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huggiesforholly · 3 years ago

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Second opinion.

"You may be at risk for early menopause." At age 37, menopause isn't exactly something that I thought I'd have to worry about just yet. I had (thankfully) just gone through a healthy pregnancy so menopause was the furthest thing from my mind. Count that as yet another fact about chemotherapy that I didn't know. I have since learned that some breast cancer chemo treatments can bring on 'medical menopause' which could be temporary or permanent. With medical menopause, the ovaries stop functioning and hormone levels fall over a period of weeks or months — not over a few years, as what usually happens with natural menopause. It wasn't until I went for a second opinion that this risk was brought to my attention.

A second opinion wasn't really something I was taking into consideration. Not at first anyways. I was happy with my medical team at the breast care center that I was going to and I thought they were doing a good, thorough job. They explained the what, how and why of all the tests and treatments that they would be doing in ways that were easily understood so I didn't feel the need to seek reassurance for my diagnosis. But then I spoke with one of my friends' moms who works in healthcare and she shared a story with me about a friend of hers that decided to get a second opinion after their cancer diagnosis and they learned that they were mis-diagnosed. It's not overly common but it can happen. When you are about to go through treatments and surgeries that could save your life you don't want to leave any doubt that they are your correct paths toward recovery. So the more I thought about it, the more I felt it was a good idea. There are hospitals in bigger cities that specialize in cancer research and have cutting edge treatment options so if I had an opportunity to get their feedback, why shouldn't I? Now the question was which one to go to? We are very fortunate to live a day trip away from three amazing cancer centers: Memorial Sloan Kettering in Manhattan, Roswell Park in Buffalo, and Dana-Farber in Boston. We contacted all three places and Dana-Farber was able to get us in the quickest. So shipping up to Boston it was!

I have been to plenty of medical facilities but I had never been to anywhere quite like Dana-Farber before. It was equal parts impressive and overwhelming. As soon as we walked into the lobby I was instantly taken aback. There were so many floors and doctors! Patients in wheelchairs waiting for rides, some of them looking pretty rough. My mind went into overdrive; panic mode. Will I look this sick a few months from now? But I feel okay right now. I don't feel sick. Is this what cancer treatments do to you? Obviously if it saves my life, I'll do whatever I need to do but to say I was a little freaked out would be an understatement. Once I composed myself and we met with a doctor, I felt a little better. Other than some minor tweaks with the chemotherapy and immunotherapy plan, this doctor agreed with my original assessment. However, the mention of early menopause caught me off guard.

During that initial consultation at my local breast cancer center, fertility was discussed briefly. Because I went through IVF treatments in order to have a baby, the doctor suggested if we wanted another child that we may want to go through another egg retrieval before chemotherapy. When I said that we already had frozen embryos and I didn't want to delay getting treatment for the cancer, the doctor moved onto the next topic. So I thought since we had the frozen embryos I didn't have anything else to worry about in terms of getting pregnant again (if we decided we wanted to) after going through cancer treatments. I was wrong. The doctor at Dana-Farber informed us about the possibility of early menopause caused by chemotherapy but said that there was a shot that I could get that could help preserve fertility called Lupron. I would have to contact my fertility clinic and have them write a script to send to my oncologist to administer. My previous insurance covered my fertility treatments but I no longer had that insurance and Eric's insurance doesn't cover that so we weren't sure if we would even be able to get this medication without having to spend a fortune out of pocket. Of course it was also time sensitive because my chemo port was scheduled to be put in that next week and then chemo would start shortly after. And as is the case with getting any prescription medicine, I would need to have a consultation with my fertility doctor first before I could get anything going. So much to do in so little time! Thankfully I was able to get a phone consult with that doctor quickly. It was then that I learned that this Lupron shot works best when it's administered at least a week or even two before chemotherapy starts. With the port scheduled to be put in later that week and chemo to follow early that next week, I didn't have time to get the Lupron shot figured out with prior authorization, who was going to administer the shot (fertility clinic or oncologist), and making sure it was in my system for the appropriate time before chemo started. I suddenly had more extremely difficult decisions to make. Nothing like adding more stress to an already stressful situation!

I had just had a baby a few months ago and before then it had been a struggle to even get pregnant. If we didn't have Hailey there would be an even harder decision that we would have to make that we thankfully didn't have to worry about. I can't imagine the stress that some women have to undergo when they're diagnosed with breast cancer and decide to go through an egg retrieval before getting chemotherapy or having surgery in order to preserve their fertility. That is a lot for both your mind and your body to handle. And financially, it is a huge investment that many cannot afford. After three egg retrievals, we are extremely fortunate to have a few embryos that were able to be frozen. I was/ am by no means set on having more children. I am beyond grateful that I was even able to have one and I realize so many people would give anything to have a baby that can't. I definitely don't want to come across as greedy or insensitive to those people by my own want to potentially try to have more. Yes I am content with having Hailey right now and I will never take her for granted but what if I decide a few years down the road that I really did want to have another baby? And I have those embryos waiting for us. I didn't want to regret not getting the Lupron shot even though it's still not completely a sure thing that will guarantee a successful pregnancy after cancer treatments. But also with an aggressive tumor just waiting to spread, was I willing to wait another week or two to start chemo in order to get a shot that may or may not help preserve my fertility for another baby that I may or may not try to have? There was a lot of soul searching on my part but ultimately I decided that if there was even the slightest possibility that I would want another child, I had to do anything I could to protect that and leave that opportunity available. Though if it was going to take weeks to figure out the logistics of the shot, I would proceed as planned with chemo and have the peace of mind that at least I tried. And that would have to be enough because I have to be selfish enough to not sacrifice my own life for a life that hasn't even been created yet.

After so much back and forth with the oncologist, the fertility clinic and insurance, we were FINALLY able to get the Lupron. It only required a co-pay and didn't need prior authorization. And I decided to only move my chemotherapy from a Monday to a Thursday so as to not delay it by too much. I got the shot of Lupron that Monday before chemo and hoped that being in my body for three days ahead of chemo would be better than nothing. How effective it will be remains to be seen but at least I ended up getting it. I will get the shot of it once a month for two more times and hope for the best. Despite all of the additional drama amd legwork, I am still glad we went to get that second opinion! You never know what you might learn from it.

#second opinion #danafarber #cancer diagnosis #breast cancer #lupron #fertility #ivf treatment #fertilitytreatment #trust your gut

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shawtygonemad · 4 years ago

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What Is This Feeling: Chapter 7

Fem!9th Doctor x Male!Rose Tyler

WITF Masterlist

Through time and space once more, our extraordinary duo was off to have another adventure. The TARDIS sped through the time vortex.

"Where are we going?" Ross asked.

"The planet Panera. They have fantastic bread," the Doctor grinned at her companion.

The TARDIS suddenly switched course and jolted in the opposite direction. The Doctor examined the screen and tried to figure out what was going on. The ship finally materialized. The Doctor and Ross stepped out. It was a dimly lit area with carpeting and display cases. It looked like a museum.

"So, what is it? What's wrong," Ross instantly began to ask.

"Don't know. Some kind of signal drawing the TARDIS off course," the Doctor spoke as she looked around.

"Where are we?"

"Earth. Utah, North America. About half a mile underground," the Time Lord deduced.

"And when are we?"

"2012," she informed her friend as she began to inspect a case.

"God, that's so close. So I should be 26."

The Doctor found the light switch and flipped it on. The room and cases suddenly lit up.

"Blimey. It's a great big museum."

"An alien museum," she looked at the exhibits as she walked forward. "Someone's got a hobby." She shook her head.

"They must have spent a fortune on this. Chunks of meteorites, moon dust. That's the milometer from Roswell spaceship." She furrowed her eyebrows, confused.

"That's a bit of Slitheen!" Ross pointed to a Slitheen arm in one of the glass cases. "That's a Slitheen's arm. It's been stuffed."

The Doctor stopped in front of one of the cases. "Oh, look at you."

Ross walked behind the Doctor and looked over her shoulder. "What is it?"

'Delete…' she heard an echo in her mind.

"An old friend of mine. Well, enemy. Stuff of nightmares reduced to an exhibit. I'm getting old." She internally groaned.

"Is that where the signal's coming from," Ross asked.

"No, it's stone dead. The signal's alive, calling out for help."

The Doctor reached out her fingers, and lightly brushed the glass. Alarms suddenly blared from all around. The pair slightly jumped at the sudden noise. The Time Lord mentally kicked herself. She should have been more careful. Before they could make it to the TARDIS they were cut off and surrounded by guards. The guards were armed and aiming at them.

"If someone's collecting aliens, that makes you exhibit A," Ross nervously joked.

The two of them were escorted by the armed guards up many levels, and throughout the complex. The journey was mostly silent. Ross stayed close by her side, however. Finally they were led into their destination. An office full of over confident Americans.

The man sitting at the desk seemed to be the one behind the complex. He was being showed their recent purchase. It was a musical instrument. They did not know it, and looked completely daft whilst holding it.

"You really wouldn't hold it like that," she almost laughed at how stupid he looked.

"Shut it," she was yelled at.

"Really though, it's wrong," she insisted.

"Is it dangerous?" A girl around Ross's age asked.

"No, it just looks silly," the Doctor smirked.

She reached for the item. Firing bolts clicked all around her. She stopped. The man behind the desk curiously looked at her, and handed over the curved palm sized object.

"You just need to be-"she stroked the instrument softly, and out rang a beautiful sound. "Delicate." To prove her point, she played several different notes.

"It's a musical instrument," the man said, fascinated.

"And it's a long way from home," the Doctor commented.

