2005. Good to go. Awesome. I put Hawaii on my wish list, too, and I didn't get it.
(20:33)
You know what? That makes three of us. Well, a funny story. When I was in Iwakuni, my first corporal that I was there, Rob Sapal, that I still keep in touch with him, he was originally from Honolulu, was leaving Iwakuni to go back to Kenwai Bay, and he never even left Oahu.
(20:56)
He was born there and never left the island until he went to boot camp. So when he was getting ready to leave Japan and he said, hey, see if you can get some orders to Hawaii. And at the time, my master sergeant, the staff N two, I see Top McGrath from Boston said, yeah, I got a buddy at the monitor's office.
(21:14)
He goes, I'll hook you up, Kick. Boston accent, kick, Kick, don't worry about it. I hook you up. I'll hook you up. So about two months into it, I kept bugging him, hey, Top. Top, do my orders come in yet?
(21:22)
Do my orders coming yet? No, they didn't come in yet. Don't worry about kick. You're going to Hawaii. Don't worry about it. I got you covered. One day, I got you covered. I asked him to say Top to my orders came in.
(21:34)
He goes, Kick, your orders came in? What's wrong? You ain't going to be happy? Where are you going to? 29. Going to 29 Palms. You got that accent down like good man. Seriously, you sound exactly like someone from Massachusetts sort of gone in Boston.
(21:52)
Guys. It's wicked pisser of an accent you got there. Wicked pisser. Go Bruins. Go Beef. Hopefully they're winning right now. I don't think it started yet, did it? No, it started. End of the first. Nice.
(22:11)
Sorry. They're going to sweep Florida. The Panthers? Yeah, they're okay. But no, you can't play hockey in Florida. Come on, dude. I was there when the Panthers started, like in 95 when they were playing the University of Miami Arena.
(22:29)
I mean, my dad took me and my brother to a game and they threw rats on the ice for the first goal. Really weird. Really weird. Rats in New Hampshire. The first goal for UNH. Someone always throws a fish on the ice.
(22:49)
I don't know why. Tradition. They throw rats. Detroit started with octopus. Octopus, that's right. And who is that? Chris Osgood. Right? No, he was a goalie. Yeah, Chris Osgood. Amazing goalie from you guys.
(23:08)
Looked like he was twelve years old. He did. He still looks like he's twelve. Still got hair and everything. I still have his card. It's. Renat. arenat. Are in it. arenat. arenat. arenat. arenat. arenat.
(23:25)
arenat. arenat. arenat. arenat. arenat. arenat. arenat. arenat. arenat. arenat. Arenat. Arenat. arenat. arenat. arenat. arenat. arenat. arenat. arenat. arenat. Arena. It are in it, are in it, are in it, are in it, are in it, are in it, are in it, are in it, are in it, are in it, are in it, are in it, are in it.
(23:59)
I can hear you, rennet. Are in it, are in it, are in it, are in it, are in it, are in it, are in it, are in it, are in it, are in it, rennet are in it, are in it, are in it are in it are in it are in it are in it are in it are in it are in it are in it are in it are in it are in it are in it are in it are.
(24:26)
In it are in it are in it are in it are in it are in it are in it are in it are in it are in it. Man. Eight mile all over again. Just kidding. There we go. Well, he'll probably be back, Jeremy. I'm sure he will.
(24:47)
So after 98, you got out, and then you joined what, you went back to Michigan, where'd you go? Once decided I wasn't going to stay in. And my main reason I eventually wanted to have a family, get married.
(25:05)
And I saw the hardships that military families go through. And I said, I just don't want to put them through that prior to getting out. 29 Palms. The crash. Crew. Guys, they started. Doing a lot of cross training with the federal firefighters on base.
(25:20)
And I guess back in the day, I don't remember if it was Vietnam era or earlier, I guess the civilians and Marine Corps crash grew, were combined at some point, and then whatever happened, so they were looking at the time to actually try to bring that back together again to where we were working together.
(25:36)
But you've got military, who they could tell to do and worked as much as they want, and then you've got the federal firefighters who have overtime and everything else, and it just wasn't going to work.
(25:45)
But needless to say, we did a lot of training together. Had some great times. Got to know the guys. Spent two weeks straight at the base fire department working with them, as well as a short period that I was the assistant training SEO, that we got to schedule a lot of training fires.
(26:01)
Both their old base housing, they burnt down. We had pitfires that we'd invite them to to do simulated crash fires. And they said, well, we're going to be hired. Why don't you apply? They helped me through the application process.
(26:13)
All set to go. Had a plan. I was going to go home. I was going to work for my buddy's dad, paint some houses for a little bit, work under the table, make some cash, buy a truck. Hey, there he is. I lost you guys.
(26:27)
Can you hear me? Yes, sir. Dude, technology, man. Gonzalez would be jealous of that rap that you just did. I missed a rap? Shit. Are you kidding me? You didn't hear it? I didn't hear shit, man. Dude, it kept on repeating.
(26:44)
I'm going to get, I'm going to get. I'm going to get, I'm going to get, I'm going to get. I mean, all I kept saying three minutes, man. What the hell? It was like, stuck in, like, a time loop or something.
(26:55)
Who? Jeremy's? No, yours. Yours. I have no idea what happened. Freaking technology. I'm going to call my It guy. Aren't you the It guy? Yeah. Push. Yeah, start pushing. Yeah, for real. So Richard that tree until I get tired.
(27:17)
Yes, sir. He was asking me what happened when I got out, and I was explaining to him that we did a lot of cross training with the base fire department, the federal firefighters, and I applied to that department, came home, was going to work under the table, buy myself a truck, drive back out to 29 Palms.
(27:35)
I wound up getting offered the job, but federal fire department jobs, they get a lot of good toys and equipment and those types of things, but on base with the barracks, they're cinder block walls. You do have base housing, but the newer ones are sprinkler.
(27:50)
There's not as much action as you would get to in a city. So I declined. After declining the job, I immediately started I got out in April. I immediately started back to college that fall. I had taken some classes while I was in the military as well, too.
