Disclaimer. We'd like to know before the start of this interview that the opinions about to be expressed by the guest of Tonight's Getting Salty Experience Podcast are that of the guest and do not directly or necessarily reflect the views of the host of the Getting Salty Experience Podcast.
You're listening to the Getting Salty Experience Podcast.
Hello Belloe.
Kenny Delaney joined us again from the kitchen table.
Yeah, you know, you know, he's a great villain.
I appreciate it. Thank you guys for having me. Thank you so much.
Could you just bow down for a little so we see what's behind you? Oh, look at that. That was what's behind you, bro.
It fell off the wall the other day.
It's just something, especially when you're half Yeah.
Oh really, form of flattery.
I've always Yes, that's I agree with you. You do?
Yeah, bag tonight, I'm sorry what yeah?
Yeah, Oh my yam bag. It's a it's doing a right. Like I said, it's to take a couple of deep, deep breasts, but.
You're sitting on a bag of peace frozen.
No, no, like I said, I didn't. He just he said my nuts were gonna turn purple, and they didn't turn a shade color. They got saggy, but you know they didn't turn a shade of any color.
Wow, that's good news.
You still have both of them.
Yeah, it's all there, all right.
Now, give him to his wife when he goes outside.
So sorry, babe, mind you can't hear you. Well.
Back the Experienced podcast. It's the other one that brings the Flyhouse Kitchen.
Table to you. To you and we have a new membership program that you know about the guns.
No, no, won't you tell me a little bit about it.
In the description after show you can join a membership.
It's Dick ken Get's thirty ye three ninety nine from silver, I think nine for gold. With the five ninety nine you get all new content. We got about fifteen shows waiting to go. We just put up the if you want to see the Halligan documentary where I interview Hugh Halligan's son out in Jersey five ninety nine.
You get a whole bunch of other stuff.
I don't know what you get guns like when you're in the chat here, you get like emojis and.
Some of Yes, you get a couple of features. We'll break it down and as we get a little bit more into this bridge down for you guys, so you can you know, you guys are emojis lot.
This is America, baby, you've.
Never seen it before. It's a beautiful membership.
Was that your trump?
Yeah, I'm sorry, shut up, chilly woman, shut up, see it back on back on the mend.
Yeah, a bunch of walking wounded. He Louis with his hand. You your yam baged me with my knee.
What's just gonna say? The knee?
Is it my brain?
And he is better? No, Cane, I'm not walking away Cane anymore.
Nicoll. That a fifth head, but you know five head, five head.
Hey, anytime you guys want to advertise right here, go ahead.
It's no I have a banner for you. We'll work on.
Ninety nine for an emoji right here.
We'll give you that hat.
Well, you don't want to put on a short clip of this really cool other podcast that we let me on to you got it, guns.
Let me see if for some reason or another, whatever you set me, it's not giving me the audio. It just gives me this. So whatever he's saying obviously is being lipped or being put up on the screen mat But it'll take.
A shower, take a ship, got you gotta go, always wondering.
Now if you go to the bedroom, the tones go off, better you better get there, man.
Come you go.
You go deep on your podcast, bro, really deep intellectual subjects.
I love, hey man, Sometimes I just gotta you know, I want to get to laugh.
I want people don't understand when we got to do this stuff in the fire hous, Like what do you do?
Like the tones go off? You got you're taking a.
Dump and you got and do a quick wipe.
Guard cut it, bro, I say, you go your wipe, You go your wipe, You go your wipe, so you're always clean, ready to you.
Ready to go right now? You cat it between go and wipe. But that's that's the chance you take.
That's the chance we take. Right. This is then why we do what we do right.
And I will always say, bro, there I watch a lot of podcasts. I can't watch any other fire Department podcast. I'm not just patting myself.
On the back, but I will. But Kenny can watch.
I get a good laugh out of Kenny. He's got a great show. Go over and check him out.
Bro.
I appreciate it. Thank you so much.
Yeah, good stuff. That's why we have back here with Louis out.
Louis out probably looks something like this right now, he said, a one O three two ninety reunion today just either face pie eyed.
Pie eyed right now. Probably can't feel his hand anymore. So that's good.
But thanks again for having me, and I really truly appreciate and humble.
So thanks guys, commercial you wire.
Tell you way. Sorry. All right, there we go. Let's miss mister Vince here we go.
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Excellent special thanks to Joel Kanaski, who got our guest tonight.
He's in the Jack Greek guy.
Yeah. And if you're gonna buy a floor from Vince and you're in the Northeast area, maybe called the guy that knows a little bit of something about you might recognize him up there in the corner there. The new representative for mister arbertof for the Northeast area was what's your name against Sarah? What you know? I don't know if you remember, I was trying to think of it as I was rambling. It wasn't coming to me.
Tough ti whatever.
I don't know armor ta.
How you're a reputentadat even the name of the place, Like I'm just starting shit.
Anyway, we played the commercial, you know once a week. Yep, we got a refresher. Yeah, all right, let's get send to the next one. Here's to Jersey Fire.
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Absolutely, absolutely right. You're doing good on that, much better than the Amato.
But you're doing really good Nomatic tach tough.
Yeah, do you want to do uh? Health of safety? You want to wait till yeah, we'll do the end.
I have a good one I want to do. Kenny just actually put the little seed in my mind, so okay, yeah, yeah, well let's bring him in here. Let's bring you in Bill Nieman, as I like to call him, Bill Nye, the fire guy.
I'm going to do this. If you over hear that way you play.
I'm not Louise, fine, don't.
I usually appreciate it anytime with mustache like that, bro, they see the young pictures of you.
Retro seventies before we jump into that.
Hello, sorry, my daughter was leaving.
What you were doing. Let's let's get patriotic really quick, right here we go.
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.
Where is Missus Procaccini's husband. He's not in it tonight, you know.
I mean it is uh, it is June getting people are getting out of school, you know how that is, and there're partying right.
Now, Senior, promise tonight up here by me?
Really, yeah, hopefully there's people make good choices.
Yeah, this punch, I'm sure, God you got it.
Actual, Welcome to the show, brother, Thank you.
Why don't you tell us start off by telling us a little about yourself.
What happened?
All right, everybody? Just a streaming will be good? You are, Yeah, just.
I give the guys who heads up stream yards having a big problem today.
So if somebody you might have to kick somebody out or restart or whatever.
Yeah, so it might even just involved us. So in case if you don't hear anything, I don't say anything, give us a few minutes.
Yes, So we found out a Brooklyn fellow. Yeah, a little background on that.
Brooklyn born and Brad three eighteen men of hand between wike Off and her and my mother was born and raised in three twenty men ahand when she got married, she literally moved next door. I went to Saint Bridgett's Church, their Prinjede Grammar School, Grove Cleveland High School. My grandmother passed away and she left my parents the money to buy a house, but it wasn't enough to buy a
house and uh, good part of New York. So they were visiting a friend of my grandmother's in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and they came home and said, guess what we're moving. I said, you movement. I'm doing my last year in Grove Cleveland. It didn't work out that way, but I went down here kicking and screaming, but it was the best thing they could have done for him.
You got to see how much those property goes for now in Bushwick Man That yeah.
So, Uh, my father worked for paying AM for twenty years and I pad developed had an interest in aviation my part. He was career on me until he got shot up in Korea. So I thought I was going to be going to military and do stuffing in aviation and military. And then Saturday evening nineteen seventy two TV show came on called Emergency, and I watched that two hour pilot and at the end of that show, I was gonna be a five paramedic.
And time somebody's ever told that show got them to sign up.
I got to join the part part rampart.
Yep, somebody else.
You interviewed Keith Nicoliello and he said, that's all you ever talked about. And then when I told to me the other day, he was like, he was, Now that I look back at the show, the show is that it's a stupid shop.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, there's no question about it. Yeah it was. It was inspiring back then. And I was a young volunteer back then too, so it was I ate it all up.
I just so you volunteered where first with the boss.