"Here, let me," the man took the instrument from her hands.

She raised her eyebrows. That was rude. The man proceeded to touch it harder, causing no noise to come out.

"I did say delicate. It reacts to the smallest fingerprint. It needs precision," she once again informed him.

Once he finally got the hang of it and produced music, she smiled.

"Very good. Quite the expert," she complimented.

"As are you," he said before tossing the object on the floor.

The Doctor's jaw dropped. That was almost two hundred years old! It was used to entertain kings and queens, and he just threw it away?! Who is this man?!

"Who are you, exactly?"

"I'm the Doctor. And you are?"

"Like you don't know. We're hidden away with the most valuable collection of extra-terrestrial artifacts in the world, and you just stumbled in by mistake?"

The Doctor laughed. "Pretty much sums me up, yeah."

The man slowly walked around his desk, and got closer to the Doctor.

"The question is, how did you get in? Fifty three floors down, with your cat burglar accomplice. You're quite an artifact yourself, being rather pretty."

"The cat burglar accomplice is going to smack you if you don't give the 'artifact' personal space," Ross shot off angrily. It shocked the Doctor a bit. It was the first time he was ever verbally protective of her.

"Oh, he's English too! Hey, little lady Fauntleroy. Got you a boyfriend."

"This is Mister Henry Van Statten," the girl introduced. She was the only English person, besides Ross, at the complex.

"Who is he at home?" Ross snidely remarked.

"Mister Van Statten owns the internet," she added.

"Don't be stupid. No one owns the internet," he jabbed again.

"And let's just keep letting the world think that, right kids," Van Statten remarked, smug.

"So you're just an expert in everything except the things in your museum. Anything you don't understand, you lock it up."

"And you claim greater knowledge?" Van Statten challenged.

"I don't need to make claims. I know how good I am," she shot back.

"And yet, I captured you. Right next to the cage. What were you doing down there?" He asked.

The Doctor placed her hands on her hips. "You tell me," she sassed.

"The cage contains my one living specimen."

"And what's that?"

"Like you don't know," Van Statten scoffed.

"Show me."

"You want to see it?" Van Statten once again challenged the Doctor.

"Blimey, do I need to separate you two?" Ross remarked, annoyed.

"Goddard, inform the cage we're heading down. You, English. Look after the boy. Go and canoodle or spoon or whatever it is you British do. And you, Doctor with no name, come and see my pet."

Van Statten stood in the elevator with a smirk on his face. The Doctor gave Ross a reassuring look before stepping on the lift next to the American. The ride down was quick and silent. Once they stepped out of the lift, the Doctor was led over toward a large metal door. Van Statten spoke as he unlocked and opened the large door.

"We've tried everything. The creature has shielded itself but there's a definite sign of life inside."

"Inside? Inside what?" The Doctor asked, curiously.

A man in an orange hazard suit walked over to Van Statten.

"Welcome back, Sir. I've had to take the power down. The Metaltron is resting."

"Metaltron?"

'What kind of dumb name is that?' She thought.

"I thought of it myself," Van Statten stated proudly.

'Of course.'

"Although I'd much to prefer to find out its real name."

"Here, you'd better put these on," the man in the hazard offered her rubber gloves. "The last guy that touched it burst into flames."

"I won't touch it then," she said like it was most obvious.

"Go on, Doctor. Impress me," Van Statten grinned at her.

The Doctor narrowed her eyes at him before strutting past, into the cage. It was very dark as she looked around. She jumped slightly as the door slammed shut behind her.

The Time Lord continued to investigate. She found a small table with drills, and other torture tools. Her heart instantly went out to the creature. She turned to where she assumed the 'Metaltron' was. She couldn't make it out. The room was too dark.

"Look, I'm sorry about this. Mister Van Statten might think he's clever, but never mind him. I've come to help. I'm the Doctor."

A few seconds of silence passed before a blue light was seen. When the Metaltron spoke, two white lights flashed with its words.

"Doc-tor?"

The Doctor's eyes widened, and her hearts stopped. No! This can't happen. It's-

"Impossible," she managed to breathe out.

"The Doc-tor?" The Metaltron spoke with more confidence this time.

The lights came up to reveal a Dalek. The Doctor's worst enemy. And it was chained to the floor. This didn't stop the Doctor from crying out in fear.

"Ex-ter-min-ate! Ex-ter-min-ate!"

The Time Lord flung herself onto the door and started to pound her fists.

"Let me out," she practically screamed.

"Ex-ter-min-ate!"

The door wouldn't open. The Doctor took a step back and just stared at the monstrosity. Her entire body was quivering. Her hearts were pounding hard into her chest.

"You are an en-e-my of the Da-leks! You must be des-troyed!"

The Doctor closed her eyes and awaited death. This was it. This was how she would finally die after nine hundred years. Maybe it was her time. Suddenly she accepted her fate. She never realized until now that she was ready to go.

After a few seconds without pain, she opened her eyes. She was alive! Yet a small part inside of her was disappointed. That part was overshadowed by the sickening joy she suddenly felt over her enemy.

"It's not working." She started to laugh like she's gone mad. "Fantastic! Oh, Fantastic! Powerless! Look at you. The great space dustbin. How does it feel?"

The Dalek tried to roll backwards, but was stopped by the chains.

"Keep back!" It demanded.

"What for?" She launched herself forward and became face to eyestock with the Dalek. "What're you going to do to me?" She challenged.

The Doctor, bottled with rage, began to circle the creature. Like a lion hunting its prey. She wanted to intimidate it.

"If you can't kill, then what are you good for, Dalek? What's the point of you? You're nothing!"

The Gallifreyan finally stopped back in front of the Dalek.

"What the hell are you here for?"

"I am a-wait-ing or-ders!" It responded to her.

"What does that mean?"

"I am a sold-ier. I was bred to rec-ieve or-ders."

"Well you're never going to get any. Your race is dead!" She yelled at it. "You all burnt, all of you. Ten million ships on fire. The entire race wiped out in one second."

"You lie!"

"I watched it happen. I made it happen," she spoke maliciously.

"You des-troyed us?" It asked, almost sounding heartbroken.

The alien stopped and calmed down a bit. She turned away from the Dalek in guilt. Their race wasn't the only one she destroyed that day.

"I had no choice," she responded quietly.

"And what of the Ti-me Lo-rds?"

"Dead." She managed to choke out. "They burned with you. The end of the last great Time War. Everyone lost."

"And the coward survived."

This fueled her rage once more. However, she managed to keep it under control.

"Oh, and I caught your little signal. Help me. Poor little thing. But there's no one else coming 'cause there's no one else left."

"I am a-lone in the un-i-verse," it almost sounded defeated.

"Yep."

"So are you. We are the same."

The Doctor spun around, no longer able to hold her anger.

"We're not the same! I'm not-"she paused as a cruel thought crossed her mind. "No, wait. Maybe we are. You're right. Yeah, okay. You've got a point. 'Cause I know what to do. I know what should happen. I know what you deserve." She grinned sickeningly.

"Exterminate."

With that the Doctor pulled a lever on a nearby console. The Dalek lit up with electricity. It began to scream, and she just watched.

"Have pity!" It cried out.

"Why should I? You never did." She pulled another lever, and increased the electricity.

"Help me!"

Suddenly the door opened and guards flooded in. She launched herself towards the last lever. No! This was her only chance to kill it! She was suddenly yanked away from the panel and was practically carried out of the cage.

"No! You've got to destroy it!" She yelled.

The Doctor ripped herself away from the guards once outside the cage. She frowned deeply as she waited for Van Statten to leave the cage. She was very cross with the American man. Once he left the cage they were guided towards the lift.

"The metal's just an armor. The real Dalek creature's inside," she explained to Van Statten.

"What's it look like?" he asked.

"A nightmare. It's a mutation. The Dalek race was genetically engineered. Every single emotion was removed except hate," she tried to explain to them. These stupid little apes weren't getting the big picture!

"Genetically engineered," he spoke as if it were Christmas. "By whom?"

"By a genius, Van Statten," she was starting to get stressed out. "By a man who was king of his own little world. You'd like him."

Van Statten's assistant Goddard decided to butt herself in.

"It's been on Earth for over fifty years. Sold at private auction, moving from one collection to another. Why would it be a threat now?" she asked.

"Because I'm here." How many times does she have to explain it? "How did it get to Earth? Does anyone know?"

"The records say it came from the sky like a meteorite. It fell on Earth on the Ascension Islands. Burnt in its crater for three days before anyone could get near it and all that time it was screaming. It must have gone insane," Goddard spoke in a superior tone.

The Doctor stood for a moment and thought. "It must of fallen through time. The only survivor."

"You talked about war," the human female asked.

"The Time War. The final battle between my people and the Dalek race."

"But you survived, too," Van Statten said with a devilish smile on his face.

"Not by choice," The Doctor added grimly.

"This means the Dalek isn't the only alien on Earth. Doctor, there's you. The only one of your kind in existence."

Just as the doors opened, the Doctor was once again grabbed. She struggled against their grip as they led her into her own cage.

"Any type of exposed metal is going to affect the laser scanner," Van Statten smiled.

The Doctor ended up having to shed her boots, jacket, and top. She was able to keep her bra on because Van Statten claimed he was a 'gentleman'. So now that the Doctor was stripped, she got chained spread eagle in front of the scanner.

"Now, smile!" Van Statten said, cheerfully.

The Doctor bit her lip as a painful shock ran through her body from the laser.

"Two hearts! Binary Vascular System. Oh, I am so going to patent this," Van Statten said.