(28:04)
I got my California EMT basic out there. Got some fire science college courses down. So started at schoolcraft college that fall. The following summer, I finished my associates, went right into my basic EMT, my fire academy.
(28:20)
Got those knocked out of the way. Then I got my paramedic knocked out and my first full time fire job. I was hired in the city of Melbourne back in October of 2001, a month after 911. Obviously, I was a firefighter prior to 911, so it wasn't that that turned me towards the fire service, but needless to say, it had a major effect.
(28:43)
And watching the towers drop and knowing how many firefighters were in those buildings, just like a bunch of my friends, the first thing we thought was all those firefighters and all those people in the towers.
(28:55)
Then we started talking to each other, hey, can we go out to New York? What are we going to do? Can we go help? We want to help. We want to do this. By the time we decided we were going to try to go out there, it's when they were advising, look, we just can't handle all these people coming in without being asked.
(29:10)
It was just overwhelming. It's. I spent about ten months in the city of Melbournale, and then I was hired in the city of Dearborn in June of 2002, and that is where I currently work. I'm sure you've seen some pretty gory accidents.
(29:31)
So do they have, like, grief counselors for you guys? How do you do this every single day and then go home and try to be normal? Well, Richard, I'm glad you brought that up, because the mental health aspect of the job is extremely important to me.
(29:46)
As a matter of fact, I've been very much involved in it for every bit of six or seven years now. And actually, how I got involved in that I'm glad you brought it up is along with some things that happened in my personal life, mixing those things with what I've seen on the job, it weighs on you, without a doubt.
(30:19)
Coming from the military, I was aware of PTSD, never even thought anything about myself, regardless of what I saw, and started noticing. Well, my wife brought it to my attention in the early years we started dating, being short tempered and depression and those types of things, and make a short story long, I finally decided to go talk to somebody, and at which time they had asked me, has anybody ever told you you might have PTSD?
(30:54)
And I said, no. I said, I was never in combat. And she said, what do you see every day at work? What do you do and how long do you do it for? I said, well, at a bare minimum, we have to work 25 years on the job.
(31:07)
She goes, you see a lot of stuff in those 25 years? I said, yes, and she said, okay, and. Went through a little questionnaire, and she said, I want you to highlight every single one of these things that apply to you.
(31:20)
Next thing I know, the paper is glowing, highlighted. And I went, okay, maybe we're starting to figure things out here again. That was probably seven, eight years ago or something, maybe longer. It's just moving forward.
(31:43)
Still was looking, trying to figure out how I can help myself and how I can help myself, be a better person, be a better husband, be a better father, and not let these things that I've witnessed in my life, personal life as well as on the job, affect me.
(32:04)
And I had heard about this gym down in Brownstown at the time called Victory Gym and Veterans Health Club. Richard, have you heard of it? I have not, no. Saw it advertised and saw that they had PTSD meetings for both first responders and veterans every week.
(32:20)
And very hesitantly, I went to my first meeting and sat in the parking lot for about 45 minutes prior to the meeting, checking my pulse as it's ticking away at about 160, feeling all flush. Main reason being that I felt at the time this is how many years after the second Gulf War had started, global war and tear, that if I'm surrounded by a bunch of combat veterans and I go on there telling them I have PTSD and I've never been in combat, how's that going to how's that going to fly?
(32:54)
And to my surprise meeting, the founder of Victory Gym, mike Emery. He was an army veteran, combat veteran, originally from Taylor, Michigan. Him and a couple other of the fellows there, they were more accepting of my position.
(33:12)
Than I ever would have expected. They said, first of all, educating me. It only takes one event in somebody's life to cause those moral injuries or those scars. And they said, how many years you plan on being a fireman?
(33:27)
At least 25. And they said, yeah, well, it only takes one event. You're going to do this over an entire career, and there's an accumulative effect of what you see if you don't know how to deal with it.
(33:39)
And something clicked at that point and just kept going to the meetings and going to the meetings, going to the meetings, making some bonds with some other veterans, bringing some other first responders into the PTSD meetings.
(33:55)
They were peer led. No psychiatrists or anything like that, just the fellas, some of the gals talking the same language. And eventually I wound up taking over the meetings for a period of time. And I've been on our peer support team for our fire department now for a little over three years.
(34:15)
Very much involved. I'm very happy to say that the Dearborn Fire Department has been the tip of the spear for mental health in the state of Michigan. One of our members, Michael Matern, is the chairman of the mental Health committee for the Michigan Firefighters Professional.
(34:30)
Michigan State Firefighters professional Unit. I can't talk. Michigan Professional Firefighters Unit. There we go. That's a mouthful. Yes. Sorry. I couldn't even say that. Just all these things coming out, thinking back in the day, just kind of edgy.
(34:52)
Sorry. No, that's awesome, man. Basically, Richard, to answer your question, it hasn't been until at the very late stages of my career that I started to learn of how to deal with these things. And I'm very happy to say that things are moving in the right direction.
(35:14)
It's no longer, hey, kids, suck it up. If you didn't want to deal with this, you shouldn't become a firefighter. Right. Or whatever it is. That mentality is now the few and the spotlight is on the mental health aspect.
(35:31)
Yeah. I definitely, really need to get you involved with us more because our goal with the sending the veterans and first responders to sporting events is not just to send them to a game and say, here you go, kid, see you later.
(35:46)
We want to send them with a mentor so they actually have a night out and they can have somebody to talk to. Yeah. So mental health is very important to. Us, and that goes along with having a support system, which, Jeremy, you've entirely found with this group, this veteran first responder group.
(36:10)
That is something actually. I just had a phone call with somebody yesterday who wasn't going to do anything, but were very confused. And I was like, hey, get to a peer support group. Talk about this in the open.
(36:27)
I kept on asking this person I'm not going to say if it's a he or she, but I kept on asking, hey, do you think you have a problem? Do you think you have a problem? It took ten minutes, and then finally they were like, yeah, I got a problem.
(36:44)
Well, admitting that you're wrong messed up. That's like, the first step. I mean, I'm a recovering alcoholic, and it took me 18 years to realize that I was a drunk and I had a problem. I would get sober and then go back out.
