Ashley-Hudson Volunteer Fire Department Captain Austin Acker

In this episode of Frontline Voices, we sit down with Fire Captain Austin Acker, a leader shaped by experience, accountability, and a deep commitment to the fire service.
Captain Acker shares his journey through the ranks, offering insight into what it truly means to lead on and off the fireground. From high-pressure decision-making to building trust within a crew, this conversation dives into the realities of modern fire service leadership.
We talk about:
The transition from firefighter to officer—and the weight that comes with it
Leadership under stress and earning respect the right way
Training culture and preparing crews for the worst day
Lessons learned from the fireground that carry into everyday life
The importance of mentorship and developing the next generation
This episode isn’t just about rank—it’s about responsibility, growth, and the mindset it takes to lead when it matters most.
Whether you’re a seasoned officer, an up-and-coming firefighter, or someone who just wants a real look inside the fire service, this is a conversation you won’t want to miss.
Listen now and hear what leadership really sounds like on the front lines.

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:00

Austin Ecker, thank you for joining Frontline Voices. Of course, good to be here. So let's start with your introduction. Correct me if I'm wrong. Husband, Father, Captain First Captain of Ashley Houghton Fire. Captain of Salem Fire. Underwater rescue technician. Rescue technician.

SPEAKER_02 0:25

Um tow truck supervisor? I'm a supervisor of light duty towing, and then I'm a heavy record operator.

SPEAKER_04 0:35

Anything else that we can add to the list of titles to your name?

SPEAKER_02 0:40

Um active member of the CSM debrief team.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

Entrepreneur?

SPEAKER_04 0:49

Yes. Entrepreneur. Alright. So let's start at the beginning. Tell me about Little Austin.

SPEAKER_02 0:57

Uh Little Austin grew up in a small area of Greenfield Mills out there in Howe, Indiana. Grew up with a mom, um, stepdad, brother, sister. Um, grew up there for most of my childhood, and then moved down to Norfolk, Virginia. I got a started up a lot of my stuff, um, learned some life lessons and the other avenues of life besides countryside to the city life, and moved back to this area and where I spent the rest of my adolescent childhood um until adulthood.

SPEAKER_04 1:37

I see. So let me ask you, when did you first get the spark or the itch for helping the public? I'm assuming fairly young.

SPEAKER_02 1:51

Yes, yes, uh, I would say young. Down in Virginia, uh, when I lived down there, it was heavily into gang wars um down in that area. So you didn't get to go out a lot and just run the neighborhoods like like we used to. So I got introduced to a program in in high school. Uh it was Navy uh JRTC. It's a beginner program for military students. So they they pushed us really heavily onto community service and getting out there in communities and being able to see what a little bit of goodwill went and did towards the communities and getting to see the aftermath of what we did. Going different areas and cleaning, cleaning areas up and working in soup kitchens and stuff like that. So it started that progression of, I guess you could say, a fulfillment of getting to do something that not a lot of other kids our age went out and did.

SPEAKER_04 2:59

I see. That's very profound. That's profound for the uh a person of youth to be exposed to that kind of thing and have that realization. Was there any moments in your youth that specifically caught your attention and said, Yep, I want to be of service to others?

SPEAKER_02 3:23

If not, that's perfectly fine. I'm trying to think, you know, it's it's just one of those situations where it's it's an eye-opener for you. And you just I think a lot of people agree after certain aptitude of seeing the goodwill that goes around, it's it's either for you or it's not for you. And it's just something that it it clicks with you. That that's that's gonna be my fulfillment, or no, I really don't want to do that, you know. And for me it was it felt a lot nicer to help people than it felt just to sit around and not do anything. I see.

SPEAKER_04 4:06

Now you had mentioned you were in uh J R O T C. I'm assuming that that was the plan. Join that that program as a youth and and move on to the military being your career, I'm assuming. Correct. Okay. In starting in your youth, joining the JROTC, is that where you learned collaborative efforts, building teamwork, and all the things that make you the leader that you are today?

SPEAKER_02 4:42

I wouldn't say that's what made me into leader I am today, but I would strongly agree with that was the starting bridges for it. And starting that, I had two great instructors down there uh that led us down that path and was very heavy on the teamwork aspect of everything. Everything was a teamwork effort, and that's what laid that foundation for the future of where I am today.

SPEAKER_04 5:15

I see. Bouncing around a little bit, I want to talk about family. Um I know from personally knowing you that family has been a huge thing for you. Um I know a little bit about your background. Um there was divorce in in your family. So that was, I'm sure as a youth that was that was difficult. And currently, I know that you had a previous relationship and you fought very hard to make sure that your kids were with you and that you kept them together. And you and Hope have built this this life together, which Hope is wonderful. If anybody hasn't met Hope, she's she's fantastic. But uh, my question is how did you transfer from being a child coming from lack of better words, a broken home, to being so consumed with making sure that your family stayed whole with your kids, with your wife, with your how is that transition? How how did you how did you get because generally, statistically, if you come from a situation like that, it it travels with the person and then it's a continued process. So if you could break that, if you could break that down for me.

SPEAKER_02 6:41

Um you you couldn't have said that better. Um statistically speaking, that's that is how it works. And uh I did. I came from a a very broken family, um, rough childhood growing up and all that stuff, to where when my my grandparents took custody of me, that's how I ended up back up here. And the the one thing I always looked at when my my ex-wife and I were going through our divorce uh proceedings. Um it was I don't want my kids to go through what I went through. And I didn't want them to be broken up um to to any means. So and a lot of it was just sheer luck of how it ended up. Um Indiana is notoriously known as as mother state, which statistically proven that's that's what it is, that's not just me saying that. And um I got I got really lucky when I got awarded my my children. And it's you know, we we can get into the technicalities of it, but that's that's what saved me. Um so family is it's top tier, the most important thing for me. Um and I I press that to everybody that if if you don't have a good family life, then you're you're behind the life already. Because you you have to have family to to make it. You really do. Um and my hope my wife that I married to has been outmost uh the best, not only mother, but wife that anybody could ask for. She went from having zero kids to having three kids overnight. Um, and I mean that quite literally, anybody can anybody can go out and ask her. It's uh it was quite the transition that I don't think any woman would have been prepared for. And she took it and she ran with it, which built our family from the foundation up. And it's it's been a ride.

