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61. Leaving the Military, Overcoming Loss, and Building a Career in Safety - Chris Lopardi
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In Episode 61 of the FireDawg Podcast, Matt Wilson is joined by former Air Force firefighter Chris Lopardi for a conversation about service, loss, fatherhood, and transitioning out of the military.
Chris shares how losing his son, Mason, shaped his outlook on life and influenced his decision-making during and after his time in the Air Force. The episode also explores why transition planning should begin years in advance, what service members should focus on before separating, and how fire service experience can translate into successful civilian careers.
Chris now works in Environmental, Health, and Safety and offers insight into what that career field looks like after military service.
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Transcript
Sponsorship and Introduction
00:00:00
Speaker
This episode of Fire Dog Podcast is supported by Roll Call Coins, founded by a 24-year Air Force firefighter veteran. They understand that a coin represents more than just an event. It represents a story.
00:00:10
Speaker
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00:00:29
Speaker
This episode of the Fire Dog Podcast is supported by AOS, the one-stop shop for firefighting equipment compliance built for the Department of Defense. At AOS, they help military fire departments stay mission-ready with customized programs that bundle everything from SCBAs and compressors to hoses, ladders, PPE care, rescue gear, and more.
00:00:46
Speaker
Their teams work worldwide. So whether you're stateside or overseas, they've got you covered. For all your firefighting equipment compliance needs, visit aosservicesinc.com to learn more.
Chris Lepardi's Personal and Professional Journey
00:01:01
Speaker
This is the Fire Dog Podcast.
00:01:13
Speaker
Welcome, my name is Matt Wilson, and thank you for listening to episode 61 of the Fire Dog Podcast. In this episode, I'm joined with former Air Force firefighter Chris Lepardi, whose story goes well beyond the uniform. Many of you may remember Chris from our Coffee Break episode three in 2020, where he shared the story of losing his son Mason and the profound impact that loss had on his life. Today, Chris reflects on how that experience shaped his perspective and influenced his transition out of the Air Force.
00:01:38
Speaker
We also talk about preparing for life after the military, why transition planning needs to start earlier than most people think, what to focus on, and how military and fire service skills translate into meaningful civilian careers. Chris now works in environmental health and safety, and he shares what life looks like in his new role.
00:01:59
Speaker
It is my pleasure to welcome back to the Fire Dog Podcast for a second time, Chris LaParty.
00:02:05
Speaker
Welcome, Chris. Hey, how's it going? It's going well, brother. Good to have you on again. Another two-time guest for us. I appreciate it. I always love love the podcast. Been listening since the beginning and glad to be here and share what I know.
00:02:19
Speaker
Yeah, glad to have you on as well, brother. And to pick your brain a little bit, someone who just transitioned out, has some experience in the Air Force Fire Service, transitioned into what I believe would be a unique career field, right? Something a little different than the Fire Service, right?
00:02:35
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. I think um this wasn't my original career path. I'll tell you that right now. But I don't think a lot of people realize it's even out there. So I yeah think it's a good topic for today.
00:02:48
Speaker
Here's a question for you, maybe get a little ahead of myself. Was it something that was even on your radar? um So it didn't actually really come on my radar until about two years, two years out from when I was thinking about maybe retiring.
00:03:03
Speaker
And I happened to just go on LinkedIn and do a search and just thinking, you know, for the future and what did I want to do? And it popped up and That's where it all began. I started digging deeper. And, um you know, I was actually shocked that emergency planning and preparedness is a big part of it as well. And that's where i kind of got drawn into it.
00:03:30
Speaker
Yeah, it's interesting, man. um it's so It's a common theme, it seems, in the conversations that I have in some podcasts that you just don't know what opportunities lie in front of you. Right. And the best way is to the best way to prepare for a future beyond the military, future beyond the fire service, if that's something that you pursue, future.
00:03:47
Speaker
is to just do do those things that you like to do, have an aim towards something that you think you would enjoy, you know, get the certifications, get the education related to that field, and just kind of see what happens as as time moves forward, you know what i mean, and see what opportunities are presented in front of you.
Impact of Personal Tragedy on Career
00:04:05
Speaker
Definitely. Yeah, I think for me, it really began um after losing my son, Mason. um my My son, Mason, passed away in 2020. I was active duty at the time. And from there, I took humanitarian orders up to Dover and joined the fire department there. a Great team. They really took me in.
00:04:22
Speaker
And but we had Mason buried back home in Buffalo, New York, and I knew basically my fire career was over at that point. We wanted to go back home and be close to where he was buried. And I had to pivot because my dream, like a lot of people's dream when they're getting out is OK.
00:04:41
Speaker
I'll get out and I'll go find a federal job being a firefighter somewhere. We'll move wherever as a family. It didn't matter. But after losing him, had to pivot, had to be flexible, had to start thinking outside the box. Okay, I've been preparing my whole career to continue on, be a ah fire chief one day. That was the ultimate goal.
00:05:00
Speaker
And that's not that's not the dream anymore now. I mean, that that dream is over. So how can i still use all these skills and abilities that I've learned over the years being in the military And being part of an amazing fire dog world and take that to the next level. And that's where the EHS career field jumped out to me. So environmental health and safety, started doing some research and, you know, here I am today.
00:05:27
Speaker
part of an amazing company, part of an aerospace company. So I still feel like I'm delivering for the mission, still able to um help people in terms of getting necessary parts out to the field and, you know, and keeping people safe at the same time, just like I did when I was a fire dog, which is super important to me.
00:05:48
Speaker
Yeah, man, I look forward to getting into it and getting kind of diving into it how you transitioned it transitioned into that and how you prepared for it. And of course, highlighting your son, Mason. Yeah. Kind of what you do to honor him. You shared the story in Coffee Break episode number three.
00:06:02
Speaker
And we I went and looked back, I went and listened back and I'm like, man, this is only 12 minute episodes. So I look forward to giving you a little bit more opportunity to to talk about him and talk about everything that you've been through. So let's get into it, man. Let's first start and give you an opportunity to introduce yourself to the guest. Tell us who you are, how long you're in the Air Force, tour the bases so you were stationed at, whatever you'd like to share. Yeah, well, thanks again for having me on. My name is Chris Lopardi. I'm a retired senior master sergeant, fire dog for the majority of my career.
00:06:33
Speaker
Last two years, I did a stint with the IG office at Dover Air Force Base. My duty locations were Little Rock. I did an instructor stint over at Goodfellow. Went to Isleson, down to Eglin, back to Isleson, mountain home where my son passed away and then humanitarian over to Dover, and that's where I ended up retiring. Two tours to Iraq.
00:06:55
Speaker
won over to Oman and loved my career, loved my life in the military. And to be honest, if my son didn't pass, there's no way I would have retired. I would have stayed until 30. I loved it that much.
Role and Responsibilities in EHS
00:07:05
Speaker
So um that's a little bit about me. ah After I got out of the military, I went into this EHS world. company took ah a chance on me and I love it. It's it's been great.
00:07:17
Speaker
a Perfect career ah in terms of what I needed for myself and my family. And I'm really looking forward to kind of giving everyone a little idea of what the EHS world is, because it's not something that a lot of firefighters think about, but we have a lot of the skills necessary to be part of the EHS career.
