Tennessee Roll Call
Podcast dedicated to those in first response or interested.
Tennessee Roll Call
Thank You Bonner!
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After 41 years, Coffee County EMS Director Michael Bonner is hanging it up!
Welcome back to a special edition of Tennessee RobeCon. We have got one of the best, if not the best, today, Tyler, with us. And he's about to leave us. He is. A few more weeks, is that correct? One more week. He's counting down. No, but who's counting right now? Who's counting? Ladies and gentlemen, we are here today with Michael Barner, and he's going to uh explain to us exactly who you are and uh what your title is as of right now.
SPEAKER_14As of right now, uh my title is chief of the EMS for the ambulance service for the Coffee County. Um and then I also do the death investigation. So I work for the Medical Examiner's Office as a medical legal death investigator.
SPEAKER_02And how many years have you been with Coffee County? 41 on and off. 41 years. Wow, what a what a career. Started January the 5th of 1985. And I was born in November of 1980. Uh-huh. Okay, fine.
SPEAKER_15Give me do an edit button on that one. Did me tell you what year I was born with that? No, I don't.
SPEAKER_02No, you don't. Absolutely not. Man, what a career. Uh tell us how you got started in, you know, back when you you were little bonner, just getting started.
SPEAKER_14Funny, when I interview new employees, I always ask them, what made you get into the medical field? Because, you know, some people have a story, a very specific of event in their life. Uh but me and a lot of the my era sort of fell into it. So um I became a volunteer fireman in 1978. And where was that at? Uh it was in Chattanooga in Harrison, Tennessee. Highway 58.
SPEAKER_02Chattanooga has a volunteer? They did back then.
SPEAKER_14Both north, so the city of Chattanooga does not, but Hamilton County back then was all volunteer. And uh a friend of mine was one and asked me if I would, and I apparently couldn't come up with a reason to say no, so I did. And so that got me kind of, you know, in the emergency field. And then uh I moved to Pelham, Alabama, and uh Buddy down there was a fireman, so I became a volunteer there. Down there, they do like the old emergency show where they run the medical calls and the ambulance just came and transported. And so he was a paramedic and said, you know, you need to go to MT school. Okay. So I went to MT school down there and was a volunteer and started, you know, running medical calls as a volunteer. And then moved up uh back to Tennessee. I was born and raised in Hendersonville, uh, moved back to Tennessee to help my parents run a little store that they owned and um was in the MT class up here just because really I was bored. It was just something to do to meet people. And the instructor said, Hey, the county's looking for somebody who can challenge the test, who is already in EMT and can just challenge Tennessee's test. And I said, Well, I can do that. I because I already had an Alabama license. Excuse me. And so I challenged uh the state test and passed and they hired me. Awesome. I can't okay, I can tell you, but you may want to edit it. Okay. The reason they were had an opening was one of the current employees uh took his wife's sister and went to Florida. Oh, okay. Created an opening. Awesome. Back then we wore white pants with an orange stripe down them and a white shirt. And you had to be careful. That doesn't sound too appealing. Well, no, okay. Visually was not appealing either, but you know, you work for wreck. I mean, we've worked wrecks where you ruined your pants and your underwear and your shirt and everything else because it just back then you we didn't have any gloves in the ambulance. And so uh you could get you could go through a uniform.
SPEAKER_02So now so you're a vi uh uh you're starting EMT school, and this was what back in 19 Fall of '84.
SPEAKER_14Let's see. Up here would have been fall of eighty-four.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_14Um, and then was hired January the fifth, I believe, of eighty-five.
SPEAKER_02And that was here in Coffee County? Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_14Wow. In Manchester.
SPEAKER_02How big was the ambulance service then compared to it was now?
SPEAKER_14So we had two stations, the two identical ones, the one in Tullahoma and Manchester were identical. And we ran four crews. And so there was four of us up here and four of us in Tullahoma. Now, and we ran about 150 calls a month. So we averaged back then. Now we're running almost a thousand calls a month, and we still just have four ambulances some days. Wow.
SPEAKER_02Um we've not what what's the reason for the jump? Is it the population you think?
SPEAKER_14Or we are um oddly busy for our size county. So if you compare us to other counties with our population, you know, general uh look-alikes, we're still busier. Um Tullahoma, because we have two big cities instead of just one, we think attributes to a lot of that. Um anytime you build a nursing home, assisted living, all those places, you know, you're gonna add 25 to 50 calls a month. Right. And so if you have several of those, that alone bumps your volume up because they're a concentration of people that use ambulances.
SPEAKER_02What what made you choose Coffee County? Could you just talk about Alabama that you went to and what uh my parents, and this is a long story, so I'm gonna try to make it short, but Oh, you got all the time in the world, and this is your retirement, my friend. We want to honor it.
SPEAKER_14Worked for Singer Sewell Machine Company as a manager of their one of their stores. And in 1980, they got out of the retail business and you had to buy your store. Well, at the time we lived in Chattanooga and had one of the bigger stores in the southeast, and he couldn't afford to buy it. So he bought the Tullahoma store. And so that's what brought them to Tullahoma. And then in 83, um, they were busy enough they needed help, but not so busy they could hire somebody full-time. And so I moved up here. I was working as a police and fire dispatcher in Alabama, and so I moved up here to help them run the store. So when this job at the ammo service came open, back then it was 24 on 24 off. So I thought, okay, well, that gives me every other day that I can help with the store. So I'm not as much of a financial burden on them, but I'm also you know, still able to help them.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_14And so that's I took the job thinking, okay, that will work. And it did, but 24 on 24 off, you know, every day you're either going to work or coming home.
SPEAKER_02One of the different things. And sometime or another you have to fit in that thing called sleep. I know you don't have that sleep thing a lot.
SPEAKER_14And luckily, uh, we weren't so busy back then. Yeah. I mean, like you go a whole day and never roll a wheel.
