1984 vs 2026...What Will A Father Tell His Son?

37 years in the fire service…
and standing across from someone just getting started.

This episode dives into the reality of the job from two perspectives—what it was, what it became, and what nobody truly understands until they live it. The expectations, the pressure, the lessons learned the hard way… and the things you can’t teach—only experience.

If you could go back to your first day… what would you tell yourself?

And if your son was about to walk into the same job… would you tell him everything?

Wind The Q — The Stories Behind The Sirens

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This episode Includes dynamic content. If you feel impressed to help support the show, follow the link below. If not, please continue to like, share, follow, and subscribe for more great content!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:19

Thirty-five years in the fire service, thousands of calls, countless shifts, and a lifetime of experience. And then sitting across the table from someone who hasn't even really started yet. Same job, same uniform, same expectations, but two completely different realities. Because one of them knows exactly what this job is, and the other one is just about to find out. And the truth is, there are things about this job that nobody tells you. Not in rookie school, not in training, not during the hiring process. You only learn it when you walk into the fire station for the first time. And for most people, they figure it out on their own. But today, we've got something different. A father who spent 35 years living it, and a son who's about to step into it. Same last name, same path, but two completely different starting points. So the question is, why didn't anyone tell us what this job is really? His podcast is about the real conversations in the fire service. It's about the jobs, about the brotherhood, and about the lessons we learn along the way. So this is episode 13. Today we're sitting down with retired battalion chief Mark Bagley and his son, Connor Bagley. One spent 37 years in this profession, and the other is just got his first assignment. Same family, two completely different perspectives. And today we're talking about expectations, reality, legacy, and what this job becomes over time. So I'm gonna throw this first question to Connor. So growing up around the fire service, was this always the plan?

SPEAKER_05 2:28

I'd say Yeah. I knew it was always in the back of my mind, at least, that this is where I was gonna eventually end up. It was just more of a how do I get here? What is it gonna take? And I had graduated high school about ten years ago, and the whole plan was as soon as I graduate, he was gonna retire. Yeah, and then I was gonna step in. Well, he decided to hang around a little bit too long and I got stuck mechanicin.

SPEAKER_02 2:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 2:56

And then finally when it when he did retire, I was the pay difference was too much. Yeah. And I just couldn't justify it. And now gracious enough that our department's actually uh pays very well. Yeah, and it's got a whole lot better for a rookie firefighter, so it's allowed me to actually take the step into it now.

SPEAKER_03 3:15

Yeah. I I didn't get into it until I was 32. I was in construction and made good money, already had four kids, was married, and you feel like you're you're locked into that. Yeah. You know, it's a big deal to leave that security that you have to try something new. Right. Um, but I knew if I didn't do it at that point, I wasn't gonna do it. And I'm I'm glad I I did, kind of stepped out on faith and did that. But uh yeah, that's a that's a big transition. What was the moment you knew that all right, this wasn't just a a thought or an idea like I'm doing it?

SPEAKER_05 3:52

It really honestly didn't click until I want to say it was probably as soon as I started the CPAT for this department. Yeah. It was it was like a light switch flipped and it was on from there. And then once I finished and I knew I passed, there was I don't really think there was much way you could have taught me out of it after that. I mean it I was in it to win it.

SPEAKER_03 4:15

Yep. Good deal. Mark, when Connor told you he wanted to become a firefighter, what'd you think?

SPEAKER_00 4:20

Oh, I was proud. Yeah. Granted my ear. Um it just uh I don't know if Connor told you, but he's fourth generation.

SPEAKER_03 4:30

Fourth generation.

SPEAKER_00 4:31

So uh it all started with my grandfather, of course, and then down to my dad, two of his brothers, and then me and my brother, and now down to Connor. So uh made it made me very proud.

SPEAKER_03 4:43

Yeah. That's uh that's a big legacy. What it what did you want him to understand about this profession before he started?

SPEAKER_00 4:52

That it's not just a job. Yeah, it's it's a calling. And um don't come down here just to earn a paycheck. Yeah, come down here, do your job, love what you do. And if you love the job, it's not a job.

SPEAKER_03 5:07

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 5:07

It's a calling.

SPEAKER_03 5:08

They say if you love your job, you never work a day.

SPEAKER_00 5:11

That's exactly right.

SPEAKER_03 5:12

Yeah, yeah. It has its up and downs for sure, but I still love it. Oh yeah. Uh-huh. Yeah. Yep. I think once you kind of get bit by that bug, you you stuck. Yeah, but exactly. Um, what's interesting is both of you arrived at the same destination, same department. Right. You know. Um road to get here may have looked a little bit different, but when you went through recruit school, what was it like?

SPEAKER_00 5:37

Well, I came to work at the department in August. Uh didn't go to recruit school till the following April.

SPEAKER_04 5:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:44

So we were riding a truck. I'd had some training as a volunteer with another department. And um showed up down at the Georgia Public Safety Training Center and uh actually was the first recruit class to go through that facility. Um we thought we were down there for quite a long time. Uh my recruit class lasted seven days. Oh my goodness. The last two days were burning acquired structures. Yeah. So uh seven whole days. Seven whole days.

SPEAKER_05 6:16

Yeah, that would be nice.

SPEAKER_03 6:18

What uh other than that time frame, what would surprise today's recruits the most about how training looked then? The things you went through then as far as training?

SPEAKER_00 6:29

We didn't go as in-depth into uh firefighter safety and health like they do today. We didn't go into the um self-rescue, uh rescuing a down firefighter. We didn't go into all that. They taught us basically the the old adage put the wet stuff on the red stuff.

SPEAKER_02 6:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:51

Uh we didn't go into a lot of the um ventilations that we use today. Back then you used a smoke ejector. Yeah. You know, yeah. Uh we didn't have we didn't know about hydraulic ventilation or or positive pressure ventilation, stuff like that.

SPEAKER_03 7:05

Well, you mentioned the medical side. There was no medical side. Other than what cardiac arrest, maybe?

SPEAKER_00 7:12

We we didn't run all cardiac arrest in our department's jurisdiction. Uh we ran wrecks with entrapment. We had no extrication tools.

SPEAKER_02 7:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:24

Uh we had porta powers, so we just done the best we could. Yeah. Uh we did work a few um cardiac arrests. We had a couple guys in the department that had started teaching CPR, which was new to the department. Yeah. And um, I don't know, it was about a year after I started, we finally got our first set of uh extrication tools. Gotcha. And then we started running only cardiac arrest and automobile accidents. Gotcha.

SPEAKER_03 7:54

Okay. Good deal. Connor, what what surprised you most about recruit school?

SPEAKER_05 8:02

It's at our state training facility, they've they train all walks alike.

SPEAKER_02 8:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 8:09

I mean, you've got guys from really nice departments like us. I mean, I don't want to sound airheaded about it, but I mean we have a jam-up department.

SPEAKER_02 8:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 8:19

And then I mean, then you've got guys and girls from some volunteer departments that are lucky to have gear on that day.

SPEAKER_02 8:26

Yeah, you're right.

SPEAKER_05 8:27

Um just seeing the the the difference of I mean, we're all in the same state. And I mean, heck one of the one of the girls from a volunteer department, she's not, but just a couple hours from here.

SPEAKER_02 8:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 8:42

And the amount of the difference in how her departments run and ours is just it's wild.

SPEAKER_03 8:49

Yeah, honestly. I I live in the next county over. And I mean, just to be straight, it ain't caught up yet. Right. It's getting there, it's getting better.

SPEAKER_04 9:01

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:02

But uh yeah, it's it's amazing you start driving down the highway how fast things change from one community to the next or one area, you know.

SPEAKER_05 9:12

And I mean, honestly, I've grown up around this department. It's I hate to say it, it's not I don't really know a whole lot more.

