Spur some Military thought...

[cgerdes97]

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[Tiredoldman]

Who cares what they think. I've done things as a GS & military firefighter that they guys I work with would never even think of doing. As far as more fires? Not always. Depends on your base. Some are huge and stay very active but remember - as a military firefighter, our job is prevention.

If MY civilian department would put forth the prevention effort that the military did, we wouldn't have that many fires here either. I never worried about equipment or training when I was military. With my current department, not so. Budgets are TIGHT so, no, "just keep driving your 25 y/o pumper and we'll patch it up as needed".

A few years ago, I went overseas for fire protection of some military assets in a nasty place. Another firefighting (reserve) unit was going along and had some members who were firefighters in a LARGE east coast city. Everyone was oooing and aaaahing about the "real" firefighters. After a few beers, they told me that yeah, they may see more fires as a department, but if they were off duty they never knew it happened until they returned to work. One guy said he was placed in a slower section of town and hasn't seen a fire in 2 years. So you see, it's all relative.

Besides, YOU did something they didn't. YOU signed the paperwork and put on a different uniform and put yourself in harms way as a member of the military. Good for you.

[dodffgood]

Here is what I have found to be true. They will give you respect for being in the military but they dont think the firefighting is the same. Look at it from their perspective. Lets say your in the airforce. Right off the bat they think airport firefighting. Regular city departments send their "special people" to airports because the airports never get any action. General Arff for civilians is a joke.(atleast around where I live I cant speak for everyone I am sure that the major airports are very well trained and have elite firefighters so no one get mad about what I just said.) Any department near me that has a truck designated to Arff is some old P.O.S. The reason for this is plain and simple it is not their priority. They dont have regular air traffic. Another Thing is that some departments look at training to be a joke. You and I both know this is not true. The reason they think that probably is because THEIR training is a JOKE and they think no one has better training. What I find to be true though is after you talk to them a while and show these locals that you know your stuff they will feel that you are "one of the guys." One thing that I notice where I live is that military firefighters are alot more motivated and alot more team oriented. This is just my perspective of where I live. I am interested to hear others view on this topic.

[cgerdes97]

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[Spectre08]

You say Ramstein AFB is going to be adding another house....you think there will be openings there, say around next spring? :-D

see sig

[cgerdes97]

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[cgerdes97]

Well, it all depends on manning. We are alloted a certain amount of military (the number is determined by the Air Force Personnell Center at Randolph AFB, TX). If we have people deployed in support of OIF or OEF they might not approve leave. Again, it all depends. I can't tell when and where troops leave but I can say that we have at least 2 deployments a year. Like I said put it on your sheet when you finish basic training and see where they send you. Like dodffgood said about military firefighters, is that they are far more motivated. I find this to be very true.

[Fowlplay]

Knoxville Fire Dept is full of Military ,,,,,,, Most (80%) of the men that I am enlisted with, in the Air Guard have a job with the local Fire Depts. From what I can tell, the City of Knoxville loves the Military Members.

[DennisTheMenace]

Never looked down on mutual aid provided by military members, and we have Federal Fire Figthers, Military Fire Fighters, Career and Volunteers around here, everyone works together, and minimal stuff ends up on the wrong apparatus at the end of a call(unintentionally of course! )

[Nail200]

We may see it as a little different but that doesn't justify any negative treatment.

There are all sorts of fire fighters from different backgrounds with diffrent levels and types of experiences. We're all brothers and should treat each other as such.

There are a hell of a lot of fire fighters who are prior service.

Best of luck to you

I was in Germany 85-87, had a great time!

[Plattsfire2]

Never looked down on mutual aid provided by military members, and we have Federal Fire Figthers, Military Fire Fighters, Career and Volunteers around here, everyone works together, and minimal stuff ends up on the wrong apparatus at the end of a call(unintentionally of course! )

I'll have to echo Dennis' quote. We are just south of Offutt AFB, I served there myself for awhile. (not too long ago). Anyway, during a major event, especially a field fire, we'll call Offutt. The nice thing about the young military guys is not the equipment or training, but the sheer excitement they have for fighting fire. At least here, when we call Offutt, we know they'll happily work their a**es off.

[Bertmann]

I am already in the USAF I am a crew chief it is an awesome job, but i was a volunteer for about 6 years before i came in and just took some leave and went home and ran with my old station. I was wondering if I could get some advice from the military FF's? Its coming time for me to be able to cross train, i was wondering if it would be worth my while to do that or just get out and become a paid FF in a city some place. All advice would help. Thanks

[cgerdes97]

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[Bertmann]

Well as of right now i have no experience as an AF FF just crewing F15's. But I am going to try to cross train in to fire fighting. I was just wondering if it would be worth it to stay in and get the military training as a FF or get out and try it. I was reading some of the other forums last night and seen what certs like FF1 and 2 hazmat ops ect. It will deffinatly benifit me to get the military experience. Thanks for the help.

[lilyogi]

I work on a military base as a GS FF/Paramedic. I have been there for over a year now and love it. We work really close with the neighboring city departments, in fact we are automatic response for any structure fires in one of the citys. We train with these departments pretty regular, the respect us because we do train more and have extra training that they may not have. This has not always been the case, I am told it all changed about 3-4 years ago. Before that our dept hardly ever did anything with the city depts.

Lilyogi

[DennisTheMenace]

Well as of right now i have no experience as an AF FF just crewing F15's. But I am going to try to cross train in to fire fighting. I was just wondering if it would be worth it to stay in and get the military training as a FF or get out and try it. I was reading some of the other forums last night and seen what certs like FF1 and 2 hazmat ops ect. It will deffinatly benifit me to get the military experience. Thanks for the help.

Do you love the military life or not? You have to answer that one before you move on to any other ones.

[bmorris828]

I was a rifleman in the Marine Corps now I work full time in the fire service (civilian municipal). If I had it to do over I give anything to be back in the Corps fighting fire. I know hind sights 20/20 but if I could do it over I would have done crash rescue. So as a ex marine and a civilian firefighter I dont just respect you guys I envy you.

[scluff141]

I was a rifleman in the Marine Corps now I work full time in the fire service (civilian municipal). If I had it to do over I give anything to be back in the Corps fighting fire. I know hind sights 20/20 but if I could do it over I would have done crash rescue. So as a ex marine and a civilian firefighter I dont just respect you guys I envy you.

Ex-Marine, that doesn't sound good. It's former Marine, Thank You.

[firegirlsfd]

I am a firefighter and EMR on a volunteer rural fire dept. and I have nothing but respect for military ff. Then again, I have great respect for all ff. We are all trained to help people when they are having a bad day. Why should it matter where you were trained or where your dept. is? It shouldn't.

Tina