Cloudy With a Chantz of Boogers

We catch up with Chantz McPeek and Terry Wattenbargar on a life spent in dispatch, fire service, and statewide training, then we get brutally honest about what happens when a tornado tears through your own community. We talk about leadership, burnout, dark humor, and the kind of brotherhood that keeps you moving even after you lose one of your own.

Transcript

Stage Nerves And Audio Chaos

SPEAKER_07 0:33

I get up there and I'm like today, today, today. I was like and it started squaling and I was like, oh my gosh, I I I wanted to run off stage. I was like, oh my gosh, I'm an idiot. And I got into it and it never did. They never did fix that. And I was trying to back away, trying to figure out what what the best It throws you off. Oh, it did. And I was like, what was I talking about? And then my ADHD, I was like, and Nathan Stewart was like, You got off track. Just you start chasing that rabbit just a little bit. I said, He said, but you reeled it back in. I only went a bit to go like five minutes. I think I went like 20. I was like, my bad.

SPEAKER_02 1:11

I always hated hearing myself like on the radio last like after like afterwards and recording. I was like, Yeah, I sound like crap.

SPEAKER_07 1:18

I listened to our podcast back, but I'm like, God, I'm I'm I'm such a hick. And uh maybe there's a lot of things I'm sure he's got to turn it on, but I'm like, my goodness, I'm I'm an absolute idiot.

SPEAKER_02 1:32

Oh well that's he started making fun of me when I started dating Ashley. She lives in northern, well, she lives in Longwood County. Oh, she's from the rich county. She's from the rich county.

SPEAKER_08 1:43

So he decided to change his language for that.

SPEAKER_02 1:44

I would go up there and stay with her for like a week or something and come back, and I would come back and I'd be like, I'd say, five instead of five, you know. And he's like, why are you talking like that?

SPEAKER_08 1:54

What's wrong with you?

SPEAKER_02 1:54

You're educated. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:56

I would go back after her, and she'd be like, What? What are you why are you saying like that? Where's my friend?

SPEAKER_08 2:03

I know what bells of hay are.

SPEAKER_07 2:07

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_05 2:08

So it's funny.

SPEAKER_07 2:09

You ready?

Back After A Long Break

SPEAKER_05 2:09

I'm ready. All right. Welcome back, guys. It's finally a little while. Yeah. We're sorry. We're rusty. It's life gets in the way. I'm working nights. Travis is pretending he's working. Yeah, I'm driving every day. So yeah, night shift's fun, but it uh it kicks the wind out of pretty much anything else you're wanting to do.

SPEAKER_07 2:32

I don't think we've done one since who was our last?

SPEAKER_05 2:36

It's been a long time. I can't even remember what our last one was.

SPEAKER_08 2:40

Are we the first of 26?

SPEAKER_00 2:41

Yes, you are the first of 26. So there you go. Yes.

SPEAKER_07 2:45

Starting back, starting back with two legends here.

SPEAKER_00 2:48

What about legends?

SPEAKER_07 2:50

Depends on the audience.

SPEAKER_02 2:53

More notorious than Chance.

SPEAKER_07 2:57

Oh my gosh. We've got we've got chance uh McPeakin here, and and I've known you since forever. I mean, I remember you running around on when I was living on uh on um Clark Street or uh Morgan Street there, and you just run around across the road over there hanging out with Hoghead's house. And then just from that, and now you're you're becoming an old man. I'll be 50 in like a couple weeks.

SPEAKER_02 3:30

We were talking about that earlier about you said time flies once you start having kids. It's a blink, yeah. You know, it's all downhill from there.

SPEAKER_07 3:38

And also we have one of the one of my maybe the greatest dispatcher I've ever ever ever known.

SPEAKER_02 3:46

I don't know about that.

SPEAKER_07 3:48

And fire chief now?

SPEAKER_02 3:51

I'm deputy chief now. I was fire chief for eight years. Yeah. Did you demote yourself? I demoted myself when I retired from dispatch. I was like, I'm done for a minute. I I just need a break and wanted to walk away.

SPEAKER_08 4:01

He's still knee-deep in.

SPEAKER_02 4:02

So but within six months, I was back. So it's it's kind of like the mob, you know, you think you're out, but before you live, it's hard to stay out.

SPEAKER_05 4:10

It is.

SPEAKER_07 4:11

We got Terry Light Burger with us. So you'll hear us refer to him as Boog Booger at times because there's nothing like his love, and it was some Booger love on it. And we've worked together, well, my whole career up till I retired, I guess. Or both we we uh what year did you retire from I retired in 2023. So April 23, but I was retired a little earlier.

SPEAKER_02 4:36

Yeah, you were chief when I think you were chief or just got ready to be chief when I retired. Golly. So that was 22 then. Yeah, 22. August 1, 2022 was my first day of retirement.

SPEAKER_07 4:47

And I started that job in July of 22. So we had a month like that of sitting on the board anyway together.

SPEAKER_08 4:55

So when did you go to the PD, Travis?

SPEAKER_07 4:58

I went to the police department in 2002. I started I started So I'd been there nine years. Huh?

SPEAKER_02 5:08

I started in 1992. Oh my god. Good Lord. That was my first buddy. I didn't even start the fire department though. How Halloween Halloween night of uh 1992 was my first night I stepped into dispatch.

SPEAKER_05 5:23

So how many years from from dispatch to fire to how many years of service?

Life In Dispatch Fire And EMS

SPEAKER_02 5:28

Four years in July of this year will be 40 years. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 5:35

You chance you've you've done everything too. So that's uh let's hear all your path.

SPEAKER_08 5:41

So I it's it's a funny story. When I was in middle school uh right after 9-11, uh one of the gentlemen that I was I was actually on the student council, he came in and had a fire department jacket, and I said, Man, that's pretty cool. How how do you get involved in that? I'd like to do something like that. And uh his dad was actually on the fire department, and that's when I got involved uh with Mike Walker. It was Wes Walker. I got involved with Mike and and Hoghead at the time and started running around. That was in uh oh two.

unknown 6:13

Yes.

SPEAKER_08 6:13

And I started running around and chasing fire trucks, as I call it.

SPEAKER_07 6:16

How old were you then?

SPEAKER_08 6:18

Lord, I don't know. What was I? Uh but at the time they actually didn't have like a junior fire program. Now Terry and I both work for the Kentucky Fire Commission, and there actually is a a junior fire program that has been implemented through the state, but back then there was not. Um so we basically just called ourselves junior firemen. They let us run calls and we rode in the fire trucks and helped uh I mean, if it was rolling hose or sweeping the bay, anything we were allowed to do besides going into fires, you know, we we were there and and we done it. And man, I I really enjoyed that. And then the cadet program got fired back up with EMS in 2002, and I went and joined forces there and began doing some uh EMS ride-alongs and getting some training there, and then I became an A an EMT in 06 and then obviously become when I I was 18 at that point and became a uh certified firefighter through the state of Kentucky as a volunteer, and I was at the county for a long time. I grew up there and then uh went away for a while. Um went to the city and the rescue squad right after I began with the fire commission from 2012 to 2020, and then back at the county on the board in 2017, Terry was the fire chief, and he can go into all the details on the timelines of that. But we've uh we've been together a long time and like he said it's he's raised you.

SPEAKER_03 7:48

He's raised him right back in, you know.

SPEAKER_08 7:51

That's uh I told somebody, I said, you know, I I don't feel like I know a lot, but this is all I know.

SPEAKER_07 7:57

I enjoy it. That's a b you know this is my 24th year in policing. I'm still still out, you know, working as a SRO, but still, though, anytime you gotta wear a gun in the in a you know it's a yeah, I just don't change tail eyes, but you still got the responsibility and the worry and the stress and things like that. But I I was asking my wife, I was like, I I'm afraid this is I'm a one-trick pony now.

SPEAKER_05 8:27

So I don't know how well we've said it before. I mean, as as in this type of work, you're not really qualified for anything, but you're overqualified for most. So it's that's that's a valid way of looking at it.

SPEAKER_07 8:40

I don't know how to translate what I've done into a uh civilian side at some times. I know if I could figure that out, they'd probably hear like, hey, you're you're well qualified. I just don't know how it relates to it.

SPEAKER_02 8:52

I was really lucky when I retired. I stayed out for about a year and I retired knowing that I was going back to work. I mean, I was 52, yeah, you know, I wasn't gonna stay unemployed and just draw a check. And luckily the fire commission came along and they had an opening in the Somerset, and the District 14 coordinator was leaving, and I'm like, you know, I watched Chance do that job. I could probably do that.

SPEAKER_04 9:18

I mean, come on. You know, all he does is talk on the phone and drive around.

SPEAKER_02 9:23

Yeah, that's a little little did I know. Little I say little did I know. I thought I knew a little bit about it, and it's it's a tougher job, but I like it. It's it's something that I like and I enjoy, and it's a it's a good retirement.

SPEAKER_07 9:35

It's not it's not like that far off of like you know fire, you know the emergency service side, so it's not that big of a maybe some of the contacts and the different reporting stuff might be different, but still you you well vast in the when our station was on TLC Lane there off of 4th Street, um the District 13 office, which is what I do now as the coordinator, the office was actually in the fire station.

SPEAKER_08 10:04

And um Mark Rutter, who was the coordinator, uh he's now the actual state fire training director for the whole state. So he's he's our boss. His office was in the fire department. So Terry and I being at the fire department and and all the guys there, we we began a friendship with Mark and that lasted well, we're still good friends. But um at that point we started seeing, you know, actually what state fire rescue training um was about and how that worked. And us being there all the time, we're like, hey, give us a job. And uh I don't know that he did the first time, but one of the times after we had to bore it down, right? So he uh he hired us to start teaching.

SPEAKER_06 10:50

The only way to get rid of these guys is hire them, and then maybe we can get rid of them a different way.

SPEAKER_03 10:56

You don't have to tell him what to do for real.

Inside The Kentucky Fire Commission

SPEAKER_08 10:59

But he he gave us a shot um to teach, and uh we were Terry had been in the fire service and took a little break, and I was still pretty new in the fire service as a a young officer, and he had we we were teaching a lot as it was, and then next thing you know, we started teaching for state fire rescue, and uh that relationship, like I said, it just carried on, but we we really enjoyed it. And now, you know, as things happen, you never really what what's old saying life is what happens when you're busy making plans.

SPEAKER_07 11:28

I don't know that that was ever really the plan, but uh I'm thankful for how it's turned out because I we both are, you know, we're s neighbors now in our districts and so you uh explain how that this what you all do, the fire commission, how that works, because I'm not like y'all just provide the training and and resources.

SPEAKER_02 11:51

Is that what we basically provide training to all like my district is district 14, so I cover 56 fire departments in 12 counties, and it's like Pulaski and and farther west.

SPEAKER_08 12:04

Uh chance covers I got nine counties and sixty-one departments.

SPEAKER_02 12:08

So but each of those departments received 21 hours of training free of charge from state fire rescue training. And we are the coordinators over those districts, so we coordinate scheduling those classes and getting that training to them using adjunct, what we call adjunct instructors, which is where we started. And then we provide that to them through that and schedule training on their nights that they they like to have the training on. Some of them have it on Monday, some of them have it on Tuesday.

SPEAKER_07 12:36

So let's talk about the 300 and 400 on a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

SPEAKER_02 12:46

I just came one in Mount Sterling two weeks ago. You should have came. If you need it again, you can come see me because if if you took it before 2019, now you gotta take it again. Oh no.

SPEAKER_08 12:57

Yeah, it's uh it's a lot. And the the fire commission as a whole, basically we oversee training and compliance and assist fire departments throughout the state. State fire rescue training, uh, you know, the division we're with, we basically focus on training the fire departments. You get in bigger municipalities and you know, even like London and Corbin, they may have quite a few folks that are instructors that they don't need a class on a Tuesday night once a month. But a lot of your volunteer departments, that's what they need to help maintain certification with their members. So they they rely on us a little more than others. And um but we do a lot of different things as far as training. You know, it may be ladder's class, like you mentioned Baldrock on a Monday night, but let's say a city fire department, they may need a rope rescue technician class. So we do a lot of different things, but it uh it's brought us a lot of opportunities. Terry and I both traveled around um not just in Kentucky but in different states um helping with looking at programs and state training programs and assisting them and trying to make them better, and then they they come and do the same for us. So it's uh it's been again, it's one of them things that I never really had that in my view, you know, growing up, what I want to be, but man, it's uh it's been a really enjoyful experience.