SPEAKER_02Well, you can't imagine that now.
SPEAKER_14No, we can't even get past 8.15. Yeah. Um, and so but it wasn't so busy back then. And so it worked out all right. You slept a lot of the nights, not all of them, but much way more.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, but you can't really get a can you really get a good night's sleep when you're expecting that pager to go off at any time? Or do you just get used to it? You get used to it.
SPEAKER_14Originally, yeah, you're laying there and you you you can't fall asleep because you're thinking, okay, man, the drones are gonna go off man, the drones go off. Because you want them, because you know, you're young and you actually want to do it. Oh, well, okay, yeah. I forgot about those days. And so um, you know, you're kind of excited and you it's hard to sleep. And then you get to where it's like, okay, nothing happened. I guess I'm just gonna go to sleep. You used to tell everybody, you know, take a nap in the afternoon in case you're up all night. Well, if you take a nap in the afternoon, well then you really can't go to sleep. Right. And then you don't run a call all night, and now you've not slept because you took a nap, it just was get your sleep all out of whack.
SPEAKER_02I just can't imagine see, I can't imagine, and maybe maybe you can do this. I don't know, maybe I'm just a wimp. But if I'm thinking that that tone's gonna go off at any time, I can't I can't imagine me being able to get a good night.
SPEAKER_15No, I think I'd probably wake myself up every 10 minutes or something.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Of course, we're police officers, so we're not, you know, we don't have the the um You don't do the 24 hour shifts. We don't do the 24-hour shifts.
SPEAKER_15And it it even just makes me cringe just thinking about it. Yeah, so like say station one and telehome and station two. If a call comes out to station two, does station one still get notified like the tones? Yes. Back back then. Back then.
SPEAKER_14Back then, if the tones went off, everybody heard them. But now it's kind of like Because back then we answered our own phones.
SPEAKER_04Okay.
SPEAKER_14All right. There was no com I mean, there was a com center, but it wasn't for EMS. And so um, you know, somebody had to answer the hotline when it rang. It was out in the hall and had big old bells right above it, you know, to make it really loud. Wow. And so somebody got up and answered the phone, and then whoever's out it was, whichever crew, got up and you went to the uh office, and there was a map on the wall with two strings. And so they would give you the name of the road, and then you would go to the map and you'd find the road and it would say E7. And you would take this string and move it to E, and this string and move it to seven, and where they crossed was the road. Wow. And so then you had to figure out, okay, I'm here, and the patient's there, and then you know you kind of mapped your route out before you left, and you better remember it. Boy, GPS has come a long way, ain't it?
SPEAKER_15Back in them days, you didn't think anything about GPS being available.
SPEAKER_02Nope, it was not a place. So, where where was the store at here in in Tallahoma?
SPEAKER_14Oh, in Tallahoma. Uh originally down there, you know where food line that plaza. There's a food line sits here, and there's a little strip on the right over here, and the store was right there. Then they moved it to uh Lauderdale Street right across the railroad tracks. Um, Southern Electric, I think it's right there across the street now.
SPEAKER_02On Atlantic?
SPEAKER_14On Lauderdale. It's where right now it's an archery place.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, Taylor's Archery Taylor's Archery. Okay. And that's and that's where the Singer store was. Wow. That is that's what I'm no right. Really, that's amazing. And you were working there while being uh while being an EMT?
SPEAKER_14Yeah, so on my off days from the ambulance service, I fixed, I worked on vacuum cleaners and sewing machines, did repairs, and then you know, did sales, but mostly I let my dad and mom do the sales, right? But I can sew better than most guys.
SPEAKER_02Oh, well I learned to sew when I was in elementary school. So did you uh when the when did the store go away?
SPEAKER_14Oh when dad turned 65. So uh I don't know what year that was. Okay. No, no, no. Too many years ago. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02I I expect but it's uh but you know, you you you was able to do all that for him, so I mean that was that was good to keep y'all all together. And then I worked part-time at the hospital. Uh when did you get sleep? You got you got the EMS 2424, then you got the singer store, and now you're working at the hospital.
SPEAKER_14I took a job part-time in the hospital, and uh a useless fact, but I am an actual horologist. What is that? That is the study of time. I'm a watching clock repairman.
SPEAKER_15I didn't know there was such a thing. See, I really want to do a show on that again.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, forget everything else. We're going to what was what does that entail?
SPEAKER_14Is it so uh when I got out of high school, I didn't have any idea what I was gonna do. It's not like now where you got to plan your future when you're in like the seventh grade, you know. Um and so I graduated. I'm like, I don't know. And so I had an uncle owned a jewelry store in Decatur, came to visit us that summer. He said, Hey, come come live with me. You can work at my jewelry store and you can go to the watch repair school in Alabama. Okay, sure.
SPEAKER_02So you're kind of like a jack of all trades.
SPEAKER_14I do have a lot of trades. And so uh went down there, went to school for a year, moved to Birmingham and worked at a in Mountain Brook at a jewelry store there, and fixed watches. Like literally sat at a bench and and had a little magnifying glasses on, you know, like you would picture, except I wasn't old at the time, I was very young.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_14And take a watch completely apart and put it in a machine and clean it, and then take it back out, put it back together, and fix whatever was wrong with it and and adjust the time, you know. There was a great job, except it was right when battery-powered watches came out. Okay, so there was getting less. I'm these mechanical watches charging 20 bucks to do a cleaning, oiling, and adjusting, and they can buy a battery watch for five. And so that industry kind of just kind of what we see today, you know, with the new stuff coming out, then the older stuff go in the industry.
SPEAKER_02When did you decide that, okay, this is what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna be EMS. I'm gonna I'm gonna give up the watches, I'm gonna give up the sewing machines. When are when are we actually saying, okay, Michael Bonner's gonna be EMS?
