Firefighters Started in Service to Our Country, Now They Serve Pooler

Story by Gail Parsons
Photography by Leidy Lester

From the battlefield to the firehouse, several Pooler firefighters started their service careers in the military. Upon joining the fire department, they found the same camaraderie and brotherhood they had come to appreciate in the Army.

Johnathan Preciado is a veteran of the 75th Ranger Regiment Special Operations. Coming from South Louisiana, he joined the military in 2014, had several deployments and spent his last four years on active duty as a sniper.

Before joining the Army, Preciado worked in the oil fields but felt like he wasn’t going anywhere.

“I wanted to do something more with my life,” he said. “I was 19 years old; the military was the best way to do that. Get out and get some experience and feel like I have a purpose and I’m making a difference.”

The calling to do something more in life also led Alex Aguilar to join the Army in 2011. Originally from Los Angeles, California, Aguilar spent six years in the 75th Ranger Regiment. In that time, he went on six deployments—four conducting direct action raids and two doing reconnaissance. When he got out in 2017, he spent three years as a military contractor before becoming a fireman in Pooler.

“I originally wanted to join out of high school, but I promised my parents I would try college,” he said. “I went and just had a good time and dropped out. I realized it wasn’t for me.”

He followed his dream to join the Army.

“I wanted to feel like I was doing something more important than just serving my own self-interests,” he said. “I wanted to be a part of something bigger than just me.”

Coming from a family of veterans and firefighters, it was no surprise that Daniel Anderson, from Vidalia, Georgia, joined the Army right out of high school. He was attached to the Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Explosive unit with the 101st Chemical Company out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina before joining the Pooler Fire Department.

His father was a sergeant with the Air Force Fire Protection Division and his brother was in the Military Police.

“I grew up in the firehouse,” he said. “My dad was a fireman, my uncle, my granddaddy — it was kind of a family business. I got fire certified when I was in high school, then four years in the military doing kinda the same thing, then returned to it afterwards.”

Preciado and Aguilar may not have been familiar with the firefighting when they got out of the Army but they knew they didn’t want a 9 to 5 job and they missed the military lifestyle.

“The fire service is the closest parallel I could find to my old unit as far as just the banter, camaraderie and brotherhood,” he said. “When I got out, as a civilian I was missing that purpose. I wanted to feel like I was doing something bigger than myself — helping others instead of serving myself.”

Transitioning to the Civilian World

Being part of a team and the similarities to the teamwork he experienced while in the Army is what Aguilar appreciates about being a Pooler firefighter.

“Coming to work is like mini deployments with your buddies,” he said. “It’s the camaraderie and being part of a team again that you had in
the military—it’s the closest you’re gonna get.”

While close, the two careers have some major differences, especially for those firefighters coming from the 75th Rangers.

The difference between infantrymen versus the fire department is the mission, Preciado said.

In the 75th Ranger Regiment, the mission was to destroy the enemy—fire service is about serving the public and civilian sectors.

“Being in the Ranger Regiment, you’re on offense, the whole time,” Aguilar said. “You’re going out after people; being in the fire department you’re on defense the whole time. You’re only going out if someone else is in trouble or needs your help. The big difference is you’re playing defense now instead of offense. But the parallels are the camaraderie, the way you relate to each other, and just the jokes and the sense of humor is all very similar to what you have in the military. It’s kind of a seamless transition for veterans.”

Finding a home in Pooler with a work family helped make the transition from military service into the civilian world easier but it wasn’t without its challenges.

“Coming from the Ranger Regiment, I was expecting this to be easier but I quickly realized what the fire service is—it’s 1,000 simple tasks, but it’s done in the worst conditions possible,” Preciado said. “We trained for that and it was eye-opening.”

As difficult as it is, they said the challenges, especially the mental challenge, are easier for military veterans who tend to be more self-motivated and disciplined. In the Army, soldiers are pushed daily to maintain the standards needed to complete the mission, the mindset is different in the civilian population.

“You can see it in the recruit classes coming in,” Preciado said. “I help with physical training and the guys that are veterans coming in, you can tell this isn’t the hardest thing they’ve ever done and they’re used to the mental aspects. They’re used to getting pushed and they know where their limits are. While the civilian guys that come in, if they haven’t done anything else, you can see that this is the hardest thing they’ve ever done.”

Despite his experience in the military and being a competitive weightlifter, he said Pooler Fire Academy was a gut check.

“We are known in the region to have one of the hardest academies physically,” he said. Whenever I was coming in, getting my butt kicked every day I was like, ‘This is definitely the place I want to be.’ I really appreciate the challenge.”

Rewards, Challenges

 From odd schedules to going from zero to 100 miles an hour, firefighting is a lifestyle as much as it is a job and it’s nothing like what is portrayed on television.

Military and firefighting each provide its own adrenaline rush but it’s delivered differently.

“When we were overseas, you knew every night when you were deployed, you are going out on target and you were conducting a mission,” Aguilar said. “The fire service—it’s definitely not like the movies where there’s big fires all the time. A lot of times, it’s much more mundane or simple medical calls or people just needing some help doing something.”

In a war zone, they knew every day and every night what lay ahead. Now they train and prepare for the unexpected. They must be ready to go from relaxing to 100 miles an hour in an instant.

“In the military, you have CONOPs and briefings; you’re planning a mission for two days before you go on it, you know exactly what’s happening,” he said. “When you show up to work here, you might run 15 calls in one day. You don’t know what you’re gonna get and you don’t know what kind of calls they’re gonna be.”

Having been in the high-stress environment of a war zone 24/7 helped prepare them mentally for the work they do today.

The Pooler firefighters also take medical calls and often arrive on the scene of an emergency before the ambulance does. Sometimes those calls are not all that simple. Ahead of fighting fires, those calls can be some of the most challenging.

“I had a childbirth my first week,” Preciado said. “I’ve been to combat and that was that was nothing compared to seeing a newborn baby born. It was traumatizing a little bit. I was ghost white, my eyes were wide, I panicked—very uncomfortable. Been to war, that’s fine, childbirth got me.”

While there are personal physical and mental challenges the biggest challenge facing the department is recruitment and retention.

Aguilar said it takes the right kind of person. He recalled a conversation he had with a firefighter when he was growing up.

“He said, ‘Being a fireman, you’re never going to be rich. You won’t be poor but you’re not going to be rich.’” He said. “That’s a hard pill for a lot of people to swallow. This is a public service job. It’s a physically demanding job. You spend a third of your life away from your family. You can be very stressed out at times and you’re not going to be rich doing it.”

Regardless, they all agreed the rewards of the job far outweigh the challenges or difficulties. And they encourage any man or woman who wants to devote their lives to the service of others to check out fire service as a potential career.

“I’ve done a lot of stuff in my life as far as work and jobs but this is the first job I ever had where I wake up and I’m happy to come to work,” Preciado said. “I love when my alarm clock goes off in the morning. I wake up and I’m happy to come to work. I love my job and I love the guys I work with.