The Doctor glared at the man. "So that's your secret. You don't just collect this stuff, you scavenge it."

She shook her head in anger as Van Statten went on to say how he cured the common cold and was going to sell cures for every disease. The Doctor was getting frustrated.

"Do you know what a Dalek is, Van Statten? A Dalek is honest. That creature in your dungeon is better than you."

"In that case, I'll be true to myself and continue," Van Statten frowned.

"Listen to me! That thing downstairs is going to kill every last one of us!" She tried to get through to him.

"Nothing can escape the cage."

Van Statten turned the laser up a Koch and blasted the Doctor. She bit her lip harder as she tried to endure the pain. Once the laser stopped, she attempted to catch her breath and speak.

"But it's woken up! It knows I'm here. It's going to get out. Van Statten, I swear, no one in this base is safe. No one on this planet!"

He turned the laser to its highest setting. It once again blasted the Doctor. This time around wasn't for informational purposes. He just wanted to hear her scream. And he did.

#romance #adventure #doctor who fanfic #doctor x rose #the doctor x rose tyler #the doctor #doctor who fanfiction #doctor who #ninth doctor #bbc doctor who #doctor who imagine #fem!9th doctor x male!rose tyler #fem!9th doctor #male!rose tyler #9th doctor x rose #rose tyler

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seeaddywrite · 6 years ago

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stars, hide your fires: chapter four

this chapter wouldn’t exist without @soberqueerinthewild‘s cheerleading, handholding, willingness to let me rant at her about my plot holes, & assistance with the word ‘soldier,’ which really shouldn’t be this hard to avoid. also, big thanks to @lire-casander for her cheerleading, assistance with middle names, & general fabulousness.

the plan is to upload chapter five by Thursday evening :) thanks for reading this crazy adventure of mine.

AO3 LINK

chapter index: 1 || 2 || 3 || 4

It’s frighteningly easy to get a meeting set up with the oldest of Alex’s brothers. Charlie responds almost instantly to the email he sends requesting a face-to-face, and surprises everyone by saying that he’s already in Roswell, and would love to see Alex the next day at 0900. His presence doesn’t bode well for the secrets they’re trying to keep; Charlie’s a sniper in the Air Force Special Operations Task Force. He’s rarely stateside, and for him to be in Roswell either signifies that he knows something, or that there’s something else going on that Alex doesn’t know. Neither option makes Alex particularly optimistic, but he can’t allow it to change anything.

Going in the next day isn’t ideal. Alex had been hoping for longer to research and develop his narrative, but there’s no stalling now. He’d been the one to request the meet -- it’ll look suspicious if he asks to postpone now, which is the last thing he needs. Charlie always had a soft spot for Alex when they were kids, but Alex knows better than to think that will matter if he gives the slightest reason for Charlie to doubt his sincerity. While Charlie may have smuggled him snacks when their father locked him in his room, and brought painkillers to the shed when Alex hid there after a beating, he’s still Jesse Manes’ son. There’s no such thing as the benefit of the doubt in that world.

And, well -- Kyle had said it best, the evening before, when they’d finally settled down to review files and put together a game plan. “Aren’t any of you Manes guys normal meatheads?” he’d demanded, thumbing through Charlie’s file with increasingly anxious fingers. “Look at this! Charles A. Manes. Air Force Silver Star Recipient three different times. Sniper. Special Operations Task Force. Best known for taking out thirteen armed terrorists in a shoot-out by himself -- this is the guy you think has a soft spot for you? Seriously? What if he’s already talked to Flint and decides to shoot you on sight?”

At the time, Alex had waved off the concern and pointed out that none of Jesse Manes’ sons could ever be average. Not if they wanted his approval. Charlie was Spec Ops, Hunter was an ace pilot, and Flint was head of Research and Development in several major projects. They were all brilliant in their fields -- but Alex had the distinct advantage of being the only one who’d given orders. The rest of them, as he’d once accused Flint, are sheep. They’re exceptional as long as there are directives in play; without them, they’ll fall like marionettes with their strings cut.

At least, that’s Alex’s hope. As he stands in the middle of the bunker he’d requisitioned from Jesse Manes all those months ago, face-to-face with a brother he hasn’t seen in close to a decade, he’s not so sure. Valenti may have had a point, after all. Charlie looks nothing like the young man Alex remembers from brief visits between deployments; where once there’d been a liveliness to his dark eyes, there’s now only a cool, calculating stare. Age seems to have wiped away all traces of similarity to their mother, and Alex feels an uncomfortable wave of deja vu. Staring Charlie down in this bunker bears way too much similarity to the day he’d played the same game with their father and come out on top.

Sandy colored hair, shorn in military style that hides the greys just beginning at the temples, posture so ramrod straight that it looks painful, and features that may as well be carved out of granite -- Charlie’s entire appearance screams ‘Jesse Manes’ son,’ and Alex can’t help but wonder if he’s made a mistake, expecting any measure of softness from this man.

Just as he’s psyching himself out, though, Charlie steps forward and slaps Alex’s back in greeting. It’s as close to real affection as any of the Manes boys get, and, paired with a cool smile, it signifies that things are going even better than Alex could have hoped for. “It’s good to see you, kid,” Charlie tells him, glancing around the underground headquarters as if he was reacquainting himself with a space he hadn’t seen in a while. “You’re looking pretty good for a guy who got on the wrong end of an IED not so long ago. I’m impressed.”

Alex can’t help but stand a little straighter as Charlie looks him over, the response as automatic and ingrained as jerking awake at the first ray of sun on his face or jumping to attention when he hears the order. He’s spent a lot of time on base acting as if he’s still got two legs -- pity isn’t something he can tolerate, and at first, there’d been no escaping it. It’s not pity that he’s worried about with Charlie, though; he just doesn’t want to give away any weaknesses. His missing leg is something that can’t be helped, nor can his brother’s knowledge of the injury, but he can damn well be sure that it’s made clear that the prosthetic doesn’t slow him down.

“Sorry I couldn’t get back Stateside when you lost the leg,” Charlie continues, still scrutinizing Alex from all sides. “I tried, but I got shipped overseas two days later. Did you get my letter?”

It’s so far from the suspicious welcome that Alex had been bracing for that he’s momentarily speechless.

“I -- uh, yeah, I did,” Alex says when he pulls himself back together, and nods jerkily. “I meant to write back, but -”

Charlie shakes his head, a bizarrely affable smile on his face. “Don’t worry about it. You had more important things to worry about.” He moves around one of the temporary tables Alex has set up in the bunker, his every step infused with the sort of deadly grace that Alex could never hope to emulate. Charlie glances at some of the carefully-selected files spread out on top of the table. He never pauses long, but the laser-focus of his gaze tells Alex that he’s cataloguing every detail for later perusal.

It’s part of the plan, for Charlie to see the work Alex has been doing, to believe he’s as dedicated to protecting the world from aliens as the rest of the men in their family, but he still has to clench his fists in the pockets of his jacket to stop from fidgeting. There’s nothing about Michael or the Evans’ twins in the contents of those pages; Alex refuses to endanger them further, even though Max and Guerin had both told him to use whatever he had to in order to get the information he needed. There are too many ways for that to backfire, though, and he refuses to risk it. There are other ways to earn his way into Project Shepherd than by throwing his people under the bus.

“So,” Charlie says, after another moment of rifling through the files. “Dad decided to read you in, huh?”

This is where it starts to get tricky, and Alex feels every muscle in his body tense. It’s an effort to maintain his nonchalant facade, but he manages it. “I had to hack into his databases first,” he tells the other man honestly. “But, yeah. Eventually.” He’s talked through his story with Kyle and Guerin at least twenty times the night before, and he’s prepared for anything Charlie might ask. Anxiety ebbs away as he slides into the well-rehearsed cover, and Alex feels himself becoming steadier, more dangerous -- more of the man who’d survived Baghdad and ten years of active duty service.

“You know Dad would never trust me voluntarily. That hasn’t changed.” It’s no use pretending that Jesse had a magic change of heart about Alex’s ‘weakness.’ No one would be fooled. So the narrative isn’t so different from the truth, at least to begin. “But since I figured out the truth, even he can’t deny how useful I can be. At the very least, I can shore up your cyber defenses, because it took me less than half an hour to break in and get all of the intel on the Project’s servers. His access password was ‘password,’ for Christ’s sake.” There’s no pride in his tone, just matter-of-fact honestly and scorn for Jesse’s computer illiteracy.

“And then I found out about Caulfield, and I wanted to see it for myself, you know? I thought Dad was crazy, but if there was proof …” Alex lets the thought trail off deliberately, knowing that sometimes less is more when it comes to this sort of story.

The mention of the off-books base makes Charlie’s expression darken, just enough that Alex notices. He leans back against the wall, arms crossed over his chest in a way that makes his muscles stand out in stark relief against his brown t-shirt, and Alex’s jaw tightens momentarily. If Charlie thinks things like overt displays of physical dominance are enough to scare him, he’s got another thing coming -- after growing up in a house with their father, Alex is pretty much desensitized to anything that Charlie could possibly try.

“And then you went to Caulfield,” he prompts expectantly, eyes narrowed shrewdly. It’s a standard interrogation tactic employed by the military: don’t give away any of the answer when the question is asked. Use prompts rather than specifics. Lets the detained person say what’s really on their mind, take the answer in the direction they want -- and usually, they’ll implicate themselves.

