So I have had a lot of questions here at work about my new venture into Firefighting as an Active Duty US Marine. Which I guess is pretty uncommon around the job I do here for this Gun-toting brotherhood. So I wanted to track my progress so that I can share it with other Marines if they one day decide on following suit.
So to start off, I guess we can start with a little background. As if I haven’t already put myself in enough danger as a Marine, doing two deployments to Afghanistan. I decided recently that I am likely going to be getting out for various reasons but mainly I hate moving and love Virginia (yeah who;d have thought, Yay for good gun laws)! So that being said, I need to find something to do right? Of course I do! So that’s when I started playing with my options. The first and one most people continually suggest is get out and do my high-demand high-paying job here in the DC area… One problem, I want to get out of the Marine Corps because of this job. As with most of my generation, we are very ADD with life choices and the one I have made landed me behind a desk and computer for the foreseeable future and that really isn’t what I want out of life and would be willing to take a pay cut just to ensure it doesn’t. Yeah I know not smart right? But is it really worth it to be living lavishly and hate life or live within means and love what you do? I choose the latter, at least starting out.
Now that bring me to the decision… What do I want to do next? So I had a few factors to consider… I knew I hate working behind a desk 8 hours a day; I hate doing this while people on the civilian side make twice as much for the same work while not having to have gone through the hardship of boot camp and deployments; I love public service and helping the community; I am an adrenalin junkie; I love a brotherhood; I love the outdoors; and there are quite a few more that I will not mention to save your attention. But this is a bit of a quandary no?
Well long story short with these prerequisites I narrowed it down to something I’ve always found interesting. Law and Fire. I’ve got family and friends on both sides of the thin line and find both to be excellent for a future of not being behind a desk all day every day.
So I then had trouble… Fire or Law… Both are cool, one you can shoot guns, arrest people, drive fast, make busts… The other put out fires, break stuff and cut open cars. Tough decision right? Yeah I thought so too. So I was all Law for quite a while, wanting to pair my outdoorsman attitude with law enforcement (LE) and become a Conservation Police Officer (the less cool name for Game Warden). But it wasn’t until a wise man named Cujo told me while we were drinking at a bar, something I had heard a few times before but never gave too much thought. He said “You know what they say… Everyone hates cops, but they sure do love Fireman.”
Perplexing right? Well not really, it was the truth, I hate getting pulled over or getting my chops busted by an unruly officer of the law out to bust balls for snitz’n’giggz (granted I don’t hate them and somebody has to do it). But who really hates a Firefighter (unless your ones ex-wife)? I mean they are there when most people are at their lowest moment during their lifetime. Whether it be watching their house burn down with all their possessions in it, sitting in a crippled vehicle as firefighters work to cut them free, or watching a Firefighter carry a burned child from a fully developed house… It’s just kind of hard to hate a Firefighter. So long story almost short, that was about all I needed to decide for now. Plus I can get all my training and certs while still active duty… SIGN ME UP!
jtelife 