SPEAKER_05 14:15

So with FIRE, with training that way, we to keep our certifications in law enforcement, we have to have 40 hours a year, like event service. Is it similar with fire or is it more? It's 20. It's just 20, that's all you have to have for.

SPEAKER_02 14:29

For a basic volunteer firefighter, it's 20 hours a year to keep your basic one certification. That's basic one that is required. It's 115 hours of training. They become basic one certified. Then from there on out, every year they have to have 20 hours of training to keep that certification active.

SPEAKER_08 14:48

But a career firefighter that has to work, you know, full time, they'd have to get 100 hours of training annually. Uh but they don't have to go all the way to the academy. Right. Uh they can do that in-house as long as they're getting those 100 hours of training each year. So it's kind of like ride time and things like that that you had to pick up as an EMT or well, EMT ride time, that's a lot of that's to get certification. The hours, they actually have to they can't count just going to fires, they actually have to sit in class classes.

Certifications Training Hours And ICS

SPEAKER_02 15:16

And a lot of them do that on shift. That's the one benefit of having like a career department is they're usually divided in three or four shifts depending on how they work 2448 or 4872. So they'll trade on shift and get like three hours of shift usually, and that gets them like 100 hours each year. And then they, like Chance was saying earlier, sometimes they may not want us to come in and do that three hours, but they may want an ICS 300 class, or they may want a road rescue or a confined space technician or something like that, a bigger class that we can come in and provide for them versus just doing those three-hour daily or nightly classes.

SPEAKER_07 15:55

Wow. So it's uh I think it's I always thought maybe I knew y'all provided the training and and maybe the oversight, maybe uh or something that the um volunteer chiefs or whoever can contact or get it.

SPEAKER_02 16:11

If they have questions or something like the, and that's one thing about the fire commission and chance mentioned, you know, they do some grants, like they just opened the training facility grant for the Kentucky Fire Commission. So any department in the Commonwealth can apply and say, we want to build a training tower. It's gonna cost X amount of dollars. And they can submit an application and try to obtain that grant to help provide the money. They may they'll they'll have to have property or you know, they may say we're gonna put in this much money. Yeah. Can you all give us this much money? Uh we actually obtained one of those grants at the at the Laurel County Fire Department, which we're both a member of, we obtained one. And if you go by 229 there at the Alliance building, you can see the metal skeleton of the training tire that we got through that grant.

SPEAKER_08 16:55

So actually getting ready to build onto it within I think within the next few weeks. We've we've got um it was what we called round two of it. Um and and that'll be should be up within the month. And we've done that through the fire department, but we actually made it more of um a countywide mission for all the fire departments so that you know it was a neutral location, everybody could use it. Um but we've we've done quite a bit and uh like Terry said, we're with the county fire department. Um I've been the chairman of the board there since seventeen and Terry was the chief for eight years. Eight years.

SPEAKER_01 17:31

And I've been deputy chief since twenty fifteen, I think.

SPEAKER_08 17:36

Yeah. Right? No, I can't. Twenty Noah. Twenty twenty three. Twenty three. Black. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:43

Um getting old.

Grants And Building Better Training

SPEAKER_08 17:47

I I grew up, like I said, in the county fire department, and then I I said it was funny because I I I was a junior fireman, you know, growing up. I told you that. When I turned 18, uh my birthday was in June, so I wasn't eligible to be fireman of the year that year because I was only 18 half the year. So the next year, they promoted me to lieutenant. So I've never been eligible to be fireman of the year. I'm like, yes, you know, like this was all fun and games. Yeah. So I I was in a leadership role from a young age there, and then when Terry got back on the fire department, uh, I think it was in 08.

SPEAKER_03 18:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 18:23

Um, you know, I was in a leadership role then. Um when I went to the city fire department, the rescue squad, that was uh a fun time because I'd always kind of been down the the leadership side of things at this point. It was like I could just take these skills and just be a fireman or a rescue member. And man, that was that was some fun time.

SPEAKER_02 18:41

That's always the funnest part of being on the fire department. I came back and I had been in a leadership role when I left. That's uh when Zayn died, Zayn Kennedy. He died. He was chief, and I was assistant chief at that time, and I just that kind of killed my soul, and I just kind of walked away. And when I came back, I was like, man, this is gonna be cool. I can actually be a firefighter, and I had been there six months. He was like, hey, you want to take the train officer position? Yeah. No, not really. Well an option.

SPEAKER_05 19:11

Yeah, no, it wasn't really a question. Yeah, yeah, it wasn't.

SPEAKER_07 19:17

So funny. Uh I was down at Paris Island after you know, this is after I'd been in, you know, I was a Marine, and and me and my wife went down on vacation to Savannah and around that area, and I we went on, you know, on back on base and was checking it out. They had these old guys, these old Marines, the Marine League, and I was like, man, I'm gonna go back and find one of them leagues and I'm gonna join and just be part of that. I called them up. It was like, okay, yeah, yeah. Do you think you could be the commodity of this? I was like, I just want to be private, dog. I just want to I just want to show up and help out for toys for tots or something like that. And I was like, What do you mean? I was like, Yeah, well, we're all really old. I was like, are you kidding me, man? I was like, so needless say, I'm not a member of that league right now. I just like I can't take on another responsibility and having to worry about funerals and all that kind of stuff. I was like, I I'm good, man. I just it's a lie.

SPEAKER_08 20:19

How can I help you? And and like Terry said, you know, once you're in, you you never really get out. Um, you know, he had left for a brief moment um after Zane had passed. Um and then I I I think of of Les. Les was there the whole time, you know, in in in that course of time when Terry wasn't there. And then um our good friend Shane, he's the fire chief now, he's he's there and involved, Terry's there, I'm there. There's a core group that's like there was always somebody that kept the ball rolling, so to speak. And and there's been a a ton of good folks that have gone through the agency. You know, there it takes that to make it run, but there's always been, you know, somebody within that few people circled that's stayed there. And and in the past we'd had, you know, if a chief left or if a deputy chief stepped down, they kind of and that was something we didn't pride ourselves in, but we ran so many calls it was like they were burnt out. Yeah. Um whereas like Bush or Keeve, um, a department that was busy but not as busy, their officers seemed to rotate. Maybe they didn't want to be the chief anymore, but they stayed on. And uh Terry was able to do that. You know, he took a breath and Shane uh got him and Jared as uh deputy chiefs, and it worked out really well. And I said, Man, I'm I'm so excited to see this because for years it was like once somebody finally got out of the seat, they were just so burnt that they were done. Not that it was they were mad at anybody, it was just they had given 110 percent.

SPEAKER_02 21:50

That was me. You know, I I when I took that when I took the chief's position, I said, Listen, I'll do this for five years. I think that's that's enough time. I went I'll do five years, and I ended up doing eight, and it was I should have quit at five probably, but I did eight and kind of stepped away and Shane took it and uh just and like I I'd retired at dispatch and I took about six months. Well, six months at home, you start twiddling your thumbs. Yeah, I'm just like, you know, I need Shane called and said, Hey, you think you can get Jared to join the fire department back? Because he was one of my lieutenants and he kind of left when I did.

SPEAKER_08 22:25

And has family ties.

SPEAKER_02 22:26

Has family ties. That's Zayn's son, is Jared Kennedy.

SPEAKER_08 22:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:29

Yeah. Okay. So he's the deputy chief. He and I are both deputy chiefs now. Oh, how cool is that. Yeah. So I I think at one point at someday, you know, he may fill that role as well and kind of follow in his dad's footsteps. So I think that would be really cool. But uh and I so I called Jared and I said, Well, what do you think? He said, Well, what do you think? You know, he's one of those back and forth. It's like, well, I'll do it if you'll do it, you know. And so here we are, two years later or three, or whatever it is.

SPEAKER_08 22:56

And when I went on the board, I just bought a house in in the district out next to station two. And uh, I think Karen Thomas, or I think she was on the board at the time, wasn't she?

SPEAKER_02 23:08

She may have been. She got on the board for just a little bit.

SPEAKER_05 23:12

The CBL.

SPEAKER_02 23:14

She was on there for uh just a short period of time when I first came. Uh Jason McCowan and some of them guys was oh my god, I think Steve asked her to come be on it.

SPEAKER_08 23:25

Yeah, Karen was there and we um we started shaking and baking pretty quick there. Um seemed like everything and we were blessed. Um we we got some key players and uh reorganized the board a little bit and and it it was a really good setup because it wasn't like the fire department didn't have good structure. Terry was the chief, but we kind of restructured the board and uh needed to build a new a fire station, and uh we sold some property, built some property. We've bought like nine fire trucks in eight years. Uh and I say that like not that we had that much money. Um we were trying to improve the fleet. So we would buy something, we'd sell it, we'd buy something to sell it. And people accused us of flipping fire trucks. You know. Um but we we done uh a lot of good things, and um, you know, I mentioned Les. Les was right there with us.

SPEAKER_02 24:24

Um Yeah, he was he was right there with us the whole time.

SPEAKER_08 24:30

Then, you know, obviously with everything that happened through the the tornado.

Leadership Burnout And Coming Back

SPEAKER_07 24:34

Uh yeah, y'all want to go that route now? I mean, if you it's up to you guys. I don't want to push that. Oh, it's uh that was probably I you've answered a lot of crazy, horrible calls uh uh from both sides of the mic.

SPEAKER_02 24:48

I mean from dispersing officers getting shot at to you know to somebody committing suicide while I was on the phone with them.

SPEAKER_07 24:57

Yeah. So and I has there been anything worse that you've experienced than last year?

SPEAKER_02 25:03

Call volume-wise, no. Whenever the tornado happened, I was at home and got up, they paged us, obviously. James Spicer is one of our firefighters. He got on the radio, you know, it decimated his neighborhood. He lived there molested. He lived on closer to 363. He didn't live back up near the church where Les lived at. And his house was damaged, and he came out and you know, immediately got on the radio and said, London, send me everything you've got. This neighborhood is gone. And it literally was. And so, you know, I get up and I start getting ready, and I'm like, where do I go? You know, where am I going to be the most use? And I'm like, I'm close to dispatch. I don't even know if I can get to there from where I'm at. I know I can help there. So I went to dispatch and walked in. And as soon as I walked in, Larry and Tyler, which is Larry's the director now, and Tyler's the assistant director, uh, said, Um, we are so glad to see you. Yeah, guaranteed. Sit down.

SPEAKER_07 26:03

Well, you've handled so many high risk, high just crazy calls.

SPEAKER_02 26:09

I was there to some of them I was involved. I worked in a tornado, went through Carnaby Square.

SPEAKER_07 26:13

You know, I was in well, I was in it.

SPEAKER_02 26:15

Uh right there. And then I've been down to East Burst. I went down to East Burns tonight of that tornado. I was in that I wasn't dispatched, but I was down there. So, but yeah, I've it was call volume-wise that night was terrible, and just the radio traffic was you know horrible. It's chaotic. It wasn't horrible. We did really well, but it was it was just chaotic. And you had such a large path of devastation. I talked I took a call from one of the couple, the couple about the couple back behind the airport that the ones that lost their arms, the amputees. I took their call. They said, Hey, we're we're in a house, we're in the hallway, we're down, and we're, you know, and Mark, we were talking about Mark Roder. Yeah, he was they were they were last year. That was Mark and Noah Mark Noah. So Mark, I called Mark on the phone, I'm like, hey, where are you? Because the radio was just blah, you know. Yeah. I called Mark on the phone. He said, Well, I'm I'm here by the airport. I said, Great. I said, This is what I've got, is on that middle metal lane there on the back side of the airport off Court Road. Yeah. Said, hey, this is where they're at. I think they're the fourth, because he they get out there, there's no mailboxes. I tell somebody it's 1325 Court Road, or and they're like, we don't know where that's at, you know. And uh he ended up going to the hangar where the PHI crew got hit, grabbed them and took them with him, and they went back in that area trying to find that house to get those people out there.

SPEAKER_08 27:52

Which was a great idea. Yeah. Because they were sitting there with nowhere to go. Their stuff was destroyed. He said, Man, I went and got the flight crew. I said, That is a great idea.