SPEAKER_14I don't think there was a date. It wasn't like I made a conscious decision. My dad told me, so I was fixing some watches and clocks on the side, and I wasn't making enough to live, and my dad said, double your prices. I said, What? He said, Well, if you double your prices and they pay it and it makes enough to make a living, then you can do it. If they don't come because you charge too much, then you can get out of it. But one way or another you settle the issue.
SPEAKER_02And I'm and I take it you doubled your prices and they didn't come. No, I didn't. I couldn't do it.
SPEAKER_14Oh no, sorry, I couldn't do that. But um the the demand just fell, you know, to the point. I mean, I actually still have all my tools and a watch bench set up and clocks hanging on the wall. If I'd have known that I'd had you bring it here and show us another episode apparently.
SPEAKER_15You collect watches or anything like that for the house?
SPEAKER_14Um not so much because I can't afford them. You know, the old pocket watches I used to love old I now probably got maybe 10 or 15 old pocket watches, um, some of them from way back in the middle eighteen hundreds. Um and clocks. I like clocks a lot. Um, but again, that which wasn't something I was gonna put a lot of money in having them all just hanging around.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. But but you definitely have a reason to. I mean, it's part of your history. I can actually fix a watch and clock. And the singer in the singer sewing machines, that's part of your history. Yep. All right, so your EMS. Now, how did we how did we go up the ranks here?
SPEAKER_14I mean, how long did you stay with just I don't want to say just a medic, but I mean So I was an MT and um at some point, I I don't have dates on some of this, uh I became a supervisor. Then in July of 1988, I started my own ambulance service. So the county how did that work? Well, the county was getting busier, not busy, but busier. But back then the county was doing like Nashville doctor's offices. So back then, still really now, a lot of people had their specialist in Nashville. And so we'd have to take an ambulance and take somebody to Nashville and wait for four hours in a doctor's office and then bring them back. And so you tie up an ambulance for six, seven hours and take it out of service. When you don't have many to begin with. Right, you didn't have four, but to begin with, I've worked recs here in the county where I've transported six and seven people because there was no other ambulance here, you know, and you just had to make do. Wow, that that wouldn't fly today, would it? Oh no. No, no, I mean pilot them in there.
SPEAKER_15I remember working in Franklin County, and like we had four ambulances, I think, in Franklin County, and there'd be times where we would have to call Lincoln County or Coffee County or the base or somebody to come mutual aid because everything's all tied up.
SPEAKER_14And we still do that. But so the Nashville trips and the doctor's office visits were starting to get more, and dialysis patients were becoming a problem because they needed to be there in their chair at 5 a.m., 10 a.m., whatever time it was. Well, you know, if you've got emergencies coming in, that's kind of hard to guarantee. And it's going to take precedent. Yeah. Um so so for reasons I don't know, I thought, you know what? I'll just start an ambulance service.
SPEAKER_02And well, I don't think I don't think people really understand that ambulance, we do have private ambulance services. And can can you explain that real quick? Because there's there's government and then private. So what's the difference between the two except for the fact that just there's a company on it? Yeah, there's three different methods to be an ambulance.
SPEAKER_14There's county or government funded, uh, federal or city or county, whatever. Then there is private and then there is hospital-based. Okay. So, like in Lincoln County, the hospital runs and owns the ambulance service. Okay. And in Murray County, the ambulance service is run by the hospital.
SPEAKER_02So do they have a government one too, or is it just a hospital? Interesting. Uh I didn't I didn't know that.
SPEAKER_14So in Coffee County, at the time, of course, we just had the county service. So I bought one ambulance and hired a couple of guys that were had worked here too, and on their off day, by then we'd gone to 2448, so yeah, two days off. And um and we started doing hospital discharges, doctor's office visits, dialysis patients, the things that had that schedule that kind of needed to happen, right? And uh grew that from one ambulance to nine, ran it for 20 years. Mo uh uh for several years I did both. I worked for the county, and then on my off days, I ran my own service and um got to the point where I was so busy, that is a point where I kind of had to make that decision, you know. That okay, I can't keep doing all this, working for the hospital, running my ambient service, working for the county handle service. That's just a lot of too much.
SPEAKER_02Well, if you had a couple more hours, you could do oil changing on the side as well.
SPEAKER_14I mean, you still have some time there. So um so then I left the county in ninety-six. But I had been a supervisor in maintenance and I'd kind of done all the little jobs at the county, but it was just I had to make a decision. And so I switched to the private industry and ran that for 20 years, and then sold that in 08 and had a five-year non-compete. And so I worked at Bedford and Moore just part-time. And then when the director's job came open in 2013, July of 2013, I applied and got that.
SPEAKER_02Now you you you I guess a lot of your experience from the being to be the director came from the ownership of that. Oh, yeah. Is it about the same thing? Yeah, sure.
SPEAKER_14I didn't have budgets. Uh so like at my service, if I want to buy an ambulance, I went to the bank and said, hey, I need to buy an ambulance. And they're like, sign 15 places here, and here's your check.
SPEAKER_02And now with government, you have to get permission.
SPEAKER_14You have to do the whole bid project. Oh, I saw your face. That was take a while. Bid specs, and then you have to put the bid out, and then you have to wait X amount of days for the bid to come in, then you have to open the bids, and then you have to look at the bid, pick a bid. And it government spends a lot of time trying to make sure you don't waste money by wasting money. Understandable, not understandable.
SPEAKER_15A lot of people don't understand though. Like if you want to buy an ambulance, you put in that you say you're gonna buy it today, it's gonna take what, four months, maybe to get everything.