A fredickspurg for six eight years. I guess it was in my novel. I started my career off with the county in seventy six. Actually, I was a federal firefighter at Marico Basedquontica from seventy six to seventy nine. I played on staying there and the fire chief, Walter Stone at the time, kept tell me that the fire department was going to take over the base EMS and we were going to get the medic units, and which was run by the Navy at that point, and since I was an EMT, he wanted me to head up the
program and they were quote some captain's bugles in my future. Well, three years went by and we never got the EMS. So I went ahead and took the entrance exam for Prince William because their paramount program, which is starting. Another guy that went with me, Roger Roach, who I worked at. Unfortunate Roger passed away he lost July. We both got hired within the year of each other. I hope Roger's wife, Sarah was watching. So I went to Prince William and
as they say, the rest is history. When EMS became a cardiact heck, which now that I think they call them intermediate paramedics or Advanced teams or something, was on one of the was in the second class basically that graduated with the paramedic program on the Virginia Community College. It was one of our first one hundred and fifty paramedics emtps in Virginia. I think my number was one sixteen A paramedic unit for a couple of years, had
a great time, got promoted the lieutenant. I was a I was a medic on a Monday on a Friday, and I was truck lieutenant on a Monday, so there was no transition. Uh, the department was young, and at the time we were a career volunteer department. We had I think there were fifteen volunteer companies within Prince Wayne County and the company one was actually City of A Nassas and they were independent.
They had their paid for every time we passed that.
But you know answers stem.
NASA's Park eng Company nine ever the same way they were an independent. Then we had the Marine Corps Base Chronicle right at four stations. We ran mutual aid with them, and we had Vin Hill Station, which was an omni post that had a fire station. We ran mutual aid with them. The career guys worked seven to five Monday through Friday, weekends and holidays off. And when I look
back at it, that was a sweet gig. I mean, yeah, right, Well, when you're twenty three years old, you want to be out there at two o'clock in the morning, you know, fight fire, saving lives, you know. But when I look back, it was a sweet gig to be able to do the job and work straight days and have all the holidays and weekends off couldn't.
Answer, so the paid guys were only seven to five Monday to Friday and they took everything else.
Some of the volunteers stations had living programs or they actually had volunteers living there.
Yeah.
Yeah, Joel was one of the livings. Some of them had duty assigned duty nights, so you had to be at the station or a particular night to serve your duty, and others you just responded to the station when the tonys went off.
So how many total were paid? How many guys?
Back then I was My employee number was one seventy four, so I was in the first group of two hundred to be hired. Now I think there's like fifteen hundred career staff. That's pretty big, and there's still volunteer. A lot of stations have folded and turned the keys over the county, but there's still half a dozen volunteer departments. They are still functioning, but it's predominantly twenty four to seven in the county now in the first units, I think,
I get I can't remember. Sometime in the nineties we started transitioning to the stations that we're having trouble getting units out to twenty four hour career service still supplemented by volunteers engine and medical career. And then the volunteers were staffed a lot of truck squads or you know, other supplemented.
How many guys were riding on the rate.
Staff minute of staffing for us on an edge company, the truck was three and then two ornamentics.
An officer officer driver and one guy.
Usually yeah what station you were at, you know, but some of the volunteer stations you had volunteers wing out the door come ride with you. So sometimes I pulled out there with six people because I had three Craig.
Career they can go out on the same rig as the paid guys.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We worked great together and a lot of our volunteers were career guys and other departments too. So you know, one particular shift, it was me, I had a volunteer driver who was a career firefighter and other department and two volunteers ride in the bucket. I was the only career guy, uh that that particular day. So uh, and we had my two medics, Steve Starlin and Billy Bill Monument. Uh. So when it worked with the volunteer system. When it worked, it worked really good.
And when it didn't work, it didn't work very good. So but it, you know, eventually transitioned all pretty much career service.
Were there ever any I asked the guy this who kind of did the same thing. Were ever there any animosity between the paid guys on the volunteer guys.
Yeah, and some of them it was self inflicted. I mean, when you're twenty three years old, you have a whole different perspective. I mean, our volunteers didn't have to worry about a three big process. They always most of the departments had the best equipment, the finest equipment. Their service time on our first line rig was about seven years. They replaced their front line rugs every seven years. Wow.
There's not too many paid departments that do that. Yeah, for the most part, we always had the best equipment to ride on. Belonged to the volunteers, but we got the ride on it. They had the best really for the most part, really nice stations, great working environments, and it's just like any other work environment. You had volunteer fire chiefs and officers and guys. I was in station three years, prime example. You couldn't ask for a better
working relationship with the volunteers. The fire chief, Miles Young at the time, was actually the fire chief for Andrews Air Force Space. And you know, Miles, when I first I showed up, Miles said, you're my assistant chief. I'm a lieutenant and he said you're my assistant chief. Okay, that's how he That's what I was Tom. You know, I handled the daytime operations and his guys and girls.
You know, if they wanted to do something around the station, pull the car in the wash it or something, you know, they had to come and check with me first. So when it worked, it worked really really good. And when it didn't work, it didn't work. And I kind of just talk about that a little bit in my novel.
Kenny asked the question they asked in the pre show that we had to we never heard of it yet.
So in the comments, somebody was talking about Pierce Riggs. I can't see who it was right now, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike brought up the Pierce Riggs. What kind of rigs did you guys have down in uh So?
There was a Han dealership and there's it's spelled h A h N in Prince William County and uh so, a lot of our rigs, a lot of reasons were.
Hans and the other the other counties had franz Ris.
Predominantly, i CEA grades. But yeah, we had Hans and a lot of the volunteers.
We're not going to talk about why we had Hans.
We're not gonna I'm not gonna go into that.
What year was The Hans were h relatively new. Like I said, they they pretty much rolled their first line apparatus over every five years. I think Hans going out of business. They may have been bought out by one. I'm not sure, uh but they have, but they didn't have a lot of ones there for a while. There's a lot of trucks that I read on.
We're both like, that's what I pulled up. Just you guys have a little.
Yeah, yeah, it looks like a Hans. Ours were baby ship yellow.
Though, baby ship yellow.
That's that's how we described it, baby yellow riggs.
I'll try to find yellow.
Yeah, look at that.
Yeah, it's a Hans rig on Hans.
You want to say, hands in front? Yeah, wants up?
Yeah. The two ladder trucks in the county were actually owned by Prince William. They weren't owned by the volunteers at the time. At that time, uh they were sixty eighth Sea Grays when was a uh straight steak and it was a hundred for tiller. I was served on the eighty five. That was an open cab and only two open cabs in the county. Everything else was closed camps. That There was a joy, absolutely joy riding on that rig. It was great.
You could put that in my town.
We have one paid engine and the rest are all volleys, and I don't they don't really have a great working relationship if you wear the last paid in Long Island. Actually the Long Beach used to be a Garden City and Long Beach and now Garden City's all volley.
But I know there's a lot of mosity in there.
You'd see it well enough to touch on a little bit. My department, when I first joined in ninety five, we went paid and we would do very similar to how you guys were doing. It was paid guys during the week or during the main hours, and the volunteers were coming at night. And you know, some guys that didn't like us, and then some of us, well most of us, myself that we all got along and it was a great thing. You could have six seven guys on a truck and you know, we had big ten men cabs
back then, so we rolling heavy. That's what we were rolling heavier.
A lot of the volunteers that I worked with had aspirations of becoming career firefighters, and that's why they were volunteers. And when you work with those guys, they were willing to learn, they wanted to ride with you. They just sucked it all in. And then you had people who were volunteers for the reasons. So yeah, like I said, when it worked, it worked really well. Never had any problems on the fire ground and all the fires that I was there involving volunteers, never had an issue on
the fire grounds, and issues in the firehouspital. Never on the fire ground.
Everybody worked these issues in the flyreouse issues short.
But when it came to work, we all did what we had to do and looked out for each other.
Sure.
Yeah, I tell us the story about when you made a grit with Kniski and you had to pull him out because he was he went down.
We went.
Yeah. Joe, as you know, was in the marine Corps. Has worked at the Aircraft Crash Rescues UH station at Chronicle and I was a lieutenant Station three, and I mean fire Station three. Fire Station three was actually a captain's billet, but the captain I was off for a couple of years with serious back injuries. So I got put in there. And I'm sure you've met people in your life that minute they came out of whom they
were going to be firefighters. You've met people like that. Well, the first time I met Joel, I knew Joel was going to be a career fier, There's no question. And uh so he lived at the station. They had a living thing and uh by medic that morning Steve Strodaman the Sunday night he called me and said, cracked the toooth. I got dentist appointment to take off. I'll put Mike, who's my tech one and going through a paramitt program medic.
So it was just me, Al my driver operator Al Al Stevens, another incredible guy Vietnam vat Combat Manic served in the Vietnam incredible, incredible guy, had a reputation to eat new lieutenants for breakfast, but for some reason he liked me I don't know why. We always had that always made me look a lot better than I really was.
