XjonboyX

Haha yes absolutely. We have one here and it's a huge deal. It raises money for animal shelters in the area. Then all the calendar guys and girls do a runway show. It's a big toodoo. Not for me though! Lol

Obviously we see a lot of what most would consider heroism. So it's hard to say what if anything on the job is heroic. But for me personally traveling to areas that were leveled by tornados always revealed the real heros. Everyday people. I can recall a gentleman, probably 19/20 working the closing shift at the Cracker Barrel about an hour of the disaster zone. We had traveled there one night after working to get some real food. Turns out his own home and his parents home was destroyed in the tornado. He was working all day to help clean and recover his parents belongings and driving an hour to work at Cracker Barrel to keep the income coming. Then back at it again the next day. Those type of people came out of the woodwork. Families flying across the country to volunteer with their children. Teaching them a real world example of compassion and work ethic. Those are the people I want to be like.

I've been in this field since I was dating my now wife of 5 years. According to her it was an odd adjustment. (I've always worked the 24/48 schedule) but after a while a lot of times it seems families enjoy it. I love my schedule. I work more hours than a 40 hour a week person but I only work 10 days a month.

The hard part for a family is missing the holidays, birthdays, events, etc. I've been scheduled to work every major holiday this year. But you make it work. My wife just left the station after dropping by with our 8 month old daughter. She brings her by to take pictures so down the road she can see the holiday I missed but she shared with me anyhow.

If you're looking to get on a legitimate department one day. It would be keep your nose clean. Drive safe, no tickets, don't get arrested, don't ever do drugs. Etc. detailed background checks are done and in my case before a polygraph is performed to check for anything you have in your past that's unsatisfactory.

I assumed this was going to be asked. For me there's two types of "worst" things. Emotional and physical. Emotional isn't what you're looking for because it lacks context. But physical "worst" thing was probably the teenager that was walking to a friends house down the tracks. Had headphones in and somehow didn't hear the train. Double stack freight train. Conductor said even with the brakes we was doing 45 on impact. An example of emotional "worst" actually works well here, even though it's not the worst. Having the parents see your engine on the news and call the station because they saw the news clip and haven't heard from their son. They were screaming and crying demanding we tell them what happened to their son. HIPAA doesn't allow us to disclose that information so even though we knew and they knew we couldn't tell them. They just cried and screamed that we tell them over and over into the phone.