You're listening to the Getting Salty Experience podcast. Hello the World we Go, Hello, Johnny, albadiez Alex Still the Peev Laredo, Susie, we got Missus Procaccini's husband, and we got Dougie Doyle and all you people who came into the chat welcome back to the show to get to the experience. One one Mike, the only one that brings a kitchen table and a Dominican interuit to you, Bro, the only one, the only ones that So the Rangers won roughies all happy? No they didn't, just winning first period?
Oh oh, the Rangers are winning. That's why he's happy. You see my Jets yesterday, Bro, when I was big. That's a big win. And they had never been yesterday not one beat them twelve Bro, all time twelve against what's the record? Three and three? Three? Wow? The kids coming through. He's getting by. He's getting by with a great defense. That's what we're doing. You need. That's all you need to code a Geimer gamer gamer Gimer. Nobody cares about football, Nobody cares about
hes gun. Oh he's not even back, bitch. You see, I don't have a soundboard, So that's okay. We got to play our commercials. When do you want to hear that I had to ship in the boss story today later or when do you want to hear that? You want to say that? You want to say that? No, I don't don't hit him with it. The kids look at who it looks good. No, it was a true story. I had to ship in the boss today telling you the true story. Does the Chief know you're talking like this? Oh,
he's in the back. You can hear us, all right, he's on the face by it because he's used to it by now. He's known you guys for twenty five years, so easy with you guys. Stuff. That's eighty two podcasts with us, So he's actually this is his fourth that we had the four episodes of the Rock, so he's an eight time. The only one that might be up there is Hank or Ray I think, or the Leaves. I don't know. He's pretty well, I don't know. I don't know. Coops has uh weaned off of the molay teat and
now has jumped onto the lead teeth. Wow, really, I don't know. Hank. I gotta talk to Hank. He's probably feeling a little left out. I don't know. I talked to Hank several times a week. Bro, He'll be coming back on the show. He'll be sure, he will absolutely. Oh, you know what we gotta get you played on the Ragers, The Raiders. I play the commercials before I come out and tell my ship Storff sit stories. Let me know on the comments well before we
get to that. A word from our friends over at Armour Tough. Armour Tough interlocking floor tiles are the best choice to replace new or aging, stained or cracked concrete or epoxy floors. Here's why. ARMOURTOF tiles come with a lifetime warranty and are usually installed in one or two days, depending on the size of your station, with virtually no disruption in daily operation. Armour Toough interlocking tiles are guaranteed from chipping, cracking, peeling, braking, or staining
once installed. The tiles are non skid and non slip and meet the ADA standards for the friction coefficient. The tiles are stained resistant and impervious to any chemicals or volatiles that are used in the fire service. Once installed, your floor will be easy to clean with just soap and water. Install an ARMOURTF tile floor in your apparatus, base offices, training rooms, workshops, extra size rooms, kitchens, banquet halls, or any other room in your station.
Call Vince Today for a no obligation quote at nine oh eight nine one seven seven six nine seven. Why install a breakable epoxy floor that will need replacing in five to ten years when you could have a floor that will last a lifetime. Drop a haligan on an armour tough floor and you won't see any damage. Don't try this with concrete or epoxy. Join the hundreds of career and volunteer fire departments nationwide who have chosen an Armour tough interlocking tile floor.
Armour Tough interlocking tiles are half the price of epoxy and will last a lifetime without issue. Again, call Vince Today for a no obligation quote at nine oh eight nine one seven seven six nine seven. Beautiful. Let's get the other one out of the way. We still don't know what the trick friction coefficient is, but we'll figure it out something in the meantime. A word from They Saved Me or it is a book that will perhaps go down
as the report from Mentioning Company eighty two of our generation. They Saved New York, written by Glenn Huston and Dan Potter, retired New York City firefighter, explores the men and women of the fd and Y and their respective journeys into the department. From everyone from firefighters on the fire floor to those who were in positions of command such as lieutenant, Captain in chief and so on
and so forth. This book explores their stories told through their perspectives. Each story differs, but the mission is the same and the common theme is this those that put their lives in the line to save their fellow New Yorker, no matter the cost, no matter the situation, whenever they were in need. Get your hands on this book today. You will not regret it.
Written by once again retired New York City firefighter Dan Potter and the concept of photography provided by the one and only Glennist and a member of the fire Belt Club in New York City. They Saved New York the men and women of the fdn Y. If you'd like to purchase the book, you can do so. And they Saved And why dot Com? That is again ww dot They saved? And why dot Com? Yes? And then November third, Ruff you got to go to the book signing, we go to the Joey
D Thing. It's out we have that bird? Do we have? It might be the fourth ruff You might be right out there, it says the book signing the Joey D Foundation. There it is me and Louis. I don't know if Louis and I one of us, both of us might be there. What that's Chief leave? If he's coming uh to sign the books. There's going to be almost guys, a lot of guys from the book and the Lieutenant Joseph Barnado Memorial Foundation. It was going to be Saturday,
November fourth. You're right, Ruffie, at seven pm at the Krum Fire Department. So there you go. And tickets are only twenty dollars. So if you if you're in the area, you have the means to get there, try and get there. Do it all right? Bring them on, all right, lou you want to do the honors or you want me to, I'll do it all right. Coming to stay for the eight hundred, I mean our favorite Chief, Chief Francis Lee. What's up? My brothers who can't get on? Your friends can't get on. Got a couple of
people that have told me to have a hard time signing on. Yeah, I got I got three texts in the last two minutes. Why is that Mike or technical advisor sorry, signing on to watch this? Yeah, you should be able to. It's already on YouTube. Well that's what I said. I sent them the link to you. Probably a technical uh operator era, I don't know. I'm gonna go with human eraror what are those books back there? Oh, Mike, not behind the wheels. We have to
zoom in on it. Let's just trying to build the bag cave so his wife can't see him down there in his shirt. Man, it's the shirt. I got to see the back. Let me see the bath. Here's the back. You can't see it. Whoa, that's a bad as shirt. Man. That's cool. That is a bad ass shirt. That's a bad ass company too. Yeah, they were doing it. That's the Yeah, that's some of the boys in the Providence, Rhode Island Fire Department.
The other night when I was in Providence for for one of their conferences that they put on. What a great job they did there. And a couple of blocks from the hotel, we got this this three decad going dec there's a three decondo and they talked about a three deca during the day and there he wre man and let me tell you like it does a matter where you are, right, the brothers and sisters getting at it. They're doing the job. Fires in the walls, it's spreading rapidly and the you know,
they're doing the best they can. I mean, look at the look at the ladder they got up there. You know, no one likes to no one likes to throw a ladder at that size, right, we know that, but just hey, it's uh did you take that picture? Was that? Did you take that picture? I didn't take that picture? Picture A bunch of videos? Is that before? At the attaptic guy on the shoulder say hey give me that? No, okay, let me show how do
Yeah. So though there's other fire departments, they love nothing more then than someone from another apartment to come up to them and tell them, Hey, this is how we do it. In my g I don't care where you. I don't care where you ring that line to the third floor, you lean and go. Yeah. I don't know if I would do that. I would probably go the way I said. I stay on the sidelines.
I watch, I try and learn, and I said, if something catastrophic was to happen, and you know, the brothers were down something, the sisters were down, it's a different story, then I would jump in. But otherwise I'm very respectful when I'm on the scene of somebody else's alarm, because nobody wants an expert from the sidelines telling them what to do, right, everybody's an expert when they're on the sideline. You can't do that ship in the arena. You can't do that ship in a different company, like
if you were in the Brooklyn. Then he went to the Bronx. Oh yeah, Brooklyn. We used to do it this way. They'd be like, yeah, right, yeah, go back. Yeah, you know before it like, we gotta do the pledge because we forgot left. Ye. Let me pull up that video. Sorry, folks, haven't done this in a little bit, but here it is. I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the Republic, for which it stands, One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. What
is that? Like a gold nugget, Coop. I'm stuck in my tooth from this, And I saw him doing it backstation like that freaking guy. So let me ask you this before we move on. How did the fire go? Did it go out like what happened? Yeah, they went out, but that ain't that's not a good bar, right, so we got to hold out people to a higher standard than that. But they didn't.
They did a nice job. They had a lot of a lot of firefighters there, A lot of firefighters that I met earlier that day at the conference were there and just so many I said, so many good firefighters there that they met. And that's they talked about the three decades that they that they get and just you know, prepare for the possible, right And they were there. They are training all day. Someone were going to be that back there the next day. So this is a conference that they used to do
often, and they had stopped it for a couple of years. Now they've been doing it for a couple of years in a row again now and what a super conference had about one hundred and seventy attendees. They were all dialed in, you could tell, right. So you look at the crowd and nobody's playing with their phone and doing other stuff. They're there because they want to be there, because they want to learn just a great time. So
that's the Fire Administrators summit. That's a different oat pitcher that they have a but that's a different one. Get it's still a three deca. It's still a three deca. So when we're on my way home the following morning on to get on to ninety five, you actually pass it because that's the good thing when you buffet. Once they got the flames out, you could go home. They were there for a couple more hours doing what they have to
do. But you know what, certainly a department with a lot of pride, a lot of good people in that department, and uh that conference. Look for it next year. It's definitely worth worth attending. And I appreciate the Providence man. The Providence Survival seven. I've got there now I've got the name of it, but it's on if you go on Cornerstones of Leadership on Facebook, I have I have posts about the conference there. That's the page I'm using to post stuff related to the book and stuff like that.