SPEAKER_02 28:02

Yeah, that's that's genius. I mean they know what they're doing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 28:05

And we we had people all over. I I come from the station two side, the 192 side, and uh it really we were really fortunate to have all of the key players within our department that we did that night because like Terry said, he was available. Um Deputy Chief Kennedy was available, uh Shane Lynch, fire chief, he was available, and we were all hands-on deck. Um, but it's not always like that, depending on people's work schedules. We always have um at our fire department, we have uh an OIC that is officer in charge. We refer to it sometimes as designated survivor. That's the one person that's gonna answer the radio because it's a lot of people. Yeah. Um but we had all hands on deck, and that was a lot of good um personnel with good training that could step up and answer the call.

SPEAKER_07 28:57

So it uh you deal with first responders, baby. The dome's dropping. Yep. Yep.

SPEAKER_08 29:03

But we we were all over, and you you couldn't really, you know, I was on the radio and like where I was at, it had to be the worst because I'm looking at ground zero out off Wine Road in the Sunshine Hills area. But then, you know, Shane's on the radio and he's like, Man, it's bad over here. And in my mind, I'm thinking, he don't have any clue what I'm dealing with. Well, at when daylight hit and I finally made it to where he was at, like, well, no, he was right, it's just as bad here. Everything that's the same.

SPEAKER_02 29:30

The first thing he came up on was around Watermelon Drive, which is where the female was in the tree. Yes, you know, yeah. So, because he was trying to get to Sunshine Hill from his house, so he went around 1006 and was going to go out 363, and he came up on that first.

Tornado Night And Dispatch Overload

SPEAKER_07 29:46

I think I think it's hard to driving it, seeing it, and going out there, you're like, My goodness. I can I I don't understand, but straight path pretty much, and you're like, Oh, this is you don't think about this car to know it. Well, this one's way up in in the south end of town. Well, it's hitting stuff on the north end of town in the middle.

SPEAKER_08 30:13

And the way the storm went, talking with folks, it's like everybody you talk to, well, it was just about a mile away from hitting me. And well, a lot of people are accurate in that because it went through one of the most populated areas in the entire county.

SPEAKER_02 30:28

Yeah, it was in a half mile my house.

unknown 30:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:30

But I live on Hurley Lane. I mean, I was just on the south side of the airport. I mean, it couldn't be.

SPEAKER_08 30:36

And and it was mostly our fire jurisdiction. It had a little bit um in the city and it had a little bit in Bush, and it got some stuff in Kiwi that was mostly woods. There was a few homes. But when you look at jurisdictions um for fire departments, we have 11 fire districts in the county. Laurel County Fire Department is just one of those 11. You have Crossroads, Bush, Kiwi, Lilly, all the all the other districts. Well, there's 62,000-ish people in Laurel County. 30 out of those 60 live in our district.

SPEAKER_03 31:08

Wow.

SPEAKER_08 31:09

So when you think of where should a tornado go, well, that was the worst possible play. It's not good anywhere, but it hit one of the most populated areas in the entire county. Um and it made things really difficult because obviously we were trying to get people in and thank you to all of the fire departments that came in to assist us. The Everett fire department, you know, rolled out quickly, you know, from the other stations here in the county as well as other counties. But Terry and I going back to you, you talked about ICS training, this was rolling through our mind immediately. Like, this is the real deal. How are we going to stage these resources? Where are we going to put people? Um, I was talking to you before we went live, you know, about setting up mass casualty at Wine Pine. I I called Shane and said, Hey, we we need to open Wine Pine. I think that's the most centrally located school. Um now after we've done a lot of debriefings and and we look back on some of the things that went right, some of the things that went wrong, we could have done a few things different, but you're always going to have that. We can't sit there and beat ourselves up over it.

SPEAKER_02 32:12

That's what you want. We learned a lot from the back. Yeah, we learned a lot from that.

SPEAKER_07 32:18

Well, I remember talking to you in three in ICS 300 down there. We was discussing that because it hadn't been maybe a year, maybe after that that we I had that class. I think one of the thoughts were how do you how do you be the it's the commander when you're also a victim?

SPEAKER_02 32:36

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_07 32:37

And that's thoughts that you're like, maybe it's okay to have somebody else link us that way and be a victim for a second and get your band.

SPEAKER_08 32:49

And then, you know, we have more families that were involved that were firemen, one of them being Lesis. Tyson. Um Tyson. Tyson Rescue Squad.

SPEAKER_02 32:58

Rescue Squad, yeah. James Spicer, which is a lieutenant for our fire department, and then Wiley Saylor, which is on our fire department, all lives in Sunshine, all lived in Sunshine Hill.

SPEAKER_07 33:10

And I I didn't know this till we right before we went on, but uh chances won it found my aunt. And um we were down in the basement at our house, and uh I didn't do my daughter any good. She's like, are we gonna be okay? I was like, I don't think so. I don't know. You know, I've been downtown learning that's I felt at the time. Because I heard I you're hearing what's coming, and you're like, this isn't like you know, I was scared and um worried about the one that that he's that hit East Bernstead. Yeah. I was in ball, I was in that one. I went up to my mom and dad's thinking that'll be safer. And they live uh up there, you know, nearly their house got hit. It was that was Danny's, yeah. We were a little bit farther. Danny's grandma was old hair. Yes. And then we were on um we were down on Norwood Drive, just maybe a quarter mile from you know the as the crow flies, thinking, well, I really made a wise choice coming down here. But you know, I was like, oh my gosh. And I thought that was the you know, the craziest thing. You know, we had we lost what five or six people here in Laurel County. Six, six, I believe. And then I was lived on Morgan Street when the Carnaby Square one went down, and I remember thinking, oh my gosh, you're the key factor.

SPEAKER_05 34:31

I made that but he's the tornado rod.

SPEAKER_07 34:35

You know, when Danny Robinson and I went down to my aunt's house, because my my cousin was on like Facebook, like somebody get to my mom, get to mom's she's she, you know, and when I went down there, because there was nothing. Everything looks fine, looks fine, looks fine, and then Bam, boom, yeah, yeah. And I'm like, so I I go to her house, I can't even find her house. I've been there hundreds and hundreds of.

SPEAKER_02 35:03

And I'm like, it I it's right across from the church, and there's like there's nothing.

SPEAKER_08 35:08

Thank God that we had a good system on our PVA website because we relied on that heavily to find addresses, and maybe, you know, in the photos on there, if it has a house, it'll show the photo. Maybe we could see something in that that would show a piece of something to let us know where we were at, because there was a lot of times that's the only way that we knew where we were at. Um yeah, I I got to your aunt's house and I was telling Travis, you know, we we didn't know if anybody was in there or not. We'd actually went to the house behind hers and then just happened to do a a quick search there because nobody had hit that house yet, and we when we found her, and and she and I became pretty good friends since then. She's been at the uh center over here when they've given out items to tornado victims. And but it it was it was a lot to take in. And I I was at the 2012 tornado also. I drove one of the first in ambulances, and I remember driving down North 25, and it was pitch black, and I thought, man, I remember thinking this is uh a pretty historic moment for Laurel County. You know, I may never be involved in something like this ever again. I had no idea, you know, what this would be like.

SPEAKER_02 36:15

It's hard to fathom how dark, dark is. We live in such a society where there's light that when it's dark, it's dark. Yeah. And I saw that in East Burns that night. I saw it out there that night. When I finally I left dispatch about four and headed to the incident command post, which was Lion Pine Grove, which by that time we knew that Les had had been killed. And you know, you talk about being a victim. Well, at that point, we all became a victim. Yeah, you know, because I grew up with us. We graduated high school together, we joined the fire service together, we'd been through, you know, everything together.

SPEAKER_08 36:49

And uh and there was nothing at the fire department, even the day before that night. He was messaging with us that night, ten minutes before it hit. It wasn't like he was well, he's still on the roster. Les was involved.

SPEAKER_02 37:03

Oh, yeah. Well, he was leaving, he'd left his house to go to the call. We'd gotten a fire. Our first initial kind of contact was a fire alarm came out in his neighborhood.

SPEAKER_08 37:13

Six houses down.

SPEAKER_02 37:14

Six houses down. And uh I think somebody said the last thing Michelle kind of remembers was he was he was leaving the house to to go to that. She remembered hearing the the tone go off, like it went off here. And uh his truck, they found it with the keys in it in his yard about but it had been rolled over and it was up against a tree. And uh so and his house was completely obliterated, it was over in the field, like it wasn't even there.

SPEAKER_07 37:44

No, I'd never seen any devastation like that. Like I was you know, at my Aunt Martha's house, I was looking like it sucked the subflooring out of this. And the blue, you know, she was behind in her closet behind a in a bathroom, behind the garage. The car was still sitting there, maybe shifted a couple inches. I'm like, you know, that you know, behind there, there's four or five cars in ponds.

SPEAKER_00 38:13

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cars in houses. There was a car ended up in a house, like on the back side of the church.

SPEAKER_07 38:18

I just, you know, you see these big things in Oklahoma, and even you're like, what we got too many mountains? What in the world? Yeah, what is it? It's just it's just it was maybe the because I remember stepping, you know, the the storm that came before blew a big tree down across my power line. It was uh so there was no electric all over London, and it was and I was charging my phone and my wife's car and they start giving the warnings out. And I remember the eeriness of and the stillness and the quiet. And you know, there was still construction crews working on that down the power line, and I'm like, man, this is eerie. This is one of the spookiest months, you know, like it just I don't know. I was like, uh oh. It just fell.

Command Decisions Search And Staging

SPEAKER_02 39:12

It must have just been like, uh, when they talk about that calm before the storm, it's a it's a real it's almost a real thing. I mean, it's you get that eerie, quiet feeling.

SPEAKER_08 39:23

We we were um we were very fortunate. Um we we called for state resources within 20 minutes of getting page because we realized the severity of the damage that we were dealing with and we were gonna need help. Um once we took a breath to kind of get a a game plan of how we were gonna move forward once daylight hit, uh and I've said this a lot of times, but we had found every survivor before they went in to do a secondary search anywhere in the impacted area. Now we we had a feeling that maybe we'd missed something somewhere because the devastation was so broad that we didn't know. We had done the best we could do. Um and I'm not just saying that for the Law County Fire Department, all the fire departments, the rescue squad, any first responder, they had busted their butt out there. But when they went back to do a secondary search, I believe They recovered one. I think there was one that was deceived.

SPEAKER_02 40:24

We didn't have the resources to get them out.

SPEAKER_08 40:27

But for all of your local responders to have done that good of a a search, just and a lot of it wasn't really, I won't call it coordinated. I mean, it and it wasn't any disrespect to anybody because I was a part of it as well. It was and I've compared it a lot to this, it was like the walking dead, walking down these streets and people yelling or needing help. Dispatch would give you something, but you I wouldn't pay no attention to that. I mean, I'm in the middle of ground zero, people just yelling, needing help, wanting something. And uh but once daylight hit to know that all these folks, it goes back to you know what we do um training firefighters. Uh I won't say that we had a direct impact on every person, you know, that was there, but at some point I would like to think what we've done over the course of many years in training people. It's uh you never really know how good you do until something happens, and hopefully that that has helped.

SPEAKER_07 41:21

It's amazing to me, really, that you go through these classes, these these ICS classes, these repetitive, like oh my and then all of a sudden you think you forget it until you're needing it. That stuff kicks in like it does. I know what to do, or I you know here's what we gotta do, or I know this guy's here and this, you know, it's amazing, really. And you're like, I don't remember learning that. Yeah, but it kicks in. It it and it should be like that.

SPEAKER_02 41:49

It should be in that you know, staging and and setting up a staging area. You know, we had amuletes staged at Lowe's for the longest period of time because we didn't know who we were gonna find or how many we were gonna need, and you know, versus and even even with that, we still got very clogged up with vehicles out there to the point that you know, yeah, you couldn't hardly move.

SPEAKER_07 42:11

Yeah, that was that was um uh the the outpour and the amount of first responders that when I got down there at like 233 down to on 363, we were just clogging up me and me and Danny then turned around and went back you know the other way and looking around and seeing what we can do to help like on wine and stuff like that. And I but it was not just Laurel County folks that were I mean that were already there and there's people from everywhere.

SPEAKER_02 42:40

They they rolled out that happened at like 1159-ish, I think, somewhere in that time frame. And by like four or five o'clock, we had people from Lexington Fire and Anchorage Middletown. Georgetown. Uh EMS emergency management was here. You know, they kind of set up a real quick IMT, the incident management team, and actually coordinated that secondary search after we'd done the preliminary stuff, and that's when they went back and recovered the the one person. But you know, they came back and were like, y'all did a really good job. I mean, there's there's no way else out there.