SPEAKER_02 9:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 9:20

Other than back when I used to be a fire truck mechanic for the state dealer. You know, I saw some other higher paid departments in the or higher budgeted departments, I'll say, in the state. And I mean, I knew them, but when I didn't really know the inner workings and some of the behind the scenes stuff on some of the I don't want to say lower class.

SPEAKER_03 9:44

I don't want to talk down on anybody, but I mean it's kind of a lot of places just don't have the budget, right?

SPEAKER_00 9:51

Yeah, so I mean that's well we're we're fortunate here where our department is, we have a lot of industry. Yes. Uh we have a lot of tourism. Uh when you get out to some of the rural counties, they don't have any industry there, so they don't really have a tax basin to afford the nice equipment. They you know, I can remember some of the apparatus that we had surplused going to smaller departments, I remember that county-run departments, and they were proud to get it. Yeah, you know, we we had what we considered warranted out, and they were proud to get it, you know, but because it it was top of the line for them.

SPEAKER_03 10:32

And I'm fairly sure they're still in service.

SPEAKER_00 10:35

Oh, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_03 10:35

Yeah, I'm sure. So uh back to rookie school, do you think it was harder or easier than expected, or you you had it all figured out?

SPEAKER_05 10:46

Oh, I definitely did not have it all figured out. Um I I told him multiple times, probably days leading up to us leaving to go. And I was like, I I'm excited because I know what to expect, but I'm nervous because I know what it what to expect. And I was completely wrong about all of it.

SPEAKER_02 11:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 11:07

I mean the mental side of it was the hardest thing. The first few weeks for I mean, anybody that happens to listen to this that may go down there, the first three weeks sucks mentally.

SPEAKER_02 11:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 11:19

I mean, if you're prior military and you did basic training, you're probably gonna be fine. But me, I've lived within a five mile radius of my of where I was born my entire life.

SPEAKER_03 11:29

It's new, it's all new, different stuff.

SPEAKER_05 11:32

Yeah, and then getting thrown into the middle of that and then training and then classwork, and then I mean, they ride you down there pretty hard. Yeah, they try to weed out the weak ones.

SPEAKER_03 11:41

So much of about it is discipline though. Oh, yeah, yeah. And and to us, you know, moving into that and starting that process, we think this is dumb. Why in the world am I doing this? But it's just to establish that discipline.

SPEAKER_05 11:53

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I I think I called him one night and I was like, This is stupid. This I know what the fire service is like, or had somewhat of a good idea, you know. I was like, this is not the fire service I know. Like, what the what is this?

SPEAKER_02 12:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 12:07

And uh it was it was wild. But after the third week, they start calming down on you, and then it gets really fun. Yeah. I mean, it was I heard a lot of people say it before, that was the most fun I never want to have again. And that's that's a fact.

SPEAKER_03 12:21

Yeah, I wouldn't want to do it again. Yeah, especially at my age now. Yeah, that's no, I go do something else.

SPEAKER_04 12:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:28

Um, training gets you through the door. It doesn't necessarily tell you everything about the job and what the job is. But uh Connor, you you just got your very first assignment. Hadn't even hadn't even started yet, hadn't had your first day yet, right?

SPEAKER_05 12:41

Yeah, my first shift is tomorrow morning.

SPEAKER_03 12:43

What do you from where you are right now, what do you think this job actually is? Not the recruit school and all of that, but this actual job.

SPEAKER_05 12:54

I'm gonna be honest with you, I don't even know how to answer that. It's uh I mean it's kind of going back to what I said. You know, I thought I knew what to expect going into rookie school.

SPEAKER_02 13:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 13:05

And I kind of have a small idea of what to expect tomorrow morning on my first shift.

SPEAKER_02 13:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 13:11

But I have a feeling I'm gonna come in here and it's gonna be nothing that I thought.

SPEAKER_03 13:16

It'll be different.

SPEAKER_00 13:18

It will be different. I've told him from the beginning his uh the night before his first shift, he'll be up all night. Yeah. In the night of his first shift, he'll be up all night. Sure will. Whether he runs a call or not.

SPEAKER_03 13:28

Yeah. Sleep with a bedroom light on because you don't you don't I don't want to sleep too hard. Yeah. I sleep through it.

SPEAKER_00 13:34

Yeah. I saw a lot of rookies over the years that that after that the next morning after their first shift, they come in rubbing their eyes and hunting the coffee cup. Yeah. It's like, what's wrong? So I've been up all night. So we didn't run the first call.

SPEAKER_03 13:47

Just sat on my bed. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:51

Yeah. I remember that. Yeah. Uh Mark, so how how close do you think he is to knowing the reality of this job? Obviously, that's gonna come down the road.

SPEAKER_00 14:04

He he's a long ways off. Yeah. Uh I think he is well prepared from the training he had at the training center.

SPEAKER_02 14:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:11

Um he's still got a lot of OJT to do.

SPEAKER_02 14:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:15

I t I told him yesterday, uh, he and I sit and talk, and I said, over your career, you're gonna see a lot of things that you thought you'd never see before. Yep. Some of them you're gonna laugh at, some of them you're gonna cry too, and I said there's some of them you're gonna you're gonna see the rest of your life. Yep. Till you don't take your last breath. That's right. And uh so I'm I wanted to be prepared for that side. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:40

That's that's the hard side. Yes, yes. Uh we've talked about like mental health and stuff like that a lot. And um to me, yeah, that's the hard side. It ain't the calls, the physical side is nothing. Yeah, you know, it's oh, we ran that fire earlier today. That was that was rough for 30 minutes. Right. And it's done. But running the calls that we run and seeing the way that people act toward other people. Yes. And uh just the terrible stuff that we see, that's the stuff that that sticks with you. And I I'll throw this into don't ever think you're too big to talk to somebody about it. Right. Have a conversation about it. Totally agree. Um, and we've talked about this too before. All this peer support stuff's new. I mean, just within last five, six years, maybe. Um, but we're seeing such a buy-in from the older guys, which I didn't I didn't see coming. I thought they would still be hard against it, but I think they've lived the side that side of that.

SPEAKER_00 15:43

We were doing it back in the day, we just didn't realize we were doing it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because uh back when I came up from the rookie on up, uh the whole crews ate breakfast together, you ate lunch together, you ate supper together, and we would sit around the table and discuss the calls we had seen. Uh if somebody had something bothering them about a call, we discussed it as a group. So we were doing peer counseling, we just didn't realize what we were doing. Well, it all starts at that kitchen table. It does, it does, and it you know, it it helped. I I can think back on some calls I ran that um I still see today that uh we talked about at the kitchen table, and I think if I hadn't have done that, they would be bothering me more now than they were.

SPEAKER_03 16:29

It it like I said, it's so much of that starts at the kitchen table. Yes. And that's why, and I know we have always agreed on this how important sitting down and eating together is. Yes. Um I I don't know how many breakfasts me and you ate together, but a few that was that was important because it's all about starting that process, you know, of talking. And you know, we we think I'm gonna go to a shrink and get my feelings out and all that. That's that ain't really what it is. In a way it is, but you gotta start processing stuff.

SPEAKER_00 17:04

But it's it's to me, and this is my own personal views on it, if if you talk to somebody that's not in the fire service that don't know what you're doing, they can talk to you and they can try to get your feelings out, but it's not the same satisfaction of talking to somebody who knows what you've been through. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 17:20

And and there's a lot of counselors now that are like their specialty is public safety. Okay. Because I mean, even from this side of it, I d exactly what you're saying, I don't want to go in there and sit down because I know they don't know what I'm talking about. Right. Yeah, they see the grief. Grief is the same across the board, the stages of it, but they don't understand it from my side.

SPEAKER_00 17:44

Right.

SPEAKER_03 17:45

And that's that's why so many of us hang up on never going and doing anything. But luckily, there's some people out there now who their specialty may be military or it may be public safety. So that's I I think that's a big improvement too. Um so Connor, we talked about your first shift starts tomorrow morning. When you walk into the station tomorrow morning, and I hope at least before 6 30.