Try and take some of the stuff off of my personal Facebook page and put it on there where we could interact with, you know, related to the book and other other topics. How's the book doing. It's doing well, man, I'll tell you what it's been at some point, number one on Amazon and five different categories. Yeah, so that's pretty cool that and that's that's people spending their hard earned money before they even know if it's good or not. Now I'm starting to get some reviews on it, and there he
goes, thank you, Timmy Klett Providence Safety and Survival. Uh he saved me again. Man. He's Taurus, so he knows how to do it. The Wizard of water man, he's always the Stamppipe, the Sultan of the Stampipe, the brow of H two. Joe Whizz is in there. We were training on it today, so our two hour ride to work and a little over two hours on the way home right away. For on the way home from work, and I'm like, bro, we might not be
home for eight o'clock. It was. It was terrible coming from headquarters today going home, and so you had to drive it like he stole it, you know, just just for a couple of minutes. He had to do that. But we got h you know, we managed, we got home in uh in some time. But uh yeah, hey, so how about them jets, right? I mean come on, yeah, baby giants man, nobody, nobody, let's not even talk about the Giants. But what a show you guys had with Eddie's alone Byman Ed. Just you think about
like wild, Yeah, that guy's a beast. He's still pumped up. He's still for a guy who's out, he's still motivated, right, I mean, it's crazy. My goodness. He he bleeds green and he bleeds red for the FDNA. I met him. I met him when I was in Proby school because one of the guys that the guy that sat next to me, George Valente, who I hadn't seen in like ten years, and recently we went out for lunch. He was like like we had it was
like we've seen each other yesterday, you know. Anyway, George introduced my whole class, my hope for platoon to Eddie anzelone and he was just a ball of fire. Then that was see the Proby class. That was nineteen ninety two, so I think that was that was before Fireman Ed really became
what it is today. But what a great show him talking about his brother on the show and all of that, Like it's just and seeing him, like seeing him at at the game, yesterday, and now knowing the story, I didn't know his brother passed away, but seeing that, and for me, I had a brother that passed away at a young age, and seeing that he wasn't on his brother's shoulders yesterday, and now I knew why
added another little piece to that. And just you gotta love how into the job he is, and just that exuberance and excitement that he had when I met him in nineteen ninety two and how he is all these years later, right, he just he's never lost his passion. And I've never forgotten that day. As he's quoting the ten codes to us, He's like, ward, return the quarters. He's he's reading them all right, and then he just kept going into into everything. I'm like, this guy is freaking squared
away. I love this guy. And uh, you know then I then I didn't know him again until you know, later on you see that he's had all these jet games and stuff. And then I talked to George Valente and he and he tells, me, yeah, that's who you know. That was fireman Ed. I'm like, yeah, of course, it was no surprise, right, he's the real deal man. Did you see those old timers we had on there, we had Chief Farrell and we had Captain
Laughy. Have you watched those shows yet? I have not. And then that show watch, Oh yeah, I'm gonna watch the one with Greco. That's the next one. I'm cute up to watch. You'll see Louis smiling the whole time. Bro, Yeah, I'm sure we should all be smiling because because Paly Greco just you know, just a great human being. Forget the fact that he was a great firefighter, he was a great human being
and taken from us way too soon. And seeing seeing his son succeed and and just seeing what he's done, and how Pete, miss Linsky's been there, you know with him. I know you have Pete coming on soon, another just salt of the earth kind of guy. And I can't wait to see that episode. I just that's an episode. I don't want to watch a part of it. I want to make sure that I can watch the whole thing at one time, so I haven't. I haven't been able to
watch it yet. But man, you guys just keep cranking out good content. That's uh, it's all about the guest. Chief, It's all about the guests, you know. Well that helps. I guess you see him, he's like this. I guess that helps me. I'm doing my best the books like this, have you you know, Frank Deputy chief Author, you with that the credentials, Now, where's the where's the pipe? Coops?
It's best selling author brother Yeah, yeah, yeah. Celebrated best author Francis Lee in five categories on the He also penned the four into the They Saved New York. She is another great book, right, you to have another book coming out, and so you mentioned that event that's going on in November right where they're going to do the signing. I am a late edition. I will be there and that Saturday night as well. There you go, Yes, with my book. I'll bring it my wife with me.
Your wife coming, she is not coming. I think I will probably have my son with me. And then I'm doing a class on Sunday, and I think of Joe's gonna stop by on Sunday as well. I told him, bro, you got to come by. Yeah, so you'll get you get him as well. And they have a lot of people lined up for Saturday Night, a lot of the people that are featured in They Save New York. So there's several legends that that are gonna be there and then then
then me and then you got out to you is being low. I think we might have to sweep to join up or we're done to grab the broom when you leave with the group that's in that bottle light. I mean, yeah, I'm excited, you know with the people that sounds like a're gonna
be there. And you know those two guys and Kevin Yost the work they're doing for that, you know, I know you guys knew Joey D. I knew Joey D. Joey D. He also did some training with us in my east in East Farmingdale in my volunteer fire department, So you know, my volunteer friends knew knew Joey well. And to see what what they've done with this is just remarkable. So hopefully we'll see some people. We'll see some people there as well. Yeah, that should be fun. Man.
Hey, I see that Frank Ledo is in the chat. Frank he ran our counseling unit, so he he's just a remarkable guy, remarkable story. He has a copy of the book, but I don't know if he started reading it yet, but he's mentioned in it as well. He probably doesn't. He may not even know that yet, but I mentioned because I didn't tell him. I like some of the people I mentioned in the book. I never told him I mentioned them in the book. And he's one of them. Just a great, a great person for sure. So he's
talking about he's talking about the summit. But we'll get to the we'll get to the summit. But a shout out to my buddy who just retired. Shout out to FX, my buddy who is in the Volunteer Fire Service. He just retired. And I'm like, bro, you're only like six months older than me and you retired already. That's that's not right. Uh So man, and I'll tell you what. Is he moving away? No, he's not gonna move away now. He likes it. He likes it from
on Long Island, so he'll stay. But I'll tell you, man. Coming home from work, I was exhausted because all day had we had a meeting this morning. Some of the firefighters from UH, from Beasailles, UH from France were in town and so we had a meeting with them. But after that, sitting in I'm sitting in my office and Chief Esposito's office is right next door to mine, and I'm like, that guy didn't stop.
I don't think he had lunch today. And when I was leaving a little after five o'clock, I told him, I said, bro, I am freaking exhausted, not for my day. My day was wasn't that bad? But after hearing he had meeting after meeting, I would just walk over there
and just check up on him, like are you still okay? Like you talk and you talk about a guy that's into the job, and I know you had him on right, But that guy loves the f d n Y And he's certainly one of those guys that starts every single day by saying, what can we do for the brothers and sisters that get on the fire trucks and ambulances today? How can we support them? And if if you're a
chief in his position, that's the way it's got to be right. And he had his assistant chief of Operations, Kevin Woods, was in there with him a good part of the day, and other people kept popping in and out to help them. But he had to deal with a couple of a couple of heavy issues in the field. Kevin Woods was assistant chief of Operations. Yeah. Yeah, he went from the from the Staten Island Borough Commander to there. He's got his brother, Danny Woods, right, I think
he's the chief too. Yeah. I'm not sure of all the who's really who's who's related to who, because everybody seems to be related, you know, one way or another. But I told him, I said, man, I am exhausted, and he's at an event tonight. So he told me he's like, listen, bro, I'm gonna listen to the scrap tomorrow on my way in because he won't get home. Several of them will go into UH. I think the Emerald Society said, God night is something was
tonight that they're all going to support that. But that's what they do, right, They just they never stop. And I know of I know of several people that are going to that. Woods is not because he's got citywide duty today, but I know Mike Mayas was going to that. I know that Esposito, and I'd heard there were a few others, but just the brothers and sisters got to know how much how much somebody's UH department or what
he's got. My vote that man, he's he's certainly qualified. Uh. He understands the balance, the delegate balance of making sure that you're taking care of the brothers and sisters and that you're also making sure that you you know, they're looking out for the rules and that's how stuff. So he's definitely a good Uh, he would definitely be a good person for the job. Like I said, he's got he's got my vote, he's got my support and he knows that. So I hope so, I hope that, I
hope something maybe somebody is listening that has has input in that. Yeah, but we'll see. So that that Providence job. So I was there. I want to get back to that Providence job. There it is, there, it is again, but uh, I'm sitting there. It's after the fire. As we were leaving, we took our backstep photo of the of some of the guys I was buffing it with, which was myself, my son Justin, and then Ray McCormick. And there we are sporting, sporting
getting salty. Oh yeah nice. And Ray was actually sporting the the Mile High Conference. He had just come back from Denver, uh for the for the fire conference. They have out there. So so many good uh, so many good conferences out there. You just got to get out of your department and see what's going on on outside outside of your your area. Doesn't matter where you work. Guys from the FD and Y and girls from the FD and Y constantly getting out there and teaching, but not only teaching but
learning, so things with you huh he does. Yeah. So, I mean he's the reason the book's over the you know, between him and my wife, the amount of work that they did on the them in particular on the book to get it over the finish line. Coley Moore, who has a book out himself, The Nine l is a really good book. He did a lot of editing on the book as well, but really it was my son who got it over the finish line. So I tell him, I'm like, hey, come with me. You can help me sell a
few books. And you know that in this one right this Saturday, we get to the hotel and he sees this a lot of people checking in and he's like, what's going on. It finds out there's a football game. So he goes to the Brown Princeton football game on Saturday. Well, I'm teaching, and then he comes back, you know, Saturday night to hang out. But yeah, it's it's good stuff. Man. In fact,
that unfortunate that I could. I could do that. Right, He's at a point right now he's in between going to to starting his cut next college plan. He's going to do that soon. So I'm able to take him with me when I go to these things, which is cool. Who's better than me that I could do that? Yeah? I just sat down yesterday on a couch was it yesterday day before with my two youngest boys, and we watched Backdraft for the first time. Bro, it's I can ride a
passage? Bro? Does it get any better than that? So you know what I did. I immediately called a buddy. You know, the guy who owns the boat, the Fireboat, the Hollywood guy. Yeah, he's friends with the guy who wrote by Backdraft. I said, listen, that mother effort owes it to the fire community for making him filthy rich and for making that that movie iconic. You better get him on our show where we want him on the show. He said, you know what, You're right.