(37:04)
I would get sober, get back out, and I'm going on my five years sobriety. Um, July 31, I had a really good support system, a really good sponsor who took me through the steps. And it sounds like that's what happened to you, Jeremy.
(37:22)
And that's what we want to do for our veterans that we send to these sporting events that they can call us anytime, so we don't you know, so we can mentor them, so we can, you know, make sure they're doing the right thing and they're making the right decisions instead of the wrong decisions.
(37:40)
Yeah. You are more than welcome to these tickets. Anytime you need a ticket, you just let us know. Thank you. We'll be sending you to a Bruins game because they are the best. Only if they're in Detroit, so we can watch Detroit beat the shit out of them.
(38:00)
Maybe back in the day. What was the guy with the ponytail? What the hell was his name? McCartney? Yeah. Darren McGowan. Hockey. Mullets McCarthy. Dude, that guy was a beast. So my goal is, once we get.
(38:23)
The tickets sorry, my bad. The tickets are already secured. They're mine. But once I get them and football season starts, I would love to get a hold of the Dearborn Police Department and get that fellow that just shot somebody came into the Dearborn Police Department, and this police officer had to shoot somebody.
(38:47)
I would love to get him to a football game. Wait, what happened? So I don't know the whole story. I'm sure Jeremy knows it way more better than I do. Evidently, a local who had a history of mental health issues.
(39:03)
Obtained a firearm, decided to walk into the police lobby and look around and just point his gun at the officer working the front desk and pulled the trigger while he had a misfire. And as he's trying to take care of his misfire issue, the police officer was basically trying to tell him, stop saying gun, gun, gun, gun, gun, gun.
(39:23)
And he tried shooting him again, and the police officer did what he had to do and unloaded on them. Wow. Yeah, that was fairly recent. I mean, about a year or so ago. No, not even the past three, four months.
(39:39)
Maybe ten months. Yeah, I know it's fairly recent, but I would love to get that guy to a football game. I'll see what I can do. I got some connections. Heck, yeah. Definitely help. Jeremy knows people.
(39:55)
By the way, you did mention Warren earlier. And one of my fellow machine gutters is from Warren, Michigan, by the way. His name is Joe Baker. He was with Marsock after he did two years with US. Marine Special Operations Command.
(40:12)
And then he went to Afghanistan. He got hurt real bad, and he coaches wrestling up in Michigan right now. And he's a member of our VFW post, by the way, in Tennessee. I hope he doesn't still live in Warren.
(40:26)
I don't think so. I think he lives in the city. He lives in Detois. Okay. Warren is very, like, industrial. It's not very nice to look at. It's just manufacturing, and I don't know. I wouldn't want to live there.
(40:42)
Slap Shop, right? It's like one of those towns. Slap shop like the little Chiefs. I don't remember. It's all industrial. Seriously? Come on, man. You're going way back, man. It was like Steve McQueen.
(40:56)
No, wait. Paul Newman. Paul Newman. Paul Newman. Paul Newman was the Hanson brothers. Yeah. The Hanson brothers. The Hanson brothers. I got you. I'm missing one of my teeth, man. That's like 40 years ago.
(41:13)
I'm supposed to remember. Yeah, we'd definitely love to get you guys to a game. Shit. I think I'm trying to talk combat chaps here to drive it up with me, man. We'll take you and a buddy to a game, dude.
(41:30)
Hey, don't we have plans already to go in June? Yeah, well, we're going to be on the other side of the state. Flag Day. Yeah, I told him about Flag Day and Dearborn. How great Dearborn does with Flag Day.
(41:44)
And we're talking about going up for that. Well, I'm game, man. I'm not driving my car. We're driving in the Cadillac. We're not driving my car. We're driving the Cadillac. Sure you're up there? We'll see you there.
(42:01)
Because I'll definitely be there. Oh, yeah. I want to see fleeks VFW I want to see his American Legion. I want to meet you, Jeremy. Yeah. Dearborn is like they do an awesome job with veterans. Memorial Day parade is amazing.
(42:21)
Flag Day is amazing. Veterans Day. It's amazing. They do a great job. Yes, they do. I think what's the Memorial Day parade is like the longest running parade in Michigan, for sure. It's one of the longest.
(42:38)
I believe one of the older ones in the country as well. Yeah, it's like 90 years old or something. What's dearborn famous for? Is that where Henry Ford is from? Yes, he is. Yes. My grandfather knew Henry Ford personally.
(42:56)
That's how my grandfather got into Ford Motor Company. I didn't know Henry Ford was from Dearborn, Michigan. Yeah. Sorry. My bad. No. How do you not know that? Dude? Hey. He bought a house in the low country in Savannah, Georgia.
(43:11)
I know that house. It's called the Ford plantation. But I had no idea. I knew he was from Michigan, but I didn't know he was from Dearborn. I thought he was from Detroit. Sorry, I'm they still have his house.
(43:22)
They've got his house in Greenfield Village. They have his house in Savannah. Richmond Hill, Georgia. He bought a house right on the water. I mean, he had a shooting place. He had a place for oysters.
(43:36)
I mean, huge. And it's now like a gated community. And his house is now the place where they have really fancy dinners. Like I met Pat Conroy. There one summer who wrote a Losing Season a Prince of Tides.
(43:55)
I guess the Great Santini guys read Great Santini. Yeah. Bolmiecham. Yeah, that's right. Oh, my God. Yeah. Good. Awesome. Jeremy you Marines are so smart. Okay, yes, we're smart, but we get made fun of for eating crayons all the time.
(44:15)
Which, by the way, Jeremy, that's a good question. Was that around when you were no idea where that came from. Actually, I was too busy going to Iraq to worry about eating crayons. And this whole crayon culture, I just want to punch people in the ace.
(44:37)
I just embrace it. Now I don't know where it came from. Just like the wooks. Oh, God. Yeah. Well, what's a wook? I'm not familiar with a wook. Jeremy, you're the senior. Do you want to explain wookie to.