SPEAKER_05 18:12

Yeah. That's if I'm not here before 6 30, something's wrong.

SPEAKER_03 18:15

All right, I just want to put that little plug in there. Where do you think it's gonna feel like walking through the door the first time?

SPEAKER_05 18:23

I'm I'm I can already tell you I'm already nervous.

SPEAKER_03 18:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 18:26

I mean, thankfully, I'm super excited about the truck and the shift I got on. Yeah, my engine company officer. I've kind of halfway known him for a little while and super excited about that. So that kind of helps ease it up.

SPEAKER_03 18:42

But you got on a good shift.

SPEAKER_05 18:44

Yeah. Um I don't I honestly don't even know what to expect. It's either gonna go, I feel like I'm gonna be the one, you know, at the bench where everybody congregates in the mornings. I'm gonna be the one standing off to the side, kind of looking around, going, all right, what do we need to do?

SPEAKER_03 19:00

You will be. Yeah. And and honestly, you can correct me if I'm wrong, that's where he needs to be that first day.

SPEAKER_00 19:06

Yes. Yeah. Don't be all in the middle of it.

SPEAKER_03 19:08

Yeah. Yep. So, Mark, to contrast what he just said. What are people looking for in him that first day?

SPEAKER_00 19:19

Well, from the time he's done his CPAT and his interviews and stuff, uh, he made it clear. It wasn't I didn't have anything to do, but he made it clear he was here to build his own legacy. Yeah, yeah. And I've told him from the beginning, don't go in and try to ride my coat tails. Yep. Uh go in and and build your own history, that dash. Yep. Um I think they're gonna expect him to have a little bit of knowledge of what goes on around here. Um I think if something goes haywire with a truck, they're gonna be looking at him. Yeah, they're gonna say, Where's the new guy? Yeah, because he he worked on them for a while.

SPEAKER_02 19:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:57

Um and I I I would expect his company officer to test him on some of these calls. Yeah, push him to his limits, just see where his limits are.

SPEAKER_02 20:08

Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_00 20:08

And you know, see what he needs to work on. But uh like I said, from the from the Georgia Public Safety Training Center, I he got a good education over the 10 weeks. So I think he's well prepared. He's a lot more prepared than what I was my first shift after I came out of recruit school for seven days. For seven days.

SPEAKER_05 20:24

For seven days. God, I wish mine was seven days.

SPEAKER_03 20:28

Oh my goodness. So there's a lot going in. And I I say that about your first day coming in and kind of hanging out because it gives you a chance to read people. And as much as you're reading people, they're reading you too. Um, and we've talked about this before. So you go down there to the training center for what were you down there, 10 weeks?

SPEAKER_05 20:49

Yeah, 10 weeks.

SPEAKER_03 20:50

And you you build this relationship with all the people that's in your class.

SPEAKER_05 20:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:55

And all of a sudden that stops and you start over. I mean, you kind of feel like a veteran down there because you've been doing it, and all of a sudden that stops, and you are brand new with a crew of people you may or may not like. You know, it's it's rare to get a crew that you like everybody.

SPEAKER_05 21:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:14

But whether you like them or not, you still gotta learn how to live with them. That's right. Um, and then getting to the point where, you know, I really don't like this guy, but when tones drop, none of that matters. Right. You know, you do the job. So, yeah, it'll come in time. And, you know, we know kind of how y'all did down there, but it's still a a time to prove yourself.

SPEAKER_05 21:37

Yeah. Yes. Well, they kind of kind of did that. Uh they split us up into engine companies down there at the training center at the academy. And they like to throw a wrench in a blender every now and then and just mix all the crews up.

SPEAKER_02 21:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 21:54

You know, for the first four weeks, I had a really jam-up crew. Yeah. Like when we were out doing whatever drills we were doing, it didn't matter. We got it done. And we were on top doing it. Yeah. At the end of week four, they go, All right, we're swapping everybody up.

SPEAKER_03 22:11

We do that here.

SPEAKER_05 22:12

Yeah. And thankfully, one of the guys that was on the engine company. From the first four weeks, I somehow finagled to keep him actually all the way through through school. So it kind of helped out a lot. But the guy that started out with us on week five, it was me, him, and the original other guy. Us three were together from week five on. And we had a we had a fourth that was for the f for those second four weeks, she was great. And then we got a different fourth guy for the last two weeks, I think it was, something like that, week nine of ten. He was he was real good at holding a flashlight.

SPEAKER_02 22:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 22:58

But and you and you learn how to work with that. Not a bad guy.

SPEAKER_03 23:03

Holding a flashlight. There's something to be said about that because how many times have you smacked him for not shining it in the right spot?

SPEAKER_05 23:09

Quite a few. Quite a few. Yeah. Dang it, boy. Yeah. Yeah. Which nothing, nothing wrong with the guy. He's a great guy. He just he needs a little extra help. Yeah. I get that. He's he's a jam up dude. He just it's kind of hard when you've got three dudes that are almost a almost uh we don't have to talk to each other almost when we're in when we were in drills. And then we've got this number four, we're like, come on.

SPEAKER_00 23:34

Yep. You know. Yeah. Well you'll have that on your crew. Right. Yeah. Um, I had back when I was on the engine, I had crews that uh there was four of us, and uh, me as a company officer, we would go in and never speak to each other, and everybody knew their role.

SPEAKER_04 23:51

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 23:51

You know, and then I had the engine crews that you had to basically take somebody's hand and put it on what you wanted them to do because they had no they just weren't trained up to the level that you would expect.

SPEAKER_02 24:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:07

You know, not bad people.

SPEAKER_02 24:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:09

You know, well, there's all different levels of training out there. That's right. And and there's all different levels of people out there that comprehend the training different.

SPEAKER_03 24:18

That's true. I I think a thing that will help you a lot is I know where you were raised working with your hands, mechanic and building stuff and all that. And then on top of that, I mean, we hire 18-year-olds, 19-year-olds right out of high school. That's good, but there's no life experience there either, and that's not that's not a jab at younger people.

SPEAKER_00 24:45

So so I can remember back before I retired, we hired this one young man, and uh we were doing some maintenance on a piece of equipment, I don't even remember what it was, and I handed him a screwdriver and told him to take something off of it. He had no idea how to do what I just asked him. Yeah, so he and I had a uh heart-to-heart. Uh, and I learned that he had never done anything like that. So I made it sure if we were working on anything, he was involved in it.

SPEAKER_02 25:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:15

Uh he was here probably two years before I retired. And uh I think he's made sergeant now. Yeah. Uh and he's pretty jammed up, you know. Uh but but he had never been taught that.

SPEAKER_03 25:28

Yeah, and and that's the thing too. A lot of people just they don't have the opportunity to be taught that. Maybe, you know, everybody don't work on cars and build houses and stuff, and maybe it's like I was saying it's not a jab at them. That's just the way that weather's raised.

SPEAKER_05 25:45

I I feel honestly very fortunate for the way I was raised. My life experiences and he can vouch for it. Some over the past few years haven't been that awesome.

SPEAKER_03 25:56

But uh But did you learn something?

SPEAKER_05 25:59

Oh, I've learned a lot.

SPEAKER_03 26:00

That's what matters.

SPEAKER_05 26:01

Um but no, I'm very fortunate for growing up around our department, growing up with the father that I have, the not even him, the whole family.

SPEAKER_02 26:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 26:11

I mean, my grandpa, my uncle, both my brother-in-laws. Yeah, I mean, just being able to get as much experience in the fire service that I that I possibly could, honestly. Yeah. Um before now, it's it's nice.

SPEAKER_03 26:25

Yeah. And you did the explorers years ago, right?