But uh. So I was riding with Al and Joe, who hauls another great guy who was my tech bar and Joe came from the bunk we had duty to the before and he said, hey, I see you shorthanded. Can all right right you? And I said hell yeah, So we jumped on. We were in the middle of having a morning drill, drinking coffee and having more and drill. We just got the task Force tip the first ones in the department I have testie. So Al was given a drill on those nozzles and the tones went off
structure fire, ah, person's trap. So jumped on, took off, Uh, pulled out ill. Never forget this. I was pulling out a ramp on my foot on the federal que just winding it up, and I looked over Al, and I looked out with Joe and Joel, and I thought, Damn, that must be the luckiest guy in the world to get this job. I work with these natural urices. I mean it was then I said a little prayer, Dear God, please don't let me screw this up, which I always
did for every call. So we get there. We were going to take the hydrant, but the medic was right on our ass, so those guys took up. Nobody had to get off the rig. Uh good. Bob and Mike grabbed the hydrant. We laid in. We pulled the getting ready to my sides up. Told Joe to pull the two hundred foot Maddidale, which is the line that we had above the pump paddle. We called that Maddidale, brand new nasle that didn't used before. Joe looks at me
and Joe easy with her. It's her first time, and he said, loom gonna threw like a two llow whore.
We'll hold back.
When I did my size up, they stretched the line the front door. Billy, Bob and Mike had set up to eight station, but they had all their gear on and bringing that breast case and needed the inside. Joe went in by himself on the line by himself. About half the house was It was about two thousand bungalow, I mean, uh branch, about half of them was off. So we went. Joe went in, took the tacked the fire and Joel and I went in to do the
rescue and uh. I went through the living room area, and when Joe opened the nousel up, it was like being in a freaking sna I mean, it could just it was. It was unbearable, but we searched. I ended up phoning down to fire the stairs into the basement. I thought it was a room, and I reached him and so anyone come up, we do search and rescue. H going to his bedroom and Joel's taking out windows
the Halligan bar and I'm just searching around. There was a bookcase later before, I talk about that in the book, in the novel, and I looked down and I saw what I thought was a costume mask. It looked like to me like the mask phamptom of the opera. That's exactly what I looked at. I wasn't sure what I was saying. I picked up the bookcase and the little boy was on the bookcase. So I yelled to Joel and tell me to get us the blank blank out
of there. So I followed him out and I turned him over to my that it's actually the chapter in the book that I'm talking about, this instance called taking the Buick to Europe, the bure It means, you know what that means vomiting. They get to Europe. Uh, that's the name of the chapter. And I'll tell you why. So I get the medics, get the kid over. The medics. Uh, Billy, Bob and Mike are sitting up the gear and I'm starting cepr on. I'm going to go to get him
a mouth the mouth resuscitation and vombits in my mouth. Well, his fruity pebbles and vanilla and his mini waffles ended up in my mouth, so, uh, yeah.
Right now they can't have bi valve miss.
But yeah, well, like I said, they were just setting up their stuff, so they didn't have that all yet. So I crawled off puking, and uh, Joe and the medics worked on the kid. And Joe comes up and he said, you know, okay, Bill, And I said, yeah, I just wasn't expecting brunch and fell from here down on his turn coat was just soaked in blood, and Joe, what the hell did you do? And you look at I don't know. So we ended up treating I ended
up taking care of Joel. All the other guys took care of the medic and uh, Joel sliced up his wrists pretty we Initially we thought it was gonna be a lot worse than it was. It turned out to the kid make it, huh. Now they re bought. Our guys would ride them on the scene. That's that's the rest of the story. Our guys running back on the scene, gotim the hospital. He was had a heartbeat, the pulse, but he codd. They were getting ready to transport him
to the piatric burn center. You say he coded again. He wasn't revived, but his parents were at least with him when he passed, so at least he didn't dialone. So it's one little footing of that. No, he didn't. He didn't make it. So so that's the rescue Joel and I made. It's we'll forbet or be connected in that. In the morning of nine to eleven, I was sitting I was on duty that morning. I was just sat down. I came on at six in the morning in the fire marshals office, so I was in my morning break
and I saw that turned on the TV. I saw them was watching it and saw the second plane hit, because that's also in the book too, And you know, the first person I thought about was Joel, and I got physically ill. When I saw that, because I knew he was on a rescue squad one at that time. So it turned out things worked out, but I physically physically got ill watch. I remember that he was on rescue squad on, so I guess we'll always be connected by that rescue.
I heard it different. I heard you had to drag Joel and the kid out.
I couldn't drag Joel out of it, not at that time. I wasn't always that has been a big kid. Yeah, and uh, that was another thing about my department. I mean, most guys, especially as firefighters, to see around now, I don't know what they're feeding these kids, but they're all, you know, big bruises. When I was coming on, you know, if the guy was over six foot, they were tall in my department. Uh. And so when somebody showed up at six two sixty three, you know, they were a
little taller than everybody else. But I don't know why it was. I mean they called my truck companies the Smurfs because I was the tallest one on the truck company. I was five nine, So we have the Smurfs struck up.
You know, man, you're you're a giant everywhere everywhere I went.
Yeah, midget dwarf, I was heard at work today.
Bad awful vicious things about me.
So then you go and you u, you go to the fire marshals. What made you want to switch?
Uh?
I really didn't have a choice of the matter. When you were a lieutenant, you during your as part of your court career development usually ended up in communications as a shift supervisor for a couple of years, or you went into the fire Marshal's office for a couple of years as part of your court career development. Uh So, but I was at Station fourteen. I wasn't getting along with the captain or the tang captain at the time or nameless fourteen was a great station, had great crew.
Want No, that's.
Damn it.
Yeah, a great, great set of volunteers there. Bobby Sharp was the assistant chief of fourteen County County Cop full time volunteer firefighter. Great break. But I was looking for something. I was thinking about transferring, but I didn't put in for a transfer. We were coming back from a call one day and Chief put me back in a ramp and Chief Fire Marshal John O'Neal has parked out in the parking lot standing in chief O'Neil. Later, I mean it turned out to be more of a father figure
a boss. I ended up working for him for eighteen years. But he was one of these guys as long distance runners served in Vietnam, highly decorated, always in the clean uniform, always had what I call a command image. Respected the hell out of guy. So but anyway, back to Regainny.
He asked if I chat for a few minutes, which I really didn't have a choice in the batter, but went in my office in Chatty and he said that the fire chief, Chief Jakins, says, I've give him the green light to revamp the fire's office turning into a little more aggressive organization, and they wanted to have a designated Barston crimes unit in the fire Marsh's office. And Jacobson mentioned, my name is some of that new blood.
So he how many years you have on the job at this time? Bill?
About eight nine? So, and because I was looking for something new, I just didn't know what I did bored quickly, so he said, you know, you asked me what I thought. Before I could answer, he said, Bill, give me two good years. And if you weren't out of two years. I'll give you a choice of assignments. So I said truck twelve. He said, okay, we shook hands. Seventeen years later I retired.
Yeah, yeah, we uh yeah, we're going to get to that book.
Yeah, yes, we did, we were we. I had to go through a full police accounty sixteen. Uh. I went up there. I did the co enforcement thing for a couple of years, and then I went to the police academy, Police Academy, you know, crime scene technician school, FIREARMSTRM and
all that stuff. And on opening occurred for a fire investigator in the fire martion's office, my good friend John Bethel, I hope John's watching had already been appointed and he was one of the two fire investigators in the arson unit, and the other fire investigator wanted out, so he went to communications and so they had an opening, and I just didn't know they had already decided I was going
to be the opening fill that opening. So yeah, the opening was out about I guess it was about thirty days. And I had not put in because there was a bunch of senior guys who were senior to me wanted it, and I just didn't want to put in for it. So because of the senior guys, so it closed. I was working Thursday for Friday day, Saturday, Sunday night. So
Friday afternoon I got off at five. About four o'clock, Chief on Neil came by and he said, I came in and submitted you pack it, and he said, Chief there was several senior guys and I'm not don't feel comfortable putting here for it this time. He walked away. Twenty minutes a later, we came back with a letter and he said sign it. So I was reading it and I looked at him and he said, I prefer not to have to order you to sign it. So it was my request to become a fire investigator. So
I signed and handed it to him. He said, I'm being your weekend off. Come Monday morning, you're a new fire investigator. So and then Monday I was in the Arson crimes with John and I had a blast. It was the wild wild West. It was a brand new We made it up as we went along. I mean, the only person were reported to was Chief Fire Marshall, great guy to work with. Gave us a big sandboxer plane. We had full law enforcement powers and we just John and I had a blast. It was just an incredible time.