(44:55)
Past commander fleet. No, you don't want to say it? Do you think you get in trouble or not being PC enough? Well, he's assistant fire chief. Oh, yeah. Okay. You know what? I don't have any shame. I'm going to say it.
(45:13)
A Wook is an FM. That's what they used to call them. Way back in the day, female marine. But there's other reasons. Yeah, I know there are other reasons, but I'm not going to divulge them right now because one, I don't want to embarrass you.
(45:30)
I don't want to embarrass myself. And hopefully you and I can be embarrassed together. I don't care. Yeah, one of our past guests just recently past guests, mario Fields, sergeant major. Sergeant major?
(45:43)
Yeah, he just sent me an email, and it had, like, the original documentation from the marine Corps about how to treat black marines. I was like, holy shit, man. And this isn't like our I don't think it was our lifetime, but it's like, just one generation away.
(46:04)
I was like, oh, my God. It was official document from the marine Corps. Yeah, they were in the Mont for point marines. They were at camp Johnson right now, but Mont for Point was where the black marines used to go way back.
(46:19)
Segregation, management stuff just blows me away in chaps, too. I've been told recently, we always referred dark green, light green. Everybody was green. That was what we were proud of. It didn't matter.
(46:33)
You can't even say dark green anymore. The whole purpose the whole purpose of. That was inclusionary, that we are all Marines. He's just dark green. He's light green. We're all green. We're all together.
(46:42)
We're all a team. And in a time of where inclusion and everything is so important, you would have thought that that was something that they would embrace. But. Kind of I just actually had the honor of meeting the 38th Commander of the Marine Corps, mr.
(47:01)
David Berger. General David Berger. Sorry. My old battalion commander from 2004. And he is doing some very large changes to our Corps. And you're not read and heard some of them. Got rid of tanks, got rid of my battalion, third Battalion Marines.
(47:22)
We folded our colors last year. Three. Three just on the chopping block. Scout snipers. I saw something about scout snipers, like it's going to be a platoon now instead of like the six man team or something like that, I don't know.
(47:40)
So he's getting rid of tanks. They're gone. First tanks, second tanks gone a couple of years ago now. Wow. Yes. Those snipers, they're all going to be in the platoon. They're all going to be DMs designated marksman, which I don't know.
(48:01)
I know a lot of scout snipers and they're not very happy either. No, that was a prestigious hey, Jeremy, who was your commodant when you were in? Who was that crew? The little one or the other one? Little one.
(48:20)
Oh, God, I heard stories about him. No, hold on. No, I'm sorry. Not crew. No, I'm sorry. Monday was my first crew act was before I got out, General. Monday was my first sorry, you made about gray overstreet monday and crewac.
(48:37)
And then I had Hagee and Conway for my Marine Corps commands. Jeremy. I know, dearborn. Used to give veterans priorities when they're. Applying for jobs. Is that still a thing? When I got hired, there was veterans preference, which really was kind of vague points.
(49:02)
Well, for me, there wasn't points unless you had a disability rating or you circular combat. So if you didn't have those, there was a veteran's preference. So what that meant, I have no idea. But they still to my knowledge, they'll still give those those extra five points.
(49:17)
If you have a disability rating as well as if you've served time in. Combat, you have to have a degree not to be a fireman, don't you? They would like to see that. They like to see an associate's degree or higher or experience equivalent to is what they put.
(49:33)
And honestly, I don't necessarily disagree with it. There is just so much to learn in the fire service. There's a million one ways you can die that you can never learn enough. And at any point in this career, if you feel that you know it all, it's time for you to retire, there's just too much to know.
(49:49)
So having that educational background, having that ability to organize things and to learn and memorize and figure out what type of learner you are, I think is a huge asset if you're able to establish that early in your career.
(50:03)
I have a question. You go into a burning house. Why do firemen always go to the roof and blast a hole in the roof? It's funny you just mentioned that as our executive assistant last week. We just did.
(50:18)
Training the old st Alfonsus in east airborne. They're tearing it down here shortly, and they allowed us to train there. And we got an opportunity to cut some holes in the roof of a flat commercial roof.
(50:31)
So reason we do that is obviously, fire is hot and smoke is toxic. There's millions and millions of different chemicals in there, especially these days with all the plastics and crap that they put in there.
(50:41)
So the vertical ventilation serves a couple of purposes. Number one, if there's anybody still trapped inside the house that's viable. It releases the superheated air as well as the toxic fumes to give them a better chance of survival.
(50:52)
And it also assists the firefighters on the inside who are getting their butts kicked by that heat by releasing the heat and releasing all those fumes that they can work on the fire better and also helps with the visibility.
(51:02)
So you pop the top on it, you release all those things. It also decreases the chances for flashover or backdraft, which are different types of phenomena ons where a flashover is when everything in the room reaches its ignition temperature simultaneously and just goes boof.
(51:19)
And if you don't get out of that room in 3 seconds or less, you're done. Backdraft explosions come from backdraft. So by taking care of those things, those help prevent those. It helps any victims on the inside.
(51:32)
It also helps the firefighting efforts as well. I always wonder because I was like, well, oxygen ignites the fire, so why would they want to do that? So more oxygen goes in there, but I guess it does the exact opposite.
(51:45)
Yeah, I got you. Without getting into a whole fire science class here, fire needs things. It needs oxygen, fuel, and heat, as well as the chemical reaction. There's the fire triangle when I came in that turned into the fire tetrahesion, which they added that chemical chain reaction.
(52:02)
Well, eventually the fire burns down and it's oxygen deprived at that point, as well as fuel deprived, it sucked up all the oxygen. The fuel is burning down. And yes, as you said, you throw oxygen in there, that's when you can have a backdraft.
(52:15)
You have that sudden influx. Oh, my dude, seriously? You sound like Robert De Niro right now in Backdrop. That's one of my favorite movies. Yeah. I got a little problem here. Have you ever had so they always say the you ever had somebody that what do you call it?