SPEAKER_07 43:14

And sadly, I'm sure that a lot of those folks learned a lot from the Western Kentucky tornado um that you know you you learn from from tragedy and experience, and and it it helps, but it sure You can definitely educate, but experience is the only true when you put it to the test.

SPEAKER_02 43:34

That's when you really find out what you know and what you don't know.

SPEAKER_08 43:38

And it was kinda odd, you know. We once we had um realized that Les didn't make it, you know, like Terry said, that was a a pretty big gut punch to all of us. Um especially Laura County Fire Department in general, because that was I mean, he's one of ours. He's been there there was only a few guys there longer than me at this point, which is sad to say. But

SPEAKER_02 44:01

We both joined in 1986. So it had been he was 40 years in July, he would have been there.

SPEAKER_05 44:07

It's always difficult to lose one of your own.

SPEAKER_02 44:10

I mean, just realizing when he was missing, you know, because we hadn't been in it long and we was like, why have we not heard from him? We knew he was on the radio, you know, beforehand.

SPEAKER_08 44:18

And everything happened so quick. Um, he had been messaging with us, and we knew that it had hit a part of his subdivision. Um, but y you knew less. And just this was what was going through my head, and the whole time I when it when it originally happened, I assumed he probably had lost his radio through the mess, and he's there in his neighborhood seeing what's going on. Um he's he's waiting on us. We'll be there in a minute. And um I was on Wine Road. Actually, I was at your aunt's house. I was going to because I was in my POV and I was going to get in the fire truck uh to move it and Les's son, Evan, come up to me. He said, Chance, have you heard from dad? And I thought, well, no, I've not, but I'm sure he's over, Evan. Let me let me yell at him, you know, no biggie. And I got on the radio, I said 126 and nothing, you know. Still didn't think much of it. Um I may have yelled at you at some point and said, Hey, can you get somebody to go check on Les? I'm gonna try to get get her to turn around, and that was gonna be my priority at that point. And I tried to reassure Evan, like, hey, I'm sure he's fine. And at that time I thought he was, you know, deep down. But after I yelled at Terry and he was trying to get some folks to him, and I started making my way, I just got a uh um a bad feeling, and um never in a million years would have thought that was gonna be the outcome.

SPEAKER_05 45:43

But um Well, we go through so much and you all see so much and we see the outcome of so much, and you're always okay on the end of it. That's never the thought that you have on you didn't you never think that this is gonna be the one, or this is it's ne that's never the thought that goes through your head.

SPEAKER_08 45:59

And we knew we were gonna need help um not just for the storm, but just for our fire department because of what had happened. So um we talked with Shane, the fire chief, said, Hey, you may want to get us some help. So daylight hit, they sent some people out to do a secondary search. I'll never forget we're at the school. We'd send all our other guys home, like go get a shower, clean up, get something in your belly. We'll talk here in a bit, just take you a deep breath. And there was me and Terry and Shane and Jared, and we're standing there looking at each other. It's like, all right, y'all go on home. Well, no, you go home. Well, no, you go home. So what'd we do for the next five or six hours? We sat there looking at each other. Like we knew people people needed a break, but obviously we thought we were too good to get a break. But at the same time, I think we were too invested. Um, we needed to to take a breath of fresh air, but it wasn't right then.

SPEAKER_02 46:49

We I couldn't if I had stopped, it would have hit me what had occurred. Yeah. As long as I was working and doing something, I could put that on the back burner that he'd been killed. Yeah. That's and that's people like within the next few days. You know, I got interviewed several times. Somehow I ended up being the PIO for the fire department and got on Fox News and all kinds of different things. You know, well, how are y'all doing? And and my answer would be, we're surviving. We're not okay.

SPEAKER_05 47:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:18

You know, but we're surviving. And that's that's basically we were in survival mode, and and you all have been there. You know, when you get into that adrenaline rush, and when the adrenaline goes away is when that that deep hurt comes. As long as I was working and pushing myself to do something the next thing, I didn't have to face that.

SPEAKER_08 47:38

And we utilized all our resources. Uh Jeff Hilton is the vice chairman of our board. So we immediately or I don't know if we called him or he called other us. We we talked quite a bit, but he immediately started checking on Michelle because she was obviously in the hospital and started trying to help Evan. Um, and then would tell us what we needed to do because we were still trying to deal with some of the response as well. And it was like, you know, do we take time off and let other people handle this? Which originally we thought maybe that was the best plan because going through some of this mental health stuff, we we hear of that. But after daylight hit, and again, we were all just kind of standing there looking at each other, it's like, you know, these these are our people. Yeah, and that's what Les would have wanted you to go with. But he would have. He would have. I mean, he he would have a hundred percent. And I said, every year these folks have you know donated to our volunteer fire department, and this is the one time they need us. We're we're not gonna shut it off. And uh that's what we did. We went to work. Um and that was on you know Saturday morning. Les funeral was not until the following Monday, um, which was about nine days later. After his funeral, we did for the first time in our agency's history. Um we had um another fire department, a group of fire departments out of PRP and Shepherdsville, I think, or the two.

SPEAKER_02 49:00

I can't remember.

SPEAKER_08 49:00

Out of the Louisville area. They came in and they covered our own. So the fire department doors were open, they were answering calls for us, but um we did give our guys just a breather because but even then it was so funny because we we had um we had attended Lissa's funeral, we had we had ate, had a meal with the family, and that evening it's like, all right, guys, everybody take a breather. And uh so I went home, went by the station, you know, station two, we had people at both stations and checked on them and went home, come back out to do something, and a couple of the members are there at the station. So I pulled them, I'm like, what are y'all doing? Uh just checking on these guys. I said, This is why they're here, it's so we can take a break. Y'all need to go home. It's like, well, you do too.

SPEAKER_07 49:47

Good morning. Uh so it was like it's tough.

SPEAKER_08 49:50

Nobody really wanted to leave. I think people really needed to be together, and so we kind of embraced that and took it as it came. But um, it was uh man, it was a it was a big deal. It still is a big deal. People still talk about it, they're gonna talk about it for years to come.

SPEAKER_02 50:05

Um there were just so many people that were just willing to help. That was one of the things that, you know, and chance giving credit to him, you know, contacted fire department coffee, and I would have never thought to do that.

SPEAKER_04 50:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:18

You know, here they come with their big rescue truck and they're serving coffee to us and the people in the area that's affected. They're going to different agencies and just all of that was donated. They didn't they didn't get a dime for that.

SPEAKER_07 50:30

Yeah for coming in. It was great. That's it. I was amazed with the amount of of good, just good folks.

SPEAKER_08 50:37

Oh man, it was incredible. Um I had been to a fire department conference at DIC. It's a big conference they have once a year in Indianapolis. I've been there in April and I saw what they call Rescue One, which was the fire department coffee truck. And when this happened, I I remembered that because I remember seeing that truck and I thought, man, that's pretty cool. I love coffee. I'd love to have a coffee fire truck.

SPEAKER_02 51:02

Let's put a coffee pot on the fire truck, you know. Okay.

Losing Les And Staying Functional

SPEAKER_08 51:04

When that happened, and and I've told Fire Department Coffee this, uh, so I'll say this without trying to, you know, campaign for somebody else. Um when I when all that happened, I was so busy, my wife's like, what can I do to help you? And uh I'm like, um, you know what? I know what I need. Call Black Rifle Coffee and tell them I need that fire truck down here. Well, I didn't realize what I'd said. Uh so that went on for like 24 hours. I'm like, hey honey, did you ever hear back from them? She said, No. I'm like, well, let me try. And I'm like searching it, and she's looking at my phone. She said, You told me to call Black Rifle Coffee. I said, No, I said fire department coffee. She said, No, that's not what you told me. And I was like, Well, probably the problem. No wonder you didn't hear me. So I called them and I've actually got the voicemail that I'd left them because I got an answer machine, and I'm like, hey, here's who I am, here's who I'm with, here's what's happened. I need you guys to come. And the next day they'd called back on my phone, and Terry knows our phones were just blowing up. I mean, you couldn't even answer the calls. Um, and I'd missed their call, and they left a message, and they're like, Hey, I know you're busy, no uh need to call us back, but I want to let you know that we got wheels moving and we'll be there in about six hours. This I called them on like a Sunday night, and this was Monday, and they were I figured they would stay a few days. That's kind of what I'd asked for, just to be there for the fire department and the community, and you had workers just everywhere trying to do that.

SPEAKER_02 52:29

You know, you had Praxel, you had ever, you know, all the great people in Law County, not giving anybody any credit more than anybody else, but they were everywhere, you know, they were just everywhere just helping clean up and do all that stuff.

SPEAKER_08 52:39

I thought, man, what better than to, you know, have these people drive this fire truck down, take them some coffee. But they stayed for like nine days.

SPEAKER_02 52:46

Yeah, they didn't leave until it is the day after Les's funeral.

unknown 52:49

Wow.

SPEAKER_08 52:50

Uh it was incredible. And uh but you know, you talk about all the good people. We knew again through ICS training and through the 2012 tornado specifically about stuff. People are gonna bring stuff, and you need to have somebody over the stuff and have a plan. So we knew that. Um it was a little more emotional on our end because like we had said, I I think we felt a little more connected. These are these are our people, so to speak.

SPEAKER_02 53:20

And uh the biggest affected area probably was our jurisdiction. When you look at it overall, I think we you know, sublimity and uh sunshine hills and all that area. You had it touch the city, you know, probably briefly, 20 percent, not to downplay that it by any means. There was devastation everywhere.

SPEAKER_08 53:39

We we had people reaching out to the fire department. Um the fire department's phone goes to the chief's cell phone, which he's out of town this week on a trip, and one of the officers are covering that, and he said, Man, I I've not given you enough respect for answering this phone 24-7. Um, because we're not staffed, you know, 24-7. We're volunteers, so it goes straight to his phone. Well, after the tornado, there was people calling, like, hey, we're bringing stuff. It's like, well, I don't know what we need. Well, it don't matter, we've got it loaded up, we're coming.

SPEAKER_04 54:08

Truck one.

SPEAKER_08 54:08

And we had to have a plan. And at the time we wanted to utilize the county's um donation center that they were setting up, but there was a few times in the midst of us just being out doing things and some people at the station that we'd go back and there's stuff just sitting there. It's like, where did this come from? Well, somebody brought it. So we made the decision to have maybe a what we uh would call a substation of a donation center just to help people out that are right there. Um and then we'd send all the big stuff into the county. But like one of the things right out of the gate, uh Jerry Raines, who's the M director, he said, Hey, what do you guys need? And I said, We have got bottled water enough to float the Titanic, but we've got workers going in and out of here that they need water, but they don't have any ice. I thought they would bring us like a little 16-foot ice trailer. They brought a semi. Yeah. That's what they do. We're like, uh, well, that's enough. What are we gonna do with it? But it's a reefer, it's a reefer.

SPEAKER_02 55:07

I mean, it sit there and stayed cold the whole time.

SPEAKER_08 55:10

So we we went into recovery mode pretty quickly and we had guys, the firemen, going around to these sites where they were helping these homes get cleaned up and taking them water and and shovels and um just things that you you didn't think of. We had a really hard time with cell phones coverage out there because of everything being down. They sent us a I thought they would send us like a a little tower or something. They sent a a truck that looked like something you'd see on a NASCAR track or something with a big antenna. And and I've told people, I said, that little station that you pass by and don't really think much of, it became like the center of everything. Um as well as Hart Baptist Church. Heart Baptist Church was doing quite a bit and all the churches and like Terry said, I don't want to go down that list and try to name everybody because we'll miss somebody. It was it was amazing. Um but one other little key that I will throw in there is um Ryan Hall Yall. You mentioned you was watching that.

SPEAKER_06 56:06

Um, well, he was.

SPEAKER_08 56:09

I was watching that. Um Shane, the fire chief, he called me a day or two after everything happened. He said, Hey, um Ryan Hall Yall called. And I was kind of heading up the station donation center, I guess you'd call it. He said, He's got some stuff you want to deal with it. And I said, Well, yeah.

unknown 56:24

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_08 56:24

Yeah, give me his number. So they come and they uh I didn't know they'd done like a nonprofit donation thing.

SPEAKER_07 56:31

I didn't know until they came.