Alex isn’t that stupid. He blinks wide, guileless eyes, and nods slowly. “Yeah. Then I went to Caulfield.” He leaves Kyle out of the story for now. Flint knows, so it’ll come up at some point, but Alex isn’t eager to bring his friend into the tale, and it’s not really relevant at the moment, anyway. “I had to see them for myself, Charlie. I mean, aliens? It sounds like something out of a fucking Star Wars movie, not real life. I needed to see it. So I went.”

As he speaks, Alex is careful to maintain that careful air of naivete. The act balances on the knife’s edge between uselessness and innocence, and he needs to stay just on the side of innocence. If he takes it too far, Charlie will write him off as foolish and unhelpful, and that’s the last thing he wants -- but it’s important he play the awed younger brother just trying to follow in the family footsteps. That’s his ticket into the game.

Charlie nods, his expression no less guarded. “And?”

Christ, he’s not making this easy. Not that Alex had expected him to -- but it would have been nice.

“And it’s hard to deny the truth when you’re standing right in front of them,” Alex says bluntly, letting some of the incredulity and fear he’d felt in that place seep into his expression. It feels odd, to be so calculating of his every movement and facial tic around someone that’s supposed to be his family, but he doesn’t let that stop him from doing it anyway. “Dad’s right. You’re all right. There are fucking aliens invading our planet -- and I want to be part of trying to stop them.”

Silence echoes in the space between the two men, and Alex doesn’t look away from Charlie, doesn’t give him the chance to think that he might be lying. Instead, he lets that announcement sink in for a moment, then continues: “I know you’ve heard Dad saying that I’m weak for our entire lives, but I’ve served three tours on active duty, and did my time on the ground, just like the rest of you. I signed up to serve and protect my country, and I’ve done it. That’s part of who I am, now, and I can’t just ignore the alien threat. Dad may not like it, but I’m part of this family, too. Protecting people is in my DNA just as much as it is yours -- I want to be a part of Project Shepherd. I want to help.”

The lies taste like ash in his mouth, and everything integral to Alex’s being rebels against the idea of being just another Manes sheep with no free will of his own. He’s had literal nightmares about that, about what he could have been capable of if his father had been able to crush his will. But he knows what Charlie wants to hear -- it’s the same thing all of his brothers have wanted to hear for his entire life. They want him to be one of them, another nameless airman in the generational parade, want him to stop asking questions and fall in line. And, most importantly, Alex knows what Charlie will be willing to believe. He’s learned from experience that people remember their first encounters with a person more than anything else. And to Charlie, Alex is always going to be the little boy determined to follow in his big brother’s footsteps, desperate for approval and in need of protection and advice.

Charlie shifts his weight on his shiny, black boots, and looks at Alex steadily. “We’ve already got three people trying to run things here, Alex,” he says carefully, and the omission of ‘kid’ is either a sign of respect, or a signal that Charlie is trying to distance himself from Alex. Guessing which is dangerous, so Alex doesn’t try. “And even if I say yes, Dad’s not likely to be happy about it when he gets back. He’s been pretty clear about not wanting you onboard for a long time.”

He appreciates that Charlie doesn’t try to pretend that Jesse Manes gives two shits about Alex. It’s easier that way, with at least some honesty between them -- and Alex has always hated it when someone tried to tell him that his father does care about him. Fathers who love their sons don’t break their bones to show it. They don’t spend years attempting to reshape their souls with their fists, like it’s nothing more than clay on a potter’s wheel.

Alex snorts. “Dad’s never wanted me around, Charlie. That’s not news to me. But you said ‘when he gets back,’ right?” He’s walking the razor’s edge, now, and knows that if he over or under sells the act here, this is as far his mission will go. “If he’s not here, you’re running things.” It’s not a guess; Alex is no stranger to chain of command, and Charlie’s the highest ranking of the brothers by virtue of age, at the very least.

“I’ve been stateside for three days, Alex,” Charlie says with a sigh, running a hand over his shorn hair. It’s the first sign of stress that he’s shown since arrival, and it’s enough to tell Alex that he’s getting somewhere. Charlie wants the extra help, wants to have another person to depend on -- it’s a fair bet he’s got access to Alex’s personnel file, too, and knows that Alex has the skills to actually be helpful.

In other words, Alex has got an opening, and he’s going to exploit it.

“And I’ve only been in Roswell for less than twenty-four hours. Dad fucked off somewhere without any warning months ago, and Flint and Hunter have taken on most of the responsibility here. I can’t just read you in without talking to them first. It wouldn’t be right -- especially since Flint is pretty damned sure you purposefully blew up Caulfield with Kyle fucking Valenti.”

The words don’t particularly surprise Alex; of course Charlie and Flint would have been in contact in the last six months if they’ve been working together. To make matters worse, Flint likely would have contacted Jesse as soon as it happened. Alex can’t be certain, but he’d be willing to be that intel is why Jesse showed up in Roswell despite Alex’s warnings and tried to kill Kyle, around the same time Max brought Rosa back to life. So no, he’s not thrown off by the fact that Charlie knows more than he let on initially -- but it’s still irritating to have it thrown back in his face.

Alex narrows his eyes and crosses his own arms over his chest, keeping his weight perfectly centered on his legs to hide the ache that’s started in his bad knee from standing and posturing for so long. “Flint thinks I blew up a secure facility and nearly killed myself on purpose?” he asks, acid dripping from the words. “No wonder he’s been stuck in R&D for ten years. He’s clearly got no fucking common sense.”

Charlie quirks an eyebrow in an expression that Alex recognizes from looking in the mirror. “So you didn’t blow it up on purpose?”

“I didn’t blow it up at all!” Alex says, the anger in his exclamation genuine. He’s not willing to take all of those deaths on his conscience, not even in a lie. “Some security protocol went off and the whole damn base self-destructed before I could do much more than stare at an old woman through the glass door, and get some insane story about a cancer-causing alien that sent Valenti off the deep end.” He sits slowly at the computer desk and tapped out a short sequence on the keyboard. On the monitors, the security footage of Valenti Sr. being shoved into the alien’s containment unit and, presumably, contracting brain cancer. Alex watches steadily, refusing to waver now. “If I’d realized that Valenti was going to find out our father murdered his, I would’ve left him in Roswell.”

Talking about something that is still causing Kyle so much pain in such a cavalier fashion makes Alex hate himself. He wants to scream when Charlie just nods, his lips twisted in disdain, like Kyle’s reaction to realizing his father had been murdered was somehow pathetic instead of justified. Thankfully, Alex doesn’t have to work very hard to hide his reaction; both he and Charlie are looking at the screens. “My guess is that he cracked one of containment cells, trying to get at the one who gave Jim the tumor, and it sparked the self-destruct.”

Guerin hasn’t been mentioned thus far, and Alex knows Flint had no idea of his presence at Caulfield, so there’s no hesitation as Alex rewrites the truth to fit his needs. It would be stupid, if he didn’t know for a fact that Guerin’s not on any surveillance footage from that day -- Alex had been sure of that. He’d torn his way through the cyber defenses of whatever server the video had been backed-up on without any finesse and erased everything, practically daring them to trace the data trail back to him. It hadn’t been smart, but Alex hadn’t been in the right headspace to be smart, back then. Not after witnessing Michael losing his mother a moment after finding her. Not after their near-escape from a deadly explosion. Not after being shoved out of Michael’s life and losing the only sense of family he’d ever known for his best friend --

At the time, Alex had almost hoped they’d come for him.

But Guerin is safe, for now, because of that stupidity, so Alex can’t bring himself to regret it.

Charlie’s brows furrow as he digests that explanation, and Alex can see his certainty waver. In that moment, Alex goes for the throat -- figuratively, of course. “Charlie, please,” he says, closing the video on the server and spinning his chair back around to look at his brother head-on. “You and Flint and Hunter are the only family I’ve got left. And you know I can be useful. None of you have the tech skills that I do, or the inside knowledge of Roswell. I’ve been here for months. I still have roots and connections here that none of you do. I can help. All you have to do is let me. And when Dad gets back, I promise, he won’t be able to deny that I’ve done good work.”

As he speaks, Alex is eight and standing in the kitchen of the house they all grew up in, begging a twenty-year-old Charlie to stay home after their mother had finally had enough and left. Then it’s Charlie, coming back on leave and swinging a six-year-old Alex around while he laughs. Or Charlie, smirking as Alex proudly smashed a guitar over Flint’s head at twelve, or the man in uniform, boarding the plane to take him back to the Middle East with a small smile over his shoulder just for Alex, who’s fifteen and cradling a broken wrist against his chest. It’s almost easy to want Charlie to believe him, to want to truly be on his brother’s side -- because despite everything he knows about Project Shepherd and the horrible things his brothers have done, a small, childish part of Alex is always going to want their acceptance.

But as much as Alex cherishes the memories of Charlie’s kindness, he hates the feelings of helplessness and impotence they evoke more. Since enlisting, Alex has built his life on the pillars of control and logic, his own sort of power, to make up for the lack in his childhood, and stepping into this situation has cost him all that work.

But this is for Michael, for Liz and Kyle and everyone in that group who’d come to mean something to him, and for them, Alex will allow his foundations to crumble, if that’s what it takes. This is only shaking them a little -- and tonight, at least, Alex has the promise of returning home to the one person who always makes him feel safe and stable.

“I’ll talk to Flint and Hunter,” Charlie says after a long, fraught silence.

Alex can read the answer in his eyes, though -- he’s convinced the man that he can be trusted, and he’s done a good enough job that he can be sure Charlie will persuade the others one way or another. The calculating, ruthless part of his mind that Alex tries to keep locked down is pleased at the ease with which he manipulated Charlie -- the rest of him, the human parts, just feel cold.