And uh, you know, along with all that training, the Fire Marshal's office and it went from making twenty Arson arrests a year when John and I John left, I think we were up to about two hundred and fifty.
Wow.
Yeah, we had more investigators than it was doing just John. I think I ended up having over seven hundred arrest So now they weren't all Larson arrests. They were you know, curdib arrests, junile politicians where you don't actually go to court. You know, are you taking to juvenile plus juveneile intake officers and they don't actually go to court. The juvenile intake officer, you know, he took the kid and all that stuff, we're still counted as an arrest. Yeah. This
is my good friend John. John, who is a Marine in Vietnam, was there during the Ted defensive. Third Marines He's at Third Marines were right next to Way City, Fifth Marines, Way City during the Battle of Waite City. He survived this tour during Great Guys in Pennsylvania went on to have another Stella career with Travel with Insurance with one of their chief fired us after the County.
Great guys, can I say, John looks like a stud muffin?
John?
John had been John's gonna kill me to telling this story. John been divorced about two years and he was dating a significantly younger woman who had an education background. She also worked with County, and she was having lunch with a bunch of fire marshals one day and she let it slip that the pet name for John was stud muffing.
Uh, did you come up with it on your own? Bro?
That was that was like playing slow, slow pitch softball with aroon judge of back with the basis line, So John stud Muffin. Then it morphed to stud puppy, and then finally just Studley John, great guy. Just talking the other day and yeah, keep in touch a lot. We were the two arsenal investigators and came and we made it up as run along and I just had a blast, had a great rapport at all. Going into going to
a formal police academy like I did. I ended up going to class, but a lot of street cops I work with, so when I pull up on the scene, they knew it, or John or all the guys in the fire martials especially. I shot them all, everybody in the fire martials except for me with pretty much country boys. So they got to shoot.
You killed.
Yeah, do you see some of the stuff that he's killed. I don't know if you got to be a really sharp shoot to hit those jobs.
Hog.
We had a great report that.
Uh, it was a great let's just scared, let's bring it up. Let's go ahead.
It's well foggy, Yeah, there.
To be shot.
It took it took three rounds to bring that one down. Really, Yeah, gosh.
That thing is huge as the pig's big too.
Sorry, Yeah, yes, they are.
Yes, So I know, like in Texas or somewhere there's like a overpopulation of them and they're just out of control.
Is that same same place?
Like kind of, This is a hunting preserve and this is a wild boar. It's a Russian bars. So what they're dealing with down there feral pigs.
Okay, if you.
Take a farm pig and you let them lose, they'll turn feral, and they are. They do become aggressive and they tear up your land. But this is a hunting preserve and they managed the population.
Someone has hair, Yeah.
Nice, that's a nice I could use some of that, right, you me both probly.
What you said? That was about four pounds of meat, and.
I think it was about four seventy five.
That's crazy, all right, Well, while we're on the hunting game, let's go ahead and have a this guy and that.
Was actually that was the smaller of the three. Actually, oh smaller one.
I see.
Yeah, Yeah, he.
Looks like he's just resting.
Yeah, he got that rack uh to my man cave down in the basement.
Next to the exactly stuck You.
Guys, you had to see the G I Joe's. He's got a G I joe collection that makes anybody envious.
Bron if you can, if you've seen forty year old Virgin with all those characters, he's right up there with him.
I'd be putting the G I Joe's on the antlets.
Yeah, beture of my beautiful doll and my duck hunting a couple of Christmases ago.
Yes, but I listen, I'm gonna say, beautiful, let's go to this one. Okay, this is the one we want to talk about.
Wow, the bills, I gotta say, Yeah, I wish I could be guys, I mean She's attractive, wicked, smart, fearless.
You can fly a black Hawk through her NAT's ass without touching the sides.
O Blackhawk Helicopters.
Bro settled down, settled down, good Lord, then.
A combat store in Iraq. In twenty eleven, met at Flying mailbacks Medavack Helicopters.
I guess she's married too. What's the name of.
Well she was didn't work out? Oh?
Man, it happens to the bot. That happens to the best of us.
So how long is was she a pilot.
Of She went? She went there, she got internet, and believe it or not, she got interested when Kennedy crashed his plane. She was watching all the news coverage and the Coastguard aviation part of it, the rescue, and she turned to me and said, Dad, I might like to do that. So next day I had her Shannon Airport, our local airport, signing her up for lessons, and uh. I went up with her and her instructor, Cynthia, who ended up being my instructor when I got my pilot's license.
But uh, she Cynthia took the plane off and gave the controls over my daughter, and she flew twenty minutes and got back in the pattern and gao ann and Cynthia was like, mindy, I need to take under controls. Then he after the third command the control as one. As they said, some people are born to be firefighters, some people are born to be pilot.
What does she dot?
Nineteen years in right now, she's still flying rock offs off the four must be proud?
Is she divorced because she married a navy man?
Yeah? She married no army guy.
You know, it could be a little competition about the military branches, you know guys.
Anyway, you know, I can stay about Bill.
He told me about a renaissance man, a badass guy. He's out there shooting things. He's a pilot, he's an author, he's a firefighter, he's.
As investigator, investigator.
What does this guy not do? I want to scroll to.
What year is this bill?
This was a this picture was actually the county put out The County of Prince William put out a report every year that they sent to all the citizens. And it was really nice. It's, uh just a status of the county and they highlighted different departments and all that in this cooklet and then they send them all the citizens. I had no idea what they were doing that. Jackie Esty's was my firefighter at the time. He was in the back. We were they we were at Station eleven
at the time. In the front photographer came by and said, I gotta take some pictures for the county. So it's the engine company was out, and the engine company not been out, they probably would have been in it. They were on a call. So we were on. The guys left in there, so I's sure. So we bred ladders, two guys. So they delivered a stack of these things to the station and I opened it up, these brochures, and I opened up and that pictures in there.
Wow, they didn't make They didn't bust the balls about that, did they.
I ended up buying a lot of ice cream for a while.
We left out this one as a coast cut right?
What else? What else?
Like I said, I get bored easily.
I see that you haven't even gotten to the book yet. For crime.
He's got a pilot license. You can operate a boat, fire trucks, kills, big things kill.
Can I ask? Can I ask a question?
Sure?
So you were an arson investigated door and nine to eleven in the Pentagon and Joel was in rescue.
Did rescue respond to that? Did you respond to that? I know, we're kind of going back a little bit, but I was.
In the fire marsh's office, so I was, you know, I wasn't quote operational. I talk about that in my novel. So I did. We were just I did most of the logistics, moving equipment and bringing stuff to the logistics center, and did a couple of Viking raids on a couple of local home depots, and I was getting gear and stuff. But I wasn't. I wasn't in the in the Pentagon itself. I was on the peripherals. All the U Star guys and gals were in the in the hot so doing that work.
Gotcha, gotcha?
Mm hmm A young one too.
Yeah, my partner, Steve Adams. I hope Steve's watching Steve Steve Adams.
Isn't that a million dollar man?
Yeah?
He was.
He was an incredible medic. UH. He was one of the first cardiac texts or he was in the first classic cardio act texts. UH. But before that, he was an EMT on what we call him rescue Team, which was a basic life support animals UH for three or four years and you know, the guys that were on those rescue teams turned out to be incredible medics because when they were just the EMTs, they didn't have the ivs, they didn't have the e kgs, they didn't have all
that stuff. They just sometimes all they could do was hold somebody's hand and talk to him. And that's the first thing Steve taught me. My first partner was a technician. Steve was the master craftsman. Steve taught me that sometimes just holding somebody's hand and talking to him did more to ease their discomfort than most of the paramedics ship we've been taught.
Is that why they called him doctor Love.
Was doctor appas Doc Allams is what it's called. Well driving, Big Holly Davison fan, great guy. Just I just talked to him the other day too.
I hope he's watching. I hope he's like subscriber.
Yeah, we got we got our fair share of trouble, at say the least.
So now you guys are cross trained as medics and fire fighters and doing the same.