SPEAKER_08 56:33

Yeah. And I I'm such a huge fan of him, and I'm like, They come in this big purple box truck, you know, y'all Ryan Hall, y'all. And like, man, so they brought gas cans and um bedding, um, water, all kinds of stuff. But outside of that, um Dalton that was representing them, he said, Hey, would you care to give us a little interview? And I'm looking around like, where's Terry? He's handling all these interviews. You know, I don't think I'm gonna be the interview guy. Well, Terry was obviously at the EOC doing an interview, and he's here looking at me. I'm like, well, sure. Um, and I'm like dirty. I've been down in the dirt doing something. I said, I ain't really dressed for this. He said, No, just hop in the car and we'll drive around. I said, Okay, cool, we'll do that. So we we did, and uh he's asking me a little bit about what happened, and I was showing him some places and uh not a big deal. So that went on that day. The next day he's calling, I'm busy again. And Dalton, if you're listening to this, uh we finally ended up meeting up and getting all this worked out um that evening. He said, uh, can I meet with some of your firemen? I said, Yeah, yeah, no problem. So again, I go meet with the firemen. We were actually having a a SIDS debriefing, uh, critical incident stress debriefing with the members um that had encountered a lot, including Les. Um, so there's some stuff going on at station two. Well, all our members are at station one. And I'm like, I gotta get back out there. People's needing stuff. And I think Terry, Terry was there. I said, Terry, if you'll handle this, I'll go back out there with them. So Dalton pulls in and said, Hey, care if I talk with you. I said, Yeah, Deputy Chief Wattenbarger's in there. He knows you're coming. He said, No, I'd really like you to be here too. I'm like, brother, I I appreciate it, but I I've got a lot going on. Uh we're we're dividing and conquering. And uh he said, Well, can I tell you something? And you you won't say anything to the other guys until I talk to them? And I thought, yeah, what's up? He said, We want to donate$50,000. And I'm like, I think I need to stay for this. So I pulled, he's like, Oh no, you you do what you gotta do. I'm like, I you can't tell me that and expect me just to drive down the road. I mean, you know, uh so he donated eleven thousand dollars directly to Les Leatherman's family, the Ryan Hall Yaw and the Yaw S Y'all Squad squad. Um and then thirty-nine thousand to the fire department. Um and that was a thousand dollars for each year that Les was a member of the fire department, which was um you know, that was a pretty big deal, and even thinking of it now, you kind of get emotional. So thankfully by that point, I gave Boog the mic and he got back in front of the camera because I I wasn't in any shape to speak.

SPEAKER_02 59:09

It's tough. I mean, that's you know, when I was even like doing the interview, I did the interview for Fox News from the EOC, because I was knee deep in it and had to take the time out to go and do the interview, and you know, and you start talking about that and it's fresh on your mind, then you know, we're kind of separated from it now. Grief gets easier, it never goes away, but it does get easier. But you know, and here you're trying to talk about your best friend being killed and not crack up or you know, break up, and you know, we're men's men, we can't show emotion, you know, we're not supposed to. I do all the time. I do all the time, yeah. Oh, I'll box them, you know, you know.

SPEAKER_06 59:50

So that baby. That's what you feel.

SPEAKER_02 59:53

Yeah, 100%, you know. And uh I've gave that hard interview, and there's oh yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_07 1:00:00

Uh it's gut wrenching, and you're just trying to keep it together for and I'm like, I wouldn't, I didn't my interview was lucky luckily Scotty Pennington, is that yeah, he did most of the talk, and I gave just a brief uh you know, like, hey, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:18

You've been there, you know.

Donations Logistics And Unexpected Help

SPEAKER_07 1:00:19

Oh, it's it is a it's terrible. Terrible. It is terrible to not to mention he was your best friend. So I mean I couldn't even ah that that goes in a different different direction altogether, so I don't know.

SPEAKER_08 1:00:35

Um and and to know less, you know, when you have someone that dies in the line of duty, everyone makes a big deal about that because that was a big deal. And and they should. But to know less, the whole time we're we're having to plan things and you know, people are bringing things and they're saying all this good stuff about less which was well deserved. Oh, yeah. We c we could just imagine Les, because we knew him. He would have been like, What in the world is this?

SPEAKER_02 1:01:04

They asked me to say something at his funeral. They you know, they said you care to speak, and I was like, I I you know, but what do you do? You know, it's it's an honor and a privilege to do so, but you're like, I don't know if I can do that or not. And like one of the first I said, he would absolutely hate this. Oh, he would. You know, I said he would be the first one to say, What are you all doing?

SPEAKER_08 1:01:25

You mean these people took off work to gun to me?

SPEAKER_02 1:01:28

I mean, I couldn't learn it, but that was left. He was as humble as humble could get, and you just, you know, just to know him, you you would know what he was thinking.

SPEAKER_07 1:01:37

So I'm hoping this podcast reaches not with your all's help, but but I would like to if you can and want to hear a little bit about who he was. Uh and I know that brings that's to us. But I think I think people get to you know that generations I hopefully will know. Yeah. And maybe we can record what your all's thoughts and who he is as a person, as a a dispatcher and as a firefighter, as a human, as a father, as a husband.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:11

Oh you you couldn't beat him. I mean, uh Les and I first kind of came together probably in the early 80s. We were in high school, we were in the same age, same grade. I always his birthday was just last week. His birthday would have been March 27th. He'd been 40. I'm sorry, he'd been 58. Uh making him young. After I turned 58 in December. So for like that time frame, he was I always called him older than me. You know, he's the old man. He's the old man. And we all he would call me and say, you know, when I caught up, hi, you're old man now. So uh I talked to us probably once a week, you know, my entire life. You know, adult life, you know, from high school on. We we were best friends, and we uh there was three of us. It was me and him and Jonathan Gooden. A lot of people don't remember Jonathan. Jonathan's been dead for a little while, but he was uh and we Jonathan's dad owned what was then was he managed the fearless flick. Oh if you remember the fearless flick in Carnaby Square, Jonathan's dad managed the fearless flick. Well, Jonathan worked there, and so Les and I would always, you know, we'd always hang out with Jonathan at the Fearless Flick, and he would he was cleaner, he was janitor and all that, you know. So and at that time, that's when everybody circled Carnaby Square, which is where it was, you know, that was the big hangout spot. That was the that was the if you wanted to get together, you went to the Carnival Square and you hung out. And uh we always thought we had had the best of both worlds because we could hang out and watch everybody ride around, and then after the movie, we'd go in and clean the movie theater up, and then we'd play laser tag in the dark. The three of us, you know, we thought, man, we you know, we're the bee's knees.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:06

We got it, we got it going on. We are, you know, look how cool we are. You know.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:11

And uh so out of high school, Les and I graduated in '86, Jonathan. '87, I believe. Um, in that time frame, we joined the city fire department. We walked in, Gilmore Phelps was the chief then, and Wilson was, I think, assistant chief or something like that. And uh Danny Spurlock, somebody might remember that name. He worked that he worked at the City Fire Department then as uh the full-time guy. I think he mostly did cleaning and stuff like that, but he answered calls during the day. He worked eight to five.

SPEAKER_08 1:04:45

He liked the bill, didn't he?

SPEAKER_02 1:04:46

Yeah, yeah. We uh we would go down there, we decided we wanted to join the fire department. So we went to the city fire department, but that's just what we do. We went down there and we joined and kind of got in and started doing all the stuff that the firemen do, and we're like, you know, I thought I was coming here to get out of trouble. This is where everything's happening.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:04

You know, this is all the fire fire.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:09

Yeah, this is where all the troubles happen, you know. So uh chance mentioned the bell. The city fire truck had a bell on the front of it, and there was a cord inside, and you pulled the cord, it rang the bell. Danny absolutely hated that bell. Hated the bell. And every time one of us got in the front seat, me or Jonathan Les, we'd ring that freaking bell going down. So uh we joined the city fire department. We were there probably, I don't know, two or three months, and the county fire department had a big fire out on 472, you know, where the kudzu patch is, what they call the kudzu patch. The kudzu patch caught on fire. And uh they started hollering for help and said, you know, it's running up the mountain on us. We need some additional people. And Danny was on the county at that time. Time he said, Hey, right out there and help him, boys. So we went out there and we went to work, and they're like, Where'd y'all come from? He's like, Danny sent us out here. We were on the city fire department. He's like, All right, now you're on the county fire department. So that's how we kind of ended up at the county fire department, and we stayed there, you know, our entire career for the most part. I we left for a little while. I did when Zane died, and Les left for just a minute and went to Lily, but he he got dropped back real fast. And um just we were always together during that time period. You know, they ended up calling us the the Beastie Boys. That was our nickname. Me and Jonathan Wes they call because they said just set it free and go in there and they'll they'll tear it up. The beastie boys. Yeah, that's popular back then. Yeah, you know, um, the whole no rest of Brooklyn and all that, you know. Yeah, fight for your right. Fight for your right party. You know, it was like, y'all the beastie boys, you know. Uh Danny always liked going down to Chinatown and eating a buffet. But you know, we were all four big boys, you know. They walk in, they start fixing extra food in the back. These boys both destroy this place.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:14

So I miss that place. I live too.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:17

I was yeah. And uh we just uh kind of went from there. We fought some pretty big fires. We uh ST Hardware Store and the old Martin Cup, the furniture place, the Martin Cup. There's a funny story there. Wilson, we were on the back side on Hill Street, North Hill, and we had one of our engines sitting back there, and Wilson sent me and another guy in the back. They'd been trying to fight it all day. Wilson said, Go in there and put that fire out. You know, so me and this other guy, we we make entry, we go in the back door, and Les is at the back door when we go in. And we get back back in there, and uh I kind of turn around and that guy's gone. I don't know where he went. And so I'm like, I'm right now getting to the sea of the fire, getting ready to put water on the fire. I open the nozzle, and by the time I open the nozzle, something just runs me flat down. I mean, just runs over me. It's Les. That guy'd come back out, got too hot, SCBA messed up, whatever. And Les is like, where's Book? I don't know. Well, he'd follow that hose and was coming to find me. He thought I was lost in there. He he it's the dark he couldn't see me. So when he got to me, he run me down.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:32

He'd fly right in the back of me.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:34

So we uh we ended up staying all night there. We put the fire out, and then they ended up asking us to stay for fire watch. So about six o'clock the next morning, morning, Martin Cook coming there, and we was all asleep in beds.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:49

So you both watched real well, didn't you? We fought fire all day, it was tired. These look comfortable, these are comfortable. This was Jeff. Yeah. So we all filed up in one of them beds and like sacked out.

Who Les Was To Everyone

SPEAKER_02 1:09:07

Uh but no, he was just you just couldn't beat him. I mean, that's just the example.

SPEAKER_07 1:09:12

Yeah, did y'all start dispatching about the same time, too?

SPEAKER_02 1:09:14

I did. I started in '92, and he started in the spring, like early '93. It was within just three to six months. We had applied at the same time, and I Laurel. Yeah, Laurel. Yeah. And he just had I just happened to get hired before he did. And then just within, I think just within six months, he was hired. And then I don't remember how long he stayed before he went to KSP, but it was it was a significant amount of time.

SPEAKER_07 1:09:40

He was there doing more part-time stuff coming in and out. I think he was already at post when he came, when I came around. But that's where I got to know him. Uh, was dispatching up there, night shift or whatever, if he was around. And my favorite, I mean, just he'd crack me up when he went to work for for the um legacy over here, man. Oh my gosh, yeah. He always had some kind of it just crack you up. Oh, yeah. I was like, I didn't know he worked there. I walked and checked an alarm or something, went in there and well, I was like, oh my gosh. If I'd known you was here, I would have never came.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:22

That's it.

SPEAKER_08 1:10:23

Man, when when I was a kid and he was at uh again when we was on TLC Lane, he would come up a lot during the day. I'd be up there during the day in the summer, you know, because I was out of school. But I just hoped that somebody would come by if we had a call and grab a truck. You know, if they went to the other station, man, you know, I I thought my life was ending. You know, I'm just stuck here. I can't do nothing. I couldn't even drive at the time. But he would come up during the day and I always got excited if anybody came, you know, because then we was ready to go on a call if we had something. We'd have a call and he'd be like, Go get the truck started. All right, I'll be there. You know, I'm down there like 0.2 seconds waiting, just waiting for it. And get those less. And I'm like, You you want me to tell him we're in route? He's like, Yeah. All right. So I got to talk on the radio, like, that's a big deal. And we'd we'd turn out and here he'd go, you know. He wasn't getting fast. He's like, I hope we get canceled. And I remember thinking, like, man, why don't this guy like this stuff? And uh, I'd go turn the siren on. He's like, Turn that off. So we don't want to hear that. And I remember I think back to that now. That's me now. Like I pulled up on scene or something the other night, and the guy's like, You didn't even have your red lights on. I'm like, Do you see any traffic?

unknown 1:11:33

I don't think I need.

