Why We Fight

The title of this post comes from the title of an episode of Band of Brothers with the same title.  In that episode Easy Company has advanced into Germany and they discover a concentration camp for the first time.  The episode is aptly named because Easy Company gets to see first hand some of the terrible things the Nazis have done and why the rest of the world is fighting to stop them.  The moment they discover the concentration camp, those soldiers truly realize the reason they have been fighting all that time.  So how does this apply to firefighting?  Well I have had several moments where I realized why I truly am a firefighter and why I feel I am called to do this job.

So why am I a firefighter?  There are several reasons that draw me to this job.  The money is certainly not one of those reasons.  I get paid well for what I do but this job is never going to make me rich.  I had a fairly lucrative job in the private sector and I took a fairly significant pay cut to become a professional firefighter.  I wasn't happy sitting behind a desk day in and day out after about 10 years of trying to find my calling I realized that a healthy paycheck did not make up for all the frustrations I had in those jobs.  So, I took a chance and decided to pursue the job I love.  After a couple years of applying and testing for every job I could I was lucky enough to land a full time firefighting job.  There has not been a day I haven't been excited about going to work since.

What is it about this job that many of us love?  First of all, the job changes every day.  Certainly there are routines we get into and tasks we do every shift but every day is a little bit different and you start the shift not quite knowing what the day will hold.  I love being able to work with my hands and work with people.  I get to spend a lot of my day outside and not cooped up in an office.  But the two major reasons for my love of this job is getting to help people and being able to be part of the fire service family.

For as long as I can remember I have wanted to make a difference in people's life.  In high school I was a life guard.  My intent going into college to be a doctor so that I could help people.  Throughout college my career path changed and I ended up going into the business field.  The entire time I was in the business field there was still that desire to help people.  I wanted to get involved with the fire service as a volunteer but I continually found myself either working too many hours to volunteer at a fire department or living in a city that did not offer volunteer opportunities.  Once I got the opportunity to join the fire service I jumped at it.  Through that opportunity I was able to make an impact in people's lives.  Typically when someone calls 911 they are having their worst day.  We as firefighters have the opportunity to come in and do what ever we can to help them.  Whether it is fighting a fire, responding to a car accident or providing EMS care we can make a difference for those folks.  To be honest there is not really one call that sticks out that solidified my love for this job.  I have run hundreds of calls since I got started and each one has had an impact in one way or another.  I have been to fires where families have lost everything and codes where the patient didn't make it and each time it breaks my heart.  Something inside me knows that we can't save them all and each loss drives me to do better the next time.  With each call I run I have the opportunity to make a difference in someone's life.  It can be as minor as bandaging a cut or as major as a working structure fire or CPR in progress.  Whether the call is minor or major I treat them the same and do my best to help those people in need.  I get to see tangible results of the impact I made.  In the business field often times I really didn't get to see the fruits of my labor and often times it seemed that my hard work only resulted in more money in some big wig's pocket.  I will take the former over the latter any day.

The final reason for my love for the fire department is the fire service family itself.  The fire service is truly a large family.  Its called the brotherhood for a reason.  We are brothers and sisters and have to trust one another unconditionally.  In my full time job I work a 24 hour shift every third day so I literally spend 1/3 of my life with the guys I work with.  We live together in the firehouse for 24 hours at a time.  For that 24 hours these guys are my family.  They have my back and I have theirs.  We eat meals together, we hang out together in the evenings during our down time.  There are good days and bad days.  Guys get frustrated with each other and at times we have to diffuse situations just like any family would.  Outside of the firehouse we are still family.  Often times our families get together and spend time.  We help each other out.  If one of our brothers needs help painting his house, we show up with pain brush in hand.  If they need help moving, we show up with our trucks.  We have each other's backs whether we are at work or whether we are at home.  Its been that way for a hundred years and it will be that way for a hundred more.  Lets take it one step further, I have heard stories of union brothers traveling across the country for a family emergency and union brothers from another state who have never met this individual in their life show up at the airport to meet this guy and take him in like they have known him their whole life.  They provide transportation, shelter and do whatever they can to help a fellow firefighter out.  Each fire department is a family and those small families make up the entire fire service family as a whole.  It is truly amazing to see what people will do to help one another simply because we work in the same profession.  You don't tend to see that out of people who work in other industries.  That doesn't mean those people are bad, they just don't have that universal connection like we do in the fire service.

Saving a house, extricating someone from a car accident, helping someone who is having a heart attack... these are the reasons "Why We Fight."  We don't do it for the glory or the recognition, we do it because we love this job and we love helping people.  I love my job and I truly feel blessed to be able to call myself a firefighter.  I get the opportunity to live my dream every third day and I take great pride in that.  I truly have the best job in the world.