Yeah, we basically yeah, we were bet fire fight of paramedics gotch but our job usually if we pulled up in a working fire with our first few company, we did all the outside work. We threw ladders, secured your utilities, took the hydrant, dragged hose, and so that the one guy or two guys on the integum they could actually go inside and do that thing. If ship really hit the fan, we got to rescue h Yeah, then we mask up and go in. As a matter of fact,
Bob Holman and Hope Bob's listening. He uh, and you got me truck. We're out on the call. Bob and his partner and a few whose partner was at time, they got pushed out for structure fire. Two blocks in the station. Bob and his partner went. They didn't have any breed napperass on the medican because all on the engine. Bob went in, we're breeding that apprass and rescued a robey from the second flour, heavy smoke conditions. Old school, Yeah, he definitely went old school.
There's old school right there.
Yeah. I'm on the right, My driver Tech two, Chris Simmons is on the left. That's what happens when you put gasoline in the kerosene heater.
Ah.
So that was a townhouse fire, and that's what happened people put kerosene in there, I mean gasoline and their chrosene heater. That was a pretty good fire. That was a good working fire. That as a side note, before I forget uh the uh, that was the first time in the county that we ever used the chainsaw open. Prior to that, we always used the K twelve and.
Sorry is he on a what.
On point? At one point?
Well, West Coast brother and I've been using chain shows that open light reconstruction for years. So I just grabbed the chainstarw out of the truck and said we'll give it a try. So that's the first time we actually opened the roof of chainsaw.
The answer to this question, we saw that when you were downstairs your helmet.
You still have it right, yep?
Yeah, we saw it in his band cave downstairs downstairs.
Ye g.
This one. This one's in the book too. In the novel h this lady committed attempted to commit suicide. Knife passed through her right ventric goal and was about centimeter from her spine.
Most successful.
I won't ruin it for you, but she was a she was a deaf mute eagle one, which is the that's that was our primary medevac helicopter back then was the US Park Service Eagle.
One US Police So I was just going to ask you, yes.
One, Uh, those are the guys who rescued, made the rescue when Florida ninety crash.
Yeah.
I was on that jop for six years before I got on the phone department.
So John Maddox is the one to the left, good friend John, the guy in the white church. Jerry Shepherd, phenomenal fire officer, retired as a battalion chief. The police officer I forget her name, and she shortly after that she became the police officer's p I O. And I think that's the position she retired from. And then Steve
was right there. Steve squatted down behind the blanket, and the guy in civilian clothes Chester, I forget Chess's last name, but he was a volunteer and but that's what everybody call him.
Uh.
He heard the call and came up from his house. And she's lived. It's in the book. She she lived the book soon.
Yeah. Yeah, just a couple more and.
And uh, this is a bus accident again. This one's in my novel too, on chip Rock Creek. Uh, and went off the overpass into the creek. It was twenty five people. Uh on the bus. I think we got a living fatalities. I'm down in the left hand corner college see my back. Steve, my partner, Stevens is the boy with his hands on the on the patient. She survived for the mid star. Uh. One of the victims was the wife of a Fairfax County firefighter. She killed.
Mm hmm. So that happened I think eighty one or eighty two, but that that was the first mass casualty incident. I was on as a medic hm m mm hmm. And all these cases, all you know, we got off at five, all these actions, so we seem to happen at four o'clock.
Yeah, yeah, I mean that.
You have to have a ton of accident.
I mean yeah.
This was another good one of David sword rose To delivered two ups trucks basically had our collision. Again, I'm the one with the long hair chi. I don't know what they were doing. They end there about dying that we got one got one in the hospital. John Murphy is the guy on the fire another plank holder of the paramedic program. He was on a rescue team. Incredible medic Steve Strodhoman. Right here you heard Joel talk about
Steve Steves, the other paramedic in the County Marine. Former marine was on HM Mexwan, the Presidential helicopter Squad the county and we worked together for two years at Next seven. And the other two guys in civilian clothes were off duty Fairfax firefighters that got there that render day before we got there. They stopped the day.
I think it's a mangled yea.
Some more roof work. I think that was a boy.
He loves it. He loves himself right now. Oh we saw the pig and that.
I think he should be all. Yeah.
We got the seventies eighties short shorts with the tube socks.
Uh.
This is a look. We were all local members and Marine Corps Marathon nineteen eighty one. On the one on the right squad of Damn Warren. Whitley is standing behind me warrant. Warren ended up retiring as an assistant chief and he also retired as a captain with the Coastcoar Auxiliary. Next name is Tim Lake. Tim's DeLong. He passed the brain cancer and I think it was a line of do to death squatting again. It was John Maddix, good friend, John Matis Scott Kane standing behind. John was born on
Long Island. Came to work for us, and he left us. A few years after this. I went to work for just for Columbia Fire Department and returned from the district as a captain for thirty years. Who the last guy? Huh?
No, go ahead, good, I'm sorry?
Uh the last guy to the left, Scott Davis. Scott retired as a battalion chief. We're now questioning one of the finest fire officers I ever had the privilege to work with. Out Standing guy, out standing officer. Never lost this cool. It didn't matter what station Scotty was at. It could be the shith Hall, which for US for Station seven. People were sending transfers to go to seven because they wanted to work for Scotty. You didn't care
where he worked. Absolute great guy. There is a rumor, I'm not sure if it's true, but there was a paramedic, first five paramaic who sprained his ankle playing volleyball. He was on like duty for two weeks in the office and his job was sorting through the mail. Scotty was a captain of Station eleven. This firefire paramatic had already put in his transfer to go to eleven if there
was a vacancy. So this particular firef paramatic, at a spring to ankle, was sorting through the mail and there would be these transfer across coming through to go to work for Scotty, and somehow they got this filed. I don't know how that happened. So somehow that they ended up in the round file cabin. The only one that got to the chief desk was firefighter who Now I cannot confirm, but I did sprain my ankle twice while
I was working for the county finish fish. It doesn't matter if it's f d N Y or Princeville County. You know, somebody retires, you usually got somebody step in their place, just job or better. But when Scotty retired, it was like, oh, ship, what do we do now because we don't have any replacements. Ed Roll another guy, lieutenant Edrol. When I had left, we took a hit. Dave McIntosh another lieutenant. When Dave left, it's like, okay, what do we do now? Because we don't have anybody
replaced them? They would They were just those type of officers, just that type of guys, and uh it was pleasure working.
I'm sure those guys staying the same.
About Bill Neeman, I'm probably not.
Steve Chief. Steve part loves his socks.
By the way, I ended up doing iron Man several years later, so that marathon was a piece of cake.
Iron Man I was a marathon.
Yeah. I did the Iron Man, which is a two and a half mile swim, hunting, twelve mile bike and twenty six miles. I did that. I did that ninety eight. I think it was twenty three.
Kenny, I feel I feel like this next to this guy, one of my all about I sit here to fucking run doing this and this guy's running marathon.
And who finished the Marine Corps marathon first?
Uh uh, I think Scottie came. John and I were way back. I took John and I like fifteen four hours and fifteen minutes, but you finished. It was our first one, and uh so we were of all the career guys, we were the ones in the.
Back about four days to finish that.
I think I'm still running it.
Yeah.
We When I was with the county, we had a fanatical physical physical fitness program. We got had two hours every chef for PT and uh, just about ninety percent of the guysticipated and actively uh and gave good efforts. And uh it showed later on in life and a lot of us got involved in doing marathons and sorry man and things like that. Uh, but we had a fanatic border. And then they implemented several years later you had to pass your Physical Fitness program test. You took
it twice a year. You don't even pass it once a year, which you had.
Imagine Kenny, if they had.
A couple of guys didn't get promoted because they didn't pass their PET tests.
So you know, there's a lot of guys nowadays that I see coming on. They're really into fitness and working on and stuff like back in the day, back in the day, you know, but hey, even some of the guys that didn't look like they were in shape but kicked the ship out of a fire any day to week and pulling.
And all that stuff. Stuff you know, very true. I like to I like to. I like the physical fitness part. I think everybody's going to feeling good.
Man.
Yeah, well, you know, you you recover from injuries quicker when you're better shape you know's and you screw something up, you do heal a real quicker.
You were what you yeh big?
Yeah you ain't both for cryingout.
So how many years did you put it before you retired?
Uh?
Twenty? I did three with Marine Corps base and twenty five with the county, so total of twenty eight.
Because almost thirty Hey, I got a good idea, I'm going to write a novel.
