When Task Force 8 Commander Daniel Jodoin of Marion County Fire Rescue and his crew departed Ocala around midnight on Wednesday of last week, he was a lieutenant.
Upon returning Thursday afternoon at MCFR headquarters, Jodoin was promoted to captain.
"It's a new journey in my career," Jodoin said. He wasn't the only one promoted: Chris Doyle was made driver/engineer, and Frank York advanced to lieutenant.
Jodoin and his team's journey over the previous week had been difficult.
On their long, winding road to the hurricane-ravaged Florida Panhandle, the group — consisting of Ocala, Marion County and Gainesville firefighters — first stopped in Perry, where they a met a National Guard Unit. From there, it was on to Port St. Joe to begin their mission.
Getting to Port St. Joe was difficult, and the team had to have a path cleared for them by military officials from Camp Blanding.
They arrived in Port St. Joe at 2 p.m. Thursday, Jodoin said. The area had downed trees, roof damage and debris littered everywhere.
In Port St. Joe, the team did wide-area searches.
On Monday, team members did an air-deployable search and rescue mission at Cape San Blas. Since Cape San Blas is not accessible by roads, they were transported by CH-47 Chinook helicopters.
On Tuesday, the team traveled to heavily damaged Mexico Beach, where they met another task force and, for the next couple of days, searched through the rubble, looking for any signs of life. Instead, the team found body parts.
During the mission, Jodoin said, they searched 6,248 houses.
Then on Thursday, they packed up and headed home.
Back in Ocala, Mary Cooper, and Crystal Ingram and her two children, ages 9 and 7, waited with others to welcome them back.
"We're ready for them to be home. Their families miss them as much as they miss their families," said Cooper, whose husband is MCFR Lt. David Cooper.
Ingram said her husband, MCFR driver/operator Jonathan Ingram, told her about the devastation he saw. When the caravan pulled up to the curb, she and her children were overjoyed.
Contact Austin L. Miller at 867-4118, [email protected] or @almillerosb.
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