00:07:36
Speaker
And if you're thinking that maybe I don't want to be on shift anymore or i need a ah different change of scenery, but you have all those skills, the EHS world is perfect for you. Yeah, we're talking about public safety, right? Firefighters are public servants.
00:07:51
Speaker
They provide for public safety and EHS, environmental health and safety is in the same category, just in a different way, right? Correct. Yeah. Same thing. A lot of similarities. A lot of things that I do on a daily basis deal with emergency preparedness, um electrical safety, confined space safety, hot work safety, just general safety in manufacturing plant.
00:08:17
Speaker
um But it's the same idea, right? Just like when we're going to the scene, we want to make sure everyone's safe doing what they're supposed to be doing. That's what I'm doing in the manufacturing world. and making sure people are following OSHA laws, helping them out with whatever they need, making sure they have the correct PPE tools and equipment to get the job done, those types tests. And...
00:08:37
Speaker
um You know, being fire dog is amazing career, but some of us can't do it forever, especially sometimes your body breaks down a little bit. You're not able to keep up with that physical part anymore.
00:08:50
Speaker
This is great, too. I mean, it's ah it's a good mix of getting out on the floor and interacting with employees on a regular basis and also getting all the desk work done that you need to get done. A lot of regulations and rules you have to follow and you have to document it all. You have a lot of reporting to federal agencies that you have to do.
00:09:09
Speaker
ties in perfectly as you're taking that next step. Yeah, it's a topic that maybe or a career path that maybe doesn't interest many of our firefighters. you know, we we like to get dirty.
00:09:22
Speaker
We like to pull hose. That's kind of the nature of the type A personality that attracts to a being a firefighter, right? So I can completely understand if this isn't in your lane, but just... Stick with us.
00:09:32
Speaker
Hear us out. There could be a time in your future where, ah like you said, you're maybe you're not physically, don't want to say capable, but you're not at your best physically. And there's something else that your talents can bring to the table. I like to think of it as getting.
00:09:49
Speaker
So when we respond as firefighters, we are it's it's. we're in a reactive posture, right? Something bad happened and somebody called us to fix their problem, right? Or to get them to the hospital or to put their fire out.
00:10:02
Speaker
In the environmental health health and safety world, you're you're moving way upstream to prevent things from happening altogether, right? So if you are concerned about public safety, you should be concerned about environmental health and safety or you should be of interest to you.
00:10:18
Speaker
It's something that You know, again, maybe not get people excited, but incredibly important. Yeah, I'll never say that people love ah the idea of making a career change from something so exciting as being a firefighter over to EHS.
00:10:35
Speaker
ah there There is a difference. There's no doubt about it. And I'd be lying if I didn't say there's parts of the fire department that I miss every single day. I wish I was still part of your guys' world every single day. But I can honestly say, too, you know, I'm in my mid-40s now.
00:10:50
Speaker
um As my career keeps progressing on, I see a path forward ah with this. And ah it's great to help somebody... and maybe not at such an emergency level, right? You're not helping someone in that chaos of the moment. You're helping someone um with a problem that they just can't solve. They can't think outside the box. And you you bring another skill set in terms of, hey, have we thought about it like this? Maybe we can try this route.
00:11:19
Speaker
And in doing so, you're keeping them safe. You're making sure they're going home every single day. And ah it's kind of You don't get the glory that you get as a firefighter, but you know you're doing the right thing and you know you're really keeping people safe at the end of the day.
00:11:34
Speaker
And they're going home to their families and loved ones because of the hard work that you're putting in. Yeah, I love that, man. I do. um Nobody wants to see catastrophic injury or trauma on the work site.
00:11:47
Speaker
You know, flipping a forklift, things falling off shelves, you know, those kind of things. Like, oh, man, I just, yeah, I love it. it's ah It's thankless work. It really is. and said You're not, it's not,
00:11:58
Speaker
it's not it's not a glory, glorious job and you're not necessarily labeled as a hero, but you're doing thankless work behind the scenes to make sure that people get home.
00:12:09
Speaker
Um, so I love that. Right. And you know, the EHS world is just like the fire department world. You're, you're jack of all trades, master of none. You, you dabble in a little bit of everything,
00:12:20
Speaker
Um, so on the team that I'm part of, my boss, she is very environmentally strong. She knows all the environmental rules and regulations.
00:12:31
Speaker
My coworker, she's really strong with electrical safety and um everything that's part of that. have another coworker who's really strong in construction safety. Obviously, I deal a lot with the emergency side, but also,
00:12:45
Speaker
You know, we have experience with confined space emergencies, so I deal with a lot of the confined space aspects here. But even though I don't specialize in, let's say, electrical safety or environmental, I dabble in all of them. And that's the best part, too, is I'm constantly learning. i have a great team that's constantly teaching me, and I'm teaching them what I know, too, about the emergency response side and emergency preparedness side.
00:13:06
Speaker
So it's a great way to broaden your horizons and learn a whole new language, per se, something that you've never had before. And you have the skill set for it. You know, when you're at the firehouse, right, there's programs everywhere, right? PPE program, respiratory program, all those different types of programs that are being managed. And you're managing them. And the same exact thing happens in the EHS side.
00:13:30
Speaker
You're going to be given a bunch of different programs to manage, make better, um, And being part of the military, you bring a whole nother way of thinking that the civilian side is not used to.
00:13:42
Speaker
And, you know, bringing those ideas up and just shooting for the stars has been awesome. You know, our team has really grown because all of us are able to work together, bringing our different ideas together. And, you know, it's just been a great experience. And being that you're able to...
00:14:03
Speaker
um manage all those programs now. When you get into the yeah EHS side, it's the exact same thing. It's not as hard as you would think it is. You know, a lot of people are a little... I was intimidated going into it, you know. That was my first time going into EHS oh when I got my job when I was getting out.
00:14:18
Speaker
And ah I didn't know what to expect, to be honest with you. I was... shooting from the hip, hoping that I wasn't going to get fired. and But you're able to take all those skills you have from every single day, and you'll you'll be successful with it if you use the skills you've learned.
Legacy of Mason and the Memorial Foundation
00:14:36
Speaker
Talk to me about what perspective a military member brings to an organization like this as compared to a civilian that you highlighted on in a bit. Yeah, I want to say... um
00:14:48
Speaker
You know, we were very used to like orderly rules, regulations and being on the civilian side, I'll say that it feels a lot more. I don't want to wishy washy, but almost like, um you know, we're we're used to the structure.
00:15:05
Speaker
And they're more flexible all the time with everything. And it was actually a really big adjustment for me, especially with um like order and discipline, I would say. will say that on the civilian side, I was not expecting it to be so...
00:15:22
Speaker
maybe free and wide open, whereas, you know, we have very specific rules we have to follow, and that was just an adjustment I had to make. Now that I've been out for a couple years, I can see it both ways. I see the the advantages of how things are run here, and also I see the advantages of when I was in the military and using that stripped order and discipline.
00:15:43
Speaker
um And ah I'm able to use my military skills in that sense of, Teaching people, right? Showing them the the path of, hey, if we try it this way and we're a little more strict and we have these rules and we write everything down and everybody's following it, everybody's on the same page, um everybody goes home safe at the end of the And it's worked out really well and our our team has really adjusted to it. And they've taken my ideas, which has been great too, right? I think that was and another thing too was...
