John’s Creek FD A-Shift…Firemen’s Firemen

Willie and I hung out with firehouse #63 in John’s Creek on Wednesday night. They invited Willie and I was his date. Willie set it up and we headed out there after settling in to our hotel room.

You can read what Willie wrote about the visit here.

On our way out there we wanted to make sure we beat the traffic. It was not near as far as we thought it was and we go there pretty quick. So we did what we thought was right. We stopped by and bought them a cake.

We pulled up and half of the crew was outside waiting on us. It was like we were picking up their daughter for prom…

We got out of the truck and this is what I immediately thought…

Captain Mark Akins has a great station with some great guys and runs a pretty neat crew.

Lt. Eddie Lee has fun having fun. He likes to laugh and we would have a blast working together. This guy reminds me of me.

Sergeant Tom “Sloppy Joe” Johnson knows how to cook. He had the steaks going on the grill and was ready to feed us.

The entire crew: Captain Akins, Lt. Eddie Lee, FAO Phil Pirkle, FAO Kevin Castleberry, Sgt Tom Johnson, FF Jost Cater, FF Brandon Kingrey, and FF Grant Eckard 

What more could we ask for. Oh yeah…it was A-shift too. Willie didn’t know what to do. All this time he thought C-shift was the shift to be on. He has a new found respect for my shift…A-shift.

What Willie doesn’t realize is that if he moved to A-shift, his crew would have to cut the grass, take the trash out, empty the dishwasher, wash the trucks, wash out the bay, and do the station laundry…he thinks maids do it now.

We felt right at home. We could have grabbed our gear and put it on the rig and we would have fit right in. As a matter of fact, after discussing how the City of John’s Creek treats their employees we wish we could have put our gear on their trucks. I mean really…could it be a night and day difference? Apparently so.

These guys were great. All of them. We were shown half the station and then got to eat a great meal. Afterwards they wouldn’t let us clean up and they showed us the rest of the station.

Their station is immaculate. As a matter of fact, we were amazed when we thought the station was about 3 years old only to find out it was built in the early 1980’s.

I could talk about these guys for several more days. I probably will.

Willie and I made our exit. We didn’t want to stay around forever. You have to keep them wanting more. Until then, I will sit by my phone and await their Chief’s call that they are hiring. I’m young…I could start over, but I don’t think they could handle me.

Thanks for the dinner guys. Willie is still crying about not having a piece of that cake.