I said, all right, let's do it, man, let's get him on the show. The guy who wrote back Draft. We'll probably have leab on that day. So put leads on that day? What about the twenty eight? What about the first hold on? Sorry, I wanted to know. I had it in my head and I'm gonna forget. How long did it take you from the time you started writing to the end? How long did it take? So that's a good question. The book was based on the keynote that I did at last year's fire House expot So the meat
and potatoes in the book were written in the past year. So the picture up there now, that was over there with Pete Matthews and the folks, the guys that did this year's keynote, and they did a tremendous job. They spoke about this year's keynote was all about family and the brotherhood and Walton John Lewis. I think you guys, you guys know those Yeah, I'm pretty sure you know John. He's from Jersey. Walt's the Tian chief down
in Atlanta. And of course I'm forgetting someone from the check can helped me out with this too. I always mess up the other guy's name, so I'll wait for the chat to the wisdom of the crowds to help me out with with those guys. But they did a really nice job talking about family and the brotherhood and whether you have a relative or a brother in the fire department. It's just it was really good and that was the picture of them.
But anyway, so that's what the book was based off of the keynote, So I had a rough outline of what I wanted to talk about, so I didn't have to worry about figuring that out right, So it when a timeline of my career, and then it just became more of filling in the gaps to make it where it's a coherent book. Right. But the keynote was about forty two minutes forty three minutes, so that's a pretty long start already and then fill that in. But it was a lot of work.
It was a lot more work than I would have thought it was, to be honest with you, and I definitely have a newfound respect for for writers and to have to make a live in doing that. You know, kudos to those because it's really difficult to get that book that really goes and sells, you know, millions of copies, like you know, you can't expect to be like a guy who writes a book like for the first time and be like a well known you know guy, who what is that?
What were you again? Sorry? The best selling author five tope? What about five category and Amazon? Something like that? That doesn't often happen, you know. So he's not laughing. Yeah, that's yeah, that's well. So Amazon sells more than one hundred and eighty thousand different books. So I never, I never got in. I never. I think I was Ony twenty one was the highest I saw myself on that list. But there's
some heavy hitters. You look at the top hundred books on Amazon, there's books that sell millions, you know, and then then it probably drops off quite quite a bit. But I'm sure you read a lot of books prior to writing this, right, did you have kind of like a feel for it? Did you? Or no? Or did you just totally wing it? No? So I never wrote a book, but I've written. I've written probably over one hundred fire service article. No. No, I said you read a lot of books, Like did you read read? Yeah?
No, I'm always reading. Right, So you you kind of have a feel of how you wanted the book to go, I would imagine like or no, yeah, no I did, and I had a feeling of how I wanted it, but even still right. So when when somebody else reads it and they say, yeah, this doesn't this doesn't sound right, you know, I had we took three chapters out and then put others, you know, or just totally redid them. Just this doesn't go this is too technical. And you know, again, the people that reviewed it, we
were critical of it, which is what I told them. That's what I wanted them to be. I don't I don't want to put out a book that sucks. So there was a way to make it better, you know. So I remember Qually Moore one time, he's telling me, yeah, I just you know, I don't want you to take it the wrong way. I'm like, I'm getting tired of you saying that I'm going to take that comment the wrong way, Like, just tell me, tell me straight up. And he always did, and so did my son, so did
my wife. So you know, and that's that's what you need. That's what makes the book better at the end of the day, right is how do we get it to be the best possible book? You know? And then I had some people review certain chapters that I wanted to make sure I got it right, you know, stuff like that, especially if I was covering, you know, some of the some of the difficult topics when we
talk about mental health and that type of stuff, diversity inclusion chapter. I wanted to make sure that I had people review it, so you know it's uh, it worked. I think it worked out well. So you can't be you can't be on the best seller list only through Amazon. Amazon sales are not included on that. Really, when you sell so many books, why is that? I don't know why, but you had a system just uh, I guess is it them? I don't know. It's uh,
it's strange. But pretty soon it'll be available to any retail outlook that wants to that wants to buy it. I had to go through a separate channel to do that. But soon it'll target the bookstores in the in the airport they still have bookstores. Is like Bond, there's no more Bonds and Noble like that, right that still are They still are and and a lot of people go to them. I like, I like going there and seeing the physical copy of the book, and a lot of people buy them in airport
bookstores as well. Right, do you know how manyse books you sold so far? I don't know yet. I mean it's it's toughly. Amazon is very delayed, and I have a bunch that that I haven't sold yet. So but it's it's doing it's doing well. I mean it's not you know, it's not it's not a measurable amount yet, but hopefully every day it sells a few more. And it's been in it's in a couple of libraries now, which is really cool. Cool, right, Yeah, I know
that it's in a couple of Fight Department libraries. It is in the the FD and Y Library, it is in the National Library in Emmitsburg, Maryland. In fact, I have a picture of that one. We should have We should have that one. That's a picture with the US the superintendent of the Fire Academy in the in their library at the Fire Academy. And so that was pretty cool. There you go, that's Eric Gablis and myself.
Oh wow. Yeah, so they were very happy to get it. And you think about like the New York City Fire Academy is where the FD and Y Library is in that library. Our library has probably more fire service books
than anywhere else, and a close second would be the National Library. But the National Library has people that are doing the Executive Fire Officer program and other programs like that, so that library gets used often by firefighters from all around the country, and I wanted, you know, I want to have that availability. I use my library frequently, especially for audio books and then even for some paper books if I'm depending where I'm going to be reading. So
it was important to me to make sure it gets availability. I'm going to be meeting with my library and hopefully my high school, and I'd like to get copies in there because I think it's important that people that are going to school see that someone from their community. And I barely passed high school. I really I hated high school. I didn't want to be there. And you know, I think it's a message that you know, yeah, yeah,
it's not forever. You've got to graduate, right, you got to do what you can to graduate, but you know you're a late bloomer or you didn't find your interest. And I hope that if this is in the library and young people read it, that they can see that there's other ways, right, you don't you don't you know, I wasn't a person that was cut out to go to ten years of school, right as a as an eighteen year old. Do you have to downloadable one too? It's not
yet. We don't have that's I haven't had the time to do that. Uh. To be honest with you, I didn't realize how much work that be, how different things right after you published the book, right, so I probably should have. But I honestly, you know, when you're writing it, you don't really have an expectation for how how it'll do. You know, you could sell five books or you know whatever. You don't know.
But I got to the point I really didn't care about that. It was about getting it out there and and putting, you know, putting some of the leadership things that that I think of, you know, irrelevant. That was pretty good. Chapter three will be about Hank though, so that'll make up well now we know we could definitely have them on for another show. Somebody woke him up game his Jared told what. Let me ask you
though, to you real quick. I don't mean to interrupt, But what's interesting about this is when people pen books of this nature, they're usually retired by that. I think the only other active guy I can think of that wrote a book while he was still on the job was when that a Smith wrote Report from mentioned Company eighty two. So you're busy as it is day to day operations of the Ft and Y, and writing is a time consuming
process. So tell me if you don't mind about balancing juggling your responsibilities with the Ft and Y and then also balancing finding the time to write this book. And that's not even counting the time you got to spend your family. Yeah, so that's a great question. And here's what I'd say. So, first of all, everything you do is about pub management, and if you that's that's that's critical. And as I said, I didn't go to school right out of high school, but eventually I got my bachelor's degree,
and then eventually I went to the Naval Postgraduate School. And while I was there, one of my one of my favorite instructors I had in my first class. He wound up being my thesis advisor was Chris Belvida, and he transformed the way I think, the way I write, Like everything changed after that. And as a case in point, I think the next I write often now the next issue of WYF, I think we'll have my thirty second or thirty third article. Like I've lost track. I got to figure that
out how many it is, but it's over thirty. And I could take a trip. I could get on the airplane for an hour and a half flight somewhere, and on my phone I could write. I could write a fifteen hundred word article and be almost done. So it's become writing has become a lot easier, so I could get the meat and bones of a book or an article out in a quick period of time. The problem then becomes the editing where it makes where it makes sense, and it's you know that
it has a message that you know that's consistent throughout it. But now it's hard. At a staff level position, all of all of the staff members in the FD and Y work extremely hard. They're incredibly dedicated, and there's there's not a lot of downtime, but it's really just managing that downtime the weekend time to night time to make sure that you know a little bit every day and the next thing, you know, you got progress, you know, And that's I think that's the that's certain need to key to it.