SPEAKER_04 9:00

It's been it's been a ride. So what I'm hearing is Hope is like a superhero. Oh, she is.

SPEAKER_03 9:05

Oh, she is.

SPEAKER_04 9:06

I'm I'm I'm nothing compared to her at all. That's awesome. Um, well, we'll take a break from the family aspect. Let's go into your military experience. Okay. You served as a 12B combat engineer, one of the Army's most demanding MOSs. How did that shape your mindset? Uh it ruined my mindset.

SPEAKER_00 9:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 9:27

It took it being it being 12 Bravo, it it takes everything you know about life and what's supposed to be right, and it it turns it, right? Um, we're taught to build build buildings, uh, build build everything up, right? My job was tear down. Um and it's it's different. So it's it's one of the mentalities that it breaks you and then it builds you back up. And when it builds you back up, it builds you brick by brick by brick by brick of how they want you to be. Okay. Um, it builds you into one of those mentalities. So a 12 Bravo MOS is a combat MOS, it's the most understrength MOS in the military. Um, it's in the top five most dangerous, at least it used to be. Um as uh as a 12 Bravo, you're you're explosives and you you build buildings, stuff like that, work with bridges and all that type of stuff. Um But you're also uh a leader to a lot of other people in the military because they rely on you for a lot of different stuff. You go out and you train on a lot of different stuff. It's kind of kind of like anything else, you're constantly learning. So it it builds foundation for everything else you go out and do in the military. Um it's it's most demanding, but it's also a you know, who who wakes up more and decides that they want to go work explosives in my job, more or less, who wants to jump out of a plane carrying life explosives and laying on the ground? You know, it's that's a little crazy, but it's just the path it took.

SPEAKER_04 11:04

You gotta be a little crazy, dude. Exactly. So, with that experience, what kind of leadership lessons did you gain from the army that guide you on the fire ground today?

SPEAKER_02 11:18

It it taught me a lot. Um I worked under a lot of great leaders and a lot of not so great leaders. It showed the different mentalities of working under pressure and being able to solve those issues under pressure, along with how to deal with those different situations on the fly. Um and this is my own personal opinion here. I've I feel anybody that's served in the military under an MLS that that deals with high stress, and then they turn into leaders in the community, they're a little bit more well-versed because they've they've been drilled under pressure. Um it it's different than the fire academy teaching you how to deal under pressure. This is this is real life under pressure. And it teaches you to fire on all cylinders all the time. It keeps your head on a swivel at all times. And it it helps you point out those individuals on scene and to give them the feel of the land of we need this, this, this, this, and this, and this is how we're gonna do it. And it's it's rapid. I don't know really how to do slow, but it's everything's always been rapid. So is that a good thing, a blessing? I don't know yet, but so far it's worked. I see.

SPEAKER_04 12:48

So how how long how many years of service in in the fire service have you have you experienced? Or how how how long has your service been? I'm coming up on believe 12 years now. 12 years. And how long have you been with Ashley Hudson Fire? Just about four. Four. What drew you to Ashley?

SPEAKER_02 13:14

So I moved out to Helmer, which Helmer does not have a fire station. Um kind of out there in my own little corner. Driving through town, and I would see, you know, the fire trucks going out. Uh bay doors would be open every now and then, and seeing the command buggy go in and out of town, which was a new thing for me, besides down in North Carolina, I'd see command buggies, but up here, not so much. So one day they had Ashley Hudson days. I didn't even know what that was. And uh fire department was having breakfast. I was hungry, so I stopped up and got talking to a couple of uh the older members, and um I I didn't even really ask for an application, actually. I just got handed one. Um the gentleman I talked to knew me from my time on Oreland Fire and uh said, Hey, here you go. Here's a pen, fill this up, give it back. And um, you know, that's it wasn't my my plan right then and there to get back into the fire service. Uh I'd taken taken a few years' break uh for uh rebuild my my mental health and get uh my personal life back on track. And so it just kind of fell back into the loop.

SPEAKER_04 14:37

So you came in, had some breakfast, and then you were held hostage for the last five years, pretty much is what you're saying. Pretty much. Pretty much. Okay. Um how would you describe the culture at the Ashley Hudson Volunteer Fire Department? Evolving. That is a very good definition.

SPEAKER_02 14:53

That's the best way to put it. I like that. I like that. It's the last I'd say three, three and a half years has been nothing but evolvement. Growing, learning, growing, growing, growing.

SPEAKER_04 15:08

Yeah, that's I think that is the perfect description. So to you, what makes a great firefighter?

SPEAKER_02 15:18

One that uh has the ability to learn. To be a sponge, to be adaptive, and uh have the heart to serve your community. It's you're not serving yourself. As soon as you you know you raise your hand, you take that oath, you you you get the cool t-shirts that we all want, right? Um you lose the right to dictate I want to do it or I don't want to do it. You you took the oath to serve your community and you have to have that drive. You have to have the willingness to train and learn and to listen to do the job because at that point we don't work for the fire department, we don't work for the town, we don't work for ourselves, we work for our community. No, it's taking this job, nobody calls us on the best day of their lives. They call us on their worst day of their life. We show up they don't care what we look like, they don't care the name on our shirt, the name on our trucks. They care about five brain surgeons jumping out of that truck. Right, yes, to to solve the issue they're having that day. And that's what makes a great firefighter. You know, we could go anywhere. We could go down to Salem uh over to Pleasant Lake, um we could go into Angola on standby. Uh a great firefighter, no matter where you're at, you you're performing to the best of your ability. No matter what. Rain, snow, sleet, hurricane, tornado, national disasters, we're the ones that everybody looks at for answers. And if we can't provide those answers, we're we're not great firefighters anymore. We're just part of the statistics.

SPEAKER_04 17:36

Well, now that you've built the blueprint of what makes uh a perfect firefighter, wow, how do you make sure that you build a team that consists of all those qualities that you look for to have?

