[Over the next several weeks we will feature content related to “Growth in the Wildland Fire Service.” The content published here will also be featured in the Spring 2019 Issue of Two More Chains.]

Military personnel training on how to properly use hand tools.

By Travis Dotson

Andrew Addey is a Forest Training Officer, a recent position he landed after ten years on the Sawtooth Interagency Hotshot Crew.

I chatted with Andrew a while back and our conversation covered a lot of ground in a meandering fashion. Kind of like following me on a hike. I’m not very efficient.

Although we wandered a bit, we seemed to circle around a general theme: Growth. Many aspects of our job are slowly but steadily improving.

Listen to the conversation. We chat about the following topics:

• Growing our perspective on the job of a Line Officer.
• Expanding our training beyond the “traditional” courses.
• The San Antonio Fire Hit by Tree and Medical Extraction.
• Preparing more than just radio drivers for emergency command roles.
• Lessons from watching the military prepare for wildfire assignments.

Take a moment to plug in. You might run into something useful if you listen all the way through.

Link to podcast in Podbean: https://wildfirelessons.podbean.com/e/dotsonaddey/