SPEAKER_14That's just to get here's the one we're gonna buy. Then you gotta wait for them to build it.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_14And right now, that's taking like 18 months to two years. Oh wow, that's a long time. Well, uh after COVID, um everything just went to pot. Staffing went to pot, and then you remember, I don't know if you remember they had that era where they couldn't get some computer chip, and so car manufacturers were struggling. I don't know. There was a phase where Ford and Chevy and Dodge all went on strike there for a while. So that got them behind. And so they just literally kept falling behind and behind, behind on getting the chassis. The, you know, the Bach part the companies could build, but they couldn't get the chassis. So we're finally getting a little chassis flow, but they're just so far behind now.
SPEAKER_02You know, that meant we mentioned that yesterday on uh the hanging out in the holler podcast about COVID. COVID was a real bad time for it just messed everything up. Emergency services and everybody. You wouldn't think though, I mean, ca a lot of people when they talk about going to get a truck or a car or something like that, you just go down to the local place and get you one. You have to specially these don't come specifically.
SPEAKER_15These don't these you just find these on the side of the room. You used to go to a car lot and you're like, there's an ambulance I want to buy.
SPEAKER_14No, you have to, and the bid specs are, I don't know, 15, 20 pages long. Because they define every aspect of it. The bulkhead has to be three-quarter inches thick. The lights have to flash this many times a minute. The you know, everything is there are federal specs that define what an ambulance is. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say you're not gonna miss that part. It's easier now because after 40, you know, I've done it. See, because starting from 1988 on, I was the one doing it. And so I kind of like I said, I can tell you in 1988 the bulkhead had to be three-quarter inches and the lights had to flash 60 times per minute. And then they moved it up to flash 90 times per minute. That was back when they were just flashing. They're just incandescent bulbs flashing. When they all these LEDs came out that could flash all kinds of bizarre patterns, they had to rewrite the specs to say, okay, they just have to flash, you know, because wow. And they'll tell you what color red the lights had, the lens had to be a certain shade. And then they got them a little pinker so they had to be visible with up to a mile away. Everything is laid out very, very specifically.
SPEAKER_02I'm having a panic attack listening to it. I mean, there's a lot of knowledge in your head that you'll never be able to trade with something else.
SPEAKER_15It's funny because you talk about the lights and you gotta be able to be seen, but the one thing people don't see are the lights when they're when you're when you're behind them. No, right then they don't they never see it. Or hear the sirens, they don't care.
SPEAKER_14Oh no. Uh years ago, uh there was a commercial on for some car, right? And he got and he's sitting and there's an airplane behind him, a jet. And you can hear this roar of the jet. And he gets in the car and he rolls the window up and it goes and it goes away. And I and I'm watching the commercial thing in there with my siren. That's exactly what I thought. It's like, oh, that's cool.
SPEAKER_02They can hear me. Oh no. Well, yeah, I don't know how many people pay attention anyway, sometimes when you get up there on those intersections.
SPEAKER_14And I've seen, like, I've been driving and see one of the counties, you know, one of my amulets is coming towards me running emergency. And I can see the lights, you know, and here they come. And they are from here to I don't know, fifty feet before I hear the siren. I mean it's running, but the cars are just so soundproof now. Yeah. And of course I don't have my music thumping quite as loud as some, but you know, you got your radio on and you just don't hear us.
SPEAKER_02And so Well I'm I I I but I I guess we just have to ask people to pay a little bit more attention when they're going down the road when when that stuff happens. So yeah. Is that is that too much to ask, or am I? It might be I don't know. Yeah, distracted driving is a thing. Someone kicked your camera down. I saw that, thank you. So what would you rather uh what would you rather do? Would you rather be back as the EMT working the calls or are do you enjoy uh or have you enjoyed this the past several years doing the directing? No, I've hit a spot.
SPEAKER_14So during COVID, when staffing got terrible, just terrible, um, I ended up back on the ambulance sum, right? We just didn't have enough staff. Right. And and so my um skills were still there, luckily. But I really enjoyed dealing with patients. Yeah. I really enjoyed talking to them and taking care of what their problem was. And this is just the okay, I'm gonna say this nicely, the the little old ladies that are short of breath, right? But they're very nice and they just want somebody to be nice to them. And I really enjoyed that. Now I've always enjoyed um wow, I can't say that. Edit this out. The the car race, you know, where you're I don't hate to say the word enjoy, but you're showing your stuff. This is what I studied, and I am fixing to help you. You got it, and I'm gonna climb in this ditch, and I'm gonna get you out of this car and I'm gonna take care of you.
SPEAKER_02There ain't nothing wrong with that. There that that's what we've that's what we train for.
SPEAKER_14That's what we study for. This is what we're supposed to be doing. And so I say, all right, I didn't cause this, but I am fixing to solve this. You know. So those calls and the true heart attacks when you walk in and you can look at them across the room and go, Oh, yep, you're having the big one. All right, here, let's do this, this, this, bam, pam, pam. Let's get these things going, you know, let's get me a helicopter, whatever you need. You can do all that. And and I really enjoyed that. Um, but it's rough on your body. Yeah. Has to be the lifting. Because I'm back from the era where the cot didn't do anything. You know, you lowered it, and then you had to manually pick it up and slide it.
SPEAKER_02And I still see them having to fight with the new stuff from time to time.
SPEAKER_14Sometimes the power cots and power loads fail as well. But um back then, we had one elderly, um, not elderly, one obese lady. Like for the whole county, we knew her name. When the call came in, like, ah, it's her.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_14And and so it wasn't bad. The cots, originally cots were rated for 350 pounds. That was the max weight on an ambulance cot. Yeah, it wouldn't work out today. Now the max weight is 750 or 1,000 if you leave it down, if you don't raise it up. Okay. You can just leave it low. If you could put a thousand pounds on it. You I can't get an ambulance, but you could put a thousand pounds on it. Well, we're going somewhere anyway. And there's just so many that get closer to that six and seven. I mean, you know, uh, and so it's just rough on your body. And so while I enjoyed the patient care and that part, um, yeah, my old bones did not enjoy that.
