As I mentioned in my last post I am a veteran. I served in the US Navy from Jan 2000 to May 2005. If you join the Navy as in anyone who attends boot camp you will get introduced to fire fighting. It is taught in boot camp and is continually trained until the day you leave the service. Especially while on deployment.
Which makes a whole lot of sense considering when you are at sea and a fire breaks out you cant just call your local fire department to come take care of it for you.
I received most of my advanced training while stationed on board the USS John C Stennis CVN-74.
During underway periods you are constantly drilling for any scenario that may come up. We were deployed immediately after 9/11 in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and usually conducted a general quarters drill at least twice a week to maintain our readiness for an enemy attack. I was a Nuclear machinist mate in the service so like all my other fellow nukes we were assigned to the repair locker responsible for the ships Main Machinery Rooms and Reactor Machinery Rooms. Being as these spaces were restricted access except for us "nukes" we were trained extensively to combat casualties in the engineering spaces. Of course I never volunteered when I got to the ship to be placed on one of the 2 fire teams that manned our repair locker but my chief was sure to volunteer me. Drilling constantly during a 7 month deployment I worked my way up from being a hose man to nozzle and eventually became the team leader and on scene leader there after.
I learned quite a bit during those underway periods which has given me a good base heading into the civilian fire service. I missed that part of the Navy when I left "and a whole lot more". I thought about joining a department when I got out but never really settled anywhere in my crazy life long enough to put down roots until now. Now since I have got back into the fire service it has become one of my number one goals to make this my career. Tonight I continue on that track as I take my Fire fighter one exam. I have my skills assessment on Wednesday. Then I will have 1 of my 2 requirements complete to move into a paid position. I hope my streak of great test continues and then I can work on my next step EMT basic.
