Gary Bowker is an honorably retired U.S. Air Force Master Sergeant and served as a fire chief at numerous U.S. Air Force bases around the world. He also served as fire chief with the Sumner County, KS, Fire District #10. Bowker is a retired fire marshal and safety officer with the city of Winfield, KS, who has more than 49 years of fire service experience. He has taught numerous courses at/for the National Fire Academy, U.S. Department of Defense, Kansas Fire & Rescue Training Institute and Metro Atlanta Fire Fighters Conference as well as in conjunction with his own nine-part firefighter training series. Bowker has served as a Kansas Advocate with the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation’s Everyone Goes Home program. He wrote numerous articles on firefighter life safety and health issues that were published in various fire service trade magazines. Bowker is nationally certified as a Fire Officer II, Instructor II, Inspector II, and Certified Fire and Explosion Investigator and holds a bachelor’s degree in fire science administration. He currently serves a chaplain with the Arkansas City, KS, Fire-EMS Department.