Sometimes you'll just write and you just start writing and you're on a roll and you just you just keep going right. And other times you're like I got nothing, so then you don't do it. Yeah. I wanted to ask this as a follow up as well, and that you mentioned something earlier I wanted to go back to, which is you weren't insulars and writing this book. We against some feedback like I think when you're in But you weren't insular
in writing this book, and that you sought other perspectives. Sometimes you see this with big agencies. They think, well where the fd and Y, or where are the NYPD or so on and so forth. We don't need anybody else to tell us. But you saw those other perspectives. So not only did it help you in this book, but I'll ask you, how do you feel it's going to help you going fullward in your day to day operations with the FDNY those other perspectives, Well, it makes you better,
right, you know? And will this particular? You know? Is there one part that will make me better than the other? I think collectively, I'm always trying to be better the next day, right, be a better version of yourself. However that however, that is right. But certainly there were chapters where I didn't know enough and I needed to say, hey, does this make sense or what should I add to this? And that's why
when I talk about, you know, the chapter on mental health. I sent the chapter to Dina Alli Battayan chief down in Rally, and I said, does this make sense? Am I missing something? Because she just finished writing a book that'll be out hopefully next year sometime maybe in time for FD I see on mental health, and that book is going to be like an encyclopedia. It's because she has so much information on that that I just wanted to make sure, hey, is this right? Is this act curate?
Because I don't want to write something that is misleading or inaccurate and I wind up harming firefighters more than I helped them, because that's the last thing I want to do. I love firefighters. The last thing I want to do is do something that would would hurt them. And and I keep going back to that chapter because I've gotten several emails and messages from people that have now read this book, and by far that is the chapter that they that they
that they cite, and that really is is really pretty cool. Yeah, I thought they would cite the chapter with hot Dog, you know, because the chapter with hot Dog is was the you know, was the fun one, you know, for me, I love that one, but you never know. It's what people are gonna, what people are gonna, Oh my goodness. Yeah. So that chapter is on lessons learned from hot Dog, and so in in that chapter of the book, I talk about that.
For for the Columbus State Parade a couple of years ago, that's me. I'm dressed up as hot Dog in that photo. That's me and fun fact, I was a deputy chief at the time and I am the highest dranking member. I dress up as hot Dog. Look at you. So there I am again as hot Dog. And at the point that's Mike Ajello,
who's standing till my left, and Tom Richardson uh to the right. Tom are recently retired chief of Department, not so recent anymore, and Mike Cochello, who's currently the Manhattan Borough Commander. They had no idea when they took this picture that I was hot Dog there and then Siren. I don't even know who was Siren that day, but but that day it was all about
hot Dog. So there a commissioner, so he found out later that day that it was me in the costume because what I did was the Columbian Association they have a breakfast that morning. So I dressed in my class, say, in a form, and I went to the breakfast and I saw everybody. You know, they invited me, So I went saying hello to everybody. And then when I knew we had fifteen minutes before before the parade,
I went back to the van and I got changed. And then so then at the next staff meeting, the commissioner says to me, you know, in front of everybody, He's like, hey, I heard that there was a special guest in hot Dog. Like he didn't blow my cover. He it was almost like it was an inside joke between him and I at the staff meeting, but a lot of people later wound up finding out. But I got I got blessed by the cardinal. So yeah, so but I'm like, is it so did he bless me or did he bless hot Dog?
And I say he blessed me because I'm in there. Yeah, so either way. But I met him a couple of months after that, So I got a blessing when I was when I was Frank Lead, So I got two blessings. So hot Dog, that's good that he got blessed. He needs it. But then so that was when they had made me the uh they was I was getting promoted to deputy and they asked me to go evaluate that unit. So I went and did that. The civilian leader of the unit is Fabricio Caro, who left the FDNY and now he recently just
came back. So the picture of so there's a picture of him and I that one there, So that's for Brisio on myself. And we were at Fox News and we were doing a burn demonstration to demonstrate the difference between a sprinkled room and an unsprinkled room and the difference of a door closed and the door open. So we had Vicky Pritchett and Shane Ray from the National Sprinkle
Association. We were going to be on on on on Fox and doing this, and then the picture of hot Dog with all the firefighters that was the that's that's fifty four engine and in that costume that day was for Bricio Caro, the civilian head of the unit of the unit. And it just shows you, right, so leadership and and all and and h enthusiasm and enthusiastic leadership is contagious. And he was a fantastic leader at the union and he saw how much fun I had doing it, and he had just as much
fun doing it as well. In fact, I saw him at headquarters today and I told him, I said, bro, are you good. I'm gonna I'm gonna give up if I'm gonna blow your cover that you were that you were hot Dog. And he's like, go for it. I love it. So name Siren is the other one, hot Dog and Siren. He appears in this picture. Yeah, there you go, there's Siren right there. Yeah. But it's stuff like that, right that people don't always hear about. But there's there's so many good people doing great work, you
know. To understand, No, Alex, I won't sign your dog hot your book hot Dog. Frank please signed my book hot Dog? Oh? Them saying Frank, could you please sign my That is uh yeah, that's true. And I see Stephen from New Haven is in the in the chat, as is my boy Frankie Goods in there. Yeah. Ray seely racer big big Daddy. Let him O'Neills. I did. He gave me. I got a question for your chief, So what do you got your accomplishments in the fd O? Y we we know all the way up stair chief,
Right, how does it feel. What's the sense of accomplishment for doing something becoming a uh an author and something outside you're laying or outside your purview? Is that is there a greatest sense of accomplishment or well so, I mean, I don't know if it's the greatest sense of accomplishment. You know what this is, it's a It's another example of how humbling it is,
right is what you know? And you saw at fire Out Expo uh you know, people coming up and signing it and having people say that they're not in the FD and Y and they say, you've been, You've been amented
to me for the past ten years. And then they further explain it that because I watched a podcast you're on, I read your articles that you write, you know, I follow you on on Twitter or exit whatever it's called today and you just think about, like, how privileged are we to impact our beloved profession, way beyond the walls of the FD and Y, Way beyond the geographic boundaries of the FD and Y, and way beyond the geographic
boundaries of East Farmingdale fight upon it and I mean, just what you guys are doing, right, I mean, I got a photo the other day. I gotta post it. I gotta post it tomorrow from France and it's the firefighter. He's up on his ladder truck. He's at the top of it with the book. Nice. I mean, like, that's just freaking I don't know what do you say to that, right, it's mind boggling. It's like your reaches that far. Right, Yeah, so, And
I think about the people that have been there and mentored me. Right, we're just we're just stewards of our generation, trying to trying to make us better than it was. We stand on so many giants that came before us, and we're just right mentoring the next generation, just like you guys did in your companies, right, you mented the next generation, and and they're doing good because guess what, you obviously did a good job, because your
companies still go on every single run ye right. Yeah, it is mind boggling when you run it too somebody out of nowhere and they recognize and they say, I appreciate the shell man. I learned so much from the show. I was telling Louis I was at the bathroom a Yankee stadium at a baseball game, and a guy's looking at it him, like, what the hell is this? That one? Broyeah? And I go outside, dude, can I take a picture with you? It's it's mind boggling that that
many people you're making an impact of some sort any whatever it is. I think the most the best, the best thing is like if I run into my proby's and now they're lieutenants or captains or chiefs, right and or you know, and they have their own companies and they're using stuff that I taught them, whether it was drills from Rescue Too that was at the show, right, that guy was your proby, wasn't he He's a little at Rescue too now oh downy well downy, Like just those guys who you know are
doing all that stuff. That that, to me is the most rewarding is that you know they say, oh, look I used I used this that you used to teach me, or I use this or I do that that you used to use. So and and I totally agree with you, Louke, because I think about when I was at the Fire Academy and we had instructors that were there for a couple of classes, and you'd see the rigs come in for the morning or afternoon drill and they would stop the riggy,
come over and hug their instructors that they remembered. And I remember when when I was assigned. One of my instructors in probi schools, Steve Humininski, was in twenty three engine and I loved when I saw that guy in the field because I know what he gave in Proby school because he cared. And here's the bottom line. You could accomplish anything when you care, When you surround yourself that were people that care, you could accomplish anything, right,
and we see that. We see that all the all the time. It doesn't matter. So I think, LOUI you are, you are spot on. Hey, brothers from up north, they're in the chat. I see Bruno from the brothers up in Canada, a couple of a couple of Canadians. Aaron is the heynh. I think they finally put the fire out. Thank God, for God's sake. Yeah, it's good. I can finally breathe him. Holy Christ, good stop? List what are we up to chieve? Oh my goodness, So let's go to let's do the I didn't
get the itinerary. Yes, and I think it's a pretty cool picture of our chief department. He's saluting. Yeah, I mean we know, why why should we stick today? Tenerary tonight? We never do go right, So there it is our chief department, right tenderness, salute and get one back. He was at So we were we were at the Emmitsburg, Maryland for the Fire Administrative Summit on five Prevention and Control our fire. Our current fire administrator was very dialed into a lot of the issues. He was speaking
on lithiamon batteries. I was speaking about the five problem in residential structures, particularly when they don't have particularly multiple dwellings and buildings that don't have sprinklers, because the bottom line is is uh, no matter what we do. And yeah, there's Josh Raven from from our hour job, Steve Steve Pegram, the mustache Billy Goldfetter, and of course, uh you know some of the some of the mascots, you really hang out with a lot of stuffed animals,
huh I do. Yeah, you know, they wouldn't let me get in. I should have I should addressed as one of those right, is that the billy who I spoke to on the phone, Is that Billy Goldfeeder? Yes, yes, yes, that's him. I had no idea he looked like that. Yeah, I think the guy we met him before, that guy. Yeah, he's the guy with the secret list. You've you've, you've you've been influenced by him in some way or another with something. Yeah, you've met him somewhere. Yeah, I'm positive. I'm positive that