SPEAKER_08 1:11:35

But looking back, it's like I've turned into that that guy. Like you're I I get it now. Become a curmudgeon on the fire. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:43

I mean, at so at certain points, it's just like, oh and yes, I remember that though. I couldn't wait to have something. We we had a house fire one time up on uh on Northfield Street, or no, the street that used to run behind Kennedy's garage. Yeah, I can't remember the name of it. Ruben. Yeah, Reuben. And Jonathan had made entry. Jonathan, I mean, I we were so excited. Jonathan made entry and he was in this room, and me and Les were at the window and looking at him, you know. Looking from the outside, look at it. Well, Jonathan had closed the door, and there was a mirror on the back of the door, and he's trying to find his way out, and he'd see that mirror, and he thought that was and he kept hitting the door, and it was funny.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:24

You know, I was surprised. He thought he was going, did he hit it? He's like, he couldn't figure out how to get out of that room.

SPEAKER_08 1:12:30

Well, we had a fire on Delbert Hodge one night a long time ago, and we couldn't find it. And I'd pulled off there at 30 in Delbert Hodge. I was in a fire truck, and guys were kind of staging behind me, waiting. Finally, somebody goes up in there like, oh, we found it. It's an old outbuilding on fire. You need to come up here and take this driveway. So, all right. And I I pull on Delbert Hodge and I felt something. I thought, man, I must have rubbed that guardrail with that tire. And I get up there and some of the guys are there, but Les and uh John Blanton, he was he had come in as POV and neither one of them come down there. And I'm, you know, I'm again a young officer trying to handle this. And I get on the radio, I'm like, where'd y'all go? And Les gets on the radio. Oh, you'll find out. I'm like, what did that mean? That was weird. Why do you say that? I said, Are y'all coming down to the fire? He said, Yeah, it'd probably be better if we didn't. I said, Well, that was weird. So coming to find out, that little bump that I felt was uh the bumper at John Blanton's car. He parked between me and the guardrill. And I didn't know it, so I didn't have a medical clearance until he parked there. He was in a black car. So Lance was just a big thing. John was mad in the world. He's out there trying to get his all and he cut the rest of his bumper off. And to this day, I stand behind my statement, like, what were you doing? Parking in between the fire truck and the garden. Like, you're trying to save me. I'm like, it was dark and see nothing. But yeah, it goes from zero to high. Just a good thing it wasn't his porch. But I'm like, you know, why don't y'all come up here? And I Les just like, oh, it's probably a good thing. You'll find out. And I'm like, why is he being weird about it? We get back and he's just sitting there smiling. We had a bad wreck out in front of Cold Hill just November before the tornado. So it'd been November of 24, I believe. Um there was a a real bad wreck, and somebody had come in by the station and said, Hey, there's a bad wreck out here, and one of the guys, they'd been on another call, they called me, and I thought, I'll run up here and check it. And I get out there and it it was a really bad wreck that hadn't been paged out. So I'm on the radio, like, hey, send everybody, we've got people trapped everywhere, we need help. So I get out there and and Les lived in Sunshine Hills, and uh the guys were rolling to me, and before I knew it, I I had the door office car and we were doing our thing. I looked around and Les was there really quick. And at this point in his career, we always laughed with Les because he didn't get in a hurry, it didn't matter if the sky was falling. You know, I'll be there when I get there, y'all just don't worry about it. And I looked around and I guess I'd I don't think I get excited on the radio, but at that moment by myself, I guess I was a little more excited than what I normally am. So I looked around and said, What in the world are you doing here so quick? He just looked at me and said, I just want to see if it's as bad as you're acting like it was. And I looked at him like, really? And he just kind of smiled like he was there because he knew I needed help. And he was there quick, but he wasn't gonna say that. He was just looking at me, he's like, I just want to see if it's as bad as you act like it was.

SPEAKER_07 1:15:31

Chill out on the radio, bud.

SPEAKER_08 1:15:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:15:33

Ain't nothing like getting amped up on the radio. Good lord.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:38

He talked about John Blaine and uh, Fuzz, Greg Green's retired. Oh, he's you know, yeah, he's been on, yeah. And I I made a comment on his congratulating him and stuff, and I said, There's never nothing like hearing Fuzz holler to dispatch say, London, can 1118 come out in the county and take a call? He's the only sheriff that's ever signed to the city link. And John Blinken got murdered.

SPEAKER_08 1:16:05

Back in the day, the city and the sheriff's office, probably when you started, they was on the same channel. Yeah, they was right after I started. Yeah. So right after.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:12

They were on the same channel all day. John would stay in the city a lot. That's where he started. That's where he started, and he'd stay in the city, and Fuzz got on the radio and night, and he was busy out in the county. He said, you know, can a Lemon McTeam come out of the county and take a car?

SPEAKER_03 1:16:30

And John got Fuzz, gosh bang.

SPEAKER_08 1:16:33

I could I bet them too was like an Enus and Rubescope.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:37

It was whole but they're like a holy barn. Fuzz do anything he could to get under John skin.

SPEAKER_06 1:16:43

That's hilarious. I can see uh there we go.

SPEAKER_07 1:16:48

Man, Fuzz throwing that car chase that me and Doug Thomas was in, and he was doing inspection on a truck. All I when we went by, all I saw was papers throwing up there. He was jumping out. I was like, golly. Well, we got help.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:04

Here he comes. So it was it was funny. No, we uh we did a little me and Lesh transported there for a little bit for the SO. We went to, you know, we was working at Dispatch and Gene was sheriff then. And that's how me and Fuzz, Fuzz came to the fire department, and then he ended up going to the SO as a like I guess at then would have been a bailiff or whatever, and a transporter. And I we and him until when we went to I think it was Pee Wee Valley one time, we took a spire cruiser up there. Well, I hadn't never been to a real jail, you know, a prison or a penitentiary. We pull in and they're like, all right, y'all have any weapons? Well, yeah. Well, we need them. You know, they they confiscate everything, everything at the gate, you know. So you got any extra mess? Yeah, well, we need those two. You know, we don't want you taking any bullets in there. Is that all you got? Well, yeah, I think that's all we got. Well, pop the trunk. Well, we were in a spare. We didn't know what was back in the trunk. It's like shotguns and AR, you know, in the trunk was thrown. Well, you never know.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:07

Never know.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:10

We and both look at each other like, what the hell? You know.

SPEAKER_06 1:18:15

So there's where I put that dead body.

War Stories From Calls Gone Sideways

SPEAKER_05 1:18:17

I mean, I rolled around with four grams of meth and my cruiser at the academy for the first two weeks until it came unlodged out of the back seat.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:25

They called me in Snez, Snez Less. You know, that was his nickname, Snez. They called me in Snaz one night and said, Hey, we need to take y'all take one to ARH. Okay. We roll up, dent the SO, and get out, and walk in, and say, Okay, what we got? They said, Well, just you'll see when we get him out there. They bring this guy out, J Bird naked. I mean, he's as naked as naked gets, and he was Jesus. He's naked Jesus. He thought he was Jesus. You'd be surprised how often that they look him up in the back of that cruiser and they look at me and I said, Y'all have fun. So here we go to ARH and with Naked Jesus.

SPEAKER_06 1:19:04

So that's what that's a good hour.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:07

Oh, yeah, it's an hour over and an hour back. And that guy was he was he was all right.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:19

Oh man.

SPEAKER_08 1:19:21

A couple Thanksgivings ago, uh, we had a a wreck on Interstate, and uh I wasn't going, I was way out 229 with the family, but I was listening, and Les actually, that's when he still lived on Bill George over next to Station One. And uh I heard him, you know, I'm in route station. He gets over there and I hear him put the truck in the route, and all of a sudden he's calling me. I thought, man, what's going on? That's weird. I'm not even on the radio. I'm not active on this call, I'm just listening. I answered, he said, I'm gonna need you to get up here. I said, What's going on? He said, I died. I think I just blew 23 apart. I said, What do you mean? He said, I don't know. And then he's talking to me and said, I'm bleeding.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:05

I'm thinking, what do you mean you're bleeding?

SPEAKER_08 1:20:07

What did you do? And uh he said, I don't know. I'm trying to get the cab up, and I'm still trying to figure out like what is what's going on. I'm working. What do you mean? He said, I don't know, but I'm bleeding. I'm like, what the fuck? He had got in it and come to find out our batteries had overcharged. Uh-huh. And when he, I guess they'd been charging for a few days. We hadn't had a call. And when he hit he turned the power on when he he went to hit start to start the truck, it literally blew the batteries up. Batteries blew up. He had little pieces like where he goes. Yeah, and I'm like, man, I'm on my way. And uh anyway, they ended up getting another truck, but I get up there, and sure enough, he's got his arm bandage. He's sitting in the chair over there, and he's got the cab up. And I said, Man, what's going on? He's he just pointed. And I look, and sure enough, them batteries are just blew all to pieces. And this is on Thanksgiving Day. I'm like, man, I don't even know where we're gonna get batteries. I don't know how this happened. I said, but what do you think happened? He said, they blew up.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:11

I know. That's all I know. I ain't neither.

SPEAKER_08 1:21:17

And Let's is on the board with us. I said, Well, man, it's Thanksgiving Day. What do you think we should do? He said, Bragging new ones.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:23

I'm like, I know that.

SPEAKER_08 1:21:24

I'm like, what are we gonna do today? So I don't know that part. But like he just sitting over and like, man, I'm gonna take the truck and it blew up.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:35

It's simple, simple.

SPEAKER_08 1:21:36

It was up. What do you think we should do? Just go nobody's open.

SPEAKER_06 1:21:40

Don't overthink.

SPEAKER_08 1:21:43

Well, you know, that was next on the list. But yeah, that was just him. He was funny. Yeah, it's great.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:49

Chess talks about when I first came back, they'd changed things a lot from when I left when I came back. You know, we got trucks instead of horses. Yeah. The steam engines to put out of them. You know, but they uh they had the car, what what they call the car, you know, 2101. The Crown Vic that had been the PDs, you know. So it had got ragged out before it got to the fire department. Oh, yeah. You know, we just we just added to it. And uh we had somebody then that manned the car. And that's when they'd first started doing rescue, and they had the tools in the trunk of the car. Well, that's you know, a couple hundred pounds sitting in the back of a Crown Vic. More than what needed to be, though. Yeah, I'm sure, you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:32

Springs don't like that.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:33

It was my turn. So and I hadn't been back long at all. And they like, you know, you got the car tonight. Okay. So I stayed at the fire department, and sure enough, like one or two o'clock in the morning, got paged out interstate, wrecked with injuries in track. I get there, and this lady had T-boned, and I don't I still don't know how she done it. She T-boned a guardrail. It was sitting in her lap. And the guardrail had horseshoeed, and part of it was against the steering wheel, and part of it was against her. She was literally trapped by the horseshoe of that guardrail. The guardrail curved around the console. Jeez. Wow. And she was pinned by that. And I get there, I get on scene, and it's me and Jamie Mills, and I was like, huh. Ain't never seen nothing like that in my life. And I was like, I already changed. I said, think I'm gonna need some help. Well, these cutters cut a guardrail. I don't know yet.

SPEAKER_07 1:23:32

I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:35

We ended up, you know, we ended up getting the guardrail and cutting the roof off and everything in. Yeah, it's all is all kinds of things.