SPEAKER_02 17:48

Trial and error. Um, anybody that tells you different is lying. Um you can't have a perfect team. You can't. Anybody that tells you they have a perfect team is lying to themselves. You always have flaws. The only thing I can do is train firefighters off the mistakes I've made. And how not to make those mistakes again. I shouldn't say how not to make those mistakes again, because they're gonna make them. Every firefight does. How do you mitigate? How do you mitigate what's gonna happen on scene? Compared to when we can go down in the bay right now and ask any of the guys down there, when we come back from scene, what do we do? Debrief. Every scene. And every single officer here at Ashley is very good about that now. But that's always been one of my personal things that I do with my guys. It's we come back and we debrief, right? We sit around the bay table, and that's that's where we serve we solve all the life issues, right?

SPEAKER_04 18:52

Right, yes.

SPEAKER_02 18:54

That there, that one action itself builds about the most perfect team as you can. I can train you all day long. I can show you right from wrong. I can show you what I expect as a captain of a crew. But at the end of the day, you're the firefighter, right? What are you gonna do on scene? You're gonna do what you know, right? Yes, yep. So my perfect team is I don't have I don't have to watch you on scene. I I train you how I know you're gonna act, how you're gonna perform on scene. So when we get on scene, if I'm running command, I know my crew. I I don't even gotta tell you to hook a hydrant. I don't gotta tell you, hey, deploy that line to the front door. You're already doing it. Because our training program teaches you that. Me as a leader, I can do my the rest of my activities and I know I know you're perfect. And at the end of the day, if if anything went wrong, we talk that over as a team. It's it's a team, it's not hey Matt, you dropped your you dropped your tool. Why'd you do that? You know that was wrong, right?

SPEAKER_01 20:08

No, it's hey, what do we do wrong?

SPEAKER_02 20:11

Let them come to their own. Exactly. You know, it's so what makes a perfect team, I couldn't tell you. I couldn't. I've never seen a perfect team. I've seen great teams though. And that's that's what I strive for. I don't strive for perfect because you're never gonna get it.

SPEAKER_04 20:33

I think that's that's what we call a cut right there on that. And um so wow, that was really good, Austin. I I I couldn't say it better myself. That was that was a perfect definition of the kind of team that you're building in Ashley as the the training captain. And um wow, that was good. On more of a personal side of it, you're trained in tactical rescue and underwater search and recovery. What pushed you to chase those specializations? Because that's something that the average person isn't looking to get into. Yeah, I I agree.

SPEAKER_00 21:14

Um if you were to ask my wife right now, you know, two years ago, she'd be she'd be like, you know, what what are you doing, Linda?

SPEAKER_02 21:22

You know, you idiot. Like, why? Now she just she just rolled with it, right? So um the the underwater search and recovery team. Um I originally joined that team, honestly, because I'm terrified of water.

SPEAKER_04 21:41

And I've learned over my my years it's uh what better way to combat that fear besides jumping and literally submersing yourself in it.

SPEAKER_02 21:52

Um because I can swim. I've always been good at swim. Um scuba diving intrigued me, it really did. Uh seeing the gear and all that stuff, it it did. But I was terrified of water. Don't get me wrong, I uh water still scares me. But I I love it. It's it's the unknown. That's that's what it is. It's the unknown. The technical technical rescue certifications that I'm pursuing now. Um it kind of started as a blip with myself and Lieutenant Green, um, also the the fire chief of Salem, as just a little thing we we were you know sticking our feet into getting the fuel for. And then well, I don't know what happened, but that hole opened up, and him and I just fell right into that hole headfirst. Um, but it's been a rewarding pass so far. It really has. The networking that uh we've both been able to do since we've started our venture down the technical rescue route has been astronomical. It's we've met so many, so many different people from all over the place that's talked to us about the the technical uh classes coming up, coming around, and stuff like that. That it's I'm I'm really looking forward to the rest of the ventures down that path because it's it's something around this area that not a lot of people dip their feet into, but we have a need for it. The industrial areas that we're getting into, and just Ashley alone, is areas that we've we've never experienced before. The communities never experienced it, the fire departments never experienced it. Um your confined spaces are getting more and more common. Your high-angle rescues are becoming more common. You read more and more articles about it, uh horizontal uh extrications and rescues, uh underwater rescues that they've had recently where they've had to deploy tools, technical tools, to get the vehicles more stabilized to get patients out of them into culverts and stuff like that. It's we don't know what we're getting into. We really don't. So why not lay a foundation, not only in your department, but the surrounding departments, uh lay a foundation for why aren't we doing these classes more if if they're being offered? And especially when there's no cost involved. All it takes is time and dedication. And those two work hand in hand together. You know, time and dedication, we're we're not a paid department, we're volunteer. Um but we make the time. There's no reason everybody else can't make the time for that to better your your department for your community. That's one thing you know I preach it every time when my membership come to me with, I want to go to this training, right? It's one of the first questions that I ask.

SPEAKER_04 24:54

How's it gonna benefit?

SPEAKER_02 24:56

Yes. Yeah, and it's not really how's it gonna benefit the department? How's it gonna benefit the community? Yes. You know, if you can answer me that question, chances are I'm sending you that class, right?

SPEAKER_04 25:07

Absolutely, yes. Yep. Um well and uh to caveat off that, it's it's not usually not even just that, it's how's it gonna benefit you? Exactly. You care about everybody's own personal progressions along with that too.

SPEAKER_02 25:20

So I just wanted to add that. Yeah, I'd love everybody to go to, you know, uh let's say surface power technician class, right? I'd love everybody to go to that. But Matt, is that class really gonna benefit you? Right. You know, probably not. But would a PIO class benefit you more? Absolutely, you know? So if that answers that question to the to the best that I can, it's uh I guess if I'm summing that up into you know a sentence, it's it's because it's the land of the unknown. And that's what I like.

SPEAKER_04 25:54

How do those disciplines shape the way you respond to the high-risk situations that you very well could be a part of? Oh, it scares me.

SPEAKER_02 26:05

It scares me. It honestly does. Just like rolling out to a structure fire every time in the officer's seat. You know, there's not an author out there that can't tell you that their heart starts skipping some beats. Well, what am I rolling into? Well, what am I what am I going to? You know, do I have the right personnel in my truck for this? Do I have the right equipment in my truck for this? Every call we roll out on, it's that. The only difference with technical is your resources, your certified resources are coming from a lot further away. You know, confined space, for example, where's our our our closest confined space personnel coming from?