you that you have. But it was great that we had him up there. Our chief Department, representing the f d n Y and firefighters and so many different topics on from all over the fire service, and that kind of helps us get money from Congress and the President. The President virtually streamed into the event because he was supposed to attend live but it was unable to because of everything going on in the Middle East right now. But our representation and
having the seat at the table at that level, Matt is greatly. The you know, the firefighters and empts and paramedics on the fire trucks don't necessarily see the value in that all the time, but rest assured our seat at the table, our involvement with all of these things, Matt is greatly And you know, when we need something, we're able to uh, we're able to get it a lot quicker than we would if we weren't didn't have that seat at the table. So kudos to the Chief Department for making a priority
to go to that. And so he left late at night on the Tuesday night before Memorial Day. So we had a full day of Wednesday of different meetings there that I represented the apartment in state. He probably got home after midnight and then turned around and was at and presided over Memorial Day the following
day. I mean, and like that's stuff that we you know, the firefighters need to know because he's still a firefighter, right, I mean, ultimately, uh, you should never be able to take the firefighter out of
the out of the chief where they always remember where they come from. And we've said that before, certainly certainly on the show, and Chief Hodgens is certainly certainly fits that fits that bill as the chief esposito and so many other matter of fact, I believe we have Chief Hadgens on November ninth, he will be coming on the show and will be a great show. His dad's
are retired, you know, retired from the job. So again he's another guy that he starts every day thinking what can we do to make the lives of our firefighters, paramedics and m T is better today. And and that's you know, does it happen every single day? Yeah? Probably not right, but but we're there, we're getting were trying and get out to the field when we can. We're thinking about, you know, the stuff that's you know, that's important. Tomorrow's the anniversary that uh, you know will
be at the twenty third Street we'd laying tomorrow. That's that's happening tomorrow at eleven am. Uh So there's just so much. There's so many different activities that are going on every single day. Uh, in the FD and Y it's just it's just insane. I keep getting distracted. I read, try and read to keep read in. It's impossible. Yeah, it's impossible. That's how we got cologne. I know, I know the suit. Uh
we did that. I pulled up my itinerary. What's what's up with the I m T with the shipboard firefighting brill, I want to know what's going on with that. So a couple of weeks ago, back to back days. So on the one day we went to the the incident management team was doing a full scale shipboard firefighting. So one day so they were at four
Totten and Queens running the operations from there. So Chief Miz and myself we're both on the incident management team, even though they don't let us really deploy now because of our positions. Of course, Driver Joe's in the picture as well, and the folks that were working there that day, and then over in the Bronx at the Maritime College, we were there drilling on on shipboard firefighting and it was you know, they they simulated a fire in the ship
and then they simulated it down. Firefighter. They've been working on planning his drill for the last three years. How did they simulate it? What did they do? They put They put a firefighter, you know, they put him down. They smoked out. Oh we had a ship, Yeah, ship a ship next toime. Yeah. And I should have sent you a picture of the ship because it's a huge ship. It's still there. Actually I passed it the other day when I was in the Bronx and I've shown
somebody. I'm like, yeah, that's the ship that we used for the training, and it was a huge. It's a huge ship. The day I was there was they were training with the sock firefighters. The next day was all the land units. So each day was a different part of the job and then they try and bring it all together. It was it was hot hours, eighty five degrees and again just watching the dedication to preparation that the FDNY firefighter puts into the craft. It's you know, we say it
all the time, but until you see it. And I'm blessed I see it all the time. But for the for the member that you know, for the brother or sister who's watching us that that has not seen the f d n Y in action. Even you know, when we're training, it's really you know, there's no wallflowers. Everybody is engaged and doing the drill and making sure that they are honing their craft. And again this is the
sock firefighters that were there today. I was there, and I know the other days we were the same exact way from hearing the feedback, and again it was a it was a warm day. I'm sure that was no easy uh either that you don't remember going to that right? It sucked? Yeah, And so we don't do the marine firefighting drill as often, but you both probably remember going to the tunnel drills where we'd smoke out the tunnel.
So that was the drill I went to the day before that, and that was in in Brooklyn at the one of the abandoned you had the hand cart and all that stuff. Yeah, and they put all they put all the cars in there. Oh but I was tired for that one. It's crazy. And the same thing rebreather and forget a breathing units. The Command Tactical Unit was there, the you know, they had the drones going, the canine dogs were there. Everything was, you know, everybody's drilling together.
And afterwards I'm joking around with some of the sock chiefs and uh especially and then some of the guys that are running the drill and they're like, Everybody's like, yeah, thanks for having me here, but lose my number next time. I was just gonna say, you know, what's funny to say that cheap. The whole time you're talking about that, I did that logistically. I was on the other end of that setting that up, like to
have the cars put in there, right, Louis Moro. So all the guys had to you know, it was so much work to get that set up, like for the guys to come down, you know, the guys come down and then if you're missing one thing, you know, it's just like ah, you know what I mean, Like it's so hard to make that thing, you know, without any problems to start, you know what I mean. It's so different. It's it's fourth and goal. There's two seconds left on a clock. Every chief shows up ready to go. Right.
You know, you need all the radios charge, you need, all the air you need, all this, you need all that. You need everything. You know, drinks, you need water, you need this, you need that, all the batteries, the meat is have to be charged. You know, it's just logistically, it's crazy, man. But it's it's the attention to details. It's the attention to making sure that we are training that in that position, that we are ready, because that's that's what
prepares you for fourth and goal. You're tired, it's the end of the day. But if you score a touchdown here, you finish it, you win the game. It is that extra mile that gets you prepared. That really is the difference between really winning and losing. It really is it's that extra dedication that we put in for those especially when we're talking about a ship, where we're talking about these tunnel drills and I've been there, I've been a player in that. I've been when I was in, when I worked
towards in the rescue batie, I would do that. There's the picture from it. Yeah, exactly, yep. And you know the brothers and sisters were coming out, they were exhausted, and I said, I stayed until they were coming out because showing up and letting them know that as the cheap of safety, I give a shit, right and I care about them and how important them training and being ready, how much that means because I'm learning
their capability. I already know their dedication, but I'm seeing what they're doing. The members that are running it are excited to tell me what they're doing. You know, what the what parts of the juel they are. The canine Unichs come out and they tell me what the dogs were doing. The drone. The drone operators want to show me the drone and it's about teaching
me the capability and they're excited to do that. And I'm excited to learn and for them to show me because the technology is advancing, and I say it, hey, my job is the majority of my job, honestly, is just showing up. Just be there, be there and let your people know that you're with them, that you care and that you're watching that you see what their capabilities are. Git legit people get hurt too with these things. This is not like a little like people have like legit injuries at some
of these uh, I've seen it. You know those rail cards, the rail cards, just to put that into operation right, the batteries, it's just an incredible I don't even remember how many took, like five back four batteries. It's like ridiculous, Like just nobody wakes up one day and it's good at what they do. It is your dedication to training, the teamwork that makes that is the secret ingredient. You know, if you don't have training, you don't have a heart. Is the hot and soul of every
organization on the planet. A cashier doesn't know how to ring up the goods if if if they're not trained, if there's no education. Is so it doesn't matter what you're doing. M hm. That is it. You know, Show me a department that has no heart, they have no soul, they're finished, right, Show me the Department of trains and I'll show you a good department. It is it is so true and an our uh an, our folks certainly certainly get that. And I was seeing that in the
in the in the drills, was was was really pretty cool. You know, Hey, so I see this is the first I think my I see my sister. My sister is in the chat. So I'm not telling you who I know better Chad Camp, Yeah I know better than who. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna say something about Tranny. Who is this? Mike? Who is the crazy Chaptain brought his name? Who Gardener? Respect the drill, bro respect the drill, learn it, own it, teach it, respect the drill. I love that. Yeah,
I mean dedicated to training. Man, Right, he's uh a few better than him, like he's just talk about He's not that intense, No not Yeah. Yeah. The guys, the guys from Rescue two were sending me. They were sending me like little snippets. They were putting stuff together, like I guess they have some guys. When he was going when he was fucking balking at the fire, Yeah, he's balking at the fire. He's
so scary. When he started balking at the and and and what is really cool is when when I was in when I was at the Fire Academy, and when I was a Chief of Training, I was blessed that I had people like Tommy Gardner, by Timmy Klett, like Ray McCormick, like Mike
Champo that I wanted to give back to the job and train. And you know, my my only regret with all of those people is that they retired too soon because there was so much more that I wanted to get from them and training, especially with our video production, that we could put it on and keep it, you know, and let that those legacies live on. And it was just you know, great, great stuff, you know,
and I'm fortunate that we had We had so many of those people. That was the key even to our rewrite of the Engine bulletin, is so many people that wanted to give back to the job. While Ray McCormick was the you know, he took the lead on it was considered the lead author, you know, we had so many other great people involved in doing that, including including Timmy Klett among others. So the Wizard of water bro there's the sault of the brow of h two. Oh, that's it. Let me
ask you a question, if you had one. If you wanted guys to walk away with one thing about this book, what would it be. Would you want them to walk away after they read this? Oh, man, love the job and it'll love you back. And the job is, it's people, it's going to fires, it's it's everything right, and it's respecting the job. You know, respect the drill as we heard tradition, Yeah, the tradition, metal day. I mean, it's just to get that.