(52:33)
Somebody that lights fires on purpose? Arsonist. You ever had an arsonist where he lit a fire and they circled back around to watch you guys put it out? Does that actually happen? It does. I have not witnessed that in my career.
(52:46)
There's been. Plenty of arson fires, but arson is very difficult to prove to begin with. It's one of the hardest things to do, especially when you send a team of firefighters in who are smashing stuff and spraying hose lines all over the place.
(52:57)
A lot of times, it messes with the evidence that the arson investigators need to get their case. So I'm sure it's happened. I've not witnessed it, but that is one thing that we're all taught from the fire academy to start looking for.
(53:11)
If you can if you're not just chomping at the bit to get in the fire, your first fire, and that's all you have is blinders on, and there's the fire. Go get it. But that is one of the things you definitely have to look out for.
(53:23)
Anything suspicious on the outside, anybody suspicious in the crowd. And if you do see that, then they'd like, you either point it out to the cops or point it out to one of your investigators. Or if you're the officer in charge doing any investigation, that ask them if, hey, can I ask you a few questions?
(53:38)
And maybe get some information from them? So it is a real thing. I just haven't witnessed it personally. Yeah. What's your rank in your fire department? I am a newly promoted assistant fire chief in a new position that was created.
(53:54)
Congratulations. Thank you very much. Now, the new position is the assistant fire chief of professional standards and development, which mainly revolves around training, which is right up my alley. So when this opportunity that's awesome.
(54:07)
Thank you. I'm very excited. I feel that even as a line captain that I was prior to this promotion, this honestly gives me a bigger opportunity to make a bigger impact on the entire department as opposed to just my crew.
(54:24)
I now hopefully can help with the training and the professional progression of every member on the department as opposed to just my crew. Do you have a favorite firehouse in Dearborn? Honestly, I have two station, two on Otter Drive, which was my first station.
(54:43)
That's the side of town where I live, and I spent. At one point. Majority of my time at Station Four on Schaefer and the East End as well. I like both those stations. I grew up right down the street from Two.
(54:55)
I grew up at Grinley Park in Oxford. You guys used to blow past my house all the time. Well, Grinley Park is the main thoroughfare for going over there in that particular district. Yeah, it's very cool.
(55:11)
Have you ever had to ever got a call and you rolled up and it's a loved one or somebody you. Know too many times? Damn, that's got to be hard. That's one of the negative sides of living in the city. Growing up in the city where you work, there's pros and there's cons.
(55:32)
And obviously one of the negative sides is exactly what you mentioned. Sometimes it's great when they see you and they know, oh, thank God. Hopefully if it's not that critical of a scene, if it's some kind of I don't want to say minor, but nobody's presently dying might still be an emergency.
(55:51)
That they see somebody they know, makes them feel a little bit more comfortable, helps the family out, helps work through as well as the patient as well, too, if they know you like and I used to work at Oakland Hospital, the Er, as a paramedic for years as well, and also Heritage Hospital in Taylor.
(56:07)
So if I didn't see people I knew at work, I'd see them at the hospital. And there's some positive things about it, but also sometimes negative. Do you have to be an EMT before you're a fireman? Is that a progression?
(56:25)
That's majority of the suburban departments these days, you have to be a paramedic as well. So our entire department is all paramedics. All of our fire rigs are all advanced life support, including the ladder trucks.
(56:37)
They all carry the drug boxes, your monitors. And it's a good thing for the citizens because if all of our ambulances are out. Our fire trucks can respond, they can at least stabilize the people. We have everything we have except the ability to transport, which eventually we will.
(56:50)
So that's a huge plus. Yes, sir. Chaps jeremy, thank you for taking my question. As a paramedic, EMTs or paramedics, which ones get to do the trickier thing? Paramedics. Paramedics. Okay. You talk about dropping the innovative crack thing.
(57:11)
Yeah. Okay. Do you still get to do that? No, limited what they can do, we can also, if necessary, we can do a surgical crike where we actually cut into the throat and drop the tube in there as well. If the airway is compromised or they're jawed, we can't actually put an endotrachial tube through the oral airway.
(57:28)
Yeah, we can cut through the throat and drop the tube in there to. Breathe for them as a lifeguard. I am not allowed to do that. I would hope not. I cannot do that. You might get funny. I mean, I'm a combat lifesaver, but I love working.
(57:44)
I love being a lifeguard. I do. But it's just like they take Code Blues very seriously. And you should. But I've done a Code Blue in combat compared to poolside at where I work, and it's a little different.
(58:05)
I mean, I try to get civilian mentality instead of being overseas and having somebody bleed out in your arms. It's a little bit different. Right? Yeah. You don't have to watch your back either. At the pool, as opposed I don't.
(58:23)
Have to wash my back. It just they get really like if something happens, they get really, really excited. I'm like, slow is smooth, smooth as fast. Just calm down. Everything's going to be okay. There's six people do not have to go for a heart attack, okay?
(58:41)
Just two. Because they left me alone on the deck of the pool by myself with, like, ten people in the pool. And all the other lifeguards went the other way and went to help this guy out who was fine in like, five minutes.
(58:56)
He was walking in, like, ten, but I'm like, they left me alone to cover, like, ten people. I'm like, okay, this is fine. I think I can handle this. They got yelled at, I didn't. When you get a call, how do you know where the hell to go?
(59:18)
Is there GPS in all the trucks? No, that's a good question. Well, we have a computer system called Bricks that came about, boy, how long we had it for maybe ten years. So they put these monitors up, TV monitors, and all the stations in multiple rooms as well.
(59:36)
They have an app on your telephone that when dispatch receives a call, they put it in the system and it pops up and it has the nature of the call. It's got a map and shows you where the map is at. It doesn't show which way to take.
(59:48)
You should still know your streets and numbers. You shouldn't have to always look at your phone. I say, shouldn't. Change. Yeah, they don't know how to read. A map like we used to when. I first got hired.
(01:00:04)
Even the new hires today, they still get the maps and they get hired. But when I first got hired for your first couple of years, that map didn't leave your pocket. It was always you were studying, you were quizzed on streets and numbers and districts and those types of things.
