firestrike
01-14-2005, 09:45 PM
Lyrics by Jethro Tull
Chief Randy was in charge of this fiasco at the time of my arrival. While not the most personable guy I have ever met, he wasn’t all that bad compared to the offspring he would produce down the road a couple of years later... Basically he was an old timer. When you met him outside of the job he was a really great guy but on the job it was another story. Just the mention of the word “union” would turn him 5 sheets of red. Only Monkey Boy gets redder than Randy. Even asking this guy for paper towels would put him into a tizzy and you on his sh!t list. Nothing was better than the time Mike Doll asked Randy for a Federal government claim form. Randy of course exploded and demanded to know what for. So Mike told him when he went to wash his teeth the water was so hot that his bristles on his tooth brush fused together. Let’s just say that Mike never received any invitations from Randy for anything.
On Thursdays it was the chief’s long night and nothing beats seeing Randy stir that cholesterol drink for 20 minutes before drinking it in the afternoon. Randy’s management style was more likened to that of a dictator (Mussolini) than a leader and I cannot blame him for that totally. Realistically all those chiefs from that era were like that and we become products of our environment. The one fault I found with Randy was his total revulsion and humiliation of Bob French, but to Randy that skeeve Tommy was always a great guy, I don’t get it? Maybe his high cholesterol level was affecting his brains thought process? The way in which he treated Bob was downright rude and undeserving. He purposely set out to make that man a fool of in front of everybody regardless of rank or if they were in the department or not. He was an equally opportunity offender towards Bob. To this day one of the best retirement parties we have ever had was for Bob French at No.2 station.
Then there was Jack. He was an ok guy as well. I loved to see Willie and Louie get into it with him. I remember Willie on many occasions giving jack the business and I said to him “hey, you don’t have to respect the man but at least respect his rank.” Well like the old saying goes that what comes around goes around. Just a couple of weeks ago 35B gave Willie what he use to give to jack and I was assumed to say the least but Willie wasn’t at all. Jack was a fair guy as long as you did what was expected of you and didn’t give him any grief. If you caused him trouble or grief than he would get you eventually, especially if it took you 3 hours to get a half gallon of ice cream. But Jacks management style back then is what is taught in management schools today. Nothing beat the time Bob Lynn made up that chart to show jack his annual leave use for the past two years. The point he was trying to make was his usage that year was better than the year before, but jack didn’t bite on that hook. That’s how he got the nickname USA Today, because every morning they have a chart or graft showing something of interest that has been measured. And Willie did ole Lynn in. Willie actually convinced this guy to sign his 50 before Randy fired him. So he did, and they were going to punish him for leave abuse but they were not going to fire him. Everyone talked about Jack and his lack of incident command knowledge or presence, let me state this right now, “No one ever wore a fire helmet over there shoulder better than this man.”
I leave you with this: I don’t want to polarize the “cruise”…
Chief Randy was in charge of this fiasco at the time of my arrival. While not the most personable guy I have ever met, he wasn’t all that bad compared to the offspring he would produce down the road a couple of years later... Basically he was an old timer. When you met him outside of the job he was a really great guy but on the job it was another story. Just the mention of the word “union” would turn him 5 sheets of red. Only Monkey Boy gets redder than Randy. Even asking this guy for paper towels would put him into a tizzy and you on his sh!t list. Nothing was better than the time Mike Doll asked Randy for a Federal government claim form. Randy of course exploded and demanded to know what for. So Mike told him when he went to wash his teeth the water was so hot that his bristles on his tooth brush fused together. Let’s just say that Mike never received any invitations from Randy for anything.
On Thursdays it was the chief’s long night and nothing beats seeing Randy stir that cholesterol drink for 20 minutes before drinking it in the afternoon. Randy’s management style was more likened to that of a dictator (Mussolini) than a leader and I cannot blame him for that totally. Realistically all those chiefs from that era were like that and we become products of our environment. The one fault I found with Randy was his total revulsion and humiliation of Bob French, but to Randy that skeeve Tommy was always a great guy, I don’t get it? Maybe his high cholesterol level was affecting his brains thought process? The way in which he treated Bob was downright rude and undeserving. He purposely set out to make that man a fool of in front of everybody regardless of rank or if they were in the department or not. He was an equally opportunity offender towards Bob. To this day one of the best retirement parties we have ever had was for Bob French at No.2 station.
Then there was Jack. He was an ok guy as well. I loved to see Willie and Louie get into it with him. I remember Willie on many occasions giving jack the business and I said to him “hey, you don’t have to respect the man but at least respect his rank.” Well like the old saying goes that what comes around goes around. Just a couple of weeks ago 35B gave Willie what he use to give to jack and I was assumed to say the least but Willie wasn’t at all. Jack was a fair guy as long as you did what was expected of you and didn’t give him any grief. If you caused him trouble or grief than he would get you eventually, especially if it took you 3 hours to get a half gallon of ice cream. But Jacks management style back then is what is taught in management schools today. Nothing beat the time Bob Lynn made up that chart to show jack his annual leave use for the past two years. The point he was trying to make was his usage that year was better than the year before, but jack didn’t bite on that hook. That’s how he got the nickname USA Today, because every morning they have a chart or graft showing something of interest that has been measured. And Willie did ole Lynn in. Willie actually convinced this guy to sign his 50 before Randy fired him. So he did, and they were going to punish him for leave abuse but they were not going to fire him. Everyone talked about Jack and his lack of incident command knowledge or presence, let me state this right now, “No one ever wore a fire helmet over there shoulder better than this man.”
I leave you with this: I don’t want to polarize the “cruise”…