“I can’t guarantee anything until I talk to them, and I’d be thinking of some specific ways to show them you’re worth the risk,” Charlie continues, and Alex’s stomach sinks. Proving his worth to an anti-alien task force is going to involve doing a lot of shit he doesn’t want to think about, he’s sure -- but that’s a problem for another day. He made it through today’s set, and Alex has every intention of taking the whole match. And he’ll have some time to plan, now -- if Hunter’s still in Afghanistan, as his records indicate, there’s no way Charlie will have a response for him in the next day or even two. Alex will make damn sure to take advantage of that time.

“Thanks, Charlie,” Alex says with a smile that rings false to himself, but would fool anyone who didn’t know him well -- which, ironically enough, described his brother perfectly.

“Don’t thank me yet,” the older man says with a grim twist of his lips, and for a moment, Alex wonders why he looks so unhappy. Is he really that worried about selling the idea to Flint and Hunter, who hang off of his every word? Or is this fear of their father -- reluctance to go against his will? Alex doesn’t know, but he wishes Charlie would stop looking at him with those pitying, worried eyes. It’s making it harder to keep the smile on his face.

To the younger brother’s unending surprise, Charlie pushes away from the wall he’s been leaning against and moves closer, clapping a hand on his shoulder. “Take a couple of days of leave and think this over while I reach out, huh? This isn’t like the other ops you’ve been involved in. It’s not something you ever get to walk away from. Just -- remember that. Consider your options. You never wanted this life, kid, and you’ve already lost enough.” Dark eyes, so close in color to Alex’s own, sweep over his body to linger on his bad leg, and Alex shivers despite himself.

Shock jolts like electricity down Alex’s spine at the thinly-veiled warning, and he opens his mouth to ask why Charlie is suddenly so worried about his choices -- or maybe to deny that he wants anything but the mission? Alex isn’t even sure. But Charlie is already walking away by the time Alex pulls himself together enough to speak. “I’ll call when I’ve got an answer for you,” he says over his shoulder, deep voice echoing off of the cavernous walls of the bunker as he begins the ascent to the surface.

Alex stays seated in his desk chair long after Charlie disappears, staring at the blank wall in front of him. Doubt and insecurity encroaches on him, flickering like shadows in the corner of his mind, and for the first time, Alex allows himself to wonder if he’s gotten in over his head. For a long, dark hour, he lets his mind conjure one possible scenario after another, each one growing darker and darker, and all ending in the death of everyone he cares about. What if Charlie’s warning was a hint that they know his plan? What if his brothers are three steps ahead while Alex is lagging behind? What if they’re going after Guerin and the others as he sits here feeling sorry for himself? What if he loses the few parts of his soul that the war left him with?

Eventually, Alex can’t take it anymore. The walls of the bunker are closing in on him, and if he doesn’t leave this place soon, he’s not sure he’ll be able to pull himself out of the spiral Charlie’s warnings had started. It’s so stupid that he’s reacting this way -- but he’s been running on caffeine and adrenaline and sheer stubborn determination for the last thirty-six hours, and now that the immediate threat is past, everything else is crashing down on him at once. The burden he’d taken on. The responsibility he’s shouldering. The fact that to succeed in this mission, he’s going to have to send Charlie and the rest of his biological family to prison.

Usually, when he has moments like this, Alex finds himself sitting behind the bar at the Wild Pony, or in the middle of Liz’s living room, or even with Mimi DeLuca in her little apartment. Being alone had never been particularly good for Alex’s mental health, and he knows that none of them would turn him away.

But there’s only one other place he wants to be right now, and it’s not with any of them -- and for once, Alex is pretty sure that he won’t be turned away.

Drawing in a deep, determined breath, Alex stands slowly, finds his equilibrium, and points himself toward home.

#stars hide your fires #malex fic [at least it will be]#multi chapter

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firefighterkingdom · 4 years ago

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#11 – How Firetrucks Are Made and Ordered | Lt. George Asi

On this weeks episode we talk to Lt. George Asi who does procurement and ordering of firetrucks for Bernalillo County Fire Department (BCFD). He informs listeners on the custom ordering process which you can make each firetruck unique and even include ice cream machines if you wanted (hint: he’s never done it). This is an eye opening episode on how the process of firetrucks.

Robert Sanchez: All right. We’re back. I’m Robert Sanchez. We’re Firefighter Kingdom. I have my cohost Vince Trujillo, and also the producer and makes everything look nice for us here in Firefighter Kingdom. We have a great guest and a friend of mine, it’s been a friend of mine for a long time. We have George Asi. He’s a lieutenant with Bernalillo County and he’s here to talk specific about the logistics program and kind of speccing apparatus. I was kind of interested just talking to him about, and kind of learning all the stuff that goes into it. Hey, George, welcome to Firefighter Kingdom.

Lt. George Asi: Good morning. How are you?

Robert Sanchez: Good. Today’s your lucky day. You get to be on my podcast.

Lt. George Asi: Awesome. Thanks for having me.

Robert Sanchez: Hey, no problem, bro. Me and George go back long time, man. We’ve had some good times together riding Harleys and hunting and camping and all kinds of stuff.

Lt. George Asi: That’s all we’ve done. Nothing else.

Robert Sanchez: We won’t talk about it. This has to be on a public view.

Lt. George Asi: Yeah.

Robert Sanchez: No, again, bro, it’s always nice seeing you and having you on. I appreciate it, bro. Again, I was just thinking when you and I were talking the other day, or I think we were eating lunch or breakfast or whatever, we were talking about what all went into speccing the trucks. I know on Facebook you put out some pictures of the actual truck. It’s amazing to me. You just can’t go to the corner mart or a used firetruck lot and buy a firetruck. That’s not how it works.

Lt. George Asi: Maybe back in the day it was like that, but nowadays it’s much more in depth, much more work that goes into speccing and building a firetruck that people just don’t understand. They think call up the dealer, order a truck and it’s good to go. They don’t realize that there’s months, maybe even years of research and development to put the trucks that we have out in the field together. There’s a lot that goes on on the background that people just don’t realize that goes on.

Robert Sanchez: Right. This podcast, we’re going to get into more detail in how it happens, but I just wanted to kind of bring up your history in the fire service, how you got into even speccing firetrucks. It’s been interesting … Since you got in fire … I was going to mention your dad. He was a firefighter for a long time. He’s a great guy. I have the honor of knowing him also. Your history in the fire service, how did it come about, you even kind of getting to this part of it?

Lt. George Asi: You kind of hit the nail on the head there a little bit. My dad, I’m second generation firefighter. My dad was a firefighter and still kind of plays a role in the local volunteer fire department where he’s from up in Las Vegas. I grew up in the fire service. I grew up going to trainings.

Robert Sanchez: In the firehouses, pretty much.

Lt. George Asi: He was an instructor back in the day before there was the state fire academy. They used to do the traveling show and they used to go from city to city. Every year they’d pick a different city and do the fire training for the state of New Mexico. I grew up as a very young, young child, as a baby, actually, I was about six months old when my dad took me to the first fire school. I grew up in the fire service and at a very young age, that just kind of what I was going to do, and I kind of set my path forward in that. Obviously my dad’s my hero and my mentor, but since then I’ve had numerous other people that’d been in my life that have mentored me in the fire service and I’ve been fortunate to surround myself by great people that look out for my best interests. I’m blessed.

I’m grateful for everything that I’ve been able to do with my career. I’m getting to the point where I’m coming towards the end of my professional career. I’ll probably move on and do something else after I retire. I think I fought my first fire when I was about nine or 10 years old with my dad and I’d go to fires with him because they’d get called off duty and I’d go with him to fires. I’d seen him do some crazy stuff. Wondered how he’s still alive today because man, there was just some unbelievable stuff, stuff that you only read in books and you think it’s fiction.

Robert Sanchez: Back in those days, there wasn’t many rules and stuff like that. They’re short on staff, they’re short on equipment, so they did whatever hey had to do at the time to make it happen.

Lt. George Asi: Yeah. I knew as a very young age that this was going to be my career and I was going to do this full time. It’s worked out. It’s definitely been different. The path that I though it was going to take was probably, in the long run, it ended up being the same thing, but it took some turns and it was cool. It made me a better person for where I am.

As I grew up and I got older, in 1992 I was able to get on with a local volunteer fire department as a junior firefighter. Obviously, a friend of my dad’s and the chief there, he brought me on. I was always very involved in everything in the fire service. I’d spend days with my dad at the fire house on duty. All kinds of cool stuff. Gene Martinez gave me the opportunity to become a junior firefighter and basically was just a title to get me into the ranks. It didn’t mean anything. I got my own set of gear. I would beg, borrow my dad’s vehicles to go to calls. It was just a good time. It was a lot of fun and that’s how I got into it. Several years down the road I became an officer in that volunteer fire department and eventually becoming the chief. That’s where I first started or I started-

Robert Sanchez: speccing.

Lt. George Asi: speccing fire trucks. We were looking at buying a Tender. That’s kind of where it started. There’s just a lot of research that goes on when you’re starting to do this kind of stuff, because you’re spending a lot of money and it’s public money. You want to do the best you can do to get the best dollar you can out of that purchase.

That’s kind of where my professional career started and how I got introduced into speccing trucks and stuff like that. It’s been kind of crazy and I knew when I graduated high school, I had another friend, anther mentor that got me into the EMT side of the thing. Back in the day it was just firefighting. That’s all it was. Getting into the service was starting to change, and in order to get into fire departments, you needed to become an EMT. He worked for a private ambulance company in Las Vegas. He was instrumental in getting me down that path. As a senior, I was taking extra classes to become an EMT. When I graduated high school, I went two months later I did my state boards and I got my state boards, and then they picked me up at the local ambulance service and I started working there as an EMT. Yeah.