(01:00:16)
Okay, so, yeah, it pops up on the screen and it shows you where the call is at and tells you what the nature of the call is. Off you go. I've lived in Dearborn my entire life, except for the last ten years I've been here in Tennessee, and I would be lost.
(01:00:31)
I still get lost. Well, even. There's those obscure little streets in the city that if you were to ask most people, like locust, or where's locust? That's over in the west end or Bertram in the east end.
(01:00:45)
There's just these little tiny blips on the map, and then the ones that curve and go this way. The east end was easier to remember the streets because they were more of a grid pattern. They didn't necessarily go at angles.
(01:00:59)
But the west end has some that curve and gets a little more difficult with some of those. Dearborn is what, 22, 22 and a half square miles. So it's not a small city. How many people in Dearborn? We finally were over 100,000, I thought.
(01:01:13)
The last census, I thought we reached 109,000. Damn. That came in, which for years, the census only says so much with our population, our Middle Eastern population. We knew for a fact when we would go in the South End that many family members in these houses, multiple families living in these homes, that normally you wouldn't see that the census is not getting all these people.
(01:01:40)
So we knew for years that our population was much, much larger than what the census had said. And finally, it's representing I still think it's under, but the fact that we're over 100,000 brings some perks for the city in regards to grants and those types of things as well, which is fortunate that we can provide better service to all the citizens because of that population size.
(01:02:01)
And when we took over Melbourne as well, that helped us out. Do you have to know how to cook when you're a fireman? I hear firemen are excellent cooks. Hear that. Some are horrible. A lot of ramen, noodles, macaroni and cheese.
(01:02:25)
We don't eat bad. Well, I did the back. We don't necessarily eat healthy. But we very well. We have some excellent cooks on the job, and a lot of recipes have made their ways through the generation that are still oldies but goodies.
(01:02:41)
We'll keep them on the shared drive in our computer. So some of the new guys that don't know how to cook still living in Mom's basement, never cooked anything besides peanut butter and jelly. Here you go, kid.
(01:02:50)
Just follow this recipe. We'll help you out. We'll teach you how to chop an onion. We'll teach you how to chop it without cutting your finger off, how to chop a tomato. Keep all your fingers back. Don't teaching them that a sharper knife is actually safer provided you use it properly.
(01:03:11)
How many times have you guys wasted food because you're in the middle of cooking and the bell goes off and you have to split? Well, you try to shut everything down before you go, but ultimately, depending on what you're cooking, if you stop in the middle of the meal, there's no saving it.
(01:03:25)
So at that point, it's saying, let's go get a pizza. Do you guys have an average of how many times you have to go to a scene? Like, have you guys gone down to every five minutes, every seven minutes, every 15, whatever?
(01:03:41)
On average, I believe the city averages about 25 to 30 runs a day between the five stations compared to other larger cities where they're running 40 calls out of a station. But we run just about 17,000 calls a year in Dearborn, and when I started, we were just below 10,000.
(01:04:01)
So that goes to show you how much they've increased in 21 years. Does the city pay for your guys'food, or does everybody chip in when you show up for your shift? We get a food allowance dollars as part of our paychecks.
(01:04:13)
And what we do, depending on what station we're at and how many people are at that station, we have what's called a board bill that will pay into it based on the number of firefighters that have at the station.
(01:04:22)
So I believe my last station was 50 or $60. Everybody puts that in and each payday you use all that money. You buy your food, you see how much money you have left. At the end of the payday, you divide it by how many meals everybody ate, and that's what you just pay, and it rotates the money back.
(01:04:39)
Every payday. You just keep putting the money in based on how many meals and how many days you ate and rotate it. How many firefighters per station. It just depends on which station. So our headquarters your favorite two and four, right?
(01:04:56)
Station two is the largest is the largest station. They have two engine companies, a truck company, and an ambulance there. And station four had a truck company, an engine company, and a rescue company.
(01:05:07)
But depending on the manpower for that day, station four can now have two ambulances in service, depending just depending on how many people are on shift. Is it like the marine corps, like a platoon?
(01:05:21)
A platoon is like a truck company or is it like no, not really. For our department, nothing riverly. We can compare to that. So some of the larger cities, like Detroit, they have Italians, certain areas that are more comparable to the military.
(01:05:40)
But for us, we have three shifts shift one, two, and three. Some will do ABC. And our rotation of how our shifts are, we work it averages out to be a 56 hours work week. So we'll work 24 on, 24 off, 24 on, 24 off, 24 on, four off.
(01:05:58)
Whoa, just the schedule. That's a lot. Yeah. The beds comfy, I hope they are. No, we're due for some new th. That'S in the works. We're definitely due for some new do you guys have to go by, like, the HIPAA loss?
(01:06:16)
I'm assuming you do, but are you allowed to go home and talk to your spouse about what happened? If you wish. I mean. Who's going to listen to you if you talk to the general public is where the HIPAA laws generally come in.
(01:06:32)
But bless you. Bless you. Bless you. Number one, if you have this kind of goes along the lines with the mental health thing, just depending on the type of relationship you have with your spouse, and it's kind of a double edged sword.
(01:06:47)
You want them to know you had a rough night, but you don't want them to know. You don't want them to worry, but you want them to know again why you're in a crappy mood, you're tired, you're dragging ass.
(01:07:02)
I've been fairly open with my wife my entire career, which has helped in regards to dealing with the mental health issues and her having a better understanding about what we go through and why I'm moody or why I fly off the handle sometimes, not using it as an excuse.
(01:07:20)
But these are the things that definitely contribute to those negative behaviors. Right. How long have you been married? We are coming up on 14 years. Wow. Again, congratulations. Yes, thank you. Thank you.
(01:07:35)
And two wonderful boys. Two sons, brent and Bryce. My oldest is in fifth grade, and my youngest is in third grade. Fifth grade? Is that middle school? Yeah. Well, they go to a private school. They go to Devon Child Elementary School.
(01:07:50)
They were smart enough to get in. Again, there's no entry test for kindergarten. Okay. Hopefully they're smarter than me. That's every father's wish is their kids turn out better than yeah. As a matter of fact, while I'm on here, I want to congratulate my son Brent.
