TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --
Waking up every other morning and getting ready for roll call by 6:55 a.m., before starting a 24-hour work day, is the life of a firefighter here at Tyndall.
They must prepare for what the day may bring, including unexpected emergency calls. The fire protection mission is to provide fire and emergency services that include flight line protection, hazardous material clean-up and any type of rescue.
But what most people do not understand, is what happens when they are not out helping others.
"It's pretty interesting how people view this job," said Staff Sgt. Jacob Butitta, 325th Civil Engineering Squadron fire protection crew chief. "A lot of people know what firefighters do, but they don't realize day-to-day operations include a lot of training. Basically, we come to work every morning and maintain our equipment and make sure everything is in proper order and working well."
After maintaining the equipment, the firefighters begin training. They train on aircraft fire rescues, structural fire training, emergency medical technician/first responder training and hazardous material training.
"When we have fire training, sometimes it is in a classroom setting and other days it is out on base in a random location," he added. "It's not uncommon to find the fire department at the dorm buildings advancing hose lines for practice."
The firefighters not only find themselves exercising at the dorms, but they also respond to calls that take them all over the instillation.
"I love what I do here at Tyndall," said Staff Sgt. Jerod Jones 325th CES flight civil engineering fire department. "It is one of the places where you can interact with the base and we have a good call volume. As far as getting out and staying busy, we have that a lot here. We are here to protect Tyndall and the local populace."
The most notable location for training is the Fire Department training area, where they have a live fire large-frame aircraft trainer and a three-story structural fire trainer. This is where all of the live fire training occurs which is done about six times a year.
On average, Butitta has helped with large fires at least once a year, but has responded to multiple small fires, aircraft fires and rescues.
"There are certain things that I will remember forever, certain smells and sites," he said. "But ultimately, it doesn't faze me. It might be different for everyone, and we are good at taking care of our fire service brothers and sisters that may need help dealing with difficult emotional situations. The experiences I cherish the most are those long nights spent awake, working hand-in-hand with great people that I've been fortunate enough to call my brothers and sisters."
There are things seen by firefighters that will undoubtedly follow them to the grave.
"As a human being you hate to see bad things happen to people, but as firefighters, when bad things happen, we want to be there and help." Butitta said. "I have yet to meet a firefighter that thought of themselves as a hero. Our job as department of defense firefighters is to defend those that defend America. We are just doing our jobs and it's something we don't think about, I come into work in the morning to train, gain experience, and continually work to be the best firefighter that I can."