Today is the 4 year anniversary of my deployment to north eastern Texas for Hurricane Rita relief operations. To be honest, its hard to believe that 4 years have actually passed since then. I remember things that happened on that deployment as if they occurred yesterday… but there are also times it does seem as if it was decades ago. Leaving the night of September 22, 2005 for parts unknown was as close as you could come to mixing adrenalin with fear and fusing it with NOS.

The first 27 hours of our deployment was spent traveling 1,253 miles on the roadways of I95, I495, I66, infamous I81 with its population of suicidal deer, I40, I640, I75, I24, I59, I459, I12, and I20 before being sheltered by Chief Rose Shaifer and the Vicksburg Fire Department in Mississippi as Hurricane Rita was making landfall directly ahead of us. I know that I for one was grateful for their hospitality in both the use of their firehouse to bunk in and for the hospitality of the Ameristar Casino in providing us with dinner that night and breakfast the next day.

Some people may find it extremely odd or out of place for a municipal fire department would aid a private EMS service. In the face of unknown odds and challenges, there is a certain camaraderie amongst First Responders irregardless of their service type. It’s important to remember that in the end, we are all doing this for the same basic reason.

Helping others when they are unable to help themselves.