And you know, the bottom line is the book is about what's what's called our soft skills, right, it's that book. That book isn't going to teach you how to stretch your hose line. I could write a book that teaches how to stretch you hose line, but there's plenty of great books out there that already do that. This is those soft skills. So when you think about think about that leader that you know that tactically is great, but he doesn't know how to deal with his people. His people's skills suck,
or people skill suck. They have no bedside manage. You think about those people that they would have it all together if they got that part. And that's what it is. And it's told through fire stories and I say, the book's not about me. It's about everybody that has impacted me, and not everybody that's impacted, right, there's so many more people, but it's some of the prominent people that have impacted me that had a powerful story to go with it. And I think, you know, uh, and
I see Gabe. Gabe is in the in the chat. I talk about Gabe in the chat, in the chapter about about Hurricane Horvey. I met him. He joined the Fire Service after September eleventh, after he wanted to help out after that. And what happens is he's in the fire Service. He's working for the Forestry Division down in Texas. He's deployed to Houston, and the next thing you know, he's assigned to work with FDNY firefighters. Now he's a captain, he's training, he's doing all sorts of great stuff
in his departments. I mean, it's just it's just great, you know. It's I wanted to ask you this as well. Even even though the book is geared primarily towards those in the fire Service, you know, there's lessons to be learned for those in other jobs and under other industries as well. So for those in civilian jobs elsewhere. What would you want them to take from this. Embrace whatever it is that you're doing. Embrace shit, profession, be the best that you can, stay learnable. It's really the
same, it's really the same takeaways. It doesn't matter for the civilian. And that's what. So the book was geared that way because I had chapters that were very technical, that was going to teach you how to do something on the fire ground. And I was told, no, that's you know, because I said, that's that wasn't the intent of the book. The book what the intent wasn't to teach you how to force the door. It wasn't to teach you what to do with and escalator, fire or emergency.
It was about those source skills. Because again, think about I know several of them that I could you know, I'm not going to name them, but I but you could write. Think of these guys that you're like, man, they were great. I would follow them anywhere in a fire but boy, you know, if you have working in the firehouse with him for a twenty four hour toy you want to you want to strangle, right, but they would go. They they love you, they care for you,
but they just it's that missing. They're missing that soft skill I'm dealing with
people, and I think that's that's important. And I was recently talking to Kurt Veron, who's a fire service attorney, and he said, eighty percent of litigation against fire services and again and he said, even against most companies is about those soft skills, because we're most of you think about our offices, right, we're brilliant at the basics, but do we get that connection, that human connection that puts it, that really puts it all together?
And you think about the people that you most admire and respect in your career, and it doesn't matter what you do, firefighter, law enforcement, it doesn't matter. You could work for Apple computer, you can work in a gas station, it doesn't matter. And those people that connect with you on a human level are the ones that you really connect with. And I think a guy like Tom Richardson, right, who really is the complete package. When you look at that and you say, this guy gets it tactically,
no one's ever question is going to question his tactics and strategies. And then when you think about it, how much he gets it that human side of it. Will you connect with a guy like that? And you will follow that guy anywhere. Yeah, and that's what this is more about. It was more about it was more about all of that type of stuff than anything.
Let me ask you this, then, in today's society, with everybody's feelings getting hurt and the safe their need for safe spaces, I guess that skill a little, right, can't be the same way that they used to talk to you, you know twenty five twenty years ago. You know, those skills have to to change with the times now. Yeah, so I think, yes, they have to change. And here's what I'll say.
Right, So, even the greatest generation, those that went to war for us, right, even those even those people had people that said they suck, right, So every generation things the worst. The last generation is turble right. So well, you know the next generation is terrible. And now here we are and we have these tech savvy, smart firefighters that want to know the why, and we need to make sure that we're meeting them there
where we are and teaching them. And the fire Service is a microcosm to that, and we need to you know, yeah, things have changed twenty five In twenty twenty five years, we got to certainly there's things that are different. I think, mostly mostly for the better. But yeah, I think I don't treat my children the same, right, I mean, there's ways that you know you got to You gotta treat whoever it is that you're dealing with. But you know, the golden rule is always, you know,
treat people the way you want to be treated. You can't go wrong with that as your baseline, I think. I mean we chiefly say it on the show a lot. I mean, I go back to the same thing, right, I My mother used to beat me with a wood spoon. Right, I don't beat my kids with a wood spoon. But at the same time, I do take a lot of stuff that she did and I use that with my kids. Right, it's the same thing as being a boss. I feel like everybody takes a little piece of everybody. Right.
You cannot be fake, right will people will smell that out. So I can never be Tommy Richardson. I can never be or try and act like Cat Murphy or any of those guys. Right, I have to be me. But I could take parts of those guys and mold it into my personality and into how I lead and all that stuff. So it's the same thing it's just a question of you know, you just do your right.
We don't need you to be them, We need you to be lou right, because it's all of your experiences, all the people that you've been around, that is all you know, that is what makes you right, that is what makes you uniquely you, and and people like to work with you, people like to follow you. You know, I saw that firsthand with
you. So, yeah, you've got to be yourself, but hopefully, hopefully you it's a good version of yourself that's always trying to get better in learning because we pull the pieces from the good people we've worked with before and and not so much from the slugs. Right, No one says I want to be like that guy who doesn't ever train. Yeah, I want to model myself up to that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I
mean absolutely. And you know, I think it's I'm not sure if it's Timmy Klatt or racially, that we're responsible those to those who trained us to make sure their lessons continue to be learned. And you know that's so true, right, we're the training linea right. So I was having a conversation with Tom Richardson, and a lot of that conversation wound up in the book about how you form a company, and he said that he wanted people that
had heart. That if you have heart, that you could train somebody to do anything. And I know that that's something that I feel when I'm surrounding myself with people, is that if you have someone who's motivated, we could do anything. And then I asked him, I said, well, who's who's your mentor? And you know what his answer was, Cleios, that would have been that would have been a good one. But his his was John Vigian. Oh, one of those two guys, right, And I
said, I get it, I get it. But Cleehouse. I've learned so much from Cleehouse. I have been around Chief Cleehouse since I was a lieutenant in three twenty four. He would come, he would come and a DC and we would stay up all night and he'd be telling me stories and I'd be like, if let's just get a cup of coffee because I'm exhausted, you know, and I don't want to go to sleep. But you wanted to learn because he was he was just spewing nuggets of information and you
didn't want to miss it. But you think, okay, so who was Jack Leehouse's mentor John, right, So like when you look at it, if we can put if we could make an ancestry map, right, would be weaved. You would have twenty children that you mentored, and you would have six or seven or twenty people that meant to you, right, and there'd be twenty cousins off of that. And I was having this conversation recent
pretty cool. Yeah, So I was having this conversation with Ja. So r J is with Capital Training, and I met his dad because he told me, He's like, Hey, my dad's coming to mall. I want you to meet him. His dad's his dad's on a job in edi Ya, right, just just phenomenal human beings, right. And so I asked r J, said, who's your mentor and he said, my dad, and you're gonna meet. I want you to meet my dad tomorrow. So I met his dad. So he Auja is the third His dad's a junior,
right. So then I'm asking like who else? So Al Benjamin is another one of his mentors, not in his job, right, So it's like okay, so his mentor is not an immediate family member, right, So it's a it's a step dad, right, and or step cousin. Right, So these these lines of of of your mentor and who you are impacted from. I've been impacted from people outside my job. I never worked with Vinnie Dunn. I never worked a tour with Vinni Dunn, but he's
certainly a mentor, right. And I think about Alan Brumessini from the Phoenix Fire Department. I've watched enough of his training. I've learned enough from from people like that. And then all the other people from inside and outside a job, and you think, man, that's they're part of your training lineage. Yeah, And if you like, how cool would it be if we could trace back Tom Richardson, Tom Richardson to Vigiano? Who meant it?