Robert Sanchez: Then you became a paramedic, right?

Lt. George Asi: Yeah. Shortly thereafter I worked there for a while, got on with the fire department there in Las Vegas and that was another great experience for me because I was able to work a shift with my dad on the same truck. There was no nepotism rules at that time, I guess. It was-

Robert Sanchez: Whoever wanted to work the truck.

Lt. George Asi: I guess they were hurting for bodies, so luckily I was there at the time. It was a good experience. It was just one of those departments that didn’t pay a whole lot. It was tough times for me, I was making ends meet. I started working still part time at the private ambulance service. Long story short, the city got a new contract with a new ambulance service provider, because the fire department didn’t do EMS at the time. They still don’t. They went out for a bid, they got this company and this company reached out to any of the old employees from the old company to cross over and go work for them.

I jumped at the opportunity. I figured I’d just get on part time and see how it goes and go from there. Sure enough, they offered me a full time job, doubled my salary at the fire department. It was a no brainer for me. I was newly married, young, so I jumped ship from the fire department, probably the worst decision I ever made, but you know what? It opened up a door that I didn’t expect to open. Yeah. At that point, I worked there for about a year and they approached me, they pulled me and my wife in one day and they said, “Hey, you have what we see to be a good paramedic and we’d like to send you to paramedic school. Have you ever thought of it?” It was kind of just a huge blow, it was unexpected.

Robert Sanchez: Right.

Lt. George Asi: They were like, “We need to know by tomorrow if you’re going to go to paramedic school or not.” I’m like, “Uh, well, I guess I need to talk it over with my wife.” We did. We went home and she was like, “Yeah, go ahead.” Did, signed up, got enrolled that next week in school and at Eastern New Mexico in Roswell and went through their program, pretty rugged year and a half. I came out of there with a paramedic certificate and single and a license to practice.

Robert Sanchez: Yeah. That seems to happen sometimes in paramedic school. It’s tough. It’s no joke for sure. It’s still not. It’s even got worse nowadays.

Lt. George Asi: For sure. I think there’s way more stuff they’re covering now. It’s just a different animal now. Yeah.

Robert Sanchez: Yeah. You got in Bernalillo County Fire Department after the paramedic stuff.

Lt. George Asi: Yeah.

Robert Sanchez: I think the logistics division is kind of one of the better operated logistics divisions in the fire departments that I see. It seems like in your division, you guys are allowed to do quite a bit and it seems like you get a lot done, and one of them is speccing trucks.

Lt. George Asi: Yep.

Robert Sanchez: What’s the first thing, when you want to spec a truck … If we have a ladder truck’s being specced or a pumper, an engine, what’s the first thing you do?

Lt. George Asi: Kind of give you a little bit of background, is the department has created a vehicle replacement plan. They did that several chiefs back, they had the forethought to look sand see okay, let’s do a 10, 20 year plan on vehicle replacements. The chiefs back then, they basically went through and saw our fleet was an aging fleet at the time. It was really old. The mechanics were super busy trying to keep them up and running, stuff like that.

Lt. George Asi: They were able to basically get the oldest stuff replaced first in the busier stations. The plan was they set out the plan, they’ve published it, it’s in the policy, the vehicle replacement plan. We follow that vehicle replacement plan to this day. We modify it, we update it every year. What we do is we know probably two years in advance what we’re going to be doing. We’re basically working two years ahead of where we’re at right now. Right now I’m working, we’re getting a ladder truck built and it’s in process. I’m already working on next year’s and the following year’s purchase, the next vehicles that are going to be purchased.

Robert Sanchez: Another apparatus.

Lt. George Asi: The other apparatus. Yeah. Seeing the ladder truck going through the production and stuff like that, it’s kind of the end for me. That ladder truck’s been the project for two years. That’s kind of the end process of it for us. We still have to finish it out and get it equipped and then get it in service. That’s the first thing is identifying what we’re going to purchase for that budget cycle if you would.

There’s a lot of things that go on, and one is the money, obviously. You’ve got to have the money to purchase these apparatus because they’re not cheap. We’re looking at anywhere from a half a million to one and a quarter million dollars for a piece of apparatus. It’s a lot of money. We have to obviously budget for that.

The county is in a unique situation because probably four or five years ago they passed a public safety tax. The fire department gets a portion of that public safety tax. That’s what we use to purchase our apparatus. There’s other funding sources that we use. We use in New Mexico, fire grant process. Those are only $200,000 grants, but they’re good enough to purchase Tenders that are not that half a million dollars and above and brush trucks.

We’ve been buying brush trucks the last couple years because of the New Mexico Fire Grant, we’ve been awarded that grant the last three or four years for apparatus. We’ve got two brush trucks and a Tender that’s on order right now that we purchased through that great process. The funding is the biggest thing.

Once you identify the funding, you know what type of apparatus you’re going to buy, then you start working on that. What we do is we look at what we have currently in our fleet. If we’re doing an engine, we look at what we’re doing in our fleet. Is it working for us? That’s our goal is to make things better for the end user, the firefighter, and make it as safe as possible. We look at what we have currently in our fleet. Is it working for us? We get a lot of input from the field guys. We’ve kind of done a kind of committee thing where it’s myself, Chief Valenzuela, Chief Pettis, and one of the mechanics and an engineer from the field. We usually try to get an engineer that’s a more seasoned engineer that has been on multiple apparatus, not just one apparatus for their career.

Robert Sanchez: When we are talking engineer, just so the public knows, that’s the driver of the apparatus.

Lt. George Asi: Yeah. Of course. That’s the driver of the apparatus. The ones that have been on there, and they have good communication skills. We want them to be able to reach out to other drivers who are on those apparatus, maybe not been on multiple apparatuses but they can go and talk to somebody, they’re respected, they know how to talk to somebody, and they can put those answers into a Word document. They’re basically the word of the field that they bring back to us when we’re building these trucks or talking about how we’re going to build these trucks.

Robert Sanchez: Right.

Lt. George Asi: Getting the ideas from the guys. Obviously, I pride myself on tying to get as much input from the field. The end users, the guys, the firefighters, the ones that are sitting backwards, the officers who are there, trying to get every need that they possibly have addressed in the new build.

Robert Sanchez: Right. That’s great. You get the money, the funding, so you go to say, I know Bernalillo County’s Pierce apparatus, right?

Lt. George Asi: We’re primarily a Pierce apparatus department. A large majority of our fleet is Pierce. That’s one of the other relationships. You have to have good relationship with other people outside of the department. Like I said earlier, there’s a lot of research, and I would say even development that goes into the building the trucks. The trucks that we built 10, 15 years ago, there’s been a lot of technological changes since then that when you’re talking about pump control modules-

Robert Sanchez: NFPA requirements.

Lt. George Asi: Yeah NFPA changes every five years. They have revisions every two years. You have to maintain that. Those changes are sometimes not stuff that we want but it’s part of the NFPA process. The NFPA is the National Fire Protection Association. They publish standards for performance guidelines. They’re basically a guideline. The builders, like Pierce Manufacturing is an NFPA certified builder. They basically build to NFPA certification-

Robert Sanchez: Standards.

Lt. George Asi: Standards. Yes. When there’s guys that say, “Well, why do we have to follow NFPA?” We don’t, but the builder follows NFPA and that’s the way they continue to get their accreditation and build a good product because it’s a standardized version.

Robert Sanchez: Right.

Lt. George Asi: Yeah. There’s a lot of changes that happen that we would like to have that from the past that are no longer available because they’re unsafe practices. It’s just not safe or they’re just not doing it anymore.

Robert Sanchez: Right.

Lt. George Asi: There’s a lot of that stuff that goes on. We have to be up to date with that code and the NFPA standard. It slipped my mind right now what number it is. I have a binder at work that we follow those guidelines and all that stuff.

Robert Sanchez: You guys go to Wisconsin, right? Is it Appleton?

Lt. George Asi: Yeah. Appleton, Wisconsin.

Robert Sanchez: Twice for each apparatus. Right when the build starts and then when it ends. Is that correct?

Lt. George Asi: There’s two trips. One is the pre-build. Basically, you go over there, during this whole time we’ve already met with our sales rep. We have multiple meetings to talk about the changes we want, what we want them to do for us, and we’ve gone back and forth with the specifications and the component list. I’ll just use an example of this last ladder truck that we’ve built. We did 11 conference calls or meetings before we went to Appleton to do the final pre-build conference.

Robert Sanchez: Right.

Lt. George Asi: We met 11 times, all the committee or part of the committee members with the sales guys, to hash out some of those details that we want on our truck that maybe not everybody else gets or it’s different from somebody else. They’re all 100% custom trucks. They have a boiler plate that they use with the transmission, the engines and stuff like that, but for the most part, everything else, the compartment configurations, the locations of the compartments, the seats, windows, all that kind of stuff, we tell them where we want them and what position to be in. All that stuff has to be laid out in advance.

Even when we do get to Appleton, what we’re doing is we’re meeting with the Pierce Manufacturers, their engineers. We sit down with their engineer. If there’s something, a point of contention that we couldn’t work out in the pre-build, we have the engineers come in and we explain why we want to do what we want to do, and it’s basically their job to figure out how to make it happen. It’s crazy because when you’re building a truck, you’re only limited by your own imagination and what you want to do with your own department. Obviously, everything takes money but the crazier the things, I’ve seen some crazy stuff over there in Appleton. Different departments have different train of thought.

