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Station Life

Councilman Pearlman Attends Recruit Training Burn

Once you have completed all aspects of the Marietta Fire Department Recruit School, you will participate in a graduation ceremony. Your family will be proud as you will shake hands with the Chief and rub shoulders with Marietta's very-supportive government officials. It will feel like you are on top of the world.

At the end of the ceremony, you will receive your helmet and official shield (not black, but orange, to

show all on the fire ground that you are a newbie) and your shift assignment. After months of very hard work, you will feel as if you have arrived.

You report to duty your first day of shift work, and your sense of accomplishment wanes. Gone are the flashing camera bulbs of your adoring family, gone is the safety of the close-knit group of recruits on whom you have grown to rely.

You arrive early, because you know that your are considered late if you arrive later than an hour ahead of shift change. You don't know where to sit or stand, so you nervously wait outside the office of your new Assistant Chief. After what seems like an eternity, the Assistant Chief emerges to give you your first

order. "Check out your PPE and make sure you know every crevice of the engine." You will be expected to know where everything is regardless of the time of day or night. He states, "don't let me find you compartment-searching for a tool. You should know where everything is even if you are asked at 3:00 in the morning."

You muster up your most confident voice and say, "Yes, sir," and try not to look too conspicuous as you make your way through the already working crew to get to the engine.

"Get here when you can, Rook."
Reality sets in as you wonder what happened to the confidence you developed in the months prior to this day.

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The Reality Check

Many who strive to become a Firefighter know a family member or friend who is already in the fire service. These individuals may have an idea of what life is like to be a Firefighter. For those of you who are new to the fire service, when you feel your confidence fade, remember one thing: it is not about you.

It is about the citizens of Marietta and mission of Marietta's Fire Department to serve the citizens and those that pass through our city.

It is about striving for excellence as part of a team, because the team is only as strong as its weakest link.

It is a commitment to learning and practicing, and striving to be fit for duty for twenty or thirty years.

It is learning to take orders when you have grown up believing that no one can tell you what to do.

It is a lifetime of Haz Mat and Paramedic School and Driver Training and Confined Space and Extrication and Promotional Assessment Centers---complete with career-long studying and exams---really tough exams.

It is about being away from your family during holidays and weekends, and hearing your child cry on the phone because they miss you.

It is freezing in the winter and baking in the summer.

It is performing CPR on children, and fighting truck fires on the interstate with vehicles flying by at 70+ miles per hour.

It is dragging water laden hoselines and climbing into attics and using hand tools to pull apart structures that were meant to withstand destruction. All in unearthly high temperatures while fire blazes around you.

It is spiders and snakes under crawl spaces and snarling chained (and unchained) dogs.

It is seasoned firefighters saying, "Get here when you can, Rook," to see if you have what it takes.

If you can remember through all of these challenges that it is simply not about you, you just might earn the right to be called a Marietta Firefighter.

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