Well the now the novel came way later. I retired in two thousand and four. All right, so but business partner Tim Haverick. Tim and I served in the Arsenal. We started a little business back in ninety five doing fire investigations for insurance companies and lawyers and stuff like that. The intent was to make enough money so we could take our families on two really nice vacations every year.
That was that was the goal. Well thirty years later, here we are still doing the twenty reasons I retired. We grew so big we were going to have to hire somebody. When I was going to have to retire, all start lined up for me. So I punched out with twenty five with the County and went directly into the business and that's we just celebrated our thirtieth year in business. And that's what we did. We do fire and exposed investigations for all the insurance companies. The lawyers
got six great people. I took my daughter to a fire scene once. Then we walked in and I said, that's said, I don't know. I said, I was like.
Money business owner too.
Man had that Coob's business own.
God Man's Man of the five service, and he wrote a book. We haven't got to the book. Get let's get to the book now.
But it's been a bucket nuts thing for a very long time. And you know, I was hoping to find somebody who had written a book or now you know, could do a hard work for me. I was just telling the stories that they'd write it, and that never happened. My follow law passed away in April twenty one and my mom wa came to live with us, watched a lot. She couldn't be left alone for a very long time,
so my wife was still working with VETOT. She retired a year a lot later in twenty twenty two, with forty two years, but it was during collage, so my wife was got to work out of the house. So we could keep an eye on our mother. She could work and I could do my thing. And then my wife retired in twenty twenty two, and they begged her to come back to work. She'd been there forty two years, and everybody in her office had been there about five years,
so she had all the organizational memory. So they begged her to come back to work part time. So she did that. She's still working at part time. So the day she was at work, I would flexed my schedule to sit home with my mother in law. And so she loved will fortune. She loved not well fortune, Let's make a deal and prices right, sit and watch with her every day. And when I got a little board, and she loved monk. So one day I got a little board watching monks. So I grabbed my laptop while
I was sitting with her, it just started writing. That was April with twenty twenty three, and they signed off on the final edition the first week of April twenty twenty five out a dozen writes.
Huh took about two years to write it.
H Yeah, that included about a dozen dozen rewrites and editions and deletions and stuff.
So you sent it to the editor, they send it back to you.
Oh. I sent it to twelve different companies and one company said, yeah, we'll do it, So it's pretty it's pretty good.
To one hundred companies and they did nothing.
Yeah, and so far it's gotten pretty good reviews. It's mostly a lot of reviews of people I worked with and which would expect to be my hardest critics. Most of them I've really enjoyed it. So it's a fictional it's a novel based on actual events. How's that go. The names have been changing to protect the innocent in some cases guilty and so well.
The guy that what's his name did that Smith did the same thing from a report from company eighty two. Were just the names were slightly off, but it was it was fictional stuff. I mean it was real stuff, well, fictional stuff based on real life stories.
So it was. That was one of the first books I read on the fire report with reports from engine company.
I must read that book like fifteen times by now.
I just read it again about three years ago. It was a paperback. I gave the paperback to my daughter. As a matter of fact, I read But yeah, it's it's a timeless peace. I mean it's yeah flies today.
So where did you how'd you sit down and write it?
Just about stories that you had?
Yeah, the things, the events I've been on a witness, the practical jokes. There's several epic practical jokes in there that just are epic directually involved in or you may find iced tea, iced tea and athletic sports. That was probably one of the best. Uh story number eighteen, Chapter eighteen. You guys got to read that one. That's an epic rank and the guy who ended up pulling that prank ended up becoming chief of the department twenty years.
Later, so it was you know, at least he's a funny I.
Yeah, I just sat down wrote. I can't even say I wrote an outline. I just started writing stories. You know, stuff came to me and.
Just did you go in chronological order? It just went on.
No, No, it's definitely not in chronological order. They were just independent stories, fictional stories. Each story stands on its own merit. You know, they don't know any type of work.
How many how many stories?
The chapters of it, there's thirty three stories. Oh wow, that's it's five hundred and ninety five pages. So Rochester. I should have written two books, but I'm not sure i'd want to do that, but I want too. The only thing I could say about if you if you're writing a novel or a book to make money, you're going to be very disappointed. Yeah. I did it because there was a bucket list thing. And you know, if I sold ten books, great, If I sold a million,
that was great too. Yeah, that's that's why I did it. I didn't do it to make money. You know, the story needed to be told. I've wont something from my daughter to read twenty years from now, right. Yeah, better remember how bad ass a follow was at one point in time?
Still is do we get to the name of the book?
Heavy Fire showing can I show to Boom?
I was waiting for it to pull it up for you.
Here you go.
I didn't want to pull it up prematurely, but you.
Know, God that was on his game today. Man, Heavy Fire is showing you find out where guns?
Oh God, We'll see what we can find this. You know, guys, there's a couple of different places we can find it.
Let me pull this Amazon.
Well we got Amazon you yeah, believe it's at iTunes. Then you can get it on.
Kindle, and it's not Barnes and Noble. What's the other bookstore that's around now. I can't remember the name of it, but anyway, you can buy it there too.
That's what we'll call it. Just google it, Google it. I googled it and I think it comes up into places too. So heavy fire showing, guys.
Let me see that book cover again, bro got you?
I bet once you started writing, it all just flowed and flowed and flowed it came out.
Yeah. There is the second and third chapter of the of the novel. When you read it, I said, I I sent I sent it up to you guys today, I ship one out today. The second and third stories of chapters are about my mother, my parents. Uh. Writing the story about my mother was hard for a lot of reasons, and when you read it you under stand why. And uh and the same with my father. And my father served in Korea with the ranger, got shot up a bunch of times, ended up having a traumatic brain injury,
which uh he suffered through most of his life. So us these chapters were kind of hard.
Uh.
The rest of it, the rest of it kind of just flowed, just just came out.
Did you find you had to you're writing up me and you're like, I can't put that on too.
Yeah, there were a couple of things, a couple of things that I decided probably wouldn't be, wouldn't make let's look a little unprofessional. Let's just put it that one.
Uh yeah, professional unprofessionals around.
Yeah, the record conversations.
Yeah, and there's you know, yeah exactly so. Yeah, but for the most part it's it's they're not they're fictional stories, but they're definitely based on things that happened. And Uh, I tried to I wrote it in the style that one there was just a bunch of were sitting around the table telling the story. That's how I tried to
write it. And two, I tried to show the dedication and and the and just to sheer dedication and great guys and gals I worked with, you know, of the course of my career, and you know what they went through, not only on the job, off the job too.
Wow.
I talked about one of our first female firefighters in the book. She's called Natty or trace her outstanding woman.
Uh.
She came on abroad in the classic sense. My grandmother was abroad. My father my mother was abroad, and so was Natty. I mean when she came on, she understood she was entering a male dominated profession and she needed to do it twice as good as everybody else, right, And she didn't bitch about it. She took it on as a personal challenge and she did it. And she ended up being one of our top level driver operators and ended up retiring as the first first female pattaning chief.
Wow.
The thing she went through early in her career, not just not from the paid, not from the guy she worked with, but from the wives.
Yes, we had a lowiss.
Nobody shouldn't have to take that abuse.
She said that she went through more ship with the wives that she actually went through with the guys in the fire.
I remember that. Yeah.
And she retired for twenty eight years outstanding outstanding individual, outstanding fire officer, uh, just all around great firefighter and and she earned it. She wouldn't give it to her. She earned every bit of it. She could hold her own with everybody. And I talk about her in the book. She's one of those people that was always doing something nice for somebody. I mean, if you had a you worked at Station thirteen when she was there. Didn't matter
what shift you're on, it was your birth birthday. There was a Christmas a birthday card in your locker from Naddy. Made Christmas tree ornaments for everybody. For all three shifts, kids had birthdays. She'd buy gifts and cards, was always baking something forth all three ships. She was just that type of person. Just couldn't find a better individual. And like I said, she earned it. She earned there.
So when people that you work with read the book, what was their reaction?
Honestly, I've not gotten one negative reaction.
Wow, that's good.
Not one of all the people. Most of them are like, wow, you know, you pretty much nailed it. There might be some negative reactions they have shared them with me, but they talked pretty much loved it.
Bill wrote that son of a bitch, you know, and most.