SPEAKER_05 26:29

Yeah, I don't how many years did I do that? Four or five, something like that? Four or five years. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:33

I think it kind of cut out maybe in 14 or 15. I can't remember what year they kind of I was the last one.

SPEAKER_00 26:44

Yeah. Yeah. I think I I think you're right, around 14 or 15. 2014, 2015. Because we moved into this new building in 12 and we were still having explorer meetings. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 26:54

I I came mid-13 and we were still doing them. Um I think Coy had took them over.

SPEAKER_00 27:02

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you know, we hired as a department, we hired several that went through our explorer program. And it turned out to be jam up firemen. Yeah. You know, so hoping that holds true with this one. I hope so.

SPEAKER_05 27:16

We'll see.

SPEAKER_03 27:19

Uh T Bird had a part in that too, didn't he?

SPEAKER_05 27:22

Yes, he's someone that started it.

SPEAKER_03 27:23

That's right. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I thought. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 27:25

I'd really like to see somebody eventually try to kick that off again.

SPEAKER_03 27:29

Yeah, it it needs to. It's a good program.

SPEAKER_05 27:31

And even for people that don't have a that even know, hey, I'm I don't care about nothing about being a firefighter later on in life.

SPEAKER_00 27:38

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 27:39

It's something to get you out of the house at a young age. It's something to get you some hands-on experience doing something other than playing on a computer, playing video games, something like that, or whatever. It's safe. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:50

You know, I mean, and you may realize, man, this is I do like this.

SPEAKER_05 27:56

I mean, I'm not gonna lie. Doing the doing the muster competitions, yeah, I thought I was the coolest thing on earth. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:02

We don't even do we don't do any of that anymore.

SPEAKER_00 28:04

Yeah, so we had a uh the full-time guys, we had, I think at one time we had two muster teams.

SPEAKER_04 28:10

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:10

And then the explorers had two, and y'all had two.

SPEAKER_04 28:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:13

So uh we we were going about every weekend to firefighter competitions. You really enjoyed it, and it's good training, it's good exercise, yeah, good uh fellowship.

SPEAKER_03 28:23

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_05 28:24

Because I mean, realistically, how much how much nozzle time do you get on the job?

SPEAKER_03 28:30

I mean, it it it all depends now with five stations and three shifts. I mean, you can realistically go a couple of years without getting a really good fire. Yeah, yeah. Because it all just depends on how it falls.

SPEAKER_05 28:43

Yeah, and I mean, in my eyes, of course, I don't have any kind of experience to talk about it a whole lot, but it's one of those things if if I'm not if I don't touch another nozzle for the next two years and it comes down to it, and it's hey, you better get it and go in, yeah, I'm gonna go uh hope I remember how to do this.

SPEAKER_03 29:03

Yeah. I mean, the more the more exp it's everything is about exposure.

SPEAKER_00 29:08

Yeah. Well, that's what I've told him. Um we get some shift, don't get settled, continue to train, and I know this department's big on training, but the way I always try to look at training is we don't we don't train until we get it right. We train until we don't do it wrong.

SPEAKER_03 29:26

That's right. Yep. It's gotta be second nature.

SPEAKER_00 29:29

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 29:30

So all right, so Mark, what's something nobody talked about before you got hired? It's just something that you you never seen coming that when it happened to you on shift, and it may have been a call or it may have been training or whatever, but did you just like holy crap, I didn't see that coming.

SPEAKER_00 29:49

Well, like I said, when I first came here, we didn't run rescue calls.

SPEAKER_02 29:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:53

And um I got put on the rescue truck because uh like I said, I had prior experience with another department a little bit. But um one of the first major accidents I worked, train hit a delivery truck going through town. Yeah. So I was born and raised in this town. And uh got there to the call and uh started cutting the top off the truck, and lo and behold, it's a man I'd known all my life. You know, he's deceased. Uh and it never really I guess the thought process never crossed my mind of you're gonna have to deal with people you've known all your life in in bad situations. Now, over the 37 years I spent you know, you run uh several calls where you personally knew the people, yeah, whether it be a fire, medical call, a death, or whatever. But it's just something early in my career I never yeah, I never thought about.

SPEAKER_03 30:54

That's a rough way to find out about that too.

SPEAKER_00 30:57

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 30:57

Yes, yes, yep. Connor, what part of you think this job is going to surprise you the most?

SPEAKER_05 31:04

I'm gonna just have to piggyback off of what he said. I mean it's already kind of started with you know, growing up in this town, I went to high school here. Yeah. I've like I said, I've lived within a five mile radius my entire life. I've the fact of hey, we just had a bad wreck at this intersection on a main road in town, and I've got to drive through that intersection every day.

SPEAKER_02 31:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 31:28

I've got to see that intersection every day. And I mean uh that or I mean it was just a few weeks ago. Uh somebody I'd known, somebody or another truck at this department had ran the call and he ended up passing. And somebody we were leaving getting ready to go to rookie school, and somebody said, Hey, don't don't say nothing about it yet, you know. It we just ran this call and I think this is who this guy was, you know. I was like, Oh crap. It just kind of the realization starts to set in of Yeah, it's it's getting real. It's not uh it's not a good we're gonna go play with water hoses no more.

SPEAKER_03 32:08

Yep, no, it it's real. Uh we I'm not from here. Um Mindy's grandparents lived here, and because of that, we spent more time in this town than we did the one we lived in. But um after all the years that I've been here, I can't ride down a street in town and not see a house or an intersection or whatever that don't remind me of a call. Right. I mean, uh anywhere in town, it don't matter. Um, so yeah, it it sticks with you.

SPEAKER_00 32:46

Um going back to what I was saying earlier about working calls and people that you grew up around.

SPEAKER_04 32:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:53

My first fire death I worked, um gentleman uh for whatever reason didn't get out. And uh that was in uh if I remember right, it was around 1987, 88, somewhere right it was early in my career. And um I run into got talking to these two guys, uh it's been about a month ago at Lowe's, and uh one of the gentlemen asked me whatn't my name, what it was, and I was like, Yeah, you got it right. He said, I remember the day my dad burned up in that house, you were there, you were the one of the ones that helped fight the fire.

SPEAKER_02 33:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:33

You know, so it kind of I don't know, it's it's whatn't to be expected. And and it hit me like a ton of bricks in Lowe's a few weeks ago when the when the son said that.

SPEAKER_03 33:44

Yeah. That's that's one thing with the the peer support and stuff that I have found. You hear people talk about triggers. Oh, this triggered me, and that triggered me. Some some things I think may be a little bit ridiculous. Yeah. Yeah. But in that situation that you're talking about, I've had stuff like that happen too, where it might be a smell or a sound, or speak to somebody, and all of a sudden you are right back on that call.

SPEAKER_00 34:14

Right back there. Um smell the smoke.

SPEAKER_03 34:18

Yeah, I've I've mentioned this before that we work through these issues and we cram stuff in boxes, and down the road we find out it was a jack in a box. Yes. It pops back up some little something. Uh so yeah, it leaves a mark on us. It's it's hard to hard to work through sometimes. Um, and kind of going along with that. So after 37 years, what has stayed with you? Maybe not necessarily calls, it may be routines, um, not not your biggest fire, not your worst call, but what has because you've been retired how long? Five years. Five years. Uh matter of fact, uh, five years next week. Yeah, yeah, that's right. Yeah. Um what do you still do that came from this job? What stuck with you the most?

SPEAKER_00 35:05

We go to a restaurant, uh, hotel, whatever. I'm always looking for a way out. Yep. Yep. Uh always backing into parking spaces.

SPEAKER_02 35:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:16

Um I don't ever sit with my back to the door. Yep. Um just kind of the same old things. And a lot of a lot of times uh I'll walk through and notice, you know, the emergency exit sign's not working. Yep. You know, it's just those little things. Uh and and you know, there's quite a few calls that I ran that that I still have problems with till today. Uh but uh I don't know, it's just you get in a routine. Yeah. Um like for instance, uh one day of the week at the station is is station duty. You clean the kitchen and all that stuff. And and Connor can attest to it. We had that at the house.