SPEAKER_08 1:23:41

I mean, it was through the car. When Terry got on the radio, I knew he had had a lot more experience than me, but he was new back to the fire department that I thought, nah, he's probably just not looking at the other side. That can't be real. He's like, nope, it's in her lap. I'm like, no. I get there, I'm like, hey man, that's in her lap. It cut it. I I see that. Uh crazy. We mentioned the car. That was we we done basically as on call. We kept somebody on call 24-7. Um we had a guy that had it one night, and Terry and I were actually out together at the Huddle House. And it was late, probably like one in the morning. I don't know why we were out eating that late. Well, Terry worked third shift, so I guess we were staying up. Um my phone rings. I'm like, man, let's didn't answer it. Rings again. So I answered and it was Brian Davidson. He he had the car. I said, What's up? He said, Hey, and I hear sirens everywhere, and we weren't really listening to anything at that point except the fire channel. We were just fine our own business. You know, and there's siren and you mentioned you mentioned, you know, the PD. You were there, because I remember pulling up. Um he had pulled up, he was going home to let his dog out at like one in the morning, and he had got there at Lowe's um when they had just built Lowe's, and he found this car that was over the embankment. It looked like it just had a 45, you know, a non-injury accident. So he turns his lights on. Well, the car, it was a fire car. It said fire department. It had red lights like fire and have. But it would look like a police car. Right. So he gets out and said, Hey, okay, and evidently they didn't want nothing to do with the police or fire car or whoever it was, and decide to just throw it and drive and give it heck to get out of that goalie. Well, when they come out of the goalie, it he said it like popped a wheelie, almost hit him, and just takes off. Down 192. So he gets on the radio and he's like, uh, hey, dispatch, uh, you may want to sit here and check his car out. You know, I tried to check on, they took off. Well, y'all get end up getting in pursuit of it. And it goes down the bypass, and evidently it ends right there at the parkway in 1820.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:52

Before the road was there, it was still on the rock wall.

SPEAKER_08 1:25:55

And they went through that field and a fence post that went through that and almost got the driver. I mean, it was like this far. So he calls me and I'm like, What? What are you doing? He's like, I don't know what to do. I'm like, where are you at? He's like, I'm out here where they rent that now. And uh, I looked at Harry, I'm like, I don't know what we need to do. I guess we need to go check on him. So we come up there, and there's like 500 cops and the firecar, and I don't remember who who I spoke to, but you were there. It wasn't you that said it. I'm like, what's going on? I said, the fire department got in pursuit.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:28

We don't know that. Whoa, what happened? I've seen it before. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 1:26:36

But yeah, this guy's just interested. He's like, oh, somebody had an accident. I'll put the lights on, check on them. And then he's like, whoa, this escalated. And then calls me. It's like, I don't, I don't know. I've never really had this happen because back then, after eight or nine o'clock in the evening, you know, Tommy, he was a chief. He went home and he was gonna come out of his bad, but it was usually just us. Yeah, yeah. So it's like, handle it. Okay. Well, I don't really know what we're doing this time. How do we handle this? I say you go 98.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:04

That's what I'm saying.

Night Shift Bonding And Dark Humor

SPEAKER_08 1:27:08

Brian, are you okay? Yep. Car, is it okay? Yeah. So you had no involvement. Nope.

unknown 1:27:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_08 1:27:14

Let's get out of here.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:15

Let's go.

SPEAKER_07 1:27:18

Man, we've had we've had such uh wild, weird ups and downs careers, you know. Oh, yeah. And you think about the fun we've had inside dispatch cutting up.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:30

You think about the tough stuff in there that you're like, I'm glad I'm alive, or I'm you know, you know, back in the day, like when you first started, you know, we had a a great, they would let you all come in and hang out. You know, if you got working third shift is tough. People don't realize working third shift as law enforcement or as a dispatcher, it's tough. And and you've got to have that break or that line, that time to interact with somebody, or you're gonna, it's just inevitably gonna happen. You're gonna fall asleep.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:00

There's only so much coast to coast you can listen to before you get scared and have to be around people.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:07

And you always hang out and you know and what play maybe a car game or something. Because there wasn't a lot going on. No, you know. Check back in or whatever. But it was uh it was a great time.

SPEAKER_08 1:28:31

It always cracked me up because you mentioned earlier about you know feedback. And I always that made me think of radios, you know, for a while. And you key up and there's three of us around, it's like turn your radio down. Well, they'd be over at the firehouse at two in the morning just you know, checking in, just having somebody talk to, and phone would ring. Hey, city units over there? Uh maybe. What's up? Uh well they got out on a call and had feedback, so everybody turned the radio down. Then the one guy that had his up thought, well, they got theirs up and turned his down. So everybody's radios were down.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:29:03

Well, that does happen.

SPEAKER_07 1:29:06

And it was funny if we were all in dispatch. I'll say, say there's four or five units, then we come up there chilling out, just you know, maybe maybe three back then. And you come up there and it's never fell that radio like that. Y'all radio's down. I'd be like, we're all right here. Well, I gotta give it out, you know. Turn it off the radio and somebody go ahead. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:30

Yeah, run off with the coin.

SPEAKER_07 1:29:32

Go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:33

Well, typically working holidays together, you know, Thanksgiving's and Christmases, you know, because we don't get those days off. You get you're there, you become your family, you know. That's that's where your family's at.

SPEAKER_08 1:29:45

It's back when we had bingo, we we decided we was gonna spend Christmas Eve together one one night. Just because the guys were there. That's back when Call of Duty was big and the guys were up there doing all that, and some of the guys didn't have families. Back then, I I mean I had, you know, a family, but I I wasn't married or anything like that. So it's like, hey, we're gonna we're gonna stay up here and keep each other company. And we weren't really thinking about it, but time midnight hit, it's like, man, we ain't even eating and there ain't nothing open. It's Christmas Eve. So luckily we had bingo. They had a kitchen. And we had like one of the best meals of corn dogs and fried food over there.

SPEAKER_07 1:30:24

So it's it really is amazing how close you get with the shift and with with you know, not just say the city police officers that were working, but the county guys that were working.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:36

EMS parties, you know, because state police. You know, the dudes at EMS. That's you know, one of the first Mark worked at Rotor. We talked about him. He worked at the Ambulance Service for a long time. I think Les did also. Yeah, Les worked there, Fuzz worked there, you know. Yeah, I think I'm the only one of us that never truly worked there. I only took one calling my whole life for an ambulance. They had damage at the Amulence Service and they were staying at the fire department. And me and Les were down there. It's like two o'clock in the morning with Mark Rutter and Shamu. Brian Reims was the two on duty for the ambulance service, and they were staying at the County Fire Department. Well, they got double-toned, two toned back to back. Well, there's only one crew. So they come out. Well, here's me and Les sitting on the front of the fire truck. We're both EMTs at that time. They're like, hey, you go with me and you go with him. So Les went with Brian and I went with Rudder. So we ended up taking it as Eagle Ridge Road. I'll never forget it. He said, Can you get me there? Yeah, I'll get you there. So we went down there and there's a lady having a heart attack. We put her in the back of the ambulance. She said, Can you get me to be RMC? Yep. It's the only ambulance call I ever took from start to finish. I've drove a couple ambulances in, but you know, I never did work for the ambulance service.

LZ Mistakes Haunted Alarms And Legends

SPEAKER_08 1:31:43

I'll tell this real quick. You mentioned Ambulance Service. I've I worked there quite a bit. Um I was a cadet there, like I mentioned. But I heard y'all tell some funny stories, so I'll tell this on myself. I run out to the interstate one day for a wreck with the fire department. I get there, I'm I'm with the ambulance service also, but I wasn't working that day. And this this guy's hurt pretty bad. He'd wrecked a motorcycle. And uh Tracy was there and uh Tracy Sizemore. She said, We're gonna need LZ. And back then we actually had to give coordinates. That's how long ago that's been. You couldn't just tell them where he's going. So I didn't have a GPS. Uh she had one in her command vehicle with EMS and the Explorer. I said, Well, I'll just take your explorer up here to the 49. Let's land them there. I'll take it that way. I can give the coordinates. She said, Okay, sounds good. We'll get loaded up in just a second. So I go up there and, you know, I give the coordinates and try to look at everything, make sure I got the L Z lined out and get out. Here comes the ambulance and helicopter's on its way, you know, and I'm in charge of the L Z, you know, I'm standing there with my radio and my fire hat, whatever I had on, just ready to do nothing except watch the helicopter land. I was a little worried about the gravel because it was a gravel parking lot, but it was packed down pretty well. Well, I'd marked uh the opposite side of the parking lot with that explorer. We had one side with the ambulance and we had the other side with the explorer, and I'm standing there and Tracy's still in the back, and uh helicopter's coming down, you know, everything's going perfect. And I kind of out of the corner of my eye see that explorer start to move. And I thought, hmm, how'd she get in that? I thought she was in the ambulance. Oh well, I'm watching this. It starts to get a little faster. Well, they had a big tanker, like a semi-tanker, down at the end of that drive down near the interstate, and it gets faster and faster, and now I'm just like full eyes on it, and just bam, just hits that thing. And the helicopter's coming in, they're kind of nervous at this point, and I'm real nervous because I don't know if it's going to explode or what just happened. So they land, and he's like, Did you see that? Yeah, actually I did. And I looked in the back and the ambulance, and Tracy's still in there. Oh. Hmm. So long story short, uh, I'm not sure if I left it in drive or if I didn't put it all the way in park. Something happened that it was not in park when we got in. Once we figured out it hit that uh tanker, and she gets out and she's like, Oh my god!

SPEAKER_03 1:34:01

I'm like, Yeah, about that. I need to talk to you about something.

SPEAKER_08 1:34:04

Uh I said I'd set up an LZ. I didn't say that I would do it with the car in park. So I don't really know what happened, but I'll I'll tell a good one because I tell that and they're like, What happened to the vehicle? Oh, it was pretty bad damage.

SPEAKER_07 1:34:16

That point, but it's hilarious.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:20

There was always those calls at dispatch too that you you would take a call and you're like, Oh, I can't wait to give this one out. And one was always that burglar alarm at the uh the house across from Bench Farms up on the hill. You all hated that alarm.

SPEAKER_07 1:34:36

Well, we mean Derek had so that that might have been. We knew, yeah, we knew the story because we come down there. So that was my favorite time policing was right there. Derek House was the was the supervisor. Um eight over seven. Yep. And you had you had me and I think me and Martha Bagley was working on the third shift. Sometimes for some reason, me and Gaylor, Josh Gaylor there for a little while, and even Brian Lawson. There was there was a time when it was just a bunch of, you know, I was like, oh my gosh, Rodney Banzant was down there or some. Um and we were Matt Moore was always he was down there, he was on night shift at the time. It was just it was just some bad guys, dude. Yeah, we yeah, we were it was just fun. And Eric Wilkerson and some other ones, and I remember Derek and I just scared to death of that place. It was me because I would sit there and listen to Coast Cut. He'd come up there and tell you Doug Thomas would get you listening, and you know, it's just different stuff. It was just so much fun. And you guys would be like, ah, that the I couldn't imagine the joy on your face. And and that night that you know we talked about that, me and Derek did, the night the lights started flashing. And uh but the funnier, the funnier one was one time me and Josh were walking around it, and I said, Josh, he's like, What? He'd already finished, checked it. I said, Did you forget that this place is haunted? And typical Josh Gaylor face that's got but it was just such that was just the highlight of you know, that was so much fun. Every now and then Stuart would be down there for something, you know. I don't know, I was like, what are you doing down here tonight? I couldn't find, but it was just a fun time policing. Eddie on the night shift at the county and all them guys cut, you know, Daryl's Anit.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:45

Tell me about Daryl and Eddie. I was there the night that they went to the cigarette barn. Y'all hear it? I've not heard that's one. So bird alarm goes off, South 25, there by the just where you get to 552 on the right, sits in the parking lot. Daryl and Eddie letting the late letting go and uh get out. Sure enough, he's in there. Daryl puts him in Eddie's car. And uh they tell us they're 1015. It wasn't 90 seconds. Let him wait, London. Let himself let this guy steal my cruiser. Have you ever heard that?

SPEAKER_04 1:37:39

Let him wait, Linda.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:41

Len T's let him steal my cruiser. We're in pursuit. Lin Tins card.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:48

Darryl in the back of Eddie's card, and Eddie had one of those cruisers. The the no cage. It had the cage and it had the flip-down cage where you could flip it in and it was open. And Eddie kept his down. Well, Daryl didn't pay no attention. He just put him in there. Oh, that guy slipped his cuffs, went over to that back seat, and Eddie left his car running. So he jumped right in the driver's seat and took off. Well, they chased him down South 25. You know, and and Eddie, Eddie's calling out, God rest his cell. He's calling out the play-by-play. Uh London, we're turning on the road that turns out across from the midway market. Turns up the hill. Oh, I can't remember the name of it now, but Ridge. Something. What is the name of that road? Anyway, they didn't go very far. Let me wrecked out of here. Oh, Slate Ridge. Yeah, Slate Ridge Road, yeah. And he said, he's wrecked out of here. 1045. He said, G Ammels? No, no, he's 10-4, we think. And about, I don't know. Yep. He's gonna need to go. I think he's gonna need one. He's he's fell down and he's getting out of the car. You know, let him steal my car. Counseling.