SPEAKER_02Right. But I bet you that I can tell you missed that part of it. I really did, you know. Especially as, you know, as a director now where you're not getting that one-on-one with them. I can see it in your that that was the special part of it for you.
SPEAKER_14Of course, you know, I we started doing death investigations ten years ago. Um, Dr. Brandon asked me specifically personally if I would start this program, and so we did. What an honor. And I that was uh that that because that's a big that's a huge responsibility. It was a new thing. The state, there was others around, but but we didn't do it, and the state said, Look, when you work a death scene with just law enforcement, nothing personal, um, but you're gonna miss things because you don't know what you're looking at, right? So our job and and the medical examiner in rural counties is always a private physician with a private practice. He's not can't come out during the day. So they started this program, and so my task is to look at that body and make sure that body agrees with what somebody is telling you. Or if nobody's there to start trying to figure out the story. Um has the body been moved? Is you know, because I can look at uh lividity and say, okay, no, but that that's not how this body was when it died. Somebody has moved it since then. Looking for patekee and hanging cases, things like that. And um so that was it became a second job where I was going with that. I'm dealing with people again. Yeah, not the deceased, but the family. But the family. And and you've seen me on a lot of these scenes. Okay. And I take a lot of um I won't hate to say pride, but take pride. That I I agree with you. That I've tried to be nice to these families and help them through what is a very traumatic time for them. Always in EMS, I always told anybody, you're gonna you're gonna see people at the worst time of their life. Something has gone so bad that they've called for an ambulance. For most people, that means something bad has happened, right? That they didn't not this was not in the plan. And so obviously in death investigations, it's the same thing. They did not plan this in most cases. And so they need somebody to kind of help them through it, to tell them what the next step is and what they need to do and help them be okay.
SPEAKER_02Well, if you don't mind me saying so, I've seen you on several scenes, and you definitely have that gift. You've definitely provided that for people. And I've talked to a lot of people in EMS, and you know, we start talking about you know the M the we MDIs is what we call it. Call y'all. And for if it for those that don't know, that's the medical examiners that come out. Um you you definitely have you can't fake it. And well if you you if you if if you do, you know, you might be a good actor or something, but you can't fake it. And you know, I see that in you, and I know everybody else that works with us here in Tallahoma definitely sees it as well.
SPEAKER_14I hope so. I mean, I try to. That's because it's just a terrible time in their life. And and I'll tell you, the older I get, um, the harder some of them hit me now. I used to I could I used to could compartmentalize much better. And now I start talking to the families and I get it's gets a little more personal.
SPEAKER_02I've noticed have you noticed that too, which as you get older in in it, that it because it mat back in the day it's like, okay, well, you you want to feel a certain way, but you also have a job to do, and you have to do all the check marks, you have to deal with the stuff nobody else wants to deal with, but as as we're getting older, it is coming more personal, or we're you're kind of hitting you a little harder.
SPEAKER_14Part of it I think is our life experiences where we've had deaths in our family or we've had things like that. Good point. Things that when I was 27 You didn't think about you know, my parents hadn't died. Yeah. So I couldn't feel what it was like when you're standing there and looking at your parent that has just passed away.
SPEAKER_02Good point. Good point.
SPEAKER_14And and so some of it I think is that. We our life experiences. Um so I have a a daughter that we adopted that has cerebral palsy. And so she's wheelchair bound, she doesn't feed herself, she's pretty much total care. And I worked to death of a girl that was the same age as my daughter was at the time that was a CP patient. Right. Okay. Got there, took my pictures, did all the investigative things like I'm supposed to. I did fine. When I went to talk to the parents, no and luckily one of the other investigators, because he heard the call and he knew, and he's like, I'll come out with you. Yeah. And he was able to step in.
SPEAKER_02Didn't think about that. Yeah, I mean, because that hit way too close to home. And it makes sense. You know, my son's autistic, and anytime I deal with an autistic um person, uh it it does hit more at home. So you're right.
SPEAKER_14And you're usually more uh empathetic. You're you're when you're dealing with them, you know, than than I was when I was 27 and didn't care or didn't know. Say I didn't care, but um, I had no idea, you know. But life experiences that we have now roll over into our careers.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And now, before you know it, it's it you're about ready to turn it in.
SPEAKER_14I am. And and I'll miss a lot of the aspects of it. I won't miss Oh, I can't say this. Hang on.
SPEAKER_02Uh you won't miss having to leave. There's some things I won't miss. You won't miss having to learn exactly how many times the light has to blink on and off.
SPEAKER_14You know, I didn't mind that. It was convincing budget and finance to spend the money on that light that flashed, you know.
SPEAKER_15Um I could only imagine they're like, there's gotta be a cheaper option somewhere, right? Yes.
SPEAKER_02Uh can't you go to the dollar store and get one of those little flashy things to Okay.
SPEAKER_14We uh had some engines, Ford had some engine issues, you know, a few years back in their diesels, and we were we would blow an engine, and an engine was like fifteen thousand dollars. And and people, I won't say who, but they're like, Well, can't you just go, you know, swap out an engine and put this engine in instead of that? I mean, you know, I'm like, okay, you know, this is your personal vehicle, yes, but but the liability here, you can't do that.
SPEAKER_02With a special made machine here, like yeah, and again, this it you're getting approval from people that just don't understand, right? You know, it it is but I can go get a cheaper engine for my vehicle, but you can't do that in a vehicle that's depending on taking saving somebody's life.
SPEAKER_14Yeah, because then if anything happens, it's my fault because I put this the line for the engine in the factory in, you know, and you start running into issues.
SPEAKER_15When it comes to an ambulance, how many batteries run it like? Two. Two? Just two? Just two. That wasn't the answer I was expecting, but what was you thinking? Like its own little battery powered system somewhere.