Of the guys and gals I was close to that I talk about in here. You know, I put in a favorable light and rightfully so. Some of the chief officers that worked with maybe not so much. But and yeah, I remember we were a very very young fire department. I was with Prince Wayne County two years when I got promoted lieutenant. Wow, man, you know, we people were making it up as you went along, you know. I was, like I said, I was a medic on a Friday
and a truck lieutenant on a Monday. And you learn quick, you really really quick. And I was a paid guy at Marine Corps based Counico for three years probably to come into the county, you know, and I had a lot of voluntary experience. But I was there two years when I got promoted lieutenant just because we were a young department and and people got promoted rapping. That was
an advantage of being on a young department. Also at the disadvantage because she got put in a hot seat pretty quick with our a whole lot of experience, and you couldn't handle it. It showed pretty quickly.
Were there any guys senior to you that that they kind of jumped to the lieutenant and got you instead.
Of when I when I went through. I talked about it that in the novel too. When I took my lieutenants exam, there were forty five people who took the exam. There were four openings for lieutenant and I came down number four. So the chief went right down the list. Yeah, I came down number six. Back then it was just a written exam. I'm a question. We're an exam and an oral interview by a civilian board, like four or five civilians that you interviewed with, and they raided you.
And it came down number six on a written and after the oral interview board, I moved up the number four chief went right down, went to three four.
I had a question about Quantico. Did you say that there were four companies?
There was four fire stations at Marine Corps based Quantico. There was the main station, there's the air station that also was near the crash crew where Joel worked. Then we had a fire station out of Camp Barrett, and we had a camp a fire station at Midway Island, which was the kind of stafford his Marine Corps housing area. And then in the summer months when they were running ocs and all these other schools, we had a fifth station that Camp Pupture, but that was just like journey
for three months out of the year. So yeah, and we and we ran mutual aid with the They ran mutual aid with the county. So I got that. When I was a firefighter chronicle, I got to respond with Prince William uh two o'clock in the morning. I was out there with the volunteers and firefight uh Roo Base and that was a good time. And I probably would stay there if they'd had the MS program stayed there.
So do you go back and visit the firehouse at all?
I did the first time about six months ago. I went to Station three and I walked in there and.
You didn't recognize anybody.
I walked in there. The volunteer chief just happened at the time, just happened to be pulling in and he let me in. None of the career guys were anywhere on the apparatus. They apparently up there. And I walked in there and I looked at the apparatus. It didn't feel like home anymore. Yeah, just didn't feel like home.
Son me, I'm out three is now.
You know, March, guys that you work with, there are.
A lot of guys gone, man, A lot of a lot of my guys got promoted, a couple of retired. But there's there's not too many faces left, I believe in three years recently.
I think I went back two weeks ago, three weeks ago the squad and there was maybe two guys that work with two two companies two guys.
That's crazy. It's such a big turnover on these jobs.
You yeah. I mean when I was with the Can we you know, we had a little bit of a turnover, but not like you say now. I mean there are actually departments approaching players. I mean it's it's you know, they're going for the paycheck, and which is all well and good, but you know, sometimes it's more than just a paycheck.
You know, yeah, sort of fire department.
I want Bill Neeman, you want Bill the fire guy.
I'm not sure if you guys are familiar with our geographic area, but there's Prince William, Then there's Fairfax County, and I'm sure you heard about Fairfax and uh City of Alexander, Arlington County, but Fairfax County we always called Fairfax County l A L A county each because they were always you know, the more progressive guys, I guess, and and and they paid well, and they were at the time they were on shift work. We were on
day work. So we lost a lot of guys to Fairfax and and to you know, PC and some of the other departments. The most part, we didn't have a huge turnover, not like their experience now.
M Mike, maybe you want to run the show, because that was my next question.
We appreciated Bill. I'm gonna ask you, and I ask every retired guy. Do you have the same dream that most retired guys have that you get a run and you can't find your gear?
Now, what wakes me up?
In this case? Sorry, she's got a boat, helicopter, the coffee.
PI seriously dreams of not being able to find the coffee pop.
That's the first.
I haven't. I haven't had that dream. I swear I had.
Some pretty crazy dreams, and they seem really that that's not one of them.
Not fine, I'm not exaggerating.
If I have that dream twice a week, same dream comes in and I cannot find my gear or somebody somebody hit my gear because I left it on the rig. You know how you have to h on the rig? They would Yeah, same thing. One of those two dreams.
You manifested because you talk about it so much, that's what.
Yeah, that's definitely connection when it comes.
Next, absolutely doubt.
What about you. Joel can ask you, do you have that dream?
Ask him what does it saying?
Ask him? Damn, I do I look in a New York accident from JB.
John Bethel, Oh yeah, John John, and I and our Chief fire Marshal John O'Neill at that time when I got especially back then, when I got a little tired, my Brooklyn accent and it would make itself known on occasion, and we we arrested.
This guy for this huge pile of illegal fireworks and he was given me some bullshit story and I said, do I have stupid written across my forehead but New York accent? And O'Neil just fell on the floor laughing. He was just, you can't accent.
It usually comes out when you really get pissed or something.
My my, yeah, my Brooklyn. I talked about that in the novel There's two times, only two times on the job where by Brooklyn dna get the best of me. I talked about that.
Guy the Motorole of shampoo because he wasn't listening.
Was it.
You know what the Motorola shampoo is?
Right?
I do?
I do?
When I talked to guys I worked with when I about growing up in Brooklyn, it was like, yeah, if you didn't get in a fistfight once a day, you weren't trying hard enough, you know, it was just life, you know, And that's how I grew up. You know, it was the survival of the finish when you were a kid, you were in I was, I was sixteen if we lived on Manhattan until I was sixteen, and the uh owner of the building sold the building and
they jacked the rent up. So my parents moved to Grove Street for a year, and then after Grocer.
Grove.
Huh, Grove and Grove.
I don't remember the cross streets now. It was two three blocks from where I lived. It was a Harmon and Him Rod, which was the Harmon.
And Rock where one twenty four truck is him run?
Yeah, okay, yeah, the groves over here him the truck one twenty four is up here and Menahan Streets. That's right. Yeah, So you still I mean, I know all this because I looked at up on Google Maps.
I just trying to keep memory to what do not have described to my daughter.
I grew up in a four room apartment, not a four bedroom, a four room apartment that shared with my parents and three other siblings. And I was trying to describe this apartment and my daughters where I was at. She said, why don't you just look it up on Google. Okay, so I did you know? That's how what I say to him, expect.
Did you live?
Do you live near Ralph Crampton and Chauncy Street.
I lived there pretty close. He was there Knickerbocker and what else. There's something that was uh with the old ship or factory or a processing thing. Back then you could buy live chickens. So there's a big chipping place where my mother went up and bought the chippen's lives and I killed him. She brought him home since I was, like I said, I was a block away from Saint Brigi. Uh which church when.
Brooklyn was the world? Do you guys have that book?
Yeah? I lived there predominantly ah Italian neighborhood.
You know.
My mother was Italian, my father was German English German.
Uh.
It was pretty much an Italian neighborhood. You had sixty mothers and then just had one mother. You couldn't screw up, you know, because he smacked before your mother.
Woul was your mother's maiden name. Something.
Tomarco me, Oh, I have an uncle. Let me tell you about my uncle, tom.
Hey Tony.
Speculating. I'm speculating umber Tony was a milkman for thirty years.
Wow.
He had a household, beautiful Householong house in the park, Caddies boat.
It was a milk man.
I wanted to be making day Uh. He had some other part time activities supplemented, I learned later. So yeah, for a while there, I definitely wanted to be a milkman because he was.
Saying to my grandfather, I never worked right, and my mother says, a truck driving truck. We should he be driving a truck for Meanwhile, if you if you see him in a barber, he pull out a wand like this he go, you mother, give you my don't tell you how I gave you the money.
Here.
My grandfather, my mother's my mother's father worked for a departments sanitation for and some but back in the day that was they didn't have you know, you had to take the freaking you know, trash can and climb up the side of the truck and throw it in. And he was like a freaking ball.
Back in the day.
I had to pick up the trash can.
I mean, yeah, yeah, move it.
Had to pick it up.
And occasionally when somebody in the neighborhood didn't pay there alone on time, pay.
Him a visit, taking code the judge find his check book?
I was I loved.
When you're growing up, judge find his checkbook?
Were you.
Sorry? I tried to get that in a suit of ten pages later?
Yeah, it was. Uh, it's a good time growing up there with Grover Cleveland for three years. Had got a good education. I had one of those teachers. You get that one teacher that you have in your life that makes a difference. And Bill Carney was his name, and he was a grom Cleveland science teacher, and just he was one of those guys that was like, you know, you can do whatever you want to do, just gotta
learn they focused. Uh yeah, So hopefully somebody everybody has that one teacher during the course of their life.