00:16:15
Speaker
um Will people even want these ideas? Am I like shoving them down their throat because I'm used to the order and discipline? um But it's been great. my My team and the people I work with really hear are my ideas and they've implemented a lot of them, which I've gotten directly from the Air Force. So, you know, things I learned in ALS, NCO Academy, Senior NCO Academy, some of those basic leadership skills that are still used every single day in principle out here in the civilian side, which has been great.
00:16:43
Speaker
And obviously I'm really happy that I was able to um learn those skills. That's funny you bring that up. i'm I'm in an executive fire officer course at the National Fire Academy. And within this cohort that I'm that i'm in, ah you know, they're just the best of the best fire chiefs across the nation, you know.
00:17:02
Speaker
But there are some leadership issues that they experience where when they share them, I'm thinking, man, We're so fortunate in the military for the training that we get and the experiences that we get.
00:17:13
Speaker
I think it's attributed to like the high turnover rate. um You're constantly being fed kind of a new group of young people that you have to lead and kind of be father and uncle and aunt figures for.
00:17:26
Speaker
And so you get so much great experience with those, some soft skills and and some of those disciplinary leadership approaches.
00:17:38
Speaker
And we were talking about this before we recorded that we're so marketable, I think more maybe than we give ourselves credit for, for civilian work, for work outside of the Department of Defense, you know?
00:17:52
Speaker
Yeah, I would say one of the one of the craziest skills that I have and that a lot of fire dogs have that I didn't realize was such an important skill is just being able to have a conversation with people, like a general conversation or even in a hard situation, a counseling session of some sort, right?
00:18:10
Speaker
We do that, like you said, every single day. There's some sort of problem and or you're just trying to help somebody out and you're just trying to get general information from them and building that trust and rapport. Right. That's part of it that we have, um you know, crew chiefs, station captains, ah assistant chiefs, chiefs. Everybody's building that trust and rapport. Right.
00:18:32
Speaker
I was really shocked on the outside how. how few people do that and you just they just come to work, do their job and go home. It's really hard to influence change unless you build that trust.
00:18:45
Speaker
And it's really important to build that trust in terms of just getting to know the people you work with and using the skills in the military when you're in those lower levels of the counseling and the building the rapport and the trust pay huge dividends when you get on the outside.
00:19:03
Speaker
And highlighting that in your interview is super important. Letting, you know, the person know, hey, I have those skills. I'm able to talk to people. I'm able to get out from behind my desk.
00:19:14
Speaker
I'm not going to hide behind my desk the whole day. I'm going to get out there. I'm gonna get to know the people. going to get to know what they need. And then once that trust builds and the employees trust you,
00:19:26
Speaker
Golden. Because right then you ask them to do something and they trust you. They know you're doing the right thing and they just do it. There's no fighting. There's no arguing. There's no I don't want to do that because I don't feel like it. They're like, OK, yeah, sure. Whatever you need. Let's do it.
00:19:39
Speaker
It all comes down from those soft skills we get in the military. that's excellent, brother. Well, let's, I want to talk about Mason now. I want to give you an opportunity to highlight Mason. Again, you highlighted him in Coffee Break, episode three. We recorded that. I look back July, 2020. So man, yeah it has been almost, what, six years no now, if my math is right. Yeah. um And you shared that story, heart wrenching story.
00:20:03
Speaker
i want to give you and but I want to give you an opportunity to share it again if if you're comfortable and also talk to us about how you are honoring his legacy. And then I want to know, you mentioned, you kind of alluded to it early on in your introduction, but how that experience kind of shaped your future. Right. Yeah.
00:20:20
Speaker
Well, thanks again for having let me share his story. Yeah. It's crazy because Mason had only passed maybe a month and a half. I was scheduled to go on your show before Mason passed. So I didn't want to break the commitment. You were very kind and like, no, we don't have to do it.
00:20:38
Speaker
um But it was just important for me. I wanted to, you know, keep my commitment in that sense. So, but my son Mason was seven years old. We were stationed at Mount Home Air Force Base. Right at the beginning of COVID, he got sick with ah an illness called ADEM, A-D-E-M.
00:20:55
Speaker
And it's basically a neuro immune disease. He got it from having pneumonia. We he had pneumonia. We had no idea. Wasn't showing any signs or symptoms, really.
00:21:06
Speaker
um a little cough. And that was it. You wouldn't think it was anything but a little cold. He was still playing, still active. Everything was going great. One day. um My wife called me. He was getting a little worse.
00:21:19
Speaker
um So I took him to the ER. We found out he had pneumonia. To give him some antibiotics and we were on our way home. I was actually on shift that day. Someone was covering me. So after I got back from the yeah ER, I dropped him off at home, chip make sure everyone was good.
00:21:33
Speaker
And I was driving back to the the station and my wife called me back and she said it looked like he was having some sort of seizure. Called 911, went to the hospital.
00:21:45
Speaker
Basically, they could not figure it out. He ended up coming out of that first seizure and, you know, we got checked out by some neurologists and they legit just could not figure out what was wrong with him.
00:21:57
Speaker
So we went home. Next day, the exact same thing happens. Same thing. he it When I say seizure, don't think like he's like um pulsating or anything like that. He is just blank stare.
00:22:11
Speaker
Eyes are open, but not responding to anything, not moving, nothing like that. This time he gets life flighted over to Boise and gets put in the PQ. um From there, he basically never came out of it. they he had The condition is typically survivable with high dose steroids, um but by basically by the time they caught it,
00:22:34
Speaker
It was too late, and he ended up becoming brain dead three days later. So obviously the most difficult time in my life, my family's life. um He was my third of four boys, and um super hard.
00:22:48
Speaker
ah The grief that you go through, i cannot even explain it to people. ah you It's only something that I hope none of you ever have to deal with, and you'll only understand if you do deal with it.
00:22:59
Speaker
And um very intense. I went into a deep, deep depression. um I had people taking care of me the whole time. Chief Kruger, who's retired now, he was solid rock for me. He was my my chief at Mountain Home, took care of me.
00:23:17
Speaker
ended up getting orders to Dover Air Force Base on Humanitarian because it was about seven hours from where we had Mason buried. Closest base we could get to. Dover team was great. They took care of me.
00:23:28
Speaker
ah But really... I was in a depression, right? ah They threw me in as AC training. i did what I could, but I was pretty messed up. You know, I was i was very sad and very depressed, um crying all the time.
00:23:42
Speaker
I ended up applying for... Well, I ended up making senior. There's no senior billet there. So they asked me if I wanted to go over to the IG. And I thought it was a ah good idea. I didn't want to move again or anything like that. So once my humanitarian orders were up.
00:23:59
Speaker
So I did the... the the move over to the IG, IG team there is amazing. They took care of me. I learned so much being part of the IG and learning what compliance is and how to, um, write specific reports and all that. It was a great, great experience.
00:24:16
Speaker
Um, So ended up getting orders to Spang Dolom. Those ended up getting canceled and then was had some orders to New Mexico. Basically said, I didn't want that. um I think I'm done now. So put in the retirement orders, got it, and and headed out. So we had Mason buried in Buffalo, New York. We didn't want him. weren't going to leave him in Idaho because we didn't have any ties there.
