I have twenty-five years of fire fighting experience. Twenty-one of these years have been as a professional fire fighter / EMT with Fairfax County, Virginia. Three years were spent as a volunteer fire fighter with the Morningside Volunteer Fire Department Co. 27 in Prince George’s County, Maryland. My rank with Fairfax County is Apparatus Technician. This is the Driver/ Operator position on Truck Company Eleven. It is my job to get the twenty-six ton fire truck and personnel to the incident safely. I pride myself on my ability to drive the fire truck and have on occasion pushed it to its limits. The urgency of the call dictates the speed of the response. If you are trapped in a fire, I can talk the talk and walk the walk! If you don't believe it, just ask the other drivers in the battalion. They've all seen nothing but taillights a time or two...and that’s while responding into their first due!

The people in the fire department are some of the greatest people you could ever meet. They are very highly trained and the county is known all over the world. If you watch the news and keep up on world affairs, you have seen our people as VA. TASK FORCE 1 going to the rescue of people on the other side of the planet. We work with this team of men and women every day as fire fighters in the county. Being a career fire fighter has its ups and downs, or should I say highs and lows. I have seen the first breath of life delivering a baby on the side of southbound I-95 during a blizzard at three in the morning. On the other hand, I've tried to breathe life into a person who’s just taken his last. I am very grateful to be a fire fighter and race car builder/driver just like I dreamed about as a child.