Chiefy's Page

This is part II of my deployment to Gustav and then IKE. Please read part one....Hurricane Deployment elsewhere in these blogs.


While at the airfield, a Police officer approached me and asked how many ambulances and personnel I had. I told him I had 15 units with a total of 30 personnel. He said "Hmmm... I might just have to commandeer you boys."
" Really?" I asked. "And how does that work? We work for FEMA, a Federal Agency."
He said..." I have the authorization of the State of Texas and The… Continue

I have just returned from Texas hurricane duty for our friends at FEMA. I was part of a huge EMS presence in the Gulf region. I was in one of roughly 1000 ambulances based out of Kelly AFB in San Antonio Texas.
There were also 1100 tour buses and 300 taxis located nearby.

I originally went down for Gustav, taking some 30 hours to drive a convoy of 15 ambulances from Michigan to San Antonio. I spent 10 days in the heat, often eating MRE's ( which I later discovered that eating the laxative gum i… Continue

As you may or may not know, I hire firefighters in all 50 states to do side work swapping out TVs and other simple A / V equipment. I have been doing this for almost a year now and my question is.........where are all the West Coast firefighters? Are they too busy fighting forest fires? I know they can be busy but I have had very little response from California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Idaho. Heck anything West of the Mississippi has been barely there. Do we on this side of that river just h… Continue