00:24:43
Speaker
So we had him buried with some family members and um ended up retiring, coming back here to Buffalo. And, you know, we visit him all the time. And it's been hard. We really wanted to honor his legacy. We ended up starting the Miles for Mason Memorial Foundation. So that's a nonprofit that we've been working on for some years now. And the main goal of that nonprofit is to um train yeah ER doctors. So like I said, it was too late before they finally figured out what had happened to Mason. The damage was already done to his brain.
00:25:17
Speaker
um There really was no coming back to it. So um we really feel, and after talking to other neurologists, it's just a a disease that isn't talked about very often.
00:25:28
Speaker
And so in our nonprofit, we have some doctors that help us and we're writing courses for yeah er doctors, specifically doctors that might not see this ever. So rural doctors or suburban doctors that don't see these types of things all the time.
00:25:45
Speaker
And ah just like we go through classes all the time, doctors have to go through continuing education that they get credit for. And that's our goal as our nonprofit. We want to make sure these doctors are getting trained. on what ADEM is so other families don't have to go through this in the long run.
00:25:59
Speaker
And we've been making great strides and ah really having some success. And we really feel like the momentum in 2026 for us is going to pick up. And we're going to have hopefully two classes by the end of year. That's our goal.
00:26:13
Speaker
Man, how excellent is that? but I didn't realize that you were doing that. um Yeah, teaching doctors on how to identify this illness. Man, thank you for sharing that. I just, you know, I wanted to I feel like the more people that know about it, uh, you know, to, to be able to highlight the organization that you created, the nonprofit, but also just to honor, you know, honor his life. You know, I think, i feel like the more you share it, the the more that you honor him, you know? So thank you again for sharing that.
00:26:44
Speaker
Um, and you know, you mentioned that it it really did kind of change the trajectory of your career and got you back to Buffalo, New York. So, Um, which, and which, you know, kind of brings us to our, our topic on the career that you transitioned
Advice for Military Career Transition
00:26:57
Speaker
into. Right. Um, so let's talk about, let's get into that transition out of the military then.
00:27:03
Speaker
Um, you know, you mentioned a lot of things to me in our correspondence, you know, how to prepare, what things you should do, what people should focus on, how soon you should start preparing.
00:27:14
Speaker
Um, yeah Where do you want to start with that? Yeah, i think ah I think the first thing is people often think they can only go to like a federal career when they get out of the military. It seems like to be like a big goal with a lot of people, right? They only want to go federal.
00:27:30
Speaker
But you'd be surprised what's out there when you do some some searches out there of the need for emergency planners, emergency management. um or EHS. And so you shouldn't really limit yourself to just federal only.
00:27:43
Speaker
I think one of the biggest mistakes, I don't want to say even a mistake, but preparation is so important, right? I was definitely preparing, but I think I could have been even more prepared had I taken more time.
00:27:55
Speaker
And I'm talking like, you should start thinking two to three years out. Like, hey, what do I need? And you should lay a calendar out. And literally month to month, what do I need to get done this month?
00:28:06
Speaker
And it seems silly. Like three years out, I'm actually planning for this. But some of these things you need to do take a lot of time. i would definitely highlight and specifically in and the EHS world, right it's it's probably it's not impossible to get an EHS job without a degree.
00:28:21
Speaker
um by just having our certifications. But I'll definitely say if you have a degree, ah bachelor's or a master's degree in safety of some sort, and there's lots of different degrees, so you don't have to limit yourself to one or even an associate's degree. um You know, going to take time to do those degrees and knock them out. going look that much more marketable.
00:28:40
Speaker
I definitely think the one thing I could have done that would have helped me a lot more was using my Air Force cool certification. Man, if I would have did that, I would have been golden. I I really know that even though I had a master's degree in safety, um because once I decided, okay, this might be a to ah route I want to go, I got into it right away and I knocked all my classes out.
00:29:03
Speaker
But man, if I would used that Air Force school certification, It would have been easy. I would have instantly got hired. I know it for sure. So definitely look into that, right? Look into the different careers you want and use that Air Force Cool. What an amazing benefit. I promise you, you will not regret using that that tool. It is awesome.
00:29:26
Speaker
What specifically for your career path would Air Force Cool help with? So for my career path, there would have been the Associate Safety Professional, ASP, um or a Certified Safety Professional, CSP.
00:29:38
Speaker
ah It probably costs around $1,500 to take the test, and you know I should have used it. I could do it now, obviously. I'd pay out of pocket. But um it's just that another that I was really shocked on the LinkedIn side and the career side that Sometimes certifications are worth more than degrees. Like you having in that certification makes you look that much better. So definitely consider using that tool um to to make yourself more marketable.
00:30:09
Speaker
um Because really what it comes down to, right, is they're doing a quick review of your resume. They're not going to know you or learn you until you get into that interview. And if your resume isn't strong enough, They're not going to know how awesome you are unless they talk to you, right?
00:30:22
Speaker
And they're not going to talk to you unless that resume is strong enough. So building that strong resume is super important, especially with the degrees and the certifications. They they make a big deal. You mentioned starting to transition two to three years out.
00:30:36
Speaker
If I'm three years out, if I'm five years out, what are some of the things I should look towards or or plan for with that transition? What should I start doing? are You mentioned Air Force Cool. You mentioned degrees. Is that kind of what you were alluding to? Well, that I actually really think you should go to TAPS as early as possible.
00:30:55
Speaker
I mean, you can go to TAPS every year if you want, and it'll give you a ton of information on things to be ready for. It's crazy. When I went to TAPS, I had people that were getting out in a month or two, and they had no preparation. They weren't ready at all.
00:31:08
Speaker
um going to taps early is really important. It really sets some of those calendar things in place of what you need to be ready for. um Because it's it's really shocking ah how much more difficult it is on the outside. When you're in the military, you have an umbrella protecting you from everything.
00:31:28
Speaker
You got healthcare, you got your money coming in, you got everything you need. Once you're done, Those things are gone. Okay. You have to figure it out all on your own. You don't have a commander or a first sergeant or a supervisor to run to for help.
00:31:42
Speaker
You are all by yourself. And if you're not ready, you're already way behind the curve here. You're you're going to put yourself and your family at some risk. And is that risk really worth it when you could be planning right now? You can take those two, three years.
00:31:53
Speaker
Get everything you need. Go to TAPS. See what TAPS says. Another important important thing that you could do is talk to your commander and supervisor pretty early about skill bridge. Not everybody gets skill bridge, right? It's not a guarantee.
00:32:06
Speaker
You're best to know up front whether you're going to get it or not. um I did a skill bridge. Awesome. Loved it. It was great. I did four months with a company doing corporate yeah EHS items, help them with their first aid planning and emergency planning.
00:32:22
Speaker
It was great. Um, I'm glad I had that opportunity because it really set me up for success. I understood what the career was like outside. I understood what civilian life was like because it is so much different out here compared to being in the military. um But because it's not guaranteed for everyone, you got to make a plan, right? Because what if you're not going to get it? Okay, well, then I got to have another plan. I got to pivot. I got to be flexible. I got to make sure I know what I'm doing here. so Talk to me about how LinkedIn did or did not help you.
