Me, Her, the Boy and a Dog

Today’s entry into the Photojojo contest … theme = “waking up”

The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, plays Division I-AA (i.e. Football Championship Subdivision) football and last year, they made it to the quarterfinals of the national championship playoffs. I attended my first Tribe game last fall and while it was nothing like going to see the Virginia Tech Hokies in deafening Lane Stadium with more than 66,000 crazed fans, I was impressed with the “Tribe Pride” I saw from the W&M fans. Although, their choice of attire left much to be desired.

Panorama at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C.

Christmas 1983 - Brother and I get G.I. Joe phones.

I merely took the photo, people, so just chill out.

I came across my Class A uniform last night and it reminded me of 2005 when I became a firefighter. I had recently completed the academy and a few month later, I headed to Baltimore to train with some of the best firefighters in the country, including FDNY.

It was without question the most physically demanding day of my life. It made two-a-days feel like a beer on the back porch. It was also one of the best days of my life because despite 100+ degree temps, I never quit and was physically able to complete every task. I drank 22 bottles of Gatorade that day and never used the bathroom once.

This picture is of some of us fighting a car fire, which is much more difficult that you’d imagine. It was actually the easiest thing we did all day. The two hardest things we did were the blind maze and the fully involved live burn.

The blind maze puts you in a pitch black tunnel and you must find your way out, in full gear and air tanks (SCBA or Scott Packs), and you crawl the whole time. You have to climb up and over things and even out a window and down a ladder. At one point, you even have to take off your Scott Pack to get through a tight space and then put it back on once you’re through. All in a completely dark and cramped space.

The live burn, even though it was “controlled,” was the most frightening, but the adrenaline kicked in and you just did it. We did several rotations with different crews. The truck company is the first on the scene and are more concerned with assessing the situation and finding victims who may be trapped inside. Typcially, the truck company will use all of it’s O2 finding victims, at which point they come out, tell the next company where to locate the victims and the second crew goes in for the actual rescue while the engine and ladder companies start to put H20 on the house.

Now, that’s not to say that if the first truck company finds a victim in the first couple of minutes that they can’t rescue them then and there, but for the purposes of this exercise, we were operating with a full allotment of companies, so we followed protocol. In rural settings, this is not a luxury.

I had the honor (and I mean that honestly) of being on the second crew in, which meant I got to actually haul the victim down two flights of stairs and drag them out of the building. The smoke was so thick I couldn’t see two inches in front of my face. I grabbed the victim, who was a real person - an instructor, and dragged him, with my crew down the steps. But when we got to bottom, the other instructors had blocked our path with a piece of plywood that had about an 18-inch gap in it. The trick is, to put your back/air tank back into the gap, then lift your right (or left) arm up and behind you into the gap. Same with the other arm, and then wiggle your way through. It’s exhausting, especially after hauling a 200-pound guy in 60 pounds of gear down the stairs. And then, you have to get him through, too.

About this time, the O2 alarm starts going off. I only have about 5 minutes of air left. I hear my crew’s bells start chirping, too. We have about five minutes of air left, but that’s under normal breathing conditions. We are all sucking wind, so we really have about 2-3 minutes left.

We get the victim threw and then the rest of the guys make it. We haul the guy out the side door of the building and down a small flight of stairs. At this point, I can tell I’m out of O2 and rip off my mask and gulp the air in. My guys do the same.

That was the first of three rotations. We still had truck and engine company. Guys (and a few gals) you’d never run with suddenly became your best friend - your lifeline. When we left that day long training, we were far better firefighters than we were before we arrived. I would do that again in a heartbeat.

Yet another entry into Photojojo’s photo contest. Today’s theme: “This is where I live.”

GPOYW: The “My Photojojo Entry” edition. Today’s theme is “shopped.”

The theme for today’s Photojojo contest is “mid air,” and this is my entry.

Today’s entry into Photojojo’s daily photo contest. Today’s them: Staring at the Sun … or, is it Staring at the Son?