SPEAKER_03 1:39:05

Let him steal my car. Let him, he's let him steal my car.

SPEAKER_07 1:39:09

So Zan, it I need hey you won't come on, you know. But anyway, he's the reason I got in policing. We roomed together when we stationed in Belgium. Oh, yeah. And that is how my first ride alone was with him. And I was like, yes. But I was like, this is it. And we didn't do nothing.

SPEAKER_08 1:39:30

Was that my my neighbor, I think, was with you guys, Adam Harvel. Was that?

SPEAKER_07 1:39:32

Oh, Adam was there. I love yeah. That there's there's a group of old Marines, him, J Max, some other, you know.

SPEAKER_08 1:39:40

So Daryl got you involved.

SPEAKER_07 1:39:41

But he's the one that got me involved in policing. You can thank that guy.

SPEAKER_08 1:39:46

Thank Daryl. Yeah, what a he kind of reminded me of Sniz. He Daryl got excited. No, he didn't get excited.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:54

Yeah. What's his mad?

SPEAKER_05 1:39:57

Oh, once he's mad, he's mad. Yes. Fuzz talking him down. Fuzz made mad one. Oh, yeah. I remember. Coming out of East Burns.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:07

That Fuzz had just bought a brand new truck and they'd done a bachelor party. And Fuzz went and dropped somebody off down there, and he's coming out. Well, two o'clock in the morning, a brand new Chevrolet pickup coming out of East Burns. That's an anomaly. Yeah. You know, well. Yeah, that that was the that was the chop out.

SPEAKER_07 1:40:25

Yeah, that is the chop shop down there.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:27

Well, Daryl turns on him. And I think Dougie Jones was riding with Daryl. Somebody's riding with him. I can't remember who it may be.

SPEAKER_07 1:40:34

It wasn't me. I'd have got out.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:35

But Fuzz, it was Fuzz, and I think maybe Nick Minton. I can't remember who was in with Fuzz. Well, Fuzz pulls over in the little gravel lot there just before you get to 490. Or he's on 490 just before you get to North 25. There's a little hardware store. And he pulls over in that gravel lot. Well, he don't get out. And Daryl pulls in behind him, and Daryl gets out, and you know Fuzz. He lets Daryl get about halfway to the truck.

SPEAKER_00 1:41:01

Takes off.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:03

Well, when he took off, Daryl just got a brand new cruiser. I mean, it was like he might have had it in a few days. Fuzz through rocks and broke one of his mark the lights at the front. So Daryl went to run back to the truck and fuzz stopped again. Well, Daryl started to walk back up and he took, you know, he kept jumping like he's gonna run. Daryl was spitting mad. He got up there and say it was Fuzz, and he just turned around and went back to the cruise later from the rest of the night.

SPEAKER_07 1:41:34

I bet he went and hit. Uh there was there was something, there was damage somewhere. Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_08 1:41:40

You know, Daryl used to have uh Travis Snaper with him a lot. Travis Gride with him, and they'd been by the fire station and I was getting ready to hit home that night and they'd had a complaint somewhere out 363, and I lived out 363, so I was I was heading home and uh they had just went 98. You know, they'd cleared the call, and and I'm going out through there and I see the car. So I I flipped my lights, my headlights off and kind of you know, weave at them, just playing with them, flip them back on. I I dunno it. Well, I see them pull out behind me. I see the blue lights, and I thought, oh, they're messing with me. So about that time I I called Travis. I'm like, I see y'all back here. I heard you go 98. I was heading to the house. And he said, No, we're not out of the subdivision yet. I said, What do you mean? About that time, 93 London, I'm in pursuit. I said, Oh, God. I said, Hey, hey, uh, I thought that was you guys. You yell at him, which I I knew who it was. And uh I said, You need to yell at them real quick. I said, I'm I'm stopping here. I I thought it was them because I'd just been with them. And so they yelled at him real quick, and he got out. He said, You got me on that one, but you talk about a heart stop moment. I thought, you know, it's just my buddy I'm on the phone with. No, that wasn't him at all.

SPEAKER_06 1:42:49

I'm going to tell you.

SPEAKER_05 1:42:51

Sir, I'm sorry. You'll never believe this, but man, there you know.

SPEAKER_07 1:42:59

There is, I know, okay. So most firefighters we've talked to have got some kind of prank sometime the something crazy in the firehouse. I know y'all have got something that you all have.

SPEAKER_02 1:43:12

I plead the fifth.

SPEAKER_06 1:43:18

But yeah, that's there.

SPEAKER_02 1:43:20

I I will give you that there is stuff that does happen in the firehouse.

SPEAKER_03 1:43:26

If chance wants to tell you something, I don't remember either.

SPEAKER_02 1:43:31

Story for a later day. There we go. We'll go off. Yeah, I'm still employed by the fire.

SPEAKER_07 1:43:36

I forgot who to go or no.

SPEAKER_08 1:43:40

We got out one night. It snowed real bad, and we'd been running some calls, and one of these guys that should have been running calls with us wouldn't run calls. I said, What's going on? So we went and got some saran wrap. And we got out and we saran wrapped his whole vehicle about 25 times. He wasn't gonna get in that car. So the next morning he calls. My kid broke his arm. I said, You did? Yeah. I said, when? Last night. I said, Well, is everything okay? He said, No, I can take him to the hospital. I said, Why not? He said, My truck was saran wrapped. I said, Well, probably should have called an ambulance. He just kept quiet. He said, You know anything about it? I said, Yeah, 911. You need to call an ambulance. He said, No, my truck. I said, No, I know nothing, bro. He said, I think you do. I said, I don't want to know how your kid's arm is. Let's focus on what matters. He didn't break his arm. I said, I didn't think he did.

SPEAKER_04 1:44:32

Yeah, call your bloodprints.

SPEAKER_08 1:44:34

He said, I saw the footprints. They look like yours.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:37

And technically, they broke mine. They were someone else. You have a weird look. My footprint.

SPEAKER_08 1:44:46

I may have been in the truck, but they were not my footprints.

SPEAKER_07 1:44:49

You come 10-8. Well, they fight when they get out. We're coming. Yeah. Coming for you. Well, you guys, this has been a blast. What else you got going on? I know you got some things you're doing right now.

Firehouse Pranks And Running For Office

SPEAKER_08 1:45:03

Raising children, uh running for magistrate. Cool. District 5 here in Laurel County. Um, you know, we go back to the board thing with the fire department. Um got on the board in December of 17, and we've done a a lot of good things, I feel like. Um but in the midst of that, um, I decided as the chairman of the board, I probably need to be plugged into politics and started attending physical court meetings.

SPEAKER_07 1:45:29

And nobody can talk you out of that, huh?

SPEAKER_08 1:45:32

You know, Terry's a good friend. He didn't tell me not to. Um But I I got involved in that and it um it kind of evolved, and I I think um we've got a lot of momentum behind us and things are on the right track, and I I bring a fresh set of eyes to the fiscal court and I get along with all those folks. There's no bad blood or anything like that. But um sometimes change is a good thing. It's constant and necessary for growth. And so that's uh that's a big to-do right now uh in the midst of you know just normal daily life. But uh we'll see how that goes on May the 19th. So if you know anybody that's in District 5, I know this ain't a political thing, but I would sure appreciate the vote. And obviously I've worked hard for many years free of charge, so I'll continue to work hard for us.

SPEAKER_02 1:46:21

Yeah, I know. It's not like the matrix pays that much either. I didn't know if they pay 'em.

SPEAKER_07 1:46:27

Way to go. No. Well, this has been a blast. I were you even around when you had the handheld GPSs to to to go call me a helicopter dummy? No.

SPEAKER_02 1:46:42

No. Dill I can tell one on Karen.

SPEAKER_05 1:46:46

This is this is the handheld.

SPEAKER_02 1:46:50

The old Apple phone. Yeah, let's hear it if you've got one. I got one on Karen. Yeah, since since you're here. We were working, I can't remember if it was day or night. Me and Karen were working, and she gets a call. And it's this guy traveling down the interstate, and she's on the phone with I can't remember if it's a man or a woman, and she's calling in about the car next to her. And the gentleman in the car next to her was doing some unspeakable things to himself. So, Karen, you know, me and Karen, a good dispatcher, she's getting as much information as she can, you know, and staying on the phone with the caller. Well, they're coming, I think they were coming north. And in her defense, she was just saying, you know, what the gentleman on the call was telling her. And it started out near Corbin. Well, by the time they got to, I think it's exit 38, is where they were at finally. And uh he he exited the interstate at exit 38, and she keyed up to tell them that he was getting off at the 38.

SPEAKER_01 1:48:01

Well, good for you. Okay, well we're good.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:09

So we'll bring him a second. So yeah, that was uh that was one call I can remember from you know, we talked about some of the funny things. We'll we'll end on a light note.

SPEAKER_05 1:48:20

Yeah, that's that's a good one.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:21

Yeah, you know, we've seen a lot of dark things and a lot of good things. Yeah. It's uh we'll end on a on a light one. That's great.

SPEAKER_07 1:48:29

We've we've it it is our our line of work, you see a lot. And um it's just it's you know, it's good to we I was thinking about we talked about Eddie, we've talked about Les, we've talked and you're like, man, this some of these legends are gone. And it, you know, I was thinking about Jason the other day, Van Hook, and I'm like, man, there are just so many. I could tell you a bunch of people.

SPEAKER_01 1:48:53

Oh, I know we'll do a whole way of doing it.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:55

You need to be like a bunch of people that just knew Jason and sit down in a room and do a a certain round table about him.

SPEAKER_05 1:49:03

That's what we've been talking about doing, is doing a big round table, just a liar's club just for for him.

SPEAKER_02 1:49:09

I think there's so many people that could tell you stuff about him.

SPEAKER_07 1:49:12

But it it it's just so we've been we've been very blessed to see to work with some fine folks in our careers and and uh some legends. And you guys, I'm uh I pray for you all every all all the time. I'm I miss you guys. It's good to get together like this. It is, it it is.

SPEAKER_02 1:49:31

It's you know, once you get out, you and and I'm fortunate enough that they allow me to come back in four-hour increments now. That's what I say. They they call they say I'm a black cloud every time I cut the word dispatch, something something crazy happens and they they say I'm the black cloud now, but they'll they'll let me come and do four hour increments. They won't let me do a whole shift 'cause too much devastation could happen. Uh I did one this week. That's I talked to you that you know, that night. So that's weird.

Final Thanks And Family Shoutouts

SPEAKER_07 1:50:01

It's weird. I I I've called dispatch twice since I've retired for Laurel County. And uh once was something crazy that was, you know, some neighbor bleeding on my front porch. And and then the next time I call, I'm like, what are you? I was like, I looked down at my phone. Yeah. I thought it called it. Yeah, it might have flies on. Yeah. And so here I was like, huh. And I'm like, this is old times. It was like a blast from the past.

SPEAKER_06 1:50:36

I was like, what? I can't just say that anymore.

SPEAKER_07 1:50:42

So it was good. So this has been a ball. It's good catching up. And good luck to you. Appreciate you, man. And and uh we'll uh we'll continue praying for both you guys as you all continue on your things.

SPEAKER_08 1:50:56

And thank you for having us. It's been really exciting. Thanks for coming on. I've I've enjoyed it. I would like to um give a shout out to my little girls, Presley and Lily, because if I don't, then they would probably be upset and say, Daddy, you mentioned us. PK would be my good ones, and Charlie he he could care less at this point. He's 15. Presley and Lily, they're my babies. So I just want to say hi to them in case they get to listen.

SPEAKER_02 1:51:22

His little girl PK, she's my buddy. Oh yeah. As long as I bring her a Reese cup. So I'll tell you a story about PK. I brought her a Reese cup, but it was a it was Easter egg. It was a new is an egg Reese cup. Well, it was closer to Valentine's Day. She said, It should have been a heart. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:51:41

This is something. They keep coming out with him earlier than earlier.

SPEAKER_08 1:51:48

She's something else. But I was talking to Terry the other day. We talk all the time. And she said, Daddy, who is Terry? I said, That's Booger. She said, Well, why do you have him saved as Terry? I said, Well, that's his name. She said, No, it's not.

SPEAKER_07 1:52:04

There's so many people didn't know about anything for a long time. So, well, this has been a ball.