SPEAKER_14Has the main battery, and then they'll put another one usually on the other side, or some of them put them in a battery box over here. But they are just two standard heavy-duty 12-volt batteries. Um back in the old days when everything was incandescent, right? And so you'd pull out of the ambulance bay and you'd have all your emergency lights on and the air conditioner running up front, and the air conditioner running out back, and the siren would go and it would start making these really weird noises as the voltage would drop to like, you know, six, seven volts, because it just you're sucking everything. That would be thin. You would push the accelerator and everything would light back up. After like six months, the batteries look like they've been on fire because you're cycling them so deep. Now, with everything being LEDs that draw next to nothing, you know, you don't have that problem anymore because the air conditioners are really the only thing that's the big draw in an ambulance now. Um the inverter draws some, but not bad. But man, back in the day.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I I I don't even think I'd have known to ask that question.
SPEAKER_15Yeah, I just got to I was he was talking about, you know, getting uh, you know, wanting them the cheaper engines. I'm like, how do you just power everything? Because I know it just can't be one batter.
SPEAKER_14I was thinking just one big power bank or something that's so um they would take in the old days, they would take the factory alternator out and put a special call at Lis Neville, was the company that made them 165 amp alternator in, right? And that helped. But it just cycled those batteries so heavy because it could dump out now 165 amps. And uh so it was very rough on batteries. And then they went to dual alternators. So a lot of ambulances had two alternators in them to keep up with the load. And uh, and so you had to kind of figure out if one alternator went bad, you had to notice, or otherwise it'd turn around and blow the other one because it just dumped the whole load now on one, you know. There's been several configurations through the years to try to you know make that work, but uh the light systems now are so much more uh energy efficient that that solved a lot of those problems.
SPEAKER_02Well, we've got since 2013, you being a director, and now you're about ready to hang it up. What's your plans after retirement? Um my first plan is I don't want to make a plan.
SPEAKER_14Okay. I don't want to have a plan. I don't want to wake up thinking today I've got to do this.
SPEAKER_02You know, that that's I guess the best part of retirement. Maybe repair a watch or two.
SPEAKER_14I told you my my old shop is set up. Um I can I know how. I really do. We can go back to that and sing your sewing machines. I can fix a sewing machine, an old sewing machine. Now these computer machines, I can't do those now. Um and I can fix vacuum cleaners because at the time dad did vacuum cleaners. We sold and repaired vacuum cleaners. That's a nasty job. Cleaning out somebody's vacuum cleaner, especially if they've had pets. Um I have my dad's boat, a 1971 uh bomber fishing boat that's harvest gold, fiberglass, the whole thing's gold. You like to fish? I love to fish. Uh now I don't bass fish. What do you do? Because that's more like work. Oh, yeah. That's you know, three throw three times here, fire the boat up, fire across the lake and fill three times. No, yeah, no. So, you know, I'm the go up in a cove and put a float on and put a live worm on there and fling it out there, and I don't care what I catch.
SPEAKER_02And do you do you bring him home or is he catching release?
SPEAKER_14Or in the old days I cleaned a lot of fish and they don't love it. I got lazy. Oh, I understand. I understand. You get about 10 bluegill in there, it's like, oh, that's way too much.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, but how delicious it was bringing those go-free guys. Bring those bluegill home, have the wife cook you some hush puppies.
SPEAKER_14Um now, if you could get like a catch nice big catfish or so. That's the beauty of the way I fish because you're using a little six-pound test line and you put live beta cricket or a worm or whatever, you throw it up against the bank, it could be a bluegill, or it could be a big old catfish sitting up there, or it could be a bass that just happened to be cruising by. You catch everything and you catch a carp on a six-pound test line. That's a fun game there. Oh, absolutely. You don't want it when you get it in.
SPEAKER_02And it's all and it and it's amazing how I know you probably can't, you know, you've worked your whole life, you probably can't fathom that you're gonna have you're gonna be able to do this as much as you can wake up in the morning and say, I'm gonna go fishing today and do it. And I can do it on a Tuesday.
SPEAKER_14And do it.
SPEAKER_02Everybody else's at work. Yep. And then pass everybody else to get it.
SPEAKER_14And the lake is oh yeah. I do that. I've done that for years. Like I'm on my way to work and I see somebody going by with a bathboat. Uh exactly.
SPEAKER_02So now I'm gonna be the one driving by things.
SPEAKER_14You know, have a day good at work.
SPEAKER_02Well, somebody, you know, that works as closely as uh myself and Tyler does with EMS, you have a great crew. I mean, absolutely awesome. I can I can sit here and name off several names of people, and uh I just can't, you know, there's just so many things that I I think because I've worked with some some rough people before. Coffee County is so fortunate to have the EMS that they have.
SPEAKER_14Right now, since COVID, when we started trying to rebuild, um, but we are finally staffing us back good, and I'm very happy with the the crews. I've got good people. And I've got people that have worked for me, that worked for me at Transmed, and now they're working for me at the county, and they've worked for me like 20 plus years. There's probably half a dozen of them uh that have worked for me a long time. Yeah. And we like each other, we get along, they like my management style. Not everybody does, but everybody's different. And I'll tell them when I hire them, if you don't like my style, go get a job somewhere else. There's a lot of openings in EMS, be happy somewhere. Yeah. Um and and I've got some really good people. Yeah. You do that really care about their patients and they want to do right. And even when we're just 90 to nothing and we're trying to get an ambulance ready for the next call, you know, they don't stress, they get the job done.
SPEAKER_02Um you can't you can't tell if they are stressing, you can't tell it because they're there to work. They do it every time I see them.
SPEAKER_14And and I'm I'm really proud of every the crews. And I know the crews are happy with you too. I've talked I've talked to a lot of them.