SPEAKER_04 26:45

Right, correct. Yeah, it's it's a bit of a drive.

SPEAKER_02 26:48

Correct. So you you're kind of you're kind of on your own until those other resources get there. They you can make a phone call and they can walk through some stuff. But if you only got one or two certified personnel, you're you're behind the eight ball already. And then how do I look at my community and tell them we weren't prepared? Right, yes, absolutely. Yeah. You know, so to sum it up, yeah, it's scary. It it really is. Um to be an officer on anything, it's it's scary. You know, a lot of younger guys are they're they're ready to get in the officer's seat, right? They're ready. Are you really though? Pump your brakes. Enjoy the bag view for a week. We pull up to uh we pull up to a search for tomorrow and I look at you okay, Matt, fire 1010. You got command. Can you get through it?

SPEAKER_04 27:48

Probably, right? Yeah, probably. I mean, relying on the boards and stuff, everything that's already pre prepared to help you through that. Yes. You know. Use the tools that we have, yeah. Probably. But do you want to be in charge? Absolutely not. Nope, nope, nope. I'm done. I'm done with that. Don't worry.

SPEAKER_02 28:05

Because uh I'm a can I I'm a fire captain and I I don't want to be either. You know, uh I'd rather be out there playing right along with my guys and working hard, and you know. But that's that's how we're trained. You know, to be a frontline officer is it's you're taking your responsibilities and you're leading your team. It's not managing the team, it's you're you're leading your team. Um that's that's the thing I do, and uh hopefully it doesn't answer any of your other questions when I say it. It's the the mentality that it pushes you into is how do you lead your team to the finish line each and every time? How do you do that? How do you set your goals, right? And I have one goal every time I walk out of the out of this out of my house, into the station, into the truck. When I look around my truck, and you've seen me do it countless times. I make eye contact with every one of my guys in my truck, I know what your strengths are, what your weaknesses are. I have one goal every single time. We're all coming home. One way or another, we are coming home. Because that's the only way I win is if all my crew make it back home to their families. I don't care if you make it back home to me. You need to go back to your house, right? Yeah. So to me, that's that's how I do that in my head for every call we roll out on is what are we going to? What do I need? What resources do I need? What type of call am I going to? Is it industrial? Is it residential? Is it hazmat? Is it a technical call? Am I certified for this type of technical call? No? Well, we got more issues. You know. Right, yeah. And how do I get my guys back home?

SPEAKER_04 30:08

You kind of in in what you just said, you kind of touch on this next question, but I still want to ask it to you. How do you train your team to be prepared for those calls that you hope never come in?

SPEAKER_02 30:26

That's that's a tough question. It really is. Um trying to think the best way to answer this, right? So you you kind of you kind of can't plan for them. You can't plan for them because you've never done them. Um you know, how do you how do you plan for a fire that you've never experienced before? How do you plan for uh family daughter distribution center going up in flames? Sure, we can make roof plans all day long. We can go put ladder 19 up on the roof right now. I can walk you through roof ventilation right now. I've never experienced a distribution fire.

SPEAKER_03 31:16

Right.

SPEAKER_02 31:17

You know, it's at that point you're making the best guess of how how you're gonna handle that. I mean, I we can read books all day long. I can tell you, well, this is what the SOPs, SOGs say. At the end of the day, when it comes down to it, it's a lot of it's hip hop hop hip pocket pirate. You know, your your training kicks in and you're relying on if if Dave the fire chief and Chris the assistant chief isn't in town, right? Well, well crap, I'm I'm next to George. Who am I calling? That's that's had experience with this stuff, right? Right. My next closest is you know Angola, right? Any of the any of their chiefs, um, I'd call them in a heartbeat. Hey, you know, fire one through five. I need you to respond to the scene. You know, or you know, gentlemen I I gentlemen that I would rely heavily on is um Tremont Fire Chief and Sister Chief Fire 2021. You know, hey, when you guys come down to the scene, tell me leave the scene. Um you can't be too proud to ask for help. You can't. And you can't let politics and egos get in the way of that no matter what. Because life safety is the number one priority. My number one priority should be myself, but it should be my firefighters and all the other life safety around. So kind of veered off there, sorry, but it's how do you prepare for it? I I can't give you that answer. I really can't. I only could prepare you for what I know. You know, we can make plans all day long. Well, those plans can go out the window as soon as it happens.

SPEAKER_04 33:10

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 33:10

They have multiple times, haven't they, Back?

SPEAKER_04 33:12

Yes, they have. They have. I actually I think I think that's a very, you know, that's a very poignant part of it. And and you're not gonna be prepared for that thing, and and you just do your best to make sure that your crew that you have understands that all calls are of serious nature and and don't think of it as just uh, oh, it's you know, just an alarm going off, not a big deal. Which uh, you know, you and the other officers here make you know very poignant parts to the day of. Don't ever think it's just run-of-the-mill stuff, which that I believe helps significantly in that.

SPEAKER_02 33:51

Every call is one thing happening away from a call you have never experienced in your life. All it takes is one change in the atmosphere, one change in the wind, one change in the the direction of the water, uh, one change in the mentality of the patient you're treating, be a situation you never experienced. Are you prepared to make a decision on the fly to change how you're doing your patient care or your fire attack? You know, do you keep your personal inside the building? Do you pull them outside of the building? You know, you're doing a water rescue, and that current changes from a surface water to a swift water. Are you changing your your mentality of how you're gonna rescue that patient? Or are you gonna keep going? Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 34:43

Yeah. This interview leans a lot on leadership, and that's because when you became a possible guest, I see how the people in this department look to you. And you are, even without title, you operate as a leader. So that's why a lot of this interview has goes into that leadership journey. Well, thank you. You have balanced multiple roles. Soldier, firefighter, captain, the tow industry. How do you balance that life with confidence and humility? Because you're always on the go. You're always going, you're always doing something. So how do you balance that?

