Thursday, November 15, 2007

Fireman home from Iraq lands job and a future wife

by Sara Peterson-Davis

The last two years have been busy ones for Jeremy Rodecap.

Since the fall of 2005, the Perry native has spent a year in Iraq working as a firefighter, joined the Jefferson County Ambulance Service as a full-time paramedic, been tapped to become acting operations chief of Jefferson County Fire District No. 3, bought a house, settled down and proposed to his fiancée.

Now as one of his first tasks as acting operations chief, Rodecap is busy calling up former members of the department to see if they can comeback to replace some of the current volunteers who are in or leaving for Iraq in the coming months.

“We’re definitely the only department in the county to have had one let alone three and possibly four members over (in Iraq) all at the same time,” said Rodecap, who has been a volunteer with District No. 3 since he was 18.

Right now, department volunteer firefighter/EMT Alex Watts is working as a civilian contract firefighter in Iraq. David Rodecap, a captain with the fire department and Jeremy’s nephew is serving in Iraq as an Army medic. John Rodecap Jr., Jeremy’s brother, David’s father and the district’s fire chief, is going to Iraq next month to work as a contract firefighter. Jennifer Rodecap, John’s daughter and a firefighter/EMT with District No. 3, is expecting to be deployed some time in 2008 as a medic with her U.S. Army Reserve Unit. Another member of the department, Patrick Gordon has been to Iraq once with his Army National Guard unit and expects to be sent again. Yet another volunteer firefighter/EMT with the department, Michael Shields, is considering a stint as a contract firefighter in Iraq. He is John Rodecap Jr.’s stepson.

The fire district has 27 volunteers on its current roster.

Even with so many volunteers overseas or looking at going over, Rodecap said, fire service in the area won’t suffer.

“Everybody’s been picking up the slack,” he said.

Rodecap, 30, grew up in the fire station at the junction of U.S. 24 and U.S. 59 at Williamstown. His father, John Rodecap Sr., was the district’s fire chief for more than 20 years.

He has worked as a firefighter and paramedic in Independence, Kan., Ottawa and on the Pottawatomie Reservation. Before going to Iraq, Rodecap worked full-time as a paramedic with American Medical Response in Topeka, and part-time with Jefferson County EMS.

No matter where he’s worked, he spent at least some of his free time volunteering with District #3.

“I love serving the county I grew up in,” said Rodecap.

Even as a contract firefighter in Iraq, Rodecap was able to pick up some training and certifications that helped him respond to emergencies back home.

“When we had the plane crash here,” he said, referring to a plane crash earlier in the year, “I knew the questions to ask – ‘Are you hurt? Is the battery off? Is the fuel shut off?”

Rodecap went to Iraq in response to an advertisement in Firehouse Magazine, a trade publication for firefighters and emergency personnel. Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.-based Wackenhut Services Inc. placed the ad. The company fills security, emergency and firefighting services under state and federal government contracts.

Rodecap was stationed at an abandoned Iraqi air base 250 miles from Baghdad. It now serves as a transportation hub for north-central Iraq.

“It would be safe to say we were in the safest base in Iraq,” Rodecap said.

While he was there, Rodecap said there was one drive-up mortar attack but the insurgents were quickly chased down.

“It was western Kansas flat and you could see them coming for miles,” Rodecap said.

The story was different when he traveled to bases in Mosul and Baghdad. Every time he was in Mosul, Rodecap said he could count on a mortar attack. The first one came right before he was to leave for his home base.

“I was in the country for a week and I thought this is not going to be cool for the next year,” he said.

Rodecap compared work at the base to working at a fire station in a small city. Calls ranged from overheating Humvees to grass fires at the firing range.

“It’s like you picked up one of the fire stations in Lawrence and put it on an Army base,” Rodecap said.

With 135-degree temperatures and five percent humidity, grass fires were common. And since water is scarce, Rodecap learned even more about transporting water to the scene. Something firefighters in District No. 3 are faced with all the time in Jefferson County.

He also learned how to take a shower with only four liters of water. Many of the other contract firefighters Rodecap worked with in Iraq were also volunteer firefighters, many from the South. They felt for the Iraqi firefighters who worked calls on the Iraqi portion of the base.

“They were fighting fires in blue jeans, T-shirts and flip-flops,” Rodecap said.

Rodecap and some of the other firefighters were able to get their departments to donate spare equipment to the Iraqis, who were grateful for the donations.

Rodecap was preparing to go back to Iraq last December for his second year when he discovered there was a full-time opening with the Jefferson County Ambulance Service. He was hired and decided not to return to Iraq.

“I came back with all my fingers and toes and no extra holes,” Rodecap said. “Everything worked out. I don’t regret not going back.”

Aside from a new job, Rodecap had also started a relationship with Angela Zimmer, a registered nurse in Topeka. The two had corresponded during his last two months in Iraq. In July, Rodecap proposed to Zimmer. They are getting married in April.

Along with recruiting firefighters for the District No. 3 and planning a wedding, Rodecap is also busy preparing for the delivery of three new trucks for the department – two brush trucks and one new tank truck. As acting operations chief, it’s Rodecap’s responsibility to get the trucks outfitted with paint, decals, lights and equipment for the upcoming fire season, which begins in February.

“For years we’ve struggled with worn out equipment,” Rodecap said. “It’s a great feeling that at the start of the 2008 fire season we’ll have state-of-the-art equipment.”

As acting operations chief, Rodecap is also responsible for coordinating firefighting efforts at fire scenes. For a guy who is used to being in the middle of the action, that’s going to take some adjustment.

“Now I’ll be on the outside and jealous of everyone else,” Rodecap said.