00:32:52
Speaker
Yeah, LinkedIn is great. And, you know, I learned a lot about LinkedIn from my skill bridge and from TAPS, actually. LinkedIn is a great way that you could start looking for jobs now.
00:33:06
Speaker
um You could start applying for jobs now while you're still in the military. You can get your resume ready, apply for a job, see if someone bites on it, you know, gives you a good idea. Hey, this resume is going work or no, it's not working at all.
00:33:17
Speaker
One of the most important things I actually learned from TAPS was, Start applying right away um and do interviews, even if you're not going to take the job. I know it sounds kind of shady, but that was what I was taught in TAPS.
00:33:29
Speaker
Do interviews now because you're going to start to see a repetitive a repetitive questions that come in every single interview. If the very first time you hear that question, you're going to be mumbling through the answer.
00:33:42
Speaker
But by the 10th time, you basically have the question memorized. They all basically ask a lot of the same questions. By the 10th time, you are ready to go. You can answer that question. ah You have it memorized. You know exactly how you want to answer it. You got specifics of how you were able to do it, how you did it while you were in the military.
00:34:00
Speaker
ah makes a big deal. And it really comes from LinkedIn. Like that LinkedIn, super important. All you people on there listening, they have a LinkedIn, get your military picture off of there.
00:34:12
Speaker
They hate that. I'm telling you right now. Okay. It's awesome while you're in, they don't want it when you're in the civilian side, but get a picture, use portraits for Patriots. It's a free nonprofit. That'll give you a free headshot and get a picture on there of you and civilian clothes.
00:34:28
Speaker
That's funny. ah i wonder I wonder what the perception is there. Yeah, you know, like I couldn't tell you, but I've actually talked to some HR people and they have actually told me yeah that they actually really like that. That's so funny. It's just one of those things that, you know, we have no clue. but That's the only official photo that I had. I could take a selfie, you know, right and throw it on there.
00:34:47
Speaker
Well, you know, actually, they do recommend that. Like, hey, you do they use use AI to your advantage now, right? You can make you make a picture of yourself looking professional and a shirt of some sort. Or have a family member take a picture for you.
00:35:01
Speaker
doesn't have to be professional. Now, if you want to go the professional route, like I said, Portraits for Patriots, awesome organization. I went and did that. I got a free headshot, suit and tie.
00:35:12
Speaker
And that was my LinkedIn picture, you know. Another thing I learned on LinkedIn, there's an... and An option on there where you can get recommendations from people, right?
00:35:22
Speaker
So what I did is I added that. And then I called a bunch of chiefs, fire chiefs, deputy fire chiefs, assistant chiefs I knew and asked them, hey, would you mind going on my LinkedIn and giving me a recommendation?
00:35:34
Speaker
And I've had a bunch that did. And basically now I have recruiters reaching out to me all the time. Like, hey, do you want this job? Hey, we have this job in your area. Are you interested in doing an interview for this job?
00:35:46
Speaker
It all comes down from LinkedIn. That LinkedIn is super important because... Once you get in the civilian side, you get a job, you keep building on that, right? You keep adding your certifications. You keep getting more recommendations.
00:35:59
Speaker
You post every now and then. People see that you're active on there. Recruiters see that you're active on there, and they're going to start reaching out to you. It's like, hey, would you would you be considered would you consider doing this interview?
00:36:10
Speaker
A lot of times when you get out of the military, um that might not be your forever job, the first job you take. It might just be like a transition job. Hey, this is just a, I got to make sure I keep getting paid.
00:36:21
Speaker
Might not be your dream job, okay? um But LinkedIn is going to help you in that sense of now I can keep searching and now people can search for me and find me and I can find that dream job that I want in the long run.
00:36:35
Speaker
Man, those are some excellent LinkedIn tips, but I appreciate those personally. Yeah. um Yeah, i need some I need to do some work on mine. Another thing that I like to tell people when it comes to LinkedIn, and there's there's a lot of people that aren't on it, but for those that are, and if you're not on it and i don't know you you're not sure about what the future holds for you and you're not going to stick around on the federal government um as a fire service member or whatever, you need to get one. You really do. Just, again, how we said in the beginning of the episode, you just don't know what opportunities lie ahead of you, right? And you don't know what your limitations might be. Maybe there's a hiring freeze, you know, like the federal government is just a
00:37:13
Speaker
unpredictable ecosystem. um But one thing I like to tell people is go search for people that you admire or positions that you want to be in, right? If I want to be a civilian fire chief, let's just say Denver, Colorado, for example, like go and look at the Denver, Colorado fire chiefs LinkedIn profile. What does that person have on their profile? And then go and compare it to other fire chiefs across the the nation or other firefighters or other environmental health and safety professionals or financial planners, financial managers, if that's a career path that you're, uh, you want to go to entrepreneurs, see what they're putting on there.
00:37:47
Speaker
Uh, see what kind of credentials they have that you could use air force cool for, or that you need to go and pursue. That's something that I've done. Um, And, you know, what I learned as someone who aspires to be in public safety and really aspires to be a fire chief is that fire chiefs have executive fire officer. They have chief fire officer credential from SIPC and they most of them have a master's degree. Right. So if that's something that I want to do, I'm already kind of at a disadvantage in being a federal firefighter.
00:38:19
Speaker
If I wanted to cross over the threshold into civilian side, I have to have those big three things to even probably get my foot in the door and get that phone call for an interview like you'd mentioned. Right. So go and look at profiles of people that you want to, you want their job, you want a job like theirs and try to, try to, um, you know, do what they do as far as credentialing and, and, professional education and and all that goes.
00:38:42
Speaker
I'll take it one step further, message them on LinkedIn and say, hey, I'm aspiring to have a job like yours one day. Would you be willing to help me out? And you'd be shocked how many of them say, yes, what can I help you with?
00:38:56
Speaker
And they'll give you so much guidance and free mentorship. it's You're going to build a friendship and you're networking, right? So maybe one day there's a job in a suburb of that city.
00:39:08
Speaker
And they know you want to come to that city. And they're like, hey, I can hook you up here. let's So let's get you an interview at least, right? So take that LinkedIn account.
00:39:19
Speaker
And that goes for everything, right? I did that a lot. I didn't know what kind of yeah EHS job I wanted. And I reached out to a bunch of different people just to get their perspectives on the job. And they I just said, ah what is the good and what is the bad?
00:39:32
Speaker
And they were very honest with me. And it it was great. It was is very awesome um People want to help you on LinkedIn. I haven't found me personally. I'm not saying they're not out there. I'm gonna say me personally, though.
00:39:43
Speaker
Everyone I've asked for help on LinkedIn has helped me. And you can get that help too very easily. Man, another great piece of advice, man. You're really dropp dropping some knowledge today. Trying. I love it.
00:39:56
Speaker
I wanted to bring up interviews too, and this is just something that I've done in the past. And of course, I've only interviewed within the Air Force. You know, there's job opportunities that come up that are outside of the fire department. um And sometimes they'll hold interview processes. Sometimes they hold below the zone boards. Sometimes they hold boards for awards.
