1 This was the sholder patch in use at the time I was first hired in 1969.
2 My first job with CDF/Cal-Fire. (l to r) Jim Stone, Tom Stein, Me, Marty Kosar, Danny King.
3 Ryan Field Airtanker Base Circa 1969
4 These are old WWII TBM Torpedo Bombers
5 B-17 taking off from Ryan Field on the way to a fire.
6 Not my photo but typical action of the day. I think this was taken in the Beamont, CA.
7 The on shift crew at the Orange County Airport. There was a minimum staffing of 14 firefighters daily.
8 This is a brand new engine, a Crown FIrecoach that I took for its first "Code III" run.
9 We still were using open cab fire engines. This one was I think a 1250 gpm.
10 After 6 months as a Firefighter, I was promoted to Fire Apparatus Engineer and this is the first day of my new rank. This was "Crash 1" which was my assigned unit for the first shift.
11 Not long after promoting, I attended the CDF Ione Fire Academy for Fire Apparatus Engineer training. I am the one in the back row just left of center, with nice black hair.
12 Some training we wer doing at the Orange County Airport.
13 A bit of a time-lapse of Eng-27 coming out of the house.
14 Small scale firefighting with a fire on the wash rack and George Lind attacking with a pump can of Light Water.
15 A fire in a propane delivery vehicle, yours truely is backing up the nozzleman. Where are are our turnouts?
16 On scene a hay fire inside a barn.
17 After working in Orange County for 2 years, I transfered to Riverside County and after a while, I transfered to the Temecula Station which is now Rancho California, CA. The two wildland engines were very dirty from a recent fire. Both of them would be "spick and span" including underneath before the end of the day.
18 A photo I took in 1974 which got me some degree of notoriety as a photographer. I remember looking into the camera's viewer and saw that this was a great shot. To this day it stands as my best photo ever.
19 After promoting to Captain and finishing probation, I resigned and moved my family to Oregon, a much too long a story for here. After starving out in Oregon, I sought reinstatement and was hired as a Fire Apparatus Engineer in Butte County. My body was not used to all the pollen from the walnuts and almonds in the area and so I had awful hayfever as you can see from how puffy my face was.
20 Around this time, our shoulder patch design changed twice.
Cal-Fire Career