SPEAKER_02 35:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:58

Yeah. So we spent one day a week. You you cleaned the house, stripped the refrigerator down, stripped the stove, yeah, you know, just like we did at the fire station. And we still do that at the house. Yeah. My wife uh gives me trouble to the day. Uh I'll I'll come in and say, all right, today's the day we're doing floors. Our whole house has got hardwood floors. Yeah. So uh I get the broom and the mop out, and she's like, it don't take all that. We're moving furniture, we're moving everything. Because if we're gonna do it, we're gonna do it the firehouse way. If you ever get behind on it, it's yeah, right. You can't get caught up, but yeah, it and uh she she can attest to that. We've if we're you know, we still got those days.

SPEAKER_03 36:38

That's right. I do that like my morning routine is the same every single time. And if something is off, it messes me up.

SPEAKER_00 36:47

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's yeah, I I know you remember from back uh when you were on my shift. Uh you get up every morning at you know, 5 45, you came to the kitchen, you made a cup of uh pot of coffee and sit and drank coffee and kind of talked and all that. I still do that in the house. I get up at 5 30 in the morning, I make me a pot of coffee, and I sit in there in the peace and quiet, listen to the news, catch up on the daily activities, and then I go start my day.

SPEAKER_03 37:13

Yeah. I don't get quiet that early on my days off. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, I it still plays such a role in just everyday life, you know, it becomes a part of you. What do you hope stays with you? But before you answer that, it's it's like we've already talked about there's gonna be a lot that stays with you. Yeah, some of it's gonna be fantastic, it's gonna be wonderful, and you'll cherish it forever. Yeah. Some of it won't. What do you hope stays with you and you carry from now on with you from this job? And I know that's a weird question because you ain't even had your first shift yet.

SPEAKER_05 37:51

Yeah, I don't I don't I almost want to say the the brotherhood more than anything. Yep. Regardless if, who knows, ten years from now, I'm still here and I have some life change and I'm moving three states away, whatever, I want to be able to come back here, and these are all still my brothers. Absolutely. You know, it it's n it kind of goes off earlier when he's when dad said this isn't a job. And to me, it's not a job. I mean you could you could tell me whatever the pay is. As long as my bills are paid, I don't care. I'm gonna be here. You know? It's it's the brotherhood, the structure, the it's almost a sense of gratification, kind of um being able to be helpful. I mean, given we're seeing people in their worst days. Yep. I don't wish that on anybody. But if it happens, I would love to be there to be able to help.

SPEAKER_03 38:50

Yep. Yes. I I made the mistake of you know, my first year or so. Man, I hope we have structure fire today. Yeah. And then I got to thinking about that very thing. Well, if I'm wishing for one, somebody's got to lose everything. Yeah. And I'm right. I changed the way I said that. You know, if if it's gonna happen, I want to be there for it. Right.

SPEAKER_05 39:09

Yeah. Yeah. If it's some old abandoned warehouse that ain't been touched in 35 years, cool. That's one thing. You know, yeah, let's go, let's hope that thing catches on fire and we can go go fight. But, you know, old lady Lucy down the road, yeah. No, keep her safe.

SPEAKER_00 39:24

That's right. Yeah, it's I I miss the you're talking about what stays with you. Uh I miss the Brotherhood. Yep. But it's nice when I walk back in one of the stations or see somebody on the side that I worked with. Yeah. You know, it's like we never missed a day.

SPEAKER_03 39:40

Yeah, yeah, it's familiar to you. Yes, yes. Yeah, I like that too. And man, we have had I guess in the last four years, five years, we have had so many people retire. Yes. And it's that whole losing that whole experience base and knowledge base. Um like we are young right now. Everybody on my crew, engine and tower, me and Stetson, he has 14 years, I have 13. Everybody else is less than two years. Good grace. The whole things have changed. Okay. Yeah. And there's they're jam up guys, they're good guys, but they they hadn't had the exposure of a 10-year guy, obviously. Right. Um, they do a fantastic job, but it's just that's how young we are as a department. And coming up within the next five to seven years, it's gonna flip again. Oh, yeah. It's just the way that it's gonna hit. So all right, so let's talk about hiring process. I mentioned this in last week, but I've got some comments with questions about the hiring process. Uh, not just here, this is pretty general across the board, but you're the newest of the new that just came through the process. So I'm gonna ask you. So we'll talk about applications. That's pretty cut and dry. Um, written tests, CPAT and interviews. Uh just kind of highlight each one of those. You can start with applications. Obviously, there's there's not a whole lot to that, well, other than being honest about it.

SPEAKER_05 41:22

Right. The application, and I'll be honest, I'm not real familiar with applications from any other department. This is the only department I've ever applied at.

SPEAKER_02 41:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 41:31

I mean, I've had a handful of other jobs before. Um, but the application so I sent him a resume, I get an email back, and it was uh or it was I had to bring my resume up here or something like that. And then I got handed an application packet.

SPEAKER_02 41:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 41:50

And then when you fill out that application packet, I was like, man, this thing is thick. What all is in here? I figured it was like three or four pages of stuff I had to read first.

SPEAKER_02 41:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 41:57

No, they want to know everything about you. Yeah. I mean, I was looking through it like, I don't remember when I got this speed and ticket.

SPEAKER_03 42:04

And if you don't tell them, they're gonna find out.

SPEAKER_05 42:06

Oh, yeah. Yes. Yeah, yeah. So I I mean, I think I called him. I mean, I talk to him literally every day. I think I called him after picking it up, and I was like, why do they need to know all this? Yeah, and I and I get it, you know, they want you to be truthful, they want to know, want you to just lay it out on the table.

SPEAKER_02 42:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 42:23

Um application process after after you get that done. I think they gave us like 14 days to do it. Yeah, it's nothing really once you actually get sit down and start doing it. Just looks like a lot.

SPEAKER_03 42:35

We've had people who have not been totally transparent on the application.

SPEAKER_05 42:40

I've heard stories.

SPEAKER_03 42:40

Yeah. It ended bad. Yeah. Um with a visit to gypstick. And then that person was oh, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:49

Well, I I've told all three of my children growing up, I said, so watch what you do. Yeah. Always be true with everything because what you do growing up will follow you the rest of your life. That's exactly right. Now he's found out why.

SPEAKER_05 43:02

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:02

Yeah, that's sure does.

SPEAKER_05 43:04

Yeah, all yes. Um after the application, our department, we go straight into a CPAP. And head chief here told it told me this the best way possible. I don't care if you can talk good. I don't care if you're the smartest man on the side of the street. If you can't put in the work physically, we don't want you here.

SPEAKER_02 43:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 43:25

And I mean, that's true. You we still want you to be smart, but you gotta be able to work. Oh, yeah, you gotta be able to put in work. This this ain't this ain't easy. Yeah. I mean, gypstick showed me that. It's yeah. I mean, I put on 12, 13 pounds while I was down there. Everybody else is losing weight. I've always been a real skinny guy.

SPEAKER_02 43:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 43:46

And uh I put on 12 or 13 pounds and just muscle. Yeah. Just from working constantly, which it is work.

SPEAKER_03 43:53

And we've we've talked about, you know, we have these big muscled up guys that come out there to run a CPAT. Yeah. And they very seldom pass it. Oh, I almost did. It is it is scrawny little guys that go out there and smoke it most of the time.