00:40:14
Speaker
it's a good practice to get into to prepare for interviews now while you're in the military, maybe for opportunities like that. But one thing I, I did, i haven't been in an interview in a long time, so this could not be as relevant anymore, but i think it just stays relevant all the time is make a cheat sheet.
00:40:30
Speaker
I made a two sided cheat sheet. And you had mentioned that you kind of get asked the same questions in interviews all the time. Well, there's a lot of this. There's a lot of themes, I think, with interviews and with questions like what are your weaknesses? What are your strengths? What's a problem that you never you did not solve a problem that you did solve something that you're proud of?
00:40:49
Speaker
They want to know who you are personally, not necessarily exclusively professionally in some cases. Right. What kind of person am I bringing into my organization? And just think through those things, write them down, practice an introduction statement.
00:41:02
Speaker
They're always going to ask, well, do you have anything for us at the end? Right. Write down what you have for them at the end. Well, thank you for the opportunity for this interview. um Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Write it out. You know, I would literally sometimes write it out. And maybe you don't hit every word that you've written out, but at least you've kind of went through it in your brain. You went through the mental exercise of preparing for that moment.
00:41:23
Speaker
And I would even bring it with me to an interview. And practice my body language while sitting in the chair. And, you know, you you want to bring something to write with, right? So you put it on the notebook that you have that you want to write on. And here's your cheat sheet. Let me just reference it real quick and answer this question. So just wanted to throw that out there while the opportunity kind of presented itself is think through the things and and don't be surprised when it comes to interviews.
00:41:47
Speaker
Yeah, I would say that's perfect. You should write it out. You should, ah you you know, when you go to taps and if you end up doing a skill bridge, a lot of skill bridge teach you to learn your elevator pitch, right? You got 20 seconds to tell somebody who you are.
00:42:00
Speaker
How are you going to do that? If you got to do it on the fly, it's a lot more difficult than if you write it out and you practice it a bunch of times in your head. Like you said, it's not going to be the exact every single time, but it's pretty darn close. And because of that,
00:42:11
Speaker
you're you're You're ready. You're more prepared in that sense. I also say, too, when you go to an interview, have some questions for them. lot of times they're going to say, well, do you have any questions for us? And I've only been in a couple of interviews since I've been out of the military.
00:42:24
Speaker
But I absolutely hate when they say, yeah, I got nothing. It almost feels like they don't care as much or they didn't read the job posting or they don't want to know. They just want the job. Right. If you really care. Right.
00:42:35
Speaker
read Read the job posting, right? Write a couple of questions down that they have to answer for you. And it's not going to be like, hey, what am I going to get paid? No, more like, hey, what's the atmosphere? Like, how how are the managers? How, for the EHS side, a question that I've been taught to ask is like, how does the plant work?
00:42:54
Speaker
ah deal with ah safety? Are they for it or do they fight it? Right. Because some places they're not all about safety. So be willing to ask those tough questions to the interviewer is really going to like when you actually um show that you care and show that you want to be part of that world.
00:43:12
Speaker
Yeah, another thing is is I want to make sure that this is ah the right position for me, right and that this is a good marriage. So you know on that, like let me ask questions as related to the culture and to, you know hey, are they going to fight me?
00:43:25
Speaker
Am I up against any hurdles? you know that I think that's excellent advice. Yeah, it definitely helps out. um Another thing I really wanted to make sure I hit on before...
Support from Nonprofits in Career Transition
00:43:35
Speaker
ah You know, i don't know how much time we have left, but utilizing nonprofits for your success as you're getting out. There is a ton of nonprofits out there that want to help transitioning veterans.
00:43:47
Speaker
I personally used American Corporate Partners, ACP, and I also used Hire Heroes USA. and hiring our heroes that was actually my skill bridge hiring our heroes um american corporate partners is going to set you up with a mentor a one-year mentorship uh somebody in a career very close similar career that you want to have that's a civilian already or they've never been in the military a lot of them have never been in the military and they're going to just guide you with uh some of those civilian questions that you're not sure hey what do i wear when i go to work um
00:44:22
Speaker
That's a very difficult question. Man, that's a tough one. That is a, yeah, if you've been, if you're an institutionalized guy as you and I were. Right. Wow. um You know, I'd mentioned, you know, being in the the executive fire officer course at National Fire Academy and and leading up to that is two weeks in residence, right? I'm like,
00:44:41
Speaker
what do I wear, man? yeah Do I wear jeans? like all the funny things Do I even have clothes? Like, I have a bunch of uniforms. That's the thing. Like, do I even have all the, you know, business attire I need to go to the outside, right?
00:44:53
Speaker
That stuff is expensive and... Sometimes you got to pace it out a little bit on when you're going to buy it. Hey, every paycheck, I'm going to buy a couple pieces of business attire so that when I get out, I'm ready to go. You know, I learned that in ACP. That was one of the things my mentor taught me like, hey, don't try and buy it all at once. You're going to spend a lot of money. Buy a little bit here and there.
00:45:12
Speaker
Start building up so that when you get out, you're ready to go. You know, it's a great program, ACP. um I do it now. I'm a mentor now. I've been i've mentored three people as they've been transitioning out.
00:45:24
Speaker
I see it from a different view because I've seen their side and now I've seen my side on the civilian side. So it's been great. But it's a great nonprofit that you could use. Hiring Heroes USA is great. They helped me write my first resume. I had no idea what to do.
00:45:37
Speaker
um I know there were EPRs when i I was in, what are they, EPBs now or something like that? EPBs now, yeah I'm sure it'll be something different in a few years. Yeah, so they took all my EPRs at the time and they wrote me a resume and it was great.
00:45:52
Speaker
I had no idea really how to go with it, and they took all of my skills and abilities and they reworded it into a civilian resume that really helped me out. um Couldn't talk highly enough of them as well. They also helped me with some mock interviews.
00:46:07
Speaker
So I did probably three or four mock interviews with hiring professionals just to get an idea of, hey, what? you know, again, going into an interview blind is very difficult. So having those mock interviews really helped me out to be ready for the real world interviews that were to coming.
00:46:26
Speaker
Yeah, man. Another yeah excellent line of advice there. a Wounded Warrior Project, I believe, does similar something similar where they'll they'll connect you with some resume building kind of institution or prepare you for transition outside of the service. I just...
00:46:41
Speaker
just I was just pitched the wound warrior but by wound a Wounded Warrior person yesterday, and so that's kind of fresh on my mind. um Yeah, cool. Yeah, to answer your question on how much time we got, man, not no pressure at all, as much time as you want.
00:46:55
Speaker
I'd like to dive a little bit deeper into what you are doing specifically. So maybe somebody is interested in this environmental health and safety career path, and you you touched a lot on the interview process, the resumes, building the resumes.
00:47:12
Speaker
First of all, remind remind us who you work for, what that experience is like, ah what the day-to-day might look like, and you alluded to it earlier, but how what we do now in the Air Force Fire Service kind of translates.
00:47:26
Speaker
Yeah, so I work for a company called Eaton. I work in the aerospace division here in Orchard Park, New York. Awesome company. Can't speak highly enough. Super amazing. And like I said, being in the aerospace side, we build a lot of different parts for aircraft and in the DoD and for NASA and then also some civilian aircraft parts as well. So Great experience and being on the EHS side, I didn't really know what to expect, but like I said, great manager who really set me up for success.