SPEAKER_02I've talked to a lot of them. Your retirement party is tomorrow. Tomorrow, two to four, yeah. And then I've got one more week. And what are you gonna do your last week? I'm gonna work very hard. You know, I think that you deserve a week of of just being able to gel out. I'm gonna spend the week packing my office.
SPEAKER_14Oh my gosh, I've got so much time. I think it's my stuff.
SPEAKER_0241. Well, even the the director 13 back in 2013, so that's 13 years right there.
SPEAKER_14And I brought a lot of it because um, well, like the desk, when I when I took the job, the the director's desk was falling apart. And I had a really nice desk at TransMed that I had used, my ambler service. I said, Well, I was bringing in. So now the desk is mine, the chair's mine, the carry cabinet's mine, the display case is mine, the bookcase is mine. I mean, you know, oh my goodness, the chair, it's all stuff that I'm the next director's. Yeah, they're gonna be gonna do the director.
SPEAKER_15I'll push up, you know, in place the next director's gonna be outside. He's gonna walk into your room like, what happened there? What happened to the tables right here?
SPEAKER_02What happened to the walls? Well, they went with bonus. Yeah, never mind. I bought them. He put the sheet broke.
SPEAKER_14Um so yeah, I've been packing. Um I I have collected little toy ambulances just back when you couldn't find them. Now I have over 200 of them. And I had display cases in my office, and so now I'm packing up toy ambulances and trying to, you know, figure out where I'm gonna do them. Yeah. Um, sell them on eBay. That's my retirement plan. Sell off my toy ambulances.
SPEAKER_02Um, but don't get rid of the ambulances. I don't want we don't want you to do that.
SPEAKER_14We want you to have something to be able to look and still have panic attacks with So um as I said, I have a daughter that is is total care, and so part of my retirement is to help take care of her. Uh my wife is three years behind me, so she's aging as well. Don't put that on there. No. Oh my goodness. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Okay, we were seeing the retirement and death of Michael Bonner today.
SPEAKER_14Um But you know, so it's hard. Moving moving moving somebody from the bed to the wheelchair, wheelchair to the couch, kids. Just to the shower chair, you know. So um part of me is just gonna be doing helping do that. Yeah. Um, I'm not one of those that's gonna buy a motorhome and travel the country. I'm just not my thing.
SPEAKER_02That's my thing. That's what I want to do. Me and my wife have talked about it. We're talking about as soon as I I mean, uh the day before retirement, we're probably leaving, and nobody's going they're gonna be looking for me and be like, I might do it for a couple months, but I don't know if I could just do it constantly like some people do. Hey, I'm gonna be podcasting taking this show on the road. Okay.
SPEAKER_15Tennessee roll call in New York City.
SPEAKER_14Everybody's different, but it's it's just not my thing. Good for you. Good for you. I'm a homebody, and uh my wife and I have been married 40 years, and so um we're gonna just enjoy each other.
SPEAKER_02What's your secret to being married for 40 years? Yes, dear.
SPEAKER_15I've learned that one. Yes, sure. You got it.
SPEAKER_14How to handle diversity uh or adversary. What's the word? That's not the right word.
SPEAKER_02Adversity. Adversity, there it is, thank you. Yes, I'm I'm from Grundy County.
SPEAKER_14You're not always gonna get along. Yeah, right? And and you can't just say, well then forget it and walk away. You you gotta be able to say, all right, we gotta work through this one way or the other. And that it works in as a management as well. I can't just fire somebody every time they screw up because I'd be in the ammo a lot more. Um you gotta be able to say, hey, let's get through this, don't do that again, or do it this way next time, but we're okay, you know. Because that's just relationships. You gotta be able to get along with people. And and I've worked very hard and and I hope I've achieved this. I get along with the police departments, with the fire departments, with the rescue squads, with all of the other emergency services, which to me was that just made sense. That of course you do, but you hear of these other counties and other cities, you hear horror stories. We got to get along.
SPEAKER_02Well, that's why I want to stress it to you that you know, whenever you have the good thing that you have in the Gough County EMS, it really is a big deal. Because, like you said, and I've seen it, I'm sure Tyler's seen it. There are places that do not get along, they can't sit down and talk, they can't communicate. And if you have harbored an environment to where we can all get along and you've contributed to that, I say that's probably one of the best things. I I think that's key.
SPEAKER_14You've just got to. I mean, uh when I'm picking up a 600-pound patient, I need somebody to help. Right. And and if y'all are on the scene and I'm saying, hey guy, now we don't even have to ask. Y'all can look at us and go, hang on, and you'll jump right in. And that's uh when I do death scenes, the investigators uh they'll just jump right in. They just know we gotta work together and get this done. And there are places don't do that.
SPEAKER_02No.
SPEAKER_14And they'll just step back and go, good luck, you know, and that's wrong. And that's not you can't.
SPEAKER_02That's why I love our that's why I love our community, and I keep I say it all the time. Our community is so fortunate to have what we got.
SPEAKER_14I really we really are. We just um and I've uh I'll tell 'em anybody I'm talking to, there's not an officer I dislike, uh, there's not an administrator I dislike. We just have good. People.
SPEAKER_02And I mean, maybe different goals or different ways to get to those goals. But you always handle it well.