SPEAKER_02 35:28

It's there for quite a few years, I I didn't. Everything just it just kind of ran into one another. That's the best way I can say it. Um I'd forget where everything was, what I was doing, you know, it it was hard. Um to what my wife ranged me in, you know, and was like, hey, you want to do this, this, this, this, this, this, plus this, this, this, this, this. This is how we need to do it. Here's your schedule. What do you need? And it reshaped my mindset of I have to be conservative of what I do to still be able to teach. And that's the main reason I do most of the stuff I do is I love teaching. I love teaching. I don't want to say the the youth, but the youth firefighters, the newer firefighters that come up because they're our next generation. Um, they're the ones that they replace us, right? Yes. Um, because we're not getting no younger. No. Uh stuff starts to hurt a little bit more. So it's how how do you how do you balance all that to be on the same platform as having everything on the same mentality of how you do it? You you do 20 tasks the same. You have 20 different categories at that point. No, you have one. As long as you have one goal, all that comes together as one sandwich, pretty much. Just with a lot of layers in it. Ever seen like those Scooby-Doo movies where he's got the giant sandwich and he compresses it down? Yes. Well, that's that's kind of what it's like. Okay. So you got 50 different tasks and you you manage those all the same, it becomes one. Yeah, it's different categories, it's different departments, different um separations of everything, but it it comes together, and being able to utilize your personnel. It really is. That that comes to the um humility of it is breaking it down for your guys, right? And treating them like human beings. They're they're not a number. You got a number on your helmet, but I I don't know the last time I called one of you guys by your numbers, right? It's hey, Matt, what do you think? What you know, how do you want to do this? I'm giving you guys some options, how you want to do it. Yeah, every once in a while we we gotta be stern with what we do, right? Because in this job it can kill you. And then that's it. This job's always looking to kill you. It is. It's it's the one job we willingly sign up for with a smile on our face. It's one job that's constantly trying to kill you.

SPEAKER_03 38:36

Right.

SPEAKER_02 38:37

Yes. So how do we mitigate that? By doing what we do, by letting you guys figure out how to do it. Your way. Not my way. Your way. My way works for me. My way of doing 50 tasks works one way. But yours. I don't know if that really answers that question.

SPEAKER_04 39:01

Oh, yeah, very, yes, very, very much so. Now, you and you had mentioned new recruits and like working with them. How do you mentor a new recruit that might be nervous or unsure of themselves? I know one thing that you do do, which I think is very beneficial, is you try to find somebody that's more senior that has a very light mindset. Right. Something that they can they can learn from somebody who's like them. But yeah, how do you how do you build them and make them confident and and just not questioning everything?

SPEAKER_02 39:41

Um so the one thing I'll say is um you always question everything, right? About the time you don't ask questions is about the time that I I start wondering if if you're in the right profession still. I and I am very heavy on building a mentorship program, like you mentioned. Um, because I'm not everybody's cup of tea, but by no means it's well established. But somebody else is. And you learn better when you are working with somebody that's like-minded. So what I do with everybody is, and I do this on a lot of my aspects of life, is I sit back and I watch. And I I got the uncanny ability to very quickly distinguish strengths from weaknesses, and that's what I have to focus on. I don't gotta focus on your strengths. There are your strengths for a reason. The only thing I do with your strengths is I manifest those and I help them blossom. I focus on your weaknesses to get them up there with your strengths. Because once I can get your weaknesses figured out, you're unstoppable. And what do you focus more on? Your strengths are your weaknesses on your everyday thing, right? Your weaknesses, absolutely. Exactly. Yeah. What stops you from doing most of your stuff in life? Your weaknesses. Correct. Because you let them get in your head. So if I can manifest those and turn those into strengths, you can do anything in life. You're unstoppable. And that's the avenue I look at is yes, I'm here to make you a firefighter. That's literally my job as a training officer. To make you into a firefighter and make sure you come back alive and you know what you're doing when you step off that truck. But that's not my goal. My goal is to turn you into a functioning piece of society by seeing what you like, what you don't like, and making everything you look at into well, how can I turn that around? How do I turn that into something I can use? Because then when you every single time you walk in this door, what are we doing today? What are we working on today? How about this? Can we work on this? I really want to do this. I've had so many guys that that they just Matt Matt was one of them. You know, a few years ago, uh, would walk in and just kind of sit around a little bit and watch what everybody's doing and and slowly try to back themselves back out the door. We don't play that here. We don't do that, do we, Matt? No, we don't. No, no. I find ways to get you involved. Not just in the fire department. You know, Matt, I'm sure three years ago you didn't think you'd be a PIO. Yeah, no. Nope. Or a chaplain. But the very first time you mention it to me, hey, bam, bam, bam. Full steam ahead. Here's your here's your phone numbers to contact. They're expecting your phone call. Yes. How how do I make you into a better person? Is is my goal. And if I can't do that, then you know, that's my goal as a training officer. And I find a lot of fulfillment in doing it. Because that's that's my ambition, is to make everybody else better. Because it makes myself better.

SPEAKER_04 43:34

What does success mean to you as a leader in the fire service? Success means to me coming home.

SPEAKER_02 43:49

Because it means you did your job and you did your job correctly. Success is your brothers and sisters coming home with you. Coffee, or in our cases, a lot of times juice boxes. Juice boxes. And s smile and laugh at what are our wins. We don't really focus on our losses. We focus on our wins. Success is your community coming in here and praising you for the good jobs you're doing. Or seeing you out in the community. Success is seeing those little kids walking down the street and smiling at you and running up to you when you're not even in uniform and giving you a hug because they're a firefighter. They've been at my school. Right. You know, they they were there helping my my mommy when she was sick. You know, that to me is success. You've made it. Your fire department has made it. They've made a meaningful impact. You know, the the biggest success for for any fire department can be uh you're you're known wherever you go, right?

SPEAKER_01 45:02

Off of whatever aspect it might be, as long as it's a good one.

SPEAKER_02 45:05

Right, yeah. As long as it's a good aspect. Let me put that out there. Yep. You know, you your training programs, your your fire attack, your apparatuses. Uh, Matt, for you, you became well known for your podcasts. You know, for for everybody watching, we we went down to a winter fire school. We got approached by four people.