SPEAKER_00 44:07

So I had uh several years ago this kid that I had known growing up, long hair, you know, typical uh teenager. I hadn't seen him in A few years and and this guy shows up to do the CPAT and he comes over and starts talking to me, and it's that young kid that I hadn't seen in a few years. Yeah. And uh he had went and served a tour in the army, uh, if I remember right, he's an army ranger. And had just come back from uh the Middle East and uh I was like, So you think you can pass this? He said, Man, I've been out of the military two weeks. I'm gonna smoke this thing. Like, okay, we'll see. So a little bit, he had his turn, and uh, I went over, check on him under the rehab tent, and he was spent. Uh he didn't pass. Yeah, yeah. And uh I thought, I thought you was gonna smoke this. He came back the next time, done a great job on it, and he's a captain at this department now.

SPEAKER_02 45:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:09

But uh I always think back on him when people ask how hard that CPAT test is. It's tough.

SPEAKER_05 45:13

Oh, that was I mean, I'd always been told, you know, I've seen it. I've been here before, you know, when I was an explorers or whatever, just hanging out while I was out of school and watched it go down. I'm like, yeah, that looks like it sucks. Yeah. And then I've never been a really like athletic kind of person. I didn't do sports in high school. Yeah, I was a mechanic. I did not really care about I've got to be fit all the time, you know. Yeah. I just I just gotta be able to turn wrenches. Well, now here I am trying to prepare for our CPAT. I was working my butt off as much as I could. And our time limit was 12 minutes. I did it in 1125. But you did it. I did it. Yeah, I finished, and that was once I finished and they showed me the stopwatch, it was like a it was a wave of relief and it was a very, very uh I was proud of myself.

SPEAKER_02 46:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 46:14

Very because I knew I knew if I if I passed that CPAT, that I mean, I I I felt like I just had everything else in the bag.

SPEAKER_03 46:24

Yeah. You know? I gotcha. It's um I from this side of it, because we go down there and work them. Right. Um, I had much rather see somebody finish it in ten minutes but struggle through it, but say, I'm gonna finish it. Right. Oh, yeah. I'm I'm not gonna quit. And it may take them 30 seconds or a minute longer, but them fight and dig and struggle through it and finish it, then somebody just smoke it in seven minutes and it's like no big deal.

SPEAKER_04 46:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 46:54

I mean, uh, because I talked about this last time too. At at a point, we've seen so many people get to a point and they're like, I can't do it no more. Like I'm tired, I'm more out, I'm whatever, I can't go any further. And like, dude, your time is good, don't stop now. And they just dig their way to the end of it. That is all heart.

SPEAKER_00 47:14

Yeah, that's what you're looking for. People don't have any quit in them.

SPEAKER_03 47:17

That's right.

SPEAKER_05 47:18

You can't have that here. No. But I mean, they even in we did some training a couple weeks ago. That uh, what is it, fire and firefighter safety and survival.

SPEAKER_02 47:29

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 47:30

You cannot have any quit in you during that.

SPEAKER_03 47:32

No.

SPEAKER_05 47:33

If you do, somebody's getting hurt.

SPEAKER_03 47:35

Yeah, it'd be so easy to just say, no, I'm doing this like.

SPEAKER_05 47:39

Yeah, no.

SPEAKER_03 47:39

You so yeah. All right, so written test, kind of cut and dry. We talked about this where it's not it's not very fire department related test.

SPEAKER_05 47:50

Have you ever looked through it?

SPEAKER_03 47:52

No, we didn't do that when I got hurt.

SPEAKER_05 47:54

We did uh if somehow you can get your hands on a copy of that test, go read it.

SPEAKER_03 47:58

Yeah, I'd read it.

SPEAKER_05 48:00

Everybody that I had talked to, even around the department, they're like, Oh, it's if you can pass fifth grade math or whatever you can read, you can pass it. I was like, all right, cool, whatever. I wasn't worried. I came here in here to take it, and the first hundred, I think it was 150 questions. The first 100, they were broken up into kind of sections. Your first like 20-ish, you had to read a little passage and answer some questions about it, cut and dry. If you knew how to read and understood what you were reading, you're good.

SPEAKER_02 48:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 48:30

Then it went straight into math. I haven't done anything math-wise since 2016 when I graduated high school. The first question was, what's the square root of 169? I sat there for a solid two minutes going, I'm screwed. I'm failing this test.

SPEAKER_03 48:49

Well, I will tell you, you'll not need to know the square root of 169, yeah, as far as I know.

SPEAKER_05 48:55

And it got there was some it got a lot easier, but they would throw in some really hard math questions. And I I know for a fact I did not do good on that part. That's crazy. And then and then it was like some spelling stuff and grammar stuff. So it was all, I mean, it was pretty cut and dry.

SPEAKER_02 49:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 49:10

But it if you're worried, like if you don't know, hey, they're not really looking at the grade that that hard.

SPEAKER_02 49:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 49:17

If you're just going into it, which you need to go in and try. If anybody's going into it, you need to go in and put on put your all in.

SPEAKER_02 49:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 49:24

Don't ever do anything less than what you're able to. Yeah. Um, but honestly, the last like 50 questions, I think, are what they look at more than anything. The last 50 questions are basically kind of trying to figure out your character.

SPEAKER_02 49:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 49:42

There was one, and it's it's those where it's like uh strongly disagree, disagree, and then all the way to up to strongly agree.

SPEAKER_02 49:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 49:49

Um, and it's you know, I would rather work with my hands versus working on a computer. Yeah, you know, stuff like that. And I think there was one that was like nice guys finish last. And I was like, How do how do you answer?

SPEAKER_03 50:02

That don't even fit.

SPEAKER_05 50:03

Yeah, I I I don't agree with it and I don't disagree with it, but if I put neutral, I feel like I'm wrong there too.

SPEAKER_02 50:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 50:09

So I I I think they just really want to see your critical thinking skills. Um, and the fact that you're not just gonna go through and mark random answers, you know, to make sure you're actually here for it and not just Joe Blow hoping for a job.

SPEAKER_03 50:24

Well, way back when we did Scantrons in school, and I was in about the third, fourth, fifth grade, I got so tired of bubbling in, I'd make Christmas trees in them. Yeah. Oh my goodness. We did uh SIVO today. It's still a Scantron store. Oh, yes, I remember that. Crazy. All right, so what about interviews from your side going through the interview process, sitting in front of a panel of peers, which are you know suppression truck riders, and then going in and talking to admin. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 51:04

Um I'll be honest, if it was at a department where I didn't know anybody, I would have probably gone into it and felt a lot better. Yeah. But I come in here to a department that I I've known for most of my life, or all my life, really, and then I go in the first interview room out of our three-step process, and I sit down, and I think there's only one guy in that room that I didn't know, and I'm like, oh, that sucks. Because they all know who I am, yeah, they all know what I know. Yeah, they all like so I can't hide anything. Yeah. And and it was it's very basic questions. It was, you know, hey, is your family gonna be cool with our schedule? And I I think I told uh I think Relaford was the one who asked that question to me. I told him, I was like, if if somebody in my family has a problem with it, they're gonna they're the problem.

SPEAKER_03 51:57

They know what's coming already. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 51:59

Um, and then our second step was all of the uh we had battalion chiefs in there, I want to say, yeah, training chief was in there, uh inspections chief was in there. Yeah. I mean, it was a whole bunch of white shirts that have known me since I was about knee high. Yeah, you know, and I sit down and it's I the poor the sweat starts pouring. Yeah. And it's like I said, if it would have been any other department, I would have probably been a lot more calm. Yeah. But I was so nervous.

SPEAKER_02 52:31

That's funny.

SPEAKER_05 52:32

And then finally ended up in the chief's office. I was like, man, I am so ready for this to be over with.

SPEAKER_03 52:37

Yeah. It's a it's a long, drawn-out process, even from resume to the very last thing, but it's that way on purpose.

SPEAKER_05 52:45

I want to say from the I I put I sent in my resume the first day that it was available, which was last November, I believe. I think it was. And then my interview date was last week of January, first week of February. I don't remember exactly. Um and it was it felt like such a long, drawn-out process, but at the same time, it felt like everything happened so fast I couldn't blink.