Told my teachers who threw me down the hallway like a freaking bowling bull.
I'm sure you didn't deserve it at all.
I walked through the wrong door, That's what I did. I walked through the wrong door.
The nuns and the brothers were they were. They had some issues.
Yeah, I don't know what whatever.
What do you got anything else to add to the book now?
I just uh, like I said, it was just a bucket list thing. Then some stories I thought needed to be told.
You know, next week he's gonna climb Mount Everest. You know I already did.
That, bro.
So yeah, a little seventy and slowing down just a tad.
Uh, you know, only runs like one marathon.
Yeah, I actually managed to do it five k with my daughter. During Thanksgiving, we did a turkey try. I didn't run. If I managed to walk all of it without killing myself, all right.
You're out there. That might just keep yourself busy.
You know that's the key, stay and focused and you know, staying busy and uh, you know all that physical fitness training when we went through when I was a young kid. I'd still say that's what's paying off now. And so grill hot, just have my daughter. My wife and I would be married forty nine years next month. Grau high school sweetheart. She was cool, literally the first one of the first people. She was the first person I met when I moved down here. I talk about it in
my novel, but make a long story short. Uh, that summer before I came down here, I worked up Upstate New York with George at the restaurant, and so my good friends stand since past the Hotchkins. Uh. So we worked up there all summer. My parents had moved down to Virginia, always upstate, like George, working that summer, and
so I came home. I was sitting on the front porch of our new house with my mother and this young girl kind of walking up the block delivering newspapers and with her brother's paper route but he couldn't make the literalities that day to go for her. And she had long, skinny legs, a tan, great tan because she was like a pool, a long hair, glasses and for whatever reason, I've always been attracted to women wear glasses.
And she walked up the street and she was slinging the papers up on the porch, and I turned to my mother and I said, Mom, that's the girl I'm gonna marry.
Oh.
My mother said, that's nice, son, But don't you think you should meet her first?
But we didn't say hello. I don't know what do you mean?
Forty nine years Alice? There was first night and still is I guess.
Saying that he doesn't know it, but he's running one next year too.
Who's that water?
Oh?
Yeah, she's got I think she's got a ten k coming up here.
He doesn't know, but he's running one awesome stuff. I don't think we've met a more.
Well rounded individual than we have with Bill Neeman, Bill Ny the fly Guy.
Yeah, I get bored quickly, so I tend to move.
Bro Bill need the man listen.
Just don't start any podcasts, all right? How about that especially.
One that maybe you get this idea like it's the Flyhouse gets the Table.
I don't know, but you guys keep I'll tell you. I guys keep having me on and we'll start my own.
All right, you're on next week. We gotta thank joel Kski for sending uh our way. And I hope you saw you sell a good amount of copies yet or what?
I have no idea. Somebody they asked me how MA sold. I don't know. I'm not worried about it. Like I said I wrote it, I selling one copy or a million.
John will be counting every cent.
Yeah, yeah, but whatever, whenever I get out of it and get out of it. You know, my wife and I are wife worked for Veda for forty three years, and yeah, I got county of my job. We're doing we're doing okay, so whatever else we get on the cakes.
The joy of writing, the joy of writing right, basically.
Thank god, your daughter looks like your wife at this point.
Oh God, yes, my wife's We gotta play with rushall.
All right, here we go.
The First Responders Center for Excellence is a not for profit organization dedicated to protecting their lives and livelihoods of first responders. Their education and research initiatives aim to bring greater awareness and understanding the challenges to the health, safety, and well being of firefighters, EMS personnel, and other first responders too. They are an affiliate of the Nash No Falling Firefighter Foundation.
Excellent.
Oh, he's the magician too.
Over here.
Tonight, I gotta give it to my boy, Kenny d He popped this little seed in my head for the old school health safety.
So we were peer pressuring Kenny because he's not drinking. Tonight.
Bill was drinking to bourbon had. I said, what's not he don't drink? He says, well, I don't like to drink during the week. And I gotta say, you know what, I got respect for the guy, because it's very easy once you retire and go down that rabbit hole. So because a big part of you is definitely missing. A big part of your identity is definitely the fire service, so you might turn into other things. So it's part of my health and safety tip. I say to you
everything in moderation. That's what I told Kenny. So I want to tell I want to thank Kenny for popping that little idea into my head tonight. Not so school in safety. I appreciate sure, little sweet Sure, yeah that was great, short and sweet.
Yeah like me.
Well, I've never met you a person, so I don't know you could be. How tall are you?
Talld me.
I'm probably not tall than you.
Yes, yeah, a little bit.
You're five seventy now I am once.
I got my knee fixed and now it's straight up, so five to seven.
I'm going with.
I'm like five to five on a good day. Come on, I swear to God, listen, if I was tall, i'd be ordinary like everybody else, right right, all right.
Listen, I'm not gonna throw no shade on you. Rumble still skin, you're good man, right, all right?
God?
Actually, who we got a next dny guy next yeek, next.
Year, next Dave Russell.
Dave Russell. I've been trying to get this mother jump up.
And he's not answering my call. Finally we got him, Dave Russell. I think he's a seventeen truck guy, isn't he?
Joel?
Dave Russell? He was in forty one? He was?
I don't know, Actually I was looking at it. I didn't see any information on what he had, just.
Had his name. I'll get on, but Joel could tell us if he.
Was a seventeen Yeah, chimes in there or anything.
We'll wait a second, let me see if all right, he's not chiming in. Maybe maybe it's a different time zone over there is any where? Does he lived now?
Bill? No, he was on an island somewhere.
Oh that's right. No, Russell Bear, Harry Beast, hairy beast.
But then he work in seventeen? Joel was what I'm asking? What I'm accident?
Joel waiting on you?
Joel canasty, Joel Carnasty.
But are what is Bill not answering the question?
What is Russell be he wrestled?
No, there you go, thank you, Joel. John still waiting for the Rescue one show with you. He's supposed to give me two or three Rescue one guys.
But I'll wait.
No problem, anyway, how to thank Bill nine the fire guy for coming on. I hope he sells eight million copies. I'm gonna get one myself. I'm gonna I'm gonna get allegedly, I'm gonna take a couple of sheffles out of my wallet and I'm gonna buy one.
Yeah, let's go go for your walds.
Yeah, I don't want to thank Kenny coming in again? Man on last minute notice. Kenny's filling It was a little anchor there. Good for you, bro, Thank you. Watch the Kitchen Table. It's a very funny show. Good interviews there you go. Oh boy, yeah, God, I hope you're on the mend.
I am you too. We're all doing great. Man, I actually feel good.
You do? You look good? When do you go back to work?
I've been working. I went back to work on Monday. I took a week off. Back to work still no, Well, it's funny you say that. Would they give you a little uh thing to take home because they tell you to keep them pulled up so they don't turn black and blue? Well, I just used my briefs and kept holding them up with this little thing they gave you. I was like, man, my balls like a jock. Oh yeah, the two josh app one little one and then they
gave you a normal sized one. They gave me a wonderful look like for an infant.
Was like, well, they probably looked at you and they said style. He needs the infant style, right, that's what he said. Yeah, I look at him infant size. We saw you.
You wait. Bill's like, what am I on?
Now?
What am I doing here? I don't know what I'm doing.
It was pretty it's pretty much listening to your story and all this stuff that you've done.
Appreciate you having me really really cool, really cool.
Thank you and uh besting luck to you guys and uh wishing that the best.
Yes, Bill, don't hang up. Yeah I have to beat yeah, because a lot of guys. Uh, when we go back, we'll be back in the pre show again, So don't x out.
Don't Jerry took a whiz. So you're good, right, Yeah?
Yeah, well said yeah. Once you turn fifty, it's like fifty minutes or fifty miles.
Now tell me about it about more times at night than you can shake us a thicket. All right, guys, So we'll see you next week. For Dave Russell, the hairy beast, as Joel says, he's coming on, and don't get the check out the membership in the link below, check out the cup of Joe and Fuego, and definitely check out Kenny Delaney on the kitchen table and gone Jah looks perfect tonight. I turned for coming on until next week. You know what I say, Stay low and.
Go alright, guys, have a good night. Remember we're rolling heavy and thanks Bill for joining me. I'm waiting. I was waiting for.
Remember it must be true if you heard it.
I have to catch you alright, guys, good night everyone, good night,
