Fire Academy Part II

Today while I was at work, I was asked how I liked the academy. I thought to myself how ironic to be asked this seeing that I started this blog post about the academy.  However, this post is not just about the academy, but the fire service in general.  I found it intriguing that as I explained a little about my experience, his comment to me was that he would forbid his girlfriend from ever becoming a firefighter, he wouldn't want her to be subjected to  all the verbal abuse.  My response to him was any woman can do what she wants. I try not to get too angry when it comes to explaining my feelings about women and their career choices to misled peers.  Yes, it is a dangerous job, I know what I signed up for.  But what I didn't sign up for is to be doubted, or disrespected.  

I digress....The first couple weeks of the academy were actually pretty exciting. We did many evolution's involving a lot of basic firefighting tactics and a lot of PT.  I felt pretty good about  keeping up with the guys.   I had quite a bit of training from my previous department, but I was glad the academy started everyone as beginners. Lord knows I needed the refreshers.  Then came the grading days......I'm pretty sure I stuck out like a sore thumb with my small stature buried in turnout gear.  I was blessed, however, to have one other woman in the academy with me.  She was a bit older and a lot more mature.  There was only a handful of these grading days throughout the whole academy, and as you can imagine were completely nerve wracking. So the first evolution test came along, low and behold the instructor picks me to go first. Now this evolution consisted of dressing a hydrant.  There were particular points you were suppose to hit on like parking the truck, chocking the wheels, pulling the line and the hydrant bag off the back and make sure that you stepped down the right way. How you put the couplings on, which one went first after the hydrant assist valve. So on and so forth.  I went through the evolution pretty nervous, with knots in my stomach and got it done.  At the end of my test the instructor walked over to me, real nonchalant and was like, meh, too many kinks in the hose, oh and he didn't like how I dressed the hydrant.  So he gigged me like 7 or 8 gigs, I get it, I didn't do it quite right. Not a big deal.  

The next evolution, I was also picked to go first, coincidence? I was hoping it was.  This evolution was more hands on and consisted of driving the truck, putting the truck in park, chocking the wheels, putting the truck in pump, getting a water source and flowing water.  So off I go, doing my thing and we are suppose to shut down the water supply to the hand lines when signaled to do so.  Everything went smoothly, even with the instructor watching me like a hawk with his obnoxious clipboard and pencil. Then the other instructor I thought signaled me to shut down the water, I'm not sure why I panicked, but I did and I shut down the main intake valve instead of the hand line valves. Whatever it was, apparently he wasn't signaling me to shut them down and I  screwed it up.  That one ended up with a dozen gigs and I wanted to crawl under a rock.....

I know these imaginary gigs were just used as a scare tactic, but they sure started to pile up.  I kept pushing the thought "its because I'm a female and they don't want to see me succeed" conspiracy out of my mind.  There is nothing I dislike more but that nagging feeling that its because I'm a girl that I am treated different, or to use that as an excuse.  The one thing I am is proud at times is that I am able to hold my own, or at least let me try, dammit. I pushed those negative thoughts aside, I still had 9 or 10 weeks to go.

One of the advantages of being one of the only women in the academy was the kick ass locker room we had.  While the guys lined up down the hallway to take their showers, I squeeze through the crowd of sweaty peers to enjoy a long relaxing shower everyday.  The boys would groan about their grueling hygienic routine and lament about how lucky we were.....that I have to say, was a wonderful perk I had.  I relished it.

Its been interesting trying to recollect all of these experiences since it's been almost 7 years.  A lot of other things have come and gone since then, including some of my memories, which in a way isn't a bad thing.  Probably filed some of the more painful experiences away for now.