SPEAKER_04 45:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:28

A couple of them we didn't even know. Didn't even know. You know, that's success. No matter what avenue you look at it, that's success. And that's that's what you have to grasp and hold on to. Because when those times get bad, and they do, they get dark. Um that's what brings you out of that hole. And I've experienced not having that before, and that hole closing in on you. And that's one experience I I choose to never experience again. So success to me is it's very heartfelt. And that's the only way of life to focus on.

SPEAKER_04 46:11

Yeah, that's a poignant, that's a poignant point that you're making there. Yeah, that that that is what shows success. A little bit of a lighter side. We're gonna get into community, family, and faith.

unknown 46:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 46:26

What does community service mean to you personally?

SPEAKER_02 46:30

Showing up for your community. Um, and to elaborate on that, it's you know, I've said it once, we we work for our community. Your community service is showing up when they need you. You know, like we taking branches off of somebody's roof, you know, helping clean their gutters out. You know, we're not we're we're not one-stop shop hall, but we we kind of are. You know, it's being there for your citizens, no, no matter what they want. Even even helping an old lady across the street, you know, if Nancy Drew walks in here and be like, hey, I I got this branch, it's hanging on the house, kind of, you know, teeter-totter in there, we're just gonna walk uh look at and be like, oh, you got you got to call the street department.

SPEAKER_04 47:17

Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:18

You know, no, we're gonna show up here and we'll help, right? That's that's community service to me. It's it's not going out and logging hours for some award, you know, trying to trying to log hours and look at me. I went and helped Drew and Sandy for eight hours, you know. Oh woo-hoo. No, it's not that. It's what we do silently that that makes us a community-based department. We don't want the recognition. Recognition makes us all blush in the face and embarrassed, and we don't know what to say. You know, we get shaky of the hands anytime somebody approaches us, oh, thank you for your service and thank you for everything you do. Sure. Just do them a job. You're welcome. Yeah, yeah. You know, it's it's awkward. But that's because we're out there. We're doing our community service by going to schools, talking to kids, going out in the community, just showing up family, saying, Hey, hi. Community service is going out and doing your building inspections. If you're not doing your building inspections, what are you doing?

SPEAKER_04 48:27

Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:28

You know, you're failing your not only community, but the rest of your membership when that place catches on fire. You know, shame on you. Oh, are you going out inspecting your knocked boxes, making sure they work? Guess what? That's community service.

SPEAKER_01 48:44

It's it's not a I can go do this. No, it's a requirement.

SPEAKER_02 48:49

That's what your community expects of you. Correct.

SPEAKER_04 48:54

Yes. We're gonna delve back into the family aspect a little bit. Okay. How has how has your family supported your mission of service? As we've established, your wife is a rock star and and she has the gold stars. But beyond just just your relationship with your wife, how has your family supported your mission?

SPEAKER_02 49:28

Um aside from you know, my my wife and my kids, my my family's not really, they're not too active in my life. Um, never really have been. Uh, you know, we kind of we kind of meet up whenever, you know, some family events, some holidays, yada yada yada. Um, but the rest of the time we're just keying, I guess, towards important aspects of life. It it happens. Um, you know, her family, hope side of the family is really supportive of everything. Um but it's my my kids have been rocks during all of it. Um they get a kick out of everything I I get to take them to. Um and the way I look at it is they're they're supportive of me. It's teaching them a valuable aspect of what all life has to offer. Um however we look at that. Um my wife has been more supportive than I I probably would have been being in her position um and allowing me to do everything I do. Because with without having the the approval of your family, it's it's very hard to do your job and do your job properly. So it's they're very supportive of how I do stuff and why I do stuff. Um and they're why I do most of what I do to you know, show them the the different aspects of what public service is and what it's about and why we do it. Um and they've made a lot of lifelong friends out of it as well from everybody here at the station. Um get to see different people's perspectives of of me as not so much a father and husband, but as a member of the community. So it opens the eyes of all of us all the time. Um it makes family outens very interesting uh to say the old east, but it's it's nice having their back. It really is.

SPEAKER_01 51:35

So that's about the most I can say on that aspect, I I guess.

SPEAKER_04 51:41

That's um, yes, very, very good. Earlier you talked about in the transition from Orlean to Ashley that you took some time off for your mental health.

SPEAKER_03 51:51

Correct.

SPEAKER_04 51:52

And I know that you are spearheading building a peer support team in this region. My question to you is, how do you take care of yourself mentally and emotionally while you're trying to support others?

SPEAKER_00 52:11

Um there's a curveball for it. It is curved ball. It is curved ball. Um my my answer to that is my my rock at home.

SPEAKER_02 52:21

Uh my my superstar wife. Honestly, between her and I have uh a really good friend over at Kindle of Fire, um, her name's Jess Inman. Um between the two of them, it's they they've taken a spearhead of a lot of my my mental health issues. So I kind of got I kind of gotta back up a little bit for to get the the full aspect of this, right? So uh when I when I left Oreland and I moved out to Helmer, um seeing death at a young age isn't it's it's not meant to happen. Um some of what we see is never supposed to be meant to happen, right? Never meant to be be seen by human eyes. Um how does the brain process that? You know, I I don't know I don't know scientifics in that, nor do I really want to know. Um PTSD is a a very real thing. It is. Um and when I when I left Orland, um, you know, it's I had an addiction. You know, I was going through going through my divorce, and you know, I made some wrong choice in my life. Um I got addicted pretty heavily into alcohol. That's that's how I got through my nights. Um shutting bars down, and that's the only way I could get my mind to um to turn it on to get to get sleep. Um and that time it it was great, man. It was great. Uh but the bad aspect was you know, I was still an active firefighter. Um I was still going calls, not drunk. Never drunk. Um but when I went home, that's that's what I would do. Um and it got it got bad enough that it I stole. You know, I took I took money to feed my addiction. And it it took a severe wake-up call. You know, hey, what what is going on? You know, what what are you doing? When people started to realize, hey, Austin's he's not acting right. You know, something's going on. You know, my mind was so fried from not only the military, but uh seeing everything we saw. You know, it's it takes a lot out of you. And that was that was my way to deal with it was alcohol. One, it tasted good and two, it made me numb. It was great. Um until I I had you know, an old assistant chief that caught up on a lot of stuff and was like, hey, you know, you'd have messed up already legally. You know what's what's it gonna take for you to realize? And what what brought me back to reality was my kids. You know, I have three kids.