00:47:58
Speaker
Obviously the first thing I dove right into right away was emergency preparedness and really preparing for that. and it you kind of become an emergency planner, right? That was the first thing I really worked on. Okay, if a fire drill happens or or if a fire emergency happens, if we have an active shooter, um how are people going to respond? If we need to lock down ah different types of security things that we deal with on a limited level there in the fire service. But super easy to translate that over to the civilian side.
00:48:28
Speaker
And really just kind of writing those plans out And then doing drills, doing practices, right? We practice all the time, in the fire world for different types of emergencies. Well, we do the same thing in the civilian side. We got to practice with the plant, make sure people know how to do a fire drill, make sure they know what to do when it comes time to shelter in place, make sure they know how to respond to emergency communications when they're sent out.
00:48:50
Speaker
So that was my first kind of real bite at, on the EHS side, uh, from there helped by jumping in with the confined space side, right, helping write the plans, uh, Now, it's different. Right on the fire side, we're talking about rescues, right?
00:49:05
Speaker
Where on the civilian side, we're talking about, hey, what are we doing before we even go into the compliance space to do any kind of... Yeah, kind of getting upstream. Right, exactly. such A problem like I had mentioned earlier. Right.
00:49:17
Speaker
But the the best part is, is i kind of a it's it's the same kind of planning for an emergency, right? Before we go in, we're... making sure everybody's safe we have everything roped off we're checking the air we're we're doing all the same things on the emergency side as we do on the pre-planning side so it was really easy to to translate a lot of that um i run the first aid team here we do drills every single month we do classes every single month same like when we were doing in the fire station every single every single day right monthly training that's required
00:49:48
Speaker
ah Super important. We want to keep people active in those skills. you You don't use them, you lose them, right? You forget how to do it. And that's the important part. I want to say this upcoming week, we're doing a class on tourniquets and what to do with that. So same a lot of the same skills that I was using in the military, I'm able to use over on the EHS side.
00:50:08
Speaker
um hazardous material safety, hazmat safety. We have hazardous waste that we have to deal with a specific way. So that was newer for me, right, dealing with hazardous waste. But after going through the classes, some of the most of the materials I learned are ah same as hazmat tech, right? We're doing the exact same thing. It's just a different...
00:50:28
Speaker
um part in the process overall. Like we're not responding to the emergency, we're preparing it to be sent out properly and, you know, meeting all the rules and regulations that we're supposed to for the state and the federal government. So a lot of the skills are really transferable if you're able to be flexible and not just stick only on the emergency side and think that way. You have to be able to, you know, learn and and grow with those types of skills.
00:50:54
Speaker
Yeah, a lot of parallels with the fire inspection, fire prevention stuff too. Correct. Yes, definitely. I do a a monthly fire prevention walk through the plant. Hey, what am I looking for? What is there? um Checking for electrical safety. Is there daisy chaining? Is there something plugged in that shouldn't be plugged in?
00:51:11
Speaker
um And there's also a lot of like, hey, OK, something did happen. Now we actually have to respond. Right. I'll have to use them myself with my team. We'll go as a first aid team. We'll help somebody if they get hurt.
00:51:22
Speaker
We've got to do the incident reports. We've got to do the reporting. We've got to send it up. We've got to report recordables to OSHA if we have those, which obviously is our main goal to never have those. So and really just keeping people safe at the end of the day and showing them that we care just like you do on the fire ground.
00:51:40
Speaker
I don't know if you, if you're familiar with Darren Gould. Yep. He is a, yeah. Retired mass sergeant, Air Force Fire, senior mass sergeant select. I like to give him credit for that, yeah but he does something, um, similar for Georgia power. Right.
00:51:53
Speaker
I believe I should have him on and and talk about his experience too, but I, and I'm sure that there's others out there too. It's ah again, it's, uh, It's very translatable to to what we do. And I'd say that we're great fits for those opportunities. yeah are. Yeah. Like I said, like my long time goal when I was active was to stay in the fire service. But just like could happen any of you that are listening, things might change and that might not be the path that you're able to take.
00:52:20
Speaker
Set yourself up for success. Diversify yourself. Be ready to go with, hey, I want to be a fire chief one day, but if that doesn't work, maybe I could jump into this career field or, you know, another career field that was really easily jump into.
00:52:32
Speaker
More that i I've seen it is the HR side. Maybe that's something that you're interested as well. I've met a lot of ah supervisors and chiefs, deputy fire chiefs, ACs that go into the HR side because we're used to dealing with people every single day. And that's what HR is. You're dealing with people and their problems every single day and you're trying to help them with those problems. So just another career path to think about.
00:52:55
Speaker
Yeah, what great leadership experience we get in the military and then the fire service. Right. think the fire service breeds great leaders too. Right. We're kind of getting the double whammy. I just, I can't speak highly enough of the opportunity we have to be able to lead people and how translatable that is to life. Right.
00:53:13
Speaker
100%. Yes. Every single day. And, you know, we've had life experiences that people just cannot understand. they they They don't get the sacrifice, um the difficulty that's been put on the family.
00:53:27
Speaker
And being in the civilian side, it's it's it's awesome in the sense of just that new life, that new experience it and people seeing how happy we are and how how great it is. and um You know, people, when you tell them about your story in the military and what the military is like, sometimes you really go, actually don't have it so bad. It's not that' not as bad as I thought. So not that I had a bad career. I had an amazing career. I loved every, when I say every second, I loved every second of my career. But that doesn't mean there's not awesome parts of being on the civilian side as well.
00:54:05
Speaker
Yeah, it's challenging in the military, you know, altogether. I mean, moving and and uprooting your family. people It's it's just hard for people understand that. um It's funny. I keep bringing up BFO. But in this cohort, they're they're like, so so what do you do in the Air Force exactly? I'm like, guys, I'm i'm a firefighter. like I mean, like I, I know the stuff that, you know, you know, it's just, it's just fire department within the department. is It's kind of funny that the perception, I guess, of people that aren't exposed to the military, you know, and so to kind of go back to your LinkedIn and preparing for interviews and resumes and things like that.
00:54:39
Speaker
It's really important to, to remember that if if you do want to cross over from federal to something non-federal that people just don't
Cultural Adjustment Post-Military
00:54:49
Speaker
understand. And you can't expect them to, if they haven't been in the federal government, you know,
00:54:52
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, they really don't understand. And, um you know, it kind of brings me up to a topic I wanted to talk to. I think I wrote it on my list for you is um when you transition out of the military, it's really hard from going 100 miles per hour in the military to basically zero, nothing. Right.
00:55:10
Speaker
And i will say that I definitely struggle with it. I was... ah You're just so used to the structure and the life of it. When you leave it, it's it's really difficult. And so this isn't everyone, but for me it was.
00:55:23
Speaker
And I really found that um finding other organizations, military organizations per se, when you get out can be helpful, right? Like the American Legion, VFW, other military support groups.
00:55:35
Speaker
I didn't think I would miss the life as much as I did. I'll say now that I'm almost three years retired, um it's not as intense as in the beginning. But to be honest, the military was my identity. I joined at 17.
00:55:49
Speaker
um I left like a day after 18.