SPEAKER_14And you know, when you get on a scene, it's like, okay, who's in charge of this scene? Well, if something's burning, it's the fire department. Somebody's shooting, it's the police department. Somebody's got an infectious disease that'll kill you. That's us. We're on it. We all know our spot and we stay in our lanes, but we help each other. You know, and um, and I think that's key is to work together. And you and I worked a really, really bad scene not too long ago that we had to have the dog catcher as the lead. Yeah. You know, that had to happen before any of us could do our job. And so there's always somebody that's got to help out. I've had record services that I needed the lead on because I need you to I well man, years ago, an 18-wheeler crashed into a creek on the interstate. Nose first, the cab, and then the trailer came in and crushed the cab. And we're in water, and I'm wading under this creek, and I get in there and I'm gonna hold this guy out of the water because he's hanging upside down from the cab, and he and his legs are trapped. And so I'm just standing in this creek holding him up. And the fire department's there with their uh jaws and all that, trying to, you know, and they couldn't. Finally ended up hooking a wrecker on the bridge and a wrecker up here on the interstate and pulling this cab apart while I'm inside it with this guy. And I'm holding him up, and that sound of metal being pulled apart, you know, and I'm thinking, oh, if this goes wrong, this is not me. But again, at that point, the wrecker service is the people who are the most important. I need y'all to get that we gotta get this guy out of here, right? Helicopter sitting there waiting. Um, but I can't we can't with the jaws up in there, his legs, that's just crushed metal, you know. And so every scene is different, and and every time you've got a and I'd get along with the record drivers because we all do our part and it's important, and sometimes the person that you weren't thinking of is now the person you need the most, you know, and so all the services work together. I think we do great.
SPEAKER_02Well, on behalf of you know of Coffee County, everybody, thank you for what you've done. Thank you for 41 years awesome years. You does it feel like 41? It does not. It went by so fast. So you're telling me telling everybody else to relish it.
SPEAKER_14You cannot imagine how fast you look back and go, whoa. And and like there'll be today in history, you know, little things about. And I'm thinking, okay, wait a minute, I was alive for all of that. That's not history. That's okay, I must be getting old. You just don't realize. I mean, the 250th anniversary of our country, I remember the 200th, right? And I'm thinking, okay, hang on. That happens with me with 50 years apart. How did that happen?
SPEAKER_02That happens with me with movies whenever they say this is the 30th anniversary of this movie. And I'm like, well, I was.
SPEAKER_14It just came out. Oh hang on a second. I went and saw that when it came out. What do you mean it's 30 years?
SPEAKER_02Oh, I'm feeling that now. My daughter, my young baby, my baby baby girl is 19 and in college now. I'm and I'm like, where did that time go?
SPEAKER_14Yes, mine are well, mid-30s and mid-20s, and and then my my daughter Rachel's 21 now. We got we adopted her when she was eight months old. And you're just like, oh, that can't be. Yeah. Where did the time? It goes, it's you know, that whole over the hill. They're not kidding, the other side of the hill is just fast downhill, man.
SPEAKER_02Well, speaking of time, I think we're about done today. Thank you. Thank you so much, uh, Bonner, for coming on. Thank you for all that you've done. Uh Tyler.
SPEAKER_15Good luck on your next chapter.
SPEAKER_02Good luck on your next chapter. He's gonna be fishing. Yeah, exactly. All that he needs to be witch enough to love it.
SPEAKER_14I need good luck fishing because although I can fish all day and not catch a thing. I'd be out there eight hours, and my wife's like, Did you catch anything? Well, no, not really. A good time. But a good relaxing. And you're like, oh hang on, maybe now's the time. I know here's another five hours of not catching anything. But that's okay.
SPEAKER_02It's very peaceful, it's very quiet. And that's what you need. Funner, thank you for everything. Thank you for the years of service. Thank you for being on the show today. Thank you for having me, and thank y'all.
SPEAKER_10I just want to say, I hope you have a happy retirement. It's well deserved after putting up with me for the past 20 plus years. Thank you for always being family, thank you for always being a friend, and enjoy your retirement. You will be missed.
SPEAKER_01Hey, boss, I just want to wish you the best on the retirement. You know where we're at if you ever need anything.
SPEAKER_13Hey, Chief, congratulations on the retirement. Uh, thank you for the years of dedicated service and leadership. Uh, wishing you and your family nothing but the best in your retirement. Congratulations again.
SPEAKER_08Hey, Michael, congratulations on your retirement. We're gonna miss you, and I love you.
SPEAKER_15Congratulations on a wonderful career. We're wishing you nothing but the best. I'll volunteer hard. Couldn't be surprised you can anytime you want to.
SPEAKER_05Congratulations, Michael. It was a hard job putting up with all of us for so many years. You've earned this. Congratulations, Michael. But you can't get rid of us that easy.
SPEAKER_10We all know where you live.
SPEAKER_05Congratulations. We love you.
SPEAKER_09Congrats on your retirement, Boner. Thanks for a good job and good luck out there.
SPEAKER_00We just want to congratulate Chief Bonner on his retirement and thank him for his years of hard work and dedication to the people of Coffee County and to the employees of Coffee County EMS. Congratulations, boss.
SPEAKER_06Hi, this is Kay and Chelsea from C Shift, wishing you a happy retirement. Now Rachel could have her dad home more, and your wife can get a break.
SPEAKER_07Bye. Hey, Mr. Bonner. On behalf of Coffee County Calm Center, we just wanted to say thank you for all your years of service and hard work.
SPEAKER_08Congratulations to you. Thank you for all your years of service here at Coffee County EMS. Congratulations on no more alarms and no more late-night calls. Hope you enjoy it. Happy retirement.
SPEAKER_12Bye. Congratulations, Michael, on your retirement. It's been 31 years since you offered me a job at TransMed. And I just want to tell you thank you for giving me that opportunity. Thank you for being a great boss and also a great friend. Take care.
SPEAKER_01Hey Michael, congratulations on your retirement, and I hope you enjoy it.
SPEAKER_11Hey Michael, just wanted to say thank you for putting up with me for all these years. Uh, just want to thank you for always pushing me to do my best, always giving me the opportunity to be successful, and I hope you have a great retirement. Congratulations.
SPEAKER_05Hey Minor, Ancient Favor Asian Zillow. Wanted to congratulate you.
SPEAKER_01And wish you a happy time.