(01:08:13)
He had a lacrosse game tonight. It's his second year playing, and he scored his first and second goal ever in the game tonight. Very ecstatic. Definitely proud dad moment. I'm helping. I know very little about lacrosse.
(01:08:24)
They needed help. Dude, great sport. It's a northern sport because we don't northeast that much down here. Yeah, for sure. It was big in my high school. I was a rower. I was never a lacrosse guy. I tried and I just sucked at it, so I couldn't do the cradling thing.
(01:08:42)
Yeah, I was terrible. They didn't even have it when I was there. So when my son said he wanted to play, I went, no case. It's a physical sport. Midi. D back goalie. He's an attack this year. Last year he was attacked.
(01:08:57)
Yes. I knew from the beginning, people said, do not let him be a goalie. You don't want to be a goalie in the cross. They don't have pads like in hockey. You get hit and the shin and the arms and everywhere else.
(01:09:08)
That ball going 100 miles an hour. It's going to let you know you're awake. What kind of lacrosse stick does he have? Brine does he have? I couldn't tell you. Okay, good to go. It's orange. Sorry. Combat chefs trying to get technical.
(01:09:28)
What? Come on, man. I tried every single sport in school and the only thing I was good at was hockey and rowing. And that's it. I was terrible. That's an interesting combination. Yeah. I actually just went to see my college last weekend in Oak Ridge.
(01:09:47)
Tennessee. Rogans, Virginia. Virginia Tech. Baylor University of Texas. University of Tennessee. Georgia. How did they do? We made all the teams a men's varsity four men's varsity, eight. And the men's and women's pair, they all made the grand slam.
(01:10:07)
But the girls won in the pair. They won the whole thing. The boys, the four got fifth and the eight didn't even place. So they need to work on their rowing. Not like us, because I rode that race in 96 and 97, and we crushed it.
(01:10:27)
We were Southern Conference champions back then. Sorry, I'm tooting my own horn right now. Yeah, somebody's got to, because Fleek definitely will not. That's cool. He likes to make fun of Tom Tavern and call it a I can't even say it.
(01:10:49)
Can't even utter those words. I mean, it was a freemason lodge before the Marines got there. Have you ever been there, Chaps? I've been to the Twin Tavern at the museum, but I've never been to the actual you mean the sign where it used to be?
(01:11:10)
No, I've never been. I need to go. Have you been? Have not, no. Where is it at? Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. So the building is no longer there? No, but if you go to the museum in Triangle, Virginia, on the second floor, there is a Ton Tavern, which we were there before we went to Cax, and we drank all of the beer at Tun Tavern, and we caused a fight.
(01:11:42)
And so our commanding officer, Reggie McClam, who is now the commanding officer at TBS, he had to be like, okay, get back on the bus. We're going back to AP Hill. Like damn it. Marines can't have anything nice.
(01:11:59)
It always got to break. Shit. We do. You know what? I still do it from time to time here at my home. We can't have nice things at my house. Yeah. Chaps, do you ever do any work with the British Royal Marines?
(01:12:17)
No. No, I've seen them, but I never actually got to work with them. It's actually funny. I'm marrying a British royal Commando on Friday who I met through a very good program called Save a Warrior, who you did your group work, which worked for PTSD.
(01:12:40)
I did save a Warrior, which is up in Hillsborough, Ohio. It's like a 72 hours warrior detox, the same stuff that you went through for first responders, Leos EMTs and veterans. And we get it's basically a group meeting, just like what you went through, but for 72 hours.
(01:13:02)
And that's where I met him. And we were actually supposed to have him on the podcast, but he lives in England, and it's like eight hour time difference, and so we can never talk. But have you worked with the Royal Marines?
(01:13:16)
I just recall when we were out in 29 Palms, that when they came in to do some cross training with us, that our CEO told us that we weren't allowed to hang out with. Them because they are allowed to drink.
(01:13:30)
I mean, they could drink on training exercise, like with a mortar system or a 50 cow, and they're having, like, a pint. I'm like what? I've heard stories like that. I'm like, no way, no way. And you always knew when they were in town because you go to the base pool and all of a sudden we got a bunch of guys running around in speedos like, oh, the Brits are here.
(01:13:52)
I heard that rumor, too. Would you get out? As in the Marine Corps? Sergeant. Sergeant. You did? Damn it. Damn, if I hadn't gotten the NJP, I would have been a sergeant, too. Damn it. Well, I guess you were a real Marine then, because I didn't have an NJP, right?
(01:14:09)
Isn't that what Chesty said? Take me to the see my real Marines. Yeah, but they probably did that at home. I got my NJP in Iraq for drinking in Iraq. I had everyone from the battalion commander all the way down to the most senior lance corporal yell and scream at me of how much of a dumb ass I was.
(01:14:34)
I was a dumb mess. It happens. You live and learn, Sergeant. Had a fucking field day with me. Oh, my God. Sergeant Guzman, wherever you are. Thank you. Sorry. He's in Tampa. He's probably watching this right now or he will watch this on Thursday.
(01:14:54)
When it comes out, I'll send it to him especially. Good deal. I was just going to push my cookbook. I'm writing a cookbook right now, and all the proceeds are going to go right into the fund to help us buy tickets.
(01:15:11)
So if you got any cool firemen recipes that you want to send our way, yeah, send those leak. We'll give you the shout out in the book for sure. Five alarm chili, right? Isn't that a thing? Oh, damn, that sounds delicious.
(01:15:32)
Not my expert. Probably my chicken marsala is probably the my top one. Oh, hell yeah. Chicken. That sounds good. That sounds awesome. That sounds really good. Sorry. I'm hungry. Yeah, I'm really hungry right now, man.
(01:15:49)
Yes. So actually going to hopefully wrap it up that book here shortly, but I'm going to start on another one right after that. I can't believe you're doing that. Combat Chef. His brother was a chef and he died at early age.