SPEAKER_03 53:16

Yeah. We uh Lynn was still here when I went through it. Yeah, yeah. And uh man, I waited on emails. Oh my god. Impatient. Oh, I couldn't wait.

SPEAKER_00 53:28

It was so you're talking about how much time's changed. When I hired in, we didn't have a secretary.

SPEAKER_02 53:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 53:34

Or an administrative assistant, whatever you want to call it.

SPEAKER_02 53:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 53:37

We didn't have computers in the department. No such thing as email.

SPEAKER_02 53:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 53:42

Um you didn't have cell phones, so you had to call the chief at the office and then come face to face to find anything as far as the application process.

SPEAKER_03 53:55

That'd be nerve-wracking too.

SPEAKER_00 53:57

Yeah, it was. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 53:59

That would be my I think that'd be my nightmare if that's how I had to do it.

SPEAKER_03 54:04

Yeah. It'd be rough. I uh when I got hired, I knew the chief then since I was little. Um, I think he coached Little League one year, you know, in small town, everybody knew each other too, but that made it a little more nerve-wracking.

SPEAKER_05 54:24

Yeah. Well, I mean, me and Dad were joking about the other day. Our maze, our con Xbox maze. I remember helping them, him and our now head chief build that maze. Yeah. And I dropped a piece of wood on Chief's nose, right on the bridge of his nose, blacked both of his eyes. I mean, he was bleeding everywhere. Oh my goodness. So I guess I can say I'm the first person in a department that's ever busted the chief's nose.

SPEAKER_03 54:48

Yeah. Well, keep it at that one.

SPEAKER_05 54:50

Oh, yeah. I don't never again.

SPEAKER_03 54:53

Oh goodness. So once you get hired, everything comes down to one thing, and that is respect. Um, Mark, how did you earn respect when you came on?

SPEAKER_00 55:06

I know what I tried to do to earn respect, and I hope it worked, but uh I didn't try to try to differentiate my p me from anybody. I tried to be the grunt.

SPEAKER_02 55:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:15

I tried to get hands-on with everything that uh back when I hired on. If my sergeant was doing something, I would try to say, hey, let me do it, let me do it. Uh I wanted to be into everything where I could learn as much as I could.

SPEAKER_02 55:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:31

And then coming up through the department, uh, I started I got my instructor certification stuff in 90 and started teaching. Yeah. And I think that helped me earn some respect. Yeah, I think it does. Because I I taught it in the department. I also taught it uh did gypstick to Jordan Fire Academy. So um I I hope that did, but even when I made battalion chief uh on truck day, I was out there trying to check my vehicle. If it needed washed, uh I didn't expect the guys to wash it.

SPEAKER_03 56:04

Heck I'd wash it.

SPEAKER_00 56:04

I remember that. Uh you know, if they were scrubbing the bay floors and I didn't have anything pressing, I'd get out there and scrub the bay floors. Um I've I've always tried to say I'm not gonna ask somebody to do something I wouldn't do myself. That's that's right. I'm not you're never above anything. That's right. You know, and I feel that I I hope that was how I earned respect. Uh I feel like that helped.

SPEAKER_03 56:27

Yeah, absolutely. You uh it ain't something that happens immediately. Right. It it takes a while, and and it's hard, um, especially in Connor's position where he's just starting out for you to learn the guys and the guys to learn you, and all right, well, he's good doing this and he's good doing that, and then they start to trust you a little more with certain tasks and stuff because you gotta prove yourself. That's just part of it. Um, but then you start building that respect up, that's a pretty good feeling. Yeah. Um how do you four things? How do you this is a stupid question? Connor, what do you think destroys respect? I cut out the stupid question. We'll just go with this one.

SPEAKER_05 57:18

Yeah, that's fine. Um not being honest and trying to be something that you're not. Yep. I think that's gonna be the biggest thing. And I've and I've seen it firsthand with some other guys, not necessarily here, which really I've never seen anything bad out of here, honestly. Um, but around other places, other jobs, everything. I mean, I was lead technician at the last shop at the my old job, the last shop. Um and we'd have a new guy come in and he's like, Oh yeah, man, I know how to work on this, I know how to work on that. I'm like, all right, cool. You know, we really need some help. You know, all right, first day he comes in, we hand him work. Halfway through his day, he's like not even done with one one unit. I'm like, man, are you good? You know, yeah, yeah, yeah, I got it, I got it. And then I look and he's completely doing it backwards, basically. And I'm like, man, if you just said, you know, hey, I don't know how to do this, it's it's it's a whole lot better because now you got me mad. Now I've got to come back behind you and fix it.

SPEAKER_03 58:23

Just be straight up about it.

SPEAKER_05 58:24

Yeah. If I don't know something, I am definitely not afraid to say, hey, I have no clue what I'm doing. Yeah. And I think that is a huge deal when it especially here. Um, you know, you you can't play like you know something that you don't know.

SPEAKER_03 58:41

No, it's it's gonna get called out in a hurry.

SPEAKER_05 58:44

Well, and and even not even that, people's lives are on the line. Yeah. If it's even if it's something as simple as you know, tying off a halyard on a ladder. Yeah, if for some reason that ladder falls and you were the one that tied it off, and I tied that knot wrong and I said, Oh, yeah, I got this, it's all good. Yeah, and it falls and somebody gets hurt, that's on me.

SPEAKER_03 59:04

That's right. You gotta live with that.

SPEAKER_05 59:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 59:08

Alright, so for for y'all, and you had mentioned fourth generation. Right. Um this whole conversation is bigger than just this job. Like it it takes on your families and uh the legacy. Um so let's kind of talk about the father and son side of it for just a second. What is it and we kind of uh talked about this a little bit at the beginning, but what does it mean to watch your son enter this profession to carry on that legacy? I know you said you were proud earlier, but um to kind of keep that going.

SPEAKER_00 59:46

Yeah, I'm very proud. Yeah. Um, but it makes me want to um stand up a little straighter. Yeah, you know, and and so yeah, he he's hired. He's he's at the department I retired from, he's building his own legacy.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:03

And um I don't know, it just uh it gives me a sense of pride in him, but it also gives me more pride in a in a another buy-in, I guess you'd say, in the department.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:14

Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:16

Um I mean, he was raised in it. Yeah. Uh all all three of my children, my two girls and him, they were all raised in the fire service. They they know what it's like for daddy not to be there for uh birthdays, Christmas, all that stuff. Um so it's it's a family tradition, I guess I guess you'd say, because both my daughters married firemen. Yeah. Um but it it really when when both my daughters married firemen several years ago, it it gave me a sense of pride in them. Both of them work for another department in another county. But uh, and then now my son's in you know, in this department I gradu I I say graduated, but uh retired from because you you're trained every day, so I guess that is kind of a great relation when you retire. We do a lot of schooling. Yeah, yeah. But uh I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:06

Don't come here if you think you like you don't want to have a partner taking going to school or education or yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:13

No, it it gives you a a like I say a a different buy-in on the department. Uh but also it's it makes me stand up a little straighter and more proud.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:23

That's good. Connor, what's it like carrying the Bagley name into the fire service? Does that create pressure or motivation?