Robert Sanchez: They’ll do it. If you have the money, they’ll do it.

Lt. George Asi: Yeah. If you want to pay for it, they’ll do it. If you want an ice cream machine in the truck, they’ll put one in there for you. They’ll do crazy stuff like that.

Robert Sanchez: Yeah.

Lt. George Asi: The pre-build is basically three days of sitting in a conference room going line by line with the specs just to make sure we got everything, all our T’s crossed and I’s dotted, make sure everything’s good. Inevitably we still miss something during the build process. We work with Pierce Manufacturing and their local dealer is Siddons Martin Emergency Group. I’ve been working with Jose Adamillo, he’s a sales guy. He’s been our sales guy for 25, 30 years or more and he’s getting ready to retire, so we’ve been working with [James Hollis 00:21:59], who’s a regional sales manager.

Lt. George Asi: Those guys have been great. Everything that we ask them to do, they’re on the money, they’re there getting us answers and if it’s a no, they have good justification why it’s a no and why we can’t do what we want to do with that kind of stuff. It’s a long process, like I said. It’s 12 to 18 months of pre-work, then it starts, when guys actually see the trucks on the website, on the Siddons Martin Emergency Group website, you’re looking at 12 to 18 months of work that’s already starting to happen. Basically the build time is anywhere from 12 to 16 weeks depending on the apparatus. The ladder truck’s probably going to be 12 to 16 weeks.

Robert Sanchez: That’s crazy. In the fire service, if you’re realizing that you need a truck tomorrow that’s too late, right?

Lt. George Asi: Yeah. You kind of have to have a little bit of forethought and some planning going on there. Yeah. If you realize your truck took a dump and it’s got a catastrophic failure, you’re behind the curve ball there a little bit. There’s manufacturers that have trucks that are-

Robert Sanchez: Commercial chassis.

Lt. George Asi: Yeah. Demo trucks that they built for demonstration stuff like that that they can pick up fairly easy, but it’s not going to be what you want. It’s not going to be exactly what you want. That’s the thing that with us we’re building everything to how we want things built, specifically to how we do business here in Bernalillo County.

Robert Sanchez: Right. When the pictures, and you’re showing the progress on there, so that’s firefighters can go to the website and see that. When it’s complete, you go to Appleton, Wisconsin again and you look at the finished product?

Lt. George Asi: We do. We look at the finished product. We basically have our spec sheet is probably 16 pages long. We go from item by item and there’s five of us that go, we usually take a mechanic. If not, we take a mechanic from the dealership that we bought the truck from, from Siddons Martin. Their lead mechanic will go with us just to make sure that they have built the truck to our exact specifications. We find stuff in there all the time that is not right or it didn’t come out quite as good as we wanted it to come out.

Robert Sanchez: You can change it.

Lt. George Asi: We can change it. Obviously comes with a cost. Anytime you change anything it’s going to cost you some money, but Pierce and Siddons Martin have been really, really good about working with us on some of those changes that maybe we forgot or maybe that Pierce just overlooked or it wasn’t clear enough in the description of the specifications of how to do things.

Yeah. We’ll go over there and we’ll go item by item. We’ll look at every piece of the apparatus. We look at the paint. We look at the graphics. We look at moldings, screws. If we find screws loose or stuff that’s not fastened correctly, we write it up. It’s a punch list and at the end of the inspection, we give that punch list to Pierce. We go through everything. We show them exactly what we didn’t think was right and they go back and fix it.

They usually fix it within a week to two weeks depending if it’s major. It’s like paint smudges or paint runs or scratches in the paint, or screws that are falling off from the headliner. One time we forgot to put the visor on the engine and Pierce went halfers on it with us. It’s a $4,000 piece. We ended up paying $2,000 for it. That kind of stuff, they work back and forth with us. Obviously they want us to have exactly what we want and they want us to be happy. They really do go above and beyond with their customer service to make us happy.

Robert Sanchez: When you’re doing the punches that you’re talking about, it ain’t a field day. It’s an all day thing. You’re there all day long.

Lt. George Asi: Yeah.

Robert Sanchez: You’re on creepers and everything, right?

Lt. George Asi: Exactly. We’re usually there from 9:00 to 5:00 in the afternoon and we’re underneath the truck. We’re getting up close and personal with the driver train. Everything, the springs. We look at everything. What’s nice with Pierce is when they do your frame rails, it’s an all custom truck. When they cut the frame rails, every single hole is put there for a reason. When you go through that final inspection and if there’s a hole and it doesn’t have a bolt or a wire or something running through it, there’s something’s wrong.

Robert Sanchez: Oh yeah.

Lt. George Asi: They’re missing something. It’s real easy to kind of go through that process and see that something’s not right or it’s not working, it’s out of place or whatever. Yeah. That’s one little thing that we look at is the frame rails. If there’s a hole that’s open we need to know why there’s that hole open because they tell us in the build process they don’t put holes in the frame unless there needs to be a hole there for a specific reason.

Robert Sanchez: Right. That’s crazy. It’s crazy. You start to think about it. I think this is interesting, fire fighters and the general public, because you just don’t go down to the local dealer and pick up a truck like you would your personal truck or car. It’s a big process and it takes over a year in the making, correct? I mean, the fact that there is an apparatus replacement plan, that’s definitely needed. Most departments should have that.

Lt. George Asi: Yeah. They should have an idea when they need to replace their apparatus. For us, again, NFPA has a guideline of when you should replace apparatus. They say that they should be removed from service after 10 years. We’ve been behind on our plan because of funding, but we’re getting caught up. What Bernalillo County has done is when the plan is finally caught up, the vehicle will be in frontline service for seven years. At that seven year mark it’ll get replaced by a new vehicle. That vehicle will go into the pool-

Robert Sanchez: Spare.

Lt. George Asi: A spare status. They’ll keep it as a spare for up to three years. Like I said, we’re behind in our process, so our trucks have been on the front line for 10, 11 years and then they go to the pool fleet for four or five years. That’s a credit to our fleet, our mechanics. They do a great job. They’re very short staffed at the time now but they do a great job of keeping our fleet on the road and maintained.

You and I have traveled the country and I’ve had opportunities to talk to other logistics folks while we’re on trips and I think we’re pretty fortunate that we have a pretty decent program with our mechanics and our vehicle replacement plan. Not only that, I think our facilities are much better than a lot of departments throughout the country. Our guys are kind of spoiled in a way that they all have their own bunk room. They have their private space. I’ve been to departments, we’ve visited departments in Philadelphia that have dormitories. EL Paso, we went to visit their newest station, it was all dormitories, 30 some guys in one room. It’s interesting.

Robert Sanchez: Right. Yeah. You’re absolutely right, man. Just traveling the country, you just get to see how fortunate we are. Some of the fire stations it’s just a funding thing. Some of these fire stations back east, you’re seeing fire houses that some of them are over 100 years old and made out of brick. They look at them and they keep them up to date as much as they can. We’re definitely lucky.

Lt. George Asi: Yeah. For sure.

Robert Sanchez: I was curious, too, once you do the finished, you guys go down there the second time for the apparatus anyways, and you look at it and it’s all done, how do they ship the truck back?

Lt. George Asi: As a buyer, you have the option to either get it shopped down to you or driven down to you. We choose to have it get driven down to us for the mere reason is if there’s any bugs that they come up during that time, that’s on them, because we haven’t taken delivery of it.

Robert Sanchez: Right.

Lt. George Asi: If we were to take delivery of it from there, because I get questions from guys on the field, why can’t we just drive them down and take them to our facilities? Basically, if you take delivery at the factory, you’re responsible from once you leave that factory-

Robert Sanchez: Even if it’s in an accident, if it breaks, anything.

Lt. George Asi: Exactly.

Robert Sanchez: That makes sense.

Lt. George Asi: Any mechanical issues that arise during that time. We had Engine 40 got in an accident on the way down here that I-

Robert Sanchez: I didn’t know that.

Lt. George Asi: A lot of people didn’t know that. Pierce ended up having to fix that front end. The bumper was all messed up. They had to do some painting ad stuff like that. It was in a minor accident.

Robert Sanchez: Yeah. Okay.

Lt. George Asi: That’s the reason that it gets driven down here to Albuquerque to Siddons Martin Emergency Group. They look it over. They do a once over and they change the fluids. That’s part of the deal that we have with them. Once that’s all done, we go back and do another inspection at Siddons Martin to see if there’s any more scratches that came up during the travel. We do another little inspection.

If there’s things we find, we make them take care of it before we take possession of it. That sometimes takes two weeks to a month and a half to two months to get it from the dealership for us. At that point, we take possession of it, we take it to our fleet, and then we start adding the equipment, radios, because we get the radios installed, but we don’t get them hooked up. We got to get the radios hooked up, programmed, all the other equipment that goes on the truck. We buy a truck, we buy it and then we buy all the equipment that goes on that truck. When you get a truck, you get all new equipment on there, except for the air packs.

Robert Sanchez: Right.

Lt. George Asi: Most of the equipment is brand new. We put all that equipment on there. That way when we put it out, it’s a brand new truck, brand new equipment.

Robert Sanchez: Ready to go.

Lt. George Asi: Ready to go. Yeah.

Robert Sanchez: That’s great man. Shoot. Thank you for being on. You know we have a Vince Trujillo, our cohost, he’s in our community segment. Hey, Vince. How you doing, brother?

Vince Trujillo: Good man. Thanks. Actually this is pretty interesting to hear all of this going on. As a member of the public, I don’t even understand how the whole firetruck purchasing process works. It was so interesting to hear that. I was going to ask the question, but you said the price tag, $500,000 plus, even over $1 million.