SPEAKER_01 55:19

What am I doing? I don't want to be here no more, man. I didn't.

SPEAKER_02 55:24

That black hole was was just about closed.

SPEAKER_03 55:26

Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 55:27

You know, and and I I was ready. You know, I was going through divorce. Good you know, and I woke up one morning and you know, it changed. Moved away from from what my issues were, you know, started started my life over. Um started talking with hope, and we got got on good adventure there, and I got sober, not 100% sober, I still drink every once in a while, um, more socially than anything. Um but it'll never be that bad again. And between hope and my kids, it it saved my life. It really did. And it opened my mind to the mental health aspect of it. We never talked about mental health in the in the fire service. Right. We never did. Yep. You know, it was the stigmatism of I'm on the firefighter. I don't want to be the weak guy.

SPEAKER_01 56:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 56:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 56:35

Why why would I want to do that?

SPEAKER_02 56:36

Yeah, you know, I'll go home, I'll do it with myself. And I did it with a bottle. Right. You know?

SPEAKER_04 56:42

Um unfortunately, it's the statistics are showing that is that is a common common thread. It is.

SPEAKER_02 56:48

Um but we don't do that here, do we?

SPEAKER_04 56:51

No, we don't.

SPEAKER_02 56:52

Um I I got very heavily into the mental health aspect of everything. Did a lot of research into it, um, reached out to uh Pat Hendricks, but the CISM team learned about their team. You know, seemed really cool. You know, I like mental health, they like mental health. Um I didn't realize the the extent of the team until she explained everything to me, and then I went to the certification course for it and started going to some meetings and stuff like that with it, and it opened my eyes to a lot more of what we're not doing. What are we not doing in the fire service? And that's talking about our issues. Pushing mental health out to the rest of the departments. Yeah, the rest of the departments rah, rah, rah, rah, bah, bah, we're that's not for us. No, it is for you. You're just failing your membership. Absolutely. Just put it point blank, and I will. And I'll say to anybody out there that wants to talk to me about it, you're not talking with your membership about mental health. You're not pushing your ment your membership to learn about mental health. You're not bringing in somebody each year to talk to your membership. Hey, it's okay to talk about calls. You're not sent down with your membership after every hard call. You're not a leader. You're not. You're part of the statistics and why the fire service is not getting better. You're failing your membership. You know, and you know, we can go down and ask Chief the same thing, and he'll tell you. You know, he's been one of my biggest advocates about this. Um because he he knows it's a real thing. We've been through it. You know, we've seen what PTSD has done to membership. We've seen what um not getting help looks like. And I don't want to go to your your funeral because I missed a sign or I saw the sign and I chose to ignore it. You know, it's why?

SPEAKER_04 58:47

Right.

SPEAKER_02 58:48

You know, the resources are there. Why aren't we using them?

SPEAKER_04 58:51

And that's one thing that I can say that that I've noticed really strong in our department is a lot of times we'll catch something before it even gets to the point of a problem. Correct. I mean, everybody's pretty well in tune with each other. That if you see that you know, we we have a tough call or or something's going on outside personal, you know, we identify that personality change. Correct. And and we've got a really good um chain of command of saying, hey, look, I noticed this, we need to check in on this guy. So that that's one thing I commend you for, I commend Dave for, is really pushing that because we've seen where our own members have started to struggle, and we can nip it in the butt before it turns into something a lot worse. So that's that's something that I think is amazing. Everyone who serves faces trials and tribulations. What keeps you grounded through these tough times? My kids. I kind of figure that's what you're about to say.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:02

Yep. Everything I do revolves around my kids.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:06

Now, you had mentioned how in your dark, dark time you did some things that were of questionable nature. What does redemption mean to you? Have the chance to redo.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:24

It not necessarily redo, right? You don't get a you don't get a whole redo of life. You don't get a whole redo of your situation. You've made your mistakes. You've made them. How do you move forward from those mistakes? How do you move forward and show that change has been made? It's not easy. It's hard. Now I'm I'm gonna speak that to the truth all day long. I mean, what what I did in my life, I I I'm still dealing with. Every day I'm dealing with it. Right. I'm still dealing with personnel that that was there when I went through it and chose to ignore the signs and chose to ignore to help. But I still hear about it. It's just one of them one of them things. It always will be. You know, no ill nature towards anybody about it. You know, it's how they chose to deal with it. Whether they're a leader or not and they were wrong, it it is what it is. But how do you bounce yourself back from that and make meaningful change? That's the redemption part. You can change your life around all day long. I don't care. How did you benefit somebody else's life based off of your change? Because otherwise, you didn't really redeem yourself. You protected yourself.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:54

Yeah, I mean, yeah, yes. Going into that, being that you've been in that situation, you have came back, what would you tell someone listening who feels like they've fallen short? That they're in that that hole, they're in that or they're making decisions that aren't in their best uh i isn't good for them.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:24

What would you tell them about that about that? To stand up. Because you've just fallen down. You make the decision to stay down there or to get up. Those are your two choices. I had those choices. And I almost stayed down because it was easier. Right.

unknown 1:02:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:50

You know, the hard part's standing up. The next part is reaching out. Extend, extend a hand. You're in that hole. Somebody will help you out of that hole. Or they'll climb down that hole, talk to you, and you both climb out of that hole.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:10

But you have to make that decision. Nobody else can make that decision for you. You have to make the decision.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:18

That's well said, yeah. You're not ready for change until you yourself is ready for change and you're gonna make that change. Correct. Alright. Now that we've dealt through all the heavy, the heavy, hard-hitting stuff, the stuff that you know you really got to think about. Let's just get to know Austin. Coffee or energy drink? Depends on the day, but 90% of the time, energy. Energy drink. All right. Best tool on the on the truck.

unknown 1:03:46

My tool.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:47

Your tool. What is your tool?

