As Good As It Gets

From the left: Battalion Chief (BC) Joe Tinsley, BC Maurice Gates, BC Melvin Carter, Assistant Chief Marty Greene, BC Shane Dobson, and yours truly.

All too often, I'm unable to see how good things are until they aren't so good anymore. This is the group of chiefs that I have been working with on C Shift.  We have been notified that Chief Carter will be transferred to a different shift on July 1st. Sunday was the last chance for us to all work together, so we took this picture.

No one is reading this blog but me, so I've got no reason to blow smoke up anyone's skirt. When I say that this is a ridiculously strong group of leaders within our department, I mean it. And when I say I'm the weakest link, I mean that too. But like the last player to get picked for the ball team, you're still on the team, and I wear that with pride.

Each of these men has my admiration. Joe Tinsley (first from the left) is an exceptionally experienced incident commander who really knows our rescue specialties. He has the love of his firefighters and the respect of the department.

Maurice Gates (second from the left) has managed two (that's right I said two) maydays in the last two years and did so with a calm and commanding presence that contributed to our firefighters getting out of a very bad situation. I hope I can get through my career without having to command a mayday, but if I can't, I hope I handle the incident as well as Maurice did...twice.

Melvin Carter (third from the left) not only has an excellent command presence on the fireground, he also carried me and my 40 lb ruck for over 400 yards up a steep hill on our first GoRuck when our cadre killed me off within sight of the finish. It was the damnedest display of physical fortitude I've ever witnessed, and I watched it while laid across his shoulders as he covered 50 feet at a time. He walked until his legs began to wobble, I would hop off, he would take three breaths, and then pick me up again. Unreal.

Marty Greene (third from the right) is one of those rare people who can make everyone feel that they are an important part of the team. He's the department's most experienced tactician and always makes the incident better when he arrives on scene. He has an ability to see through a situation to the core of what needs to be addressed. He's who I want to be when I grow up.

Shane Dobson (second from the right) is my work wife. He's incredibly humble, ridiculously knowledgable and talented, and someone I look up to. His passion and no-nonsense approach to fire scenes is something I try to remind myself of since I have a tendency to make things more complicated than they really are. Years ago, on a fire I was commanding as a very inexperienced incident commander, Shane almost lost his life. I often think about what I might have cheated our department out of if it had gone some other way. I love him like a brother.

Like I said, it's a great team. And there are great chiefs on the other shifts, but this group worked well together, laughed together, and moved C Shift forward together. And if you're not me and are reading this, I just wanted you to realize how great some of the folks protecting the citizens of DeKalb are. It's easy to see when a firefighter is holding a nozzle or climbing a ladder. But there are other skills, which are a little harder to see, but are just as important.