Lt. George Asi: Right.

Vince Trujillo: When it comes to custom made vehicles, what people don’t understand is you probably have more experience messing with high price custom automobiles than the average rich private owners.

Lt. George Asi: I don’t know. There’s some pretty crazy stuff out there. Yeah. They’re very expensive pieces of equipment.

Robert Sanchez: How much are the ladder trucks cost?

Lt. George Asi: Our ladder truck came in at $1.25 million.

Robert Sanchez: Okay.

Vince Trujillo: That’s because it has a ladder, it has all kinds of other features on it.

Lt. George Asi: Yeah. Obviously it’s got 105 foot ladder, a lot of hydraulics in it, it’s still go at pump, it’s still go water, and then just the chassis, it’s got to be a bigger, beefier chassis to hold all that weight.

Vince Trujillo: Yeah.

Lt. George Asi: That truck I think is coming in at about 78,000 pounds.

Vince Trujillo: Wow.

Lt. George Asi: Pretty heavy piece of equipment.

Vince Trujillo: You don’t want to run into that thing in the intersections.

Lt. George Asi: I guarantee you-

Vince Trujillo: You’re going to move.

Lt. George Asi: It’s not going to move.

Vince Trujillo: Before it does. You were talking about the customizations. You said the guys going backwards and stuff. It immediately got me thinking, because I think I saw movies where you have people actually looking into, they have a mirror for the guys going backwards, right? Explain to me, what do they have?

Lt. George Asi: They don’t have anything. Our department doesn’t have anything like that. We’ve transitioned to, because a lot of the guys are complaining that they’re getting carsick or they can’t see the scene as they’re rolling up to it. We’ve made the trans … I think this is our first truck that has all forward facing seats.

We’ve had trucks in the past that have both rear and forward facing seats. We build the trucks to be able to grow within the 10 years. We, right now, only have three man engines, so we have four positions in the truck. Before we had volunteers so there was a chance that we would have four or five guys on a truck. They built five, six man trucks. Some of those seats were rear facing, some were forward facing. Most of the guys would elect to sit down on the forward facing seats.

Vince Trujillo: Is it first come first serve, or you’re a backwards facing guy and that’s your station.

Lt. George Asi: If you’re the firefighter, if all you have is rear facing seats, then you’re sitting-

Vince Trujillo: It’s whatever, you jump on and the guys that get sick, they want to get forward facing.

Lt. George Asi: Yeah.

Vince Trujillo: Now you’re doing forward facing seats on that too. Is old school, having rear facing seats, is it just an old tradition?

Lt. George Asi: I guess it was tradition but it was a matter of the circumstance.

Vince Trujillo: The technology.

Lt. George Asi: The technology. Yeah.

Vince Trujillo: At that time.

Lt. George Asi: There used to be all open cabs or partially open cabs. There was only places to put seats in so many places. Most of the time you had to sit back to back with the driver or the officer and that’s the way it was. There was no other room to put other seats. There was just no space for it. One of my first engines that I rode on was one like that. I rode backwards for a couple months when-

Vince Trujillo: How was it?

Lt. George Asi: It was cool. It was a partially open cab. We had a covering but no door. It was just steps.

Vince Trujillo: I don’t think I’ve even seen that.

Robert Sanchez: When I started the fire service, that’s where trucks were. It’s not too, too long ago where apparatus firetrucks, they had to sit outside basically and you smelled exhaust and you were hot from the sun, no air condition.

Lt. George Asi: Yeah.

Vince Trujillo: Was that a budget thing, do you think?

Robert Sanchez: That’s the way fire trucks were made back then.

Vince Trujillo: Made it so you could get in and out quickly or something?

Robert Sanchez: Yeah. You had a little yellow bar right in front of you and you flip it up, and you get out of the truck.

Vince Trujillo: I don’t think I remember seeing that.

Robert Sanchez: That was here for only here for a couple years when they had those trucks, but yeah.

Vince Trujillo: This was 90’s maybe or something?

Lt. George Asi: Yeah.

Robert Sanchez: Early 2000’s.

Vince Trujillo: 2000’s.

Lt. George Asi: Yeah.

Vince Trujillo: Okay.

Robert Sanchez: Yeah. 90’s, huh?

Lt. George Asi: Before that, yeah. Obviously older than that. I’ve talked about the NFPA stuff. That was part of the NFPA standard that changed because they were seeing higher incidences in firefighters getting cancer and they were attributing that partially to the diesel exhaust. That’s why they went from an open cab design to a more closed cab design to help with firefighter safety.

Vince Trujillo: Yeah. That’s interesting because I don’t even remember those trucks.

Robert Sanchez: Do you remember the firefighters standing on the tail board?

Vince Trujillo: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ve seen that.

Robert Sanchez: That wasn’t too, too long ago. That was still in the 90’s.

Vince Trujillo: That’s no longer. They don’t allow that.

Robert Sanchez: No. It’s against the law. Yeah.

Vince Trujillo: Did people get hurt, I guess?

Robert Sanchez: Yeah. People got killed, hurt.

Vince Trujillo: Wow. Imagine that. You’re going and doing your job and how’d you die? Fell off the truck, of all the ways that firefighters can get injured. Geez. What happens to the old trucks?

Lt. George Asi: The old trucks-

Vince Trujillo: You guys sell them and then make money back on that?

Lt. George Asi: No. Typically, we don’t do that. One of the other nice things about Bernalillo County is we’re the second largest department in the state, and we’re fortunate that we have a budget that we can replace apparatus on a yearly basis. When our apparatus is replaced it goes into a spare pool. If a truck goes down for maintenance issues or has a break and needs to get replaced by one of the older trucks, it gets put back in service as a temporary basis until the new one gets fixed.

Once we’re done with them in the float pool, then Bernalillo County I think prides themselves in helping other people. We’re the bigger brother that we want to help smaller departments grow. We’ve done a lot of donations of our apparatus. Most recently we donated one of our old engines to Cuba Volunteer Fire Department. They’ve been a recipient of our apparatus before. They’ve taken possession of I think two other apparatuses from Bernalillo County. Bernalillo County used to be yellow and white before we went to the black over red. You go to Cuba and you see the yellow engines over there. It’s like I remember that truck. They’re repurposed for other departments who don’t have a whole lot of money. They can’t afford to buy a half million dollar piece of apparatus. We give them the truck for $1. They basically buy it for $1.

Vince Trujillo: Do you guys get some benefit to that? Write off or anything?

Lt. George Asi: You know, that’s questionable. Obviously the county I’m sure gets some sort of a tax write-off. I think what we get more out of is that we know we’re helping a department that’s not as fortunate as us and that they’re providing a service to their community that they would otherwise not have the ability to do so. I think helping our little brothers out and giving them a piece of equipment that’s going to help them in their communities support them, I think that’s a greater gift than any dollar amount I think for us anyway.

Vince Trujillo: That’s great to hear that. My last question, though, is both of you mentioned something about you get custom, you could put an ice cream machine in there if you wanted to. What’s the craziest thing you’ve heard people putting in the fire machine?

Lt. George Asi: In the firetruck?

Vince Trujillo: You don’t have to mention which one it was.

Lt. George Asi: You know.

Vince Trujillo: Was there anything weird like a beer cooler or anything?

Lt. George Asi: I’ve seen refrigerators inside the cabs of the trucks. What else? Just locations where compartments go, it’s just crazy because you wouldn’t think that … One of my first trips to Appleton, and it’s cool because we usually get to walk the production floor and see what other people are doing. That’s where we get a lot of our ideas of what we want to do.

One of the apparatus I saw, and it was a four wheel drive apparatus. Bernalillo County has four four wheel drive apparatus in the east mountain areas. They sit really high. What I noticed on one of them that I was like oh wait, I was walking by and I saw in the front wheel well, because there’s probably, what? I would say 28 to 36 inches of space between the wheel and-

Robert Sanchez: I would say so.

Lt. George Asi: Somebody thought of the idea of putting a compartment in that wheel well.

Vince Trujillo: Wow.

Lt. George Asi: It was a giant wheel well, but it was curved on the bottom and they put a compartment there. I thought that was a-

Vince Trujillo: Making use of all the space.

Lt. George Asi: Pretty unique use of the space. Just something that you wouldn’t … I since have never seen anything like that.

Vince Trujillo: You’ve never seen an ice cream machine.

Lt. George Asi: I’ve seen coffee makers.

Vince Trujillo: Ah, yeah

Lt. George Asi: Not ice cream machines. Coffee makers for sure inside the trucks.

Vince Trujillo: Thanks so much, George, I appreciated having you on. That was pretty cool-

Lt. George Asi: Thanks for having us.

Vince Trujillo: Enlightening, see how that process works, which is not a small process.

Lt. George Asi: Yeah.

Vince Trujillo: I appreciate that.

Robert Sanchez: Thank you very much, George, Lieutenant Asi from Bernalillo County Fire Department. Thanks for coming on the show. I appreciate all the information about apparatus. Again, it’s hard to, as the general public, but even as a firefighter, I mean I never knew things where you don’t realize all the work that you guys, your division puts into to making the trucks.

Lt. George Asi: Yep.

Robert Sanchez: Again, man. Signing off from Firefighter Kingdom, your host Robert Sanchez, cohost Vince Trujillo, producer. Don’t forget to listen to us on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and-

Vince Trujillo: Firefighter Kingdom.

Robert Sanchez: Firefighter Kingdom Facebook.

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