SPEAKER_02 1:03:50

I have a Lockwood tool. Uh it's a so it's it's a combination of like five different tools. Um, I can preach door with it, I can turn the gas off, water off. It's got a ribbo hook for drywall. It's uh first five tool that a lot of people like trying to steal from me on the fire ground. So my tool is the best tool. Because it's my tool.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:11

Yeah, you don't let many people play with that that thing. So yeah, I understand. Now keeping this PG.

unknown 1:04:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:19

What's one word your crew would use to describe you? Uh I'd say turbo. Turbo. Turbo. And why's that? I'm always on the move. Always on the move. Uh that's that's for sure. That is for sure. In your opinion, best part of the fire service.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:37

The commodery. Learn it. Learn it. It's the brotherhood is is all great. Until work needs to be done and you don't want to do it.

unknown 1:04:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:53

I like that. I like that.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:54

Can we take a pause for a second?

SPEAKER_04 1:04:56

Absolutely. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:57

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:00

Alright, and we're back after our little break there, a little potty break. Yes, sir. Alright. One thing the public should know about firefighters. We are human.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:14

So, you know, it's it's a misconception of we know everything, right? Because we show up and we look good. You know, we we do our job, we're in that gear, we make really hard situations look look pretty easy. You know, but we're we're human. Mistakes happen. And we have feelings. You know, we we deal with the blunt end of the community for a lot of stuff, which is not our job. It's not. But we do it. Because That's who we are. We're we're firefighters. We have the best job in the world. Among us. Anything.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:10

I'll I'll fight that with anybody, but we got the best job in the world. We could come hang out with some of our best friends.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:18

Do really cool stuff. Wear really cool t-shirts. Drive really big trucks. And it's no other job in this world gives you this feeling.

unknown 1:06:33

You know.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:34

Cops come hang out with us all the time. They like our trucks. You know, we work hand in hand with them. Medics, we work hand in hand with them. That's the one job in all. And that's what the community sees. That's what the community needs needs to know is we're we're Jack of all traits to a point. But their support is the only thing that keeps us going. Their support is what motivates us. Hearing from them and seeing from them. You know, just them coming up to our station when the bay doors are open.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:12

Hey guys, how's it going? You know? Trucks look great. You know, can we take a look around?

SPEAKER_02 1:07:18

That's that's what drives us. You know, we love that. We're getting to see that, them bringing in their kids, their grandkids, and seeing them, letting the kids run around the trucks and try on the gear and play with it. That's that's what we love. You know, it's it's all about the community. And that's the community is the only way that we're here, we exist. And that's what they need to know, you know. We're we're here for them. But they're also here for us. Without their support, we wouldn't be here.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:53

That is very true. Speaking of community. Earlier we touched on in your introduction that you're dealing with some entrepreneurship. Since you've come to Ashley, you've really embraced Ashley being your community. So you live in Ashley, you join the fire service in Ashley. Now you're bringing business to Ashley. That is correct. So is there anything that we can get breaking news on as far as a venture that you may be planning in this next year that could help benefit the economic growth of the Ashley Hudson region?

SPEAKER_00 1:08:39

So my wife and I are on a venture.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:44

We are opening Rescue Scoops LLC, which is a ice cream parlor here in Ashley. Um our tentative open date is the end of April, beginning of May. Uh my my wife is running most of the operations for that. Um so it's it's been quite the venture so far. Um and of course, I'm a firefighter, so of course it's it's first responder themed. Um and it's it's gonna be great. Uh doing some ice cream, hopefully some custard soft serve ice cream here soon, along with um it's called an ice cream parlor, because she's got some other things in the works I'm not even privy to yet. But I know some dirty sodas and uh coffee products and uh possibly some uh lunch sandwiches, stuff like that.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:43

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:44

Um this is gonna be be in the works for offering and stuff like that. So um we're hoping we're hoping that's a really good venture, and so far we've heard pretty good things from community members about it. So yeah, it's um it's gonna be fun.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:00

So for everyone out there, keep your eye out for rescue scoops. It's gonna be uh hard to get in there because I'm sure the fire department will be um regulars. Oh, yes, yes. All right. So in closing, I got two more things for you. Okay. What's your final message for the next generation of firefighters?

SPEAKER_01 1:10:27

Have fun. Have fun with it. To do this job, you you you have to have fun.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:34

And be a sponge. You know, the the saying used to be look for the salty guy. You know, and salty is not, it doesn't mean angry. Uh it it means look for the for the guy with salt and pepper in his in his beard and his hair. Um in our case, ours doesn't really have hair. Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um because those are the guys that you want to watch. They're the old timers. You know, the saying goes when when everything goes down, everything goes south. You look for the quiet guy, and you stick by him. Because you're gonna learn a thing or two. And that saying holds true to this day. You know, you you watch and you learn, and you ask questions. You have to be vocal. If you don't ask questions, you're never gonna learn this job. And you don't learn this job. This job learns you. Um, and it's it's okay to be afraid. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:37

That's it is okay to be afraid.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:41

I think all of us have been afraid a time a time or two. I get a I I get afraid every time I go into a house. You know, and be aware of your surroundings.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:56

At the end of the day, and none of us like to talk about it, at the end of the day, there will come a time when Captain, who knows what the future holds, chief, I don't know, has to hang up his helmet. What do you want your lineage to be? What do you want people to remember about you?

SPEAKER_01 1:12:23

That's a good question. That's a very good question.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:27

Um that I always gave my all. Every call, I I I give it my all. If that's my legacy, I'm happy with it.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:45

That sounds like a pretty good legacy right there. I would agree. He was all in and he gave it his all. Exactly. That's what I like. Alright. Last question. Out of all the networking that you've done over the years, if you could recommend one person to sit in that seat that you're in right now, who would it be? Jess Edman. Jess Edman. I have a feeling that that interview's probably probably coming.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:17

I I think I think you'll learn a lot from the brain that that girl has on her and her innovation to the youth. She's gone a lot of places in life. And she's already marked a lot of the milestones.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:37

I think we'll have to look into that. Yes, absolutely. Well, Cap, that's the end of our uh our our little interview here. I appreciate you coming and being a part of it. I know that scheduling has been a little challenging between the many, many hats that you wear and and the endeavors that I've got going on, but I appreciate you sitting down and having some words with us. Yes, sir. Thanks for the invite. Thank you.