SPEAKER_05 1:01:31

A little bit of both. Um I the pressure is there um because I know there's a lot of guys around this department that they know they know me, but they don't know who I am. If that or might have said that backwards, they know my name, and they have this idea of who I am.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:50

Um and I feel like there's a I mean, you can't avoid it, but I feel like there's gonna be a handful of guys here that are, oh, he's just here trying to live on his dad's coattail, you know, ride it out, thinking he owns the place, something like that. And I will say in our in my chief's interview, I looked him in the eyes and I said, I I did not come here to ride on anybody's coattails. I said, I didn't come here to try to live off of somebody else's name. Yeah, I'm here to make a name for myself. I said, You can go change my name to whatever, and I'm still gonna be the same person I am. Yeah. I said, I don't care. I'm here to put in the work and make a name for myself.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:33

That's good stuff. So a little bit about you're talking about the pride. So I I taught at Georgia Fire Academy from 1990 until I well 2019 before they shut down for COVID. Yeah. So uh I was invited back to help teach part of his rookie class.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:51

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:52

So I got to go down there and be in the burn building with him, uh, you know, do a little bit of teaching. But then uh when he graduated, they actually called me up on the stage and let me present him with his certificate of completion and his estate certification. Uh he's talking about a proud, very proud dad. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:12

Yeah. That's good stuff. That meant a lot. Yeah. That's a big deal.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:16

Scared the mess out of me because the chief that was supposed to hand me my certificate, I mean, he's a shorter guy. So I look up to look him in the eyes, and I'm looking my dad in the chest. I was like, oh, all right.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:30

Oh, that's funny. All right, so before we wrap this up, let's talk about advice. So, Mark, if you could give Connor one piece of advice before he starts tomorrow, what would that be?

SPEAKER_00 1:03:44

Keep your head on the swivel. Follow what your company officer says do, yeah, and uh be true to what you're doing.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:55

That's right. Sometimes we have to check up and remember why we started doing this. Right. Right.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:05

Yeah, I've been told multiple times. If this job ever gets hard, remember that feeling that of the day when you got hired. Yeah. When you got that phone call. Remember that feeling, and and it'll it'll help things immensely. And not gonna lie, I've used that a couple times already.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:24

Yeah. Yeah. You you you gotta remember you're not here for the money. Oh no, it's not a job.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:31

Yep. We gotta feed our family. Oh yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, I agree with you there. But there's it's so much more than that. Right. Yeah. Connor, if you could give a piece of advice to somebody currently sitting in recruit school or uh maybe they're thinking about maybe this is what I want to do, what would that piece of advice be?

SPEAKER_05 1:04:53

Be confident in everything you do with the fire service. Yeah, you want to be confident, even if you don't know what you're doing and someone is teaching you how to do it, be confident, but don't be cocky.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:04

Yep. There's a fine line there.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:06

Yeah, be confident and don't don't hold back. Yeah, just give it your all. No matter what. Even if you screw it up in the worst ways possible, yeah, give it your all. Because at least you can say, I screwed this up, but I tried as hard as I could.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:23

Yeah, that's good advice. All right, so let's change the whole direction. Let's go totally personal, not related to the fire service. Nothing to do with the fire service. So, what artist or music are you listening to right now, Mark?

SPEAKER_00 1:05:40

Um, but Connor doesn't like it. Luke Combs, uh Chris Stapleton. Okay. You know, uh just country.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:48

I gotcha. All right. What about you?

SPEAKER_05 1:05:52

Man, my music taste goes from one end to the other every day. Um I can't remember the name of this band. I don't remember what it is. It's a it's a it's rock. Um I mean, I listened to Love Ella Langley. She's great. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:10

So I mean I'll I'll Seem like a lot of people like Ella Langley. I'm an Ella fella.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:14

I mean, I think it was uh oh gosh, what's his name? Hollis. Hollis, yeah. He said it I mean, I listened to literally everything, but I grew up all around music. My mom sang. I was in the band all in high school and everything. So my music taste. It doesn't matter what song's on. I'm gonna enjoy it.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:36

Yeah. That's cool. So other than this fantastic podcast, what else? Y'all listen to other podcasts at all?

SPEAKER_00 1:06:42

Honestly, this is the only one I listen to. My wife doesn't listen to music. She listens to podcasts constantly.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:51

And uh anytime she's in the car, and uh I don't know, I just wasn't my thing. Yeah. Now I have listened to your podcast quite a bit. Yeah. And uh so it's kind of changed my views on podcasts to an extent.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:06

I I listened to a couple, but I'm I'm really picky on what I listen to. Like there's just uh two or three that I listen to. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:14

Yeah, I couldn't listen to anything of um romance or whatever, you know, stuff like that, like the old soap operas. Oh, yeah. But uh my wife has had me listen to one about the uh mortuary up in uh the Somerville area. Oh, there's a podcast on it, and I uh which I was working here during all that going on, and you know, kind of had a lot of the inside information on it back then.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:43

Is that the one where they were supposed to be cream mating and there wasn't? Yes. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:47

And uh so that one was very interesting. But other than that and and wine cube, that's that's it.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:53

Gotcha. What about you?

SPEAKER_05 1:07:55

Um there's like including this one, there's three podcasts I listen to. The other two, there's one it's called Explore With Us. Um it's I don't know if it's a guy or a group of guys, whatever, but they uh they'll take recent um police body cam footage and stuff like that. Yeah, and it's it's not just oh this dude got a DUI, but it's some pretty gruesome stories, honestly. Um, but it's all stuff within the past few years. I mean, some stuff one I listened to the other day was just a couple months old. Yeah, but it's real body cam footage, I mean the real audio from it, and you can actually watch it too. Um, and there's a narrator that goes along with it, but I mean they go into into the investigation rooms and everything. I really enjoy stuff like that. And then there's another podcast to listen to. It's called Unsubscribe. It's a bunch of veterans and stuff that get on there and just I mean, they're just kind of stupid and it's funny.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:50

Well, it's gotta be funny. Oh, yeah. Uh do y'all have a favorite Bible verse?

SPEAKER_00 1:08:56

The one I guess that always comes back to be just the the uh 23rd song.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:01

Yep, that's a good one. Um it's hard to beat that one.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:03

It's hard to beat that one, and uh, you know, you um not to be on the downside, but most off funeral services you go to today. I did church services, whatever, but yeah, it it kind of lays out your life. Yeah, the way you should live your life. Absolutely. And it tells you why you should live it that way. So you know.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:24

It's been so many times I've been worried about something or scared, whatever it is, and think about Psalms twenty-three. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:30

You know, I I worked with a guy a number of years now, he's deceased now, and um his favorite Bible verse was Jesus wept.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:43

And uh I asked him one day, I said, that that's the shortest verse in the Bible.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:48

You know, I don't understand this. He said, because when I get in a bind and I don't have time to think about nothing else, I can say that one quick and keep doing my job. There you go. And and it well, it kinda I thought I thought he was being kind of sarcastic about it, but come to find out, no, he was being truthful. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:06

Well, I I I can see a point to that too where you know if the Lord got to that point, we're gonna get to that point. Oh, yeah, that's right. You know, yeah. Uh so yeah, good deal. What about you? You got one?

SPEAKER_05 1:10:18

Um, I can't quote it word for word. Uh it's Joshua 1-9, and it talks about being courageous.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:24

Um channel for you. I've kind of always tried to stick true to that as much as I could.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:29

Good deal. That's a good one too. All right. Anything else on your heart and on your mind?

SPEAKER_00 1:10:35

No, I'm glad to be here. Uh glad to come back to the headquarters and see some of the guys, and uh uh, it does the old man good to get to hang out at the fire station again.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:47

You got an open invitation.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:48

Yeah, I appreciate that. Yep. Take you up on that. Absolutely. You're still cooking biscuits.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:53

We still do. We still do breakfast.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:55

Yeah, we do the regular. All right. So I'll let you know you can come by and eat with us. Okay. I'm gonna hold you to it. Okay. Sounds good. All right, 37 years in and just getting started. Same profession, two completely different perspectives. So, Mark and Connor, I appreciate both of y'all coming. Uh, thank you for having us. Yeah, absolutely, man. I love y'all's story and just the legacy of that. Um Yeah, I think it's awesome. So, thank you for listening to Wine the Q, the stories behind the siren. Stay safe. Take care of your crew, take care of your family.