00:55:54
Speaker
It's all I knew up until my 40s, right? So leaving it, I felt a giant hole. Like, who am I now? If I'm not Senior Master Sergeant Lepardi of the United States Air Force, who the heck am I now?
00:56:06
Speaker
And I struggled with it it. My first year was very difficult. You know, you go from helping everyone to... Yeah, you're by yourself now. Good luck. Have fun. That's how it is. And those organizations can really be helpful.
00:56:19
Speaker
I would say for me, I've tried all of them. um I like my VFW here. It's really great. um But I've had more success actually with veterans in my company than connecting with them because I see that more often and we're able to share stories and our past and we have that kind of connection and we have that banter too, right? I'm always making fun of the the Marines. They're always saying I do nothing in the Air Force, those types of things, you know, um but it's fun. It's all in good fun and it's made the transition easier.
00:56:51
Speaker
Are you rocking that OIF hat and the Air Force retiree hat? I have the retiree hat. i have't i very I don't wear it very often, but every now and then I'll throw it down. But I don't have the OIF hat. Heck yeah. Man, I do. I see those guys and I think that. you know and when you're in When you're in it, when you know we're all institutionalized, but when you're in it, you don't I don't think we appreciate that feeling when you're not in it anymore. Right. Um, I, and I'm, I'm being in the twilight of my career. i' I'm already kind of thinking about that. Like, this is going to be tough. You know, yeah you are, you're the center of the world as an active duty military member.
00:57:28
Speaker
Um, everybody's kind of at your beck and call. You get the front of the line at the pharmacy and you get the discounts at the restaurants and, uh, you go to the front the line for any kind of medical need.
00:57:39
Speaker
And when it's over, man, I i imagine that, you know, that's, ah you're not as important anymore. We got to worry about those who are on the front lines of our nation, which is understandable, but and that has to be a big blow to the identity.
00:57:52
Speaker
It is. it it It's a huge blow. um It brought its own type of grief, if I'm honest with you. It's a grief that's probably not talked about very often. um And maybe it's just for people that have been in a long time.
00:58:07
Speaker
Maybe this doesn't hit those first term um enlisted people or anyone as hard as somebody that's been in 15, 20 years. But getting out like it it really was difficult in the sense of I had that grief I was dealing with with Mason and now on top of it I had to throw in the grief of hey my whole life just changed basically you know you you hear the stories your final out is like less than 10 minutes 22 years and you walk in and they sign a piece of paper and you basically walk out the door and you're a free person you can do whatever you want now and it
00:58:44
Speaker
It's super hard. It's way harder than I thought it would be. Release from prison. Yeah. Release from prison. That's a good way to put it. And, ah you know, it... A very nice prison. A very nice prison that gives you everything you want, need, amazing friends and all that. But, yeah, it's... um it's It's a blow to the ego. It's a blow to the identity. And you have to basically start to build your new life. So I guess that's a good thing to think like, hey, don't be shocked if that happens to you.
00:59:12
Speaker
But lean on those that, you know, have already gone through it. I'm sure you everyone that is maybe listening has some friends that have already gotten out of the military. And you can lean on them. You can talk to them. Like i said, I have a bunch of um retired chiefs that I leaned on during that time and talked to them and they helped guide me through it. And, you know, I feel fine now. i There's definitely things I do not miss about the military. It's been great being out and not having to worry about it as I watch it on the news and you guys all having to deal with it.
00:59:40
Speaker
Um, but there's, you know, the things that you're always going to miss, like the table talk, being at the the kitchen table at the station, the late night playing games with, with the team and the drills, the hard times. Um, it's not the same on the outside. It's just not, unfortunately. And, uh, you got to lean on your family on that case when you're on the outside and, and you're, you're true friends.
01:00:03
Speaker
Um, because I'll honestly say that, uh, And no job is better than being a firefighter of the Air Force. I will always say that till the day I die, that that was the best career I ever had. And i love it and I miss it.
01:00:18
Speaker
I'll always share that message. And the opportunity i get is to appreciate where you are right now. Right. I just was at a department just a few weeks ago. um And, you know, given the opportunity to share messages and to answer questions or whatever. And the one piece that I gave, i we talked a lot, but the one like most important thing that I'd like to...
01:00:38
Speaker
that I wanted to tell them was like, appreciate the, the place that you are right now and that the friendships that you have and the opportunity that you have to hop on the truck, because,
01:00:50
Speaker
it's going to be some of the best times of your life, or at least your professional career. Right. and And really have gratitude for where you are right now. um You know, it's hard to hear and to process, I think, probably when you're young, because I'm sure. you know Yeah. I mean, to be honest, I still remember the last time I jumped on Cheap 2 for an actual call where, you know, and had a blast. Like it was, I was doing my job. I was doing what I loved.
01:01:16
Speaker
And I'll never forget it. Awesome experience, just my whole career and even better people like the people make your career.
01:01:27
Speaker
It wasn't any one department, just everybody I've met throughout my career and how awesome everyone is and how um just amazing our career field is. We get to help people and we get to really live the dream. it's it Enjoy every second of it.
01:01:42
Speaker
it's way It's just amazing amazing life, and you're going to miss it more than you realize, I think. Well, Chris, that's, I think, a good way to end it, brother. I appreciate you taking the time to talk with me and and share your experiences in transition, to share Mason's story, and to share the career that you're in now and the experiences that you had to to see success in that.
Gratitude and Foundation Contact Information
01:02:05
Speaker
I'm really happy to see that you are seeing success and that you did take advantage of the opportunities that the military presented and you got squared away and got yourself a nice career in Western New York. So...
01:02:17
Speaker
I think that's a good way to end it, though. Do you got anything else for us? Yeah. Hey, I just want to thank everyone for listening. and Thank you for the opportunity. this is an amazing resource that people should be using regularly to stay connected to the the career. And if anybody ever needs anything, hit me up on LinkedIn.
01:02:33
Speaker
Always willing to help. And thank you again for the opportunity. My pleasure, brother. And one last thing, where can people find Miles for Mason? um And, you know, any other, you know, places they can maybe find you LinkedIn or email, whatever. Yeah. So milesformasonmemorial.com is the website. And we're also on all the normal social media. Just search Miles for Mason Memorial Foundation and we'll pop up and, you know, any help we can get, we'll make sure it goes to a good cause. So thank you for that.
01:03:07
Speaker
right, Chris, you have a good one, man. You too. Thank you. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Fire Dog Podcast. If you found value in today's conversation, please take a moment to rate and review the show on your podcast platform of choice. It's one of the best ways to help us reach more firefighters and leaders across the fire service.
01:03:21
Speaker
This episode was supported by Roll Call Coins, telling the stories of fire departments and teams through premium custom challenge coins. Learn more at rollcallcoins.com. It was also supported by AOS, helping fire departments stay mission ready with worldwide firefighting equipment compliance.
01:03:36
Speaker
Find out more at AOSServicesInc.com. You can find more episodes at firedog.us or wherever you listen to podcasts. And be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn at the Fire Dog Podcast. That is the Fire DAWG Podcast. Sharing this episode with friends, co-workers, or someone within your firehouse helps these conversations reach the people who would benefit most.
01:03:58
Speaker
This is Matt Wilson with guest Chris Lepardi. Until next time, stay safe.