Vigiano? How did Vigiano get so damn good? Right? I can tell you it wasn't a slug, right, Yes, But you know what, right, in some way he's your mentor because he meant it the Vich. The Vich meant in Richardson, Richardson meanted you. So in some way, it's that training lineage and and and that that that interweaven web and did branches die or those areas when when you put a slug in it, that branch
is finished, done, cut it off, move along, right. But if we could map this out, and if we could go back generations like they do on ancestry, it would be fascinating to see where this goes back, say one hundred years, those legendary folks, and that that we stand on the shoulders of the shoulders of the shoulders of those that stood on them. It's from right and mind, and I can assure you there is no
slug. And when an organization, when there's enough, when there's enough good links, when your lineage is good, you wind up with a great organization. When your lineage sucks and you start to have branches that aren't strong, that's when you wind up with a culture that suffers. And it's not part of your organizational DNA like it is. It is a part of the organizational DNA of the FDN Y. But it's all about that lineage. And talking to RJ and talking to uh, you know, his dad just freaking just
great. You know. So I think he means Gordon Graham. Maybe I don't know, but Gordon Graham would be on my training, would be on my training lineage and right another outside organization. Yeah, oh there we go all right, Yeah, it look like Gordon Graham picture. Yes, very good, Joe. Yes, So Gordon Graham when he does his presentations, he's there's lines and stuff all over the place. But and that's the importance, right, So that that training lineage and is a chapter in the book,
A little bit about that. I've certainly I've spoken about it more even tonight. You just keep adding to it and you say, boy, if we could see what that would look like. There's a right to take one outstanding fireman and trace is meant to lineage old nobody. I don't know who put it up there. Jake put it up there smoking. Joe Martin probably started the whole thing. Yeah, maybe he was the grandfather of them all. Bro. Yeah, so you think think about so think about how many
children you have. So if you're in training, right, so your proby instructors, right, think about how many lines that they have, right, they have hundreds of children. A class is three hundred and if you're impactful on half of them, and you do three classes, that's a lot of lines. Yeah, that's amazing impact that you can have. And it doesn't matter what organization, the type. There's so much that you can that you
can learn from that. And that's just to say, hey, how important this is because every single spoke, every single piece in that is important because it's what we build off of to continue. That's why I tell guys we try to get on the show, Like what am I going to talk about? I'm like, listen, we need to get your knowledge out of you. And quite frankly, I can't put any blunt to in this before you're
gone and your stories go with you. So we could pass them on to the guys, the young guys who passed them on to the young guys who passed them on to the young guys. And that's the way that you live for eternity. You're you know, you're training and the things you talking about yourself anyway you're talking about no exactly so and again that's you know, everybody got something to offer an ad and everybody can impact throughout right and and create
that and create create that web. Right, it's uh, you know I mean ray seely right, I mean raise a mentor of mind, never heard, no doubt, no doubt about it. Raised a huge, a huge impact on my career. You know, when he would sit there and abuse the shit out of me in two seventy at the kitchen table, but then ten minutes later he was out there teaching me something for the next you know, for the next two hours, or on a run teaching me something.
I mean, you think about, you know, all of these folks that impact you, and you don't always they don't always know it and you don't always know it. But a guy like Ray Ray Ray's family tree is enormous. I can tell you that certainty is enormous. Raise enormous. Yeah, but it's uh, you know you think about that. It's just all the ways that you can impact people. Senior firefighters in the firehouse impact so many people. They just do right. And we need solid senior firefighters in the
firehouse. They you know, they're invaluable. Fire houses don't have them. No, we don't want slugs. No, I don't want I need solid senior firefighters, not solid guys or girls at a time. You know, it's like fifty first states. Did they just repeat one year and they don't They got nothing. Yeah, when a senior firefighter in a firehouse is a slug, that becomes very problematic for that firehouse. Yes, that could change
a firehouse from it can from you. Sometimes the junior guys will gravitate towards a guy. He may not be the senior guy in time, but he's the senior guy who teaches them and who doesn't belittle them, and who is the senior man by what he what he teaches, not by the amount of time that he has, and they gravitate. Yeah, you're incredibly correct on that and that and that was in especially being in in in Squad seventy.
The senior firefighters that Richardson brought there, they all had heart, they all had knowledge, and they all had a thirst to be better and to and to share all that information. And that was guys like Raycialy, the Dangerfield, Tommy Bone. I mean just it was just an endless group of of of people that just wanted to to share their knowledge with us. And it was you know, Greg Haynes, I was gonna say Greg Haynes, I
couldn't remember his name, Greg Haynes. Greg Greg Haynes was a was a firefighter that we pull up at a fully involved private dwelling and you think, there's no you're not gonna find anybody at this and he's such a you know, he did that a few times. I remember that when we were when we first became the squad. He made a few grabs early on, he got he went to Metal Day a few times. Actually, yeah, and
just a humble guy who just wanted to share information with you. Freddy Herman would come over a little bit later on, same thing, wanted to share his knowledge. You know, Donnie Schneider would keep you up till four in the morning teaching another guy. You didn't you know, you just wanted to sit there and learn, and they were willing to teach us. They knew, you know, I had just over five years when I went to squad. I was incredibly lucky that I was able to go to squad when I
did. And I what I later found out, it's because I had I had heart. I knew how to use the tools, but I didn't have that much experience, but I knew how to use the tools. I had heart. I was into the game. I was into learning, and you know, all of the junior and we had several of us that were around the same time that just absolutely loved the job and wanted to learn and be
better. And he recognized that. Richardson recognized and he remembered you, right, he worked at a company you with you, Yeah, because I didn't know him. I mean today he's one of my best friends. You know, him and his wife and my wife and myself. We hang out with them often. They're great, they're great human beings. And but that wasn't the case. I did not know him when he elected me to go to squad. I did not know. But he remembered you, remembered me from
a couple of months that he worked in my company. So it's those little those little touch points that you don't even know could pay off down the road. You know, your heart and what you have to offer. Somebody might see that. You might not even know that he remembers you, right, But that's right, and that happens all the time, right, So that little interaction and I remember him and that little interaction and he remembers me, and and you never you never know, right, So just be you know,
be your be your true self. Hopefully it means that you're into the job, right and you love the job, and like I said, love the job it, I'll love you back. And that's everything about the job. You will find your way if if you care about the job, and you want to do work and you want to be better, You'll it cannot stop you. You'll because of what you did exactly. You were in you know, maybe a slower place when you got you know, and then you
found your way because you want it to be busier. And just because even in a slower place you were, you were showing some signs that he remember, right, So, yeah, it's going to show through, Like you said, it's going to show through. And I worked with great firefighters in my first place, right, Yeah, I'm not taking anything away from the Those guys are great and and and they knew, they knew. They were like, you gotta do you gotta go somewhere that does more right, and
and they were very happy for me. I'm still friends with all of those guys, and it's it's great, but you got to find the house that that you're most happy with. I was. I was happy because I like those guys, and I think about some of the other guys that I met, you know, the first I met John Mallano, who's now a firefighter in two forty eight, Like you talk about a guy who loves the job, he'd be another another good guy for the podcast that guy. He had
stencils all over his all over his car. He was at three twenty three and then he had stencils, you know, like the stencil your tool two forty eight all over his all over his uh, all over his car. Yeah. That I really loves where it works. Yeah, but I mean, but he loves He just freaking loves the job. Right. And you think about a company that their response area is like the size of a postage stamp, and they're always going to jobs, you know. I remember I
worked a tour there. One of my first tours is the battalion staff too. And you know, early in the tour you could look down the block and there was a fire. We didn't go. I'm like, this is crazy. Next thing, you know, ten minutes later we're at a job. It's out three windows in the front of the house and just you know, uh yeah, timmy clet you're right, man. The job, the possibilities are endless. It is what you where you put it in and you get out of this job, you know, And that's any job, right
if you're into it, be engaged. You got to have a work life balance. But you know, the firefighters nights out of important going to the Christmas party, going to the kids' parties, all the bonding, all this, all that that happens is so critical important to making sure that that we are a cohesive and inclusive group in the firehouse. It's so important and it's so lost sometimes on people. I said, well, you know, because
you got to have a work life balance. So sometimes that means having something where the girls go too. In my first fire house, we went to Baltimore to see the Mets play the Orioles. We went to Boston to see the Mets play the Red Sox. I remember the oriole One because somebody backed out. I had two tickets and I was selling them outside. Fun fact, that's how I know that they have a jail in Baltimore because I wound up in the in jail holding area. Yeah, trying to sell two tickets.
I'll set this guy that guy and they said you you're under I'm like, you gotta be kidding me. I'm just trying to sell whoever's tickets for, you know whatever, trying to get the money back for him so he doesn't have to eat the money. But yeah, so on the outside, on the inside looking out, huh leave, Yeah, that's not a good place to be. Bro. Hey, you're talking to you guys in there twice. Bro. We'll get into that another time. What else you got
on your list? Here? Told my list? Don't we have a couple of books that you gave us? What were we doing with those books? How are we doing that? What's the plane? I was thinking that. I don't know how to do it. I was gonna say something like, you get three people to subscribe, we'll throw your name in a raffle and whoever I pull out wins. I think you're shrinking in that picture there. I don't know what's going on over there. Who's that? Mate? Yeah?
Could be? So what were you saying? I'm sorry? Oh look at you guys. That's us. If you want a free copy of Cheap Leads Book, I was gonna have the guys. You got to get five people to subscribe to the channel. Email me at Coop's podcast at gmail, and I will put you in a raffle and pull it out and call your name. I love it, and then when you win something, buy your shirt. When he ships you that book, buy your shirt or something as well. Are you making any sheckles with this? What are you doing?
I think he's donating it. Yeah, I'm thinking, uh yeah, eventually, eventually it'll it'll it'll make some money. I've been given away some books too, so you know, yeah, yeah, I got you. I know how it works. Yeah, I know you do. So it's uh,
you know, it's good stuff. Yeah. Hey, you know, we didn't touch on just just the importance of when you go to these these shows and you network with other people, right, I think, and how you meet people I got, you know, like the Tank, right I met I met Tank at at a conference down in Pensacola, a county fire tactics conference, and you think about like the different ways you meet people, and the next thing, you know, I know my and the next thing,
you know, Tank's not that motivated. He don't really like the fire service. I don't think, no, But you know what like his motivation, like he is so dialed in, like like you gotta love that. Right. And here he's from you know, an he's like from from a small department and somebody pressed the button that wasn't me. It wasn't like you're making it. You're making a difference. I mean even you know, and you know Gonzo down and down to Florida and and honestly like having both those
guys. You know, the viewers don't know, right, they didn't see them, but Gonzo and Tank were both in in the pre in the pre show, and that's I mean you think about that, right, the the global reach of of bringing everybody together in the in the networking. Uh you know, so I thought, I said, Tennis, I know it's Tennessee, Tennessee. I just like to say, punts Tucky because he's okay. Stranger. Question is why Gonzo's in the back room with no shirt on?