(01:16:08)
Cancer. Died? Colon cancer. Yeah. So we're going to do a cookbook for his brother in honor of his brother. Dude, my mom is going to like dude, she's going to cry. Well, don't tell her about it until it gets printed.
(01:16:22)
I could say whatever I want because she doesn't do any of this stuff. Because she's a Dem and she loves Nancy Pelosi and she loves Chuck what's his name. I don't even care. We don't talk politics on the show.
(01:16:35)
Yeah, but she was going to love it, even though she is a Democrat. Sorry, no offense. Democrats. Hey, I was one back in the day, and then I got smart. Oh, we're going to get a lot of shit for that one.
(01:16:52)
I am. Nice going, buddy. Yeah, it's okay. We don't want to alienate half our audience, man. Half? Dude, come on. We got never mind. That's true. We're not going to go there. I just try to stay away from politics.
(01:17:09)
In the beginning, you didn't. In the beginning, I did. Well, sometimes I get pissed and I run my suck. I remember some of our first episodes. You were heated, man, and you yelled at me. I didn't. It wasn't me.
(01:17:25)
Was that before or after the exit of Afghanistan? That one fired us up a little bit. Yeah, well, it didn't fire me up. It fired my boss up. And then I had to tell you, and I hated telling you. Yeah, but I won't mention his name.
(01:17:43)
He knows who he is. Sitting on his palace of gold up there in I can't even say the state because it'll give it away. Talking in riddles again. Bravo, whiskey, I speak Marine. Blah, blah, blah. All right, so before we sign off, Jeremy, is there any parting words?
(01:18:12)
Got anything going on that you want the world to know about? No. I greatly appreciate you having me on the show here. I think more than anything, if you would have told me 20 years ago that I'd be on a podcast talking about mental health or on a Pod podcast, there I go with the Boston Again podcast alone.
(01:18:38)
But no, as far as the mental health goes in regards to first responders, military, you're human. We're not supposed to see these things, and stuff happens. Don't try to blow it off. Don't try to avoid it.
(01:18:59)
Once you've experienced those things, it's with you for the rest of your life. You have to learn how to deal with them one way or another, for your welfare as well as your loved ones around you. And it takes work.
(01:19:09)
It's without a doubt, just like anything in life, anything that's worth getting is going to take sacrifice and effort, and your mental health is no different. You have to put the time in. You have to research, you have to work at it.
(01:19:22)
And it's difficult, but it can be accomplished. And you are not alone, gentlemen like yourself, there's other organizations. Reach out. There's plenty of people. Don't sit alone and suffer. We like to say that although first responders and military, the PTSD is different battles but the same wounds.
(01:19:47)
It and we can relate with that, how it affects our lives. So reach out to your brothers, your sisters. The peer support is absolutely phenomenal. People talk the same language. They've been there, they've done that, they understand.
(01:19:59)
Reach out to those people, and we'll continue to fight. This isn't over with. This is. Till the day that I die, and I'm sure you gentlemen as well. We're going to keep helping our brothers and sisters.
(01:20:11)
Yeah, 100%. That's what we're here for. If you're listening and you're struggling, reach out to us. Pick up the phone. Pick up the phone. Call us. Definitely. Our numbers are out there. If you need anything, you call us.
(01:20:27)
Shoot an email, jump on our social media. If you don't have our numbers, just call us. 22 veterans, they say every day, but that number is more like 44 veterans killing themselves every day. And it has to stop.
(01:20:44)
If 44 dolphins were beaching themselves every single day, I'm pretty sure the Department of Natural Resources would step in and do something about it. But it is what it is. We're here for our brothers and sisters.
(01:20:59)
If you guys need anything, definitely reach out. And dearborn fire Department, I just want you to know that we got your back. And if you guys want to go to a Detroit Lions game this year, let us know, and we'll put your name in the hat.
(01:21:14)
We only have two seats per Sunday, but this will start. Hopefully one day we'll have more. We're going to grow. Hopefully. My main goal is to send somebody to a Super Bowl or a World Series game or something big like that.
(01:21:29)
I think that would be awesome. That's a big, lofty goal. And I think with the help of Single Tree Barbecue and the fundraisers that we can do, I think we could definitely do that. Yeah, I think we can too.
(01:21:41)
So once the word gets out and people see what we're doing, I think it'll I think it'll happen. How can you not support that? How can you not? I hear you. Thank you. Thanks for jumping on thank you for your service to not only our beautiful country, but my beautiful city of Dearborn, Michigan.
(01:22:03)
Bye. Thank you. My pleasure. And thank you for having me, guys. Simplify. Next time I'm in, dearborn. I'll definitely look you up. Might be down in Tennessee. My best buddy lives in Franklin, so we might be heading back.
(01:22:14)
30 minutes away. It's just right over there. It's not far from us. We talk about moving down there eventually too, sometime. So get out of here. The only thing I'll tell you about moving down here is first thing you do is buy a storm shelter.
(01:22:32)
These spring storms, man, they scare the crap out of me still. And I've been down here for ten years. It seems every year they just get stronger and stronger. I hate them. Sometimes I'd rather deal with winter, but then my wife's like, no, we're not going back.
(01:22:48)
I miss the snow, man. I miss it. You can have it 80 degrees the other day. Then it's heat, air conditioning. Heat, air conditioning. No, this is terrible. Hey, wait till you get to Tennessee. We have, like, nine different seasons.
(01:23:04)
Okay? Cold, hot, cold, hot, cold, hot. Shitty cold, hot. I mean, come on. We don't know what's going on. It's definitely better than Michigan. It's a crapshoot here. The winters here are awesome. The summers are like Satan's anus.
(01:23:20)
It is it's pretty fucking that's unique. It's like 29 palms humidous shit here. But hey, I like Tennessee. It's it's a nice place to live. I'll take the sunshine. It was 80 today, man. It was beautiful.
(01:23:41)
All right, we're going to sign off. Ah, stick around for a second. When I hit end record there, Jeremy, I just want to make sure everything gets uploaded correctly. Thanks for tuning in. See you guys next week.
(01:23:54)
Thanks for your support.