What's going on there? He's got no shirt on. I don't bring him in. I'm gonna say bring him but he's got no shirt on. Don't bring him in. He just ran to go put a shirt. And you want me to you want me to to bring Tanking? Bring Tank in for a second. If he's if he's there, bring him in here? Look at him? What do you this is your first time? What is this your first fucking rodeo? Now there you go. I covered the goods just in case I want to try to get has his shirt on? Now?
So you want me to bring him into? Yeah, it's a whole family there. He is what do you think I want to look at that while you you're distracting me Brown that I realized you didn't have one. Oh, that's good, just like that, the showing off the rails. We look at the Brady bunch there, the salty bunches. Marsha Marshall, Marsha my notes. Can we Amazon? It's on Amazon? Yeah, that's that's the best place to get it right now. Eventually to be other others places.
And if you see me speaking just about anywhere I seem to have I bring I bring a couple of books wherever I go and sell them there as well. But yeah, it's the Joey de signing. You bring that book with you too. Yeah, I'll be there. I'll be signed November four. I'll be down in West Palm Beach in the end of November. Yeah. That's gonna suck. Yeah, yeah, but it's all good man, it's good stuff. And uh. And it's about networking, right and meeting and
meeting new people that love the job the way we love the job. You know, Mike pictures. Did we not get to tonight? Is there anything no shirt on? No? I can guarantee you I don't have a picture of there's there's a number of one. There's a number of them that we didn't get. We got to most of them, but there's a handful, namely you guys right outside Saints Patrick's. Oh so that's uh so there's a respond to Gudian Mask. They call it that. A bunch of us went
to a couple of weeks ago. So, uh, you know, you can never get too many prayers, and that's what was going on there. I see Joe Colson, the third Division commander in the picture, and I love Yeah. Yeah, Hodgen's right in the middle there. Man. Oh yeah, Oh he's enormous. Yeah. He may not be writing a book, but that guy finds time to work out. Yeah, you know, eventually you might have you know, I have that picture because I think eventually
you'll have a lot of those people on the on the show. I just have a feeling that you'll just continue to to go down that road. Keep his shirt on, we'll get him. Yeah, if he takes his shirt off again, just kick him out. Hue with a firecracker too. I don't know what he was telling. Here's your chief with Moses and Kurt. Another picture we had. Oh yeah, so Kurt Isaacson and Uh and Moses Jeffries. Uh Scambia County is where Kurt is from and Moses Jeffries from Nashville.
Two other good people that would be good for the show. Moses is gonna be he's gonna he's gonna be cheap in Nashville one day, So maybe having him on the show isn't good. But are these guys retired. They're not. They're both active in their jobs and both love the job like we love the job. That was in that was at Firehouse Expo. That picture you get around, don't you, fellow, just like you guys, you know, trying to keep you guys. I see and I say, all
right, I gotta get there. Oh there's my my friend Joey and his son Braso. Joey is in the book. He made a nice grab in one seventeen truck last year. And you know, so when I dropped off the book, his son couldn't believe it. His son wanted to you know, there's a picture of Joe in the book from Queen's Medal Day this past metal day. There was a lot of people that I knew that were getting medals. So I had to go from Queen's Medal Day and then off to
the Bronx Medal Day. Just celebrate your people. Celebrate with your people. It's important and that's what that picture is to other people. Jim Yearsley so one of the last tips from one of the last of the takeaways in the book that there's one hundred and twenty seven takeaways in the book. Takeaway number one twenty six and one twenty seven are dedicated to Mark Farrand and Jim Yearsley. That's why you have those two bonus ones. And Jim Yearsley is just
one of those guys. I remember. Jimmy Jacobs in the four nine Battalion once told me if I had twenty Jim Yearsley's we would be doing great. And he's right. And Jimmy just retired. He's just a great human, fantastic fire officer. Retired as the senior Lieutenant UH and he retired at a one seventeen truck. The other guy was Dwayne Welliver who retired from m y p D. He's also a former chief of He's farmandale. This pictures mister
and missus met. We had Steve Cohen as the honoree for the Foundation dinner this year, and I got a picture with Steve Cohen as well, but the picture of mister and misters met Is is so much better at the Fire Academy. But the cool thing is start talking to Steve at the Foundation dinner. He's just a regular fan that happens to have a lot of money to be able to own the Mets. And the FDNY Foundation does great stuff for
the fdn Y. They're huge supporters of us. And just to to talk about their dinner that they that they have, I see a lot of good people at that dinner every year, and just thank you to gin O'Shea and Susan Whipper and Steve Russo on the board that the work that they do for every day for New York City. They donate millions of dollars to the fdn Y that they do during fundraising, So that's great. They can't be safe.
Bro, he's got a run, I think he said, And we got a couple more two that we hadn't gotten to And this is with some guy Nam chucked down perhaps Oh my god, So yeah, there he is. Oh man. So I worked with him for way too short of a time at the Fire Academy. I talked him into the coming when they made me achieve a training, I talked him into coming to the Fire Academy. And he's as he's simply as good as they get, another great human,
knowledgeable. We would spend hours together talking strategies and tactics and and which battalion is better the four six or a five zero, which everybody knows the four to six with a five zero is a close second. H And he can't defend himself tonight, So he's he's good. Yeah, But you know, I love Chuck, loved Joe Downey as well as brother, and was fortunate to work in special operations under their dad, although I didn't really know his
dad because I was petrified of his dad. Right, we came into the squads, we didn't talk to we didn't talk, we didn't even make eye contact. No, that's right. Yeah, so yes, that's good stuff. Here's the last one, Oh Johnny at the Fire Academy, talk about Johnny and celebrating your champions and just another amazing individual. And he didn't know he was in the book, and I showed him a picture of him in the book. He's not a firefighter, but loves firefighters and and just the
training and everything. Where's the four six file of smoke brother Mike? One last picture? Do you have one of my youngest? Oh? Yes, I love this one? Yeah? Right here? I met her at the Long Island Show, my youngest supporter right here. That is what it is all about. Right. So, A couple of times I've tried to read the book to her, especially when it was in draft form, and my
wife would be like, what are you doing? So so she has her own copy and it won't be too long before that will be bedtime reading for her when she comes over to visiting Grandpa. So I love that. What does she call you? Grandpa? Pop up on Grandpa? I don't care what she calls me. As long as she's calling me, I don't care. She's probably got some good. You could probably still sniffer up pretty good, right, you could still sniffer she smells the lish it's good. I'll
tell you what. You're on a barbecue, it's good. Eat her up, eat her up, good stuff, good stuff. Hey, we're on the two hours. This is good. Wow? Anything else you want to throw in it before we call it a night? No, I think I think we hit glad to doing good with this thing. I'm glad you're doing good with this book. It seems like, uh, we saw a lot of guys at the show. Everybody was coming by. Say they stopped by over there they were buying Yeah, and others. But yeah, the other
said they came straight from your booth, and then Nick, Yeah. So it's it's a good stuff. I can't wait to hear who who wins? Yes, So I'll say it again. If you want a free copy, get five people to subscribe to the YouTube channel and email me. Don't give me no bullshit, email me at Coops Podcast at gmail dot com. I will put it and will pull a name out and will ship you free shipping to one of Chief Leaves books, Stars of Leadership, Beautiful And that's it.
I'm gonna say something else. I forgot what it was. That's what it means. We'll see on the next show. Is that what you were gonna see? I we'll see you tomorrow at the next show. Who's starring? You know? It's a Frank Cleave and Joe Whiz show. Christ I love it? You got anything rougher? Uh? Who do we got coming up? We've got stan rye back coming up in a couple of weeks yet Thursday, we don't have anybody for Thursday. We got miss Linsky coming up.
I got we'll come up with an idea. We got some I got some people still waiting, but probably won't be able to get somebody for this week. It's just going to be tight. Probably you never know. We'll get somebody. On Monday, the twenty third. We have the girls of the Firefighter Caount and the Kendall and the Girls of Metro Fire Thanks coming on. So we'll have to make sure that Mike contains himself. You know what I mean. I'm a gentleman. I'm gonna raise a gentleman. All right,
I'm gonna raise it. Gentlemen. Chief, good luck with the book. We we'll spread the word, and uh, I'm sure you're going to be doing luck with everything. He's got his hand and he got a little hand on his hand. Thank you, brothers. I appreciate you guys, appreciate you having me on. And I appreciate the uh, all the comments, all the people that that is still on that still want to hear something from me. That's pretty uh. Maybe it's just want to be you know.
I put him to sleep. Whatever it is, put the headphones on and take a nap, right, But I appreciate it. I never I never take that stuff for granted. And uh yeah, just just appreciate the opportunity to come on tonight. You guys are the best. Keep doing what you're doing. Kids. Yeah it looks good too. He still looks good. He's got the half. Yeah, I believe it. All right,
take this out, mikey. All right, Well, before anything, I just want to get a quick shout out, as always told my peeps at the West Haven Fire Department, much love to your great working with you. Uh, Like I said, you can get chiefs as the guy said, I should say, rather, you can get the Chief's book on Amazon. It's well worth to read. Get your hands on a copy as soon as
he can. In the meantime on behalf of Louis Rofrano, Kevin Coopler and current assistant chief frankly by Mike Gloane, and we will see you next time. Take care everyone, goodnight,