Military Helicopter Makes Emergency Landing at Md. School

A spokesman for Joint Base Andrews says an Air Force helicopter made an emergency landing at a middle school about eight miles south of the base. 

Staff Sgt. Chad Strohmeyer says the helicopter landed shortly after 10 a.m. at Gwynn Park Middle School in Brandywine.

He says the helicopter's transmission warning light came on, and pilots are instructed to land immediately under those circumstances. 

A pilot and co-pilot were the only people on board, and no one was injured.

The helicopter is known as a Huey and is used for medical transport. It was inspected and flew back to the base Monday afternoon.

Published at 4:48 PM EDT on Aug 29, 2016

Source: Military Helicopter Makes Emergency Landing at Md. School | NBC4 Washington http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Military-Helicopter-Makes-Emergency-Landing-at-Md-School-391614881.html#ixzz4J0dJlJ7o 

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Five Sheppard Firefighters to compete in worldwide fire challenge

SHEPPARD AIR FORCE BASE, TX, UNITED STATES
08.25.2016
Story by Senior Airman Kyle Gese
82nd Training Wing /PA

Fire Captain Mark Deboe and Firefighters Milo Gardea, Matthew Rader, Mark Veenstra and Francisco Garibaldi, competed in the regional Firefighter Challenge in Sulphur Springs, Texas.

The challenge consisted of climbing a 5-story tower, hoisting, chopping, dragging hoses and rescuing a life-sized, 175-pound mannequin as they race against the clock which tested the overall dexterity, fortitude and willpower of the competitors.

According to the Firefighter Combat Challenge website, each year this challenge has attracted people from all over the world to compete and is now expanding to countries like Canada, New Zealand, Germany, Argentina, Chile, and South Africa. Their goal is to encourage firefighter fitness and display the profession’s rigorous tasks and encounters to the public.

Historically the challenge dates back to 1976 when a criterion task test was employing five commonly performed or highly critical fireground evolutions. In 1991 that test turned into the challenge we have today. After all testing, the results of the laboratory fitness measures were statistically correlated against the performances. This landmark study demonstrated a high correlation between personal fitness and job performance.

“This competition involves challenges similar to that we face in our job, but at a faster pace,” said David Mounsey, 82nd Civil Engineering Squadron fire chief. “You've really got to be at the top of your game to compete. It requires you to be physically fit and these guys have been preparing themselves for months.”

Sheppard’s team lined up at the start of the challenge at the base of a tower, where they carried a 42-pound hose load and cover to the top and deposited it into a container. They then hoisted a 42-pound donut roll hose to the top of the tower and deposit into a container after clearing the railing at the top. Once finished, competitors used a Keiser Force Machine, a chopping simulator, to drive a 160-pound sled a distance of five feet using a 4-kilogram mallet and would progress to the hose advance. The next task involved navigating a 140-foot slalom course, dragging a charged hose a distance of 75 feet and eliminating targets with the water stream. Lastly, competitors lifted and dragged a 175-pound mannequin backwards a distance of 106 feet.

At any time, competitors may incur penalties that add to their course completion time. Some of these penalties include 10 seconds for failure to advance the hose 75 feet, five seconds per misstrike on the Keiser Force Machine or 10 seconds for standing on the hose pack.

Three of Sheppard’s firefighters competed individually in this challenge finishing with times of 2:41 for Deboe, 3:43 for Garibaldi and 3:20 for Veenstra.

Veenstra also participated in a tandem with another firefighter at the event, finishing with a time of 2:08. Together, their five-man team finished with a time of 1:41 in the relay elimination challenge, qualifying them to participate in the worldwide Firefighter Combat Challenge event in Montgomery, Alabama, from Oct. 24-29, 2016.

“It was an awesome experience,” Deboe said. “The challenge was hard, but we enjoyed it. It was fun and exciting and there was a lot of adrenaline. We feel really good about qualifying for the worldwide event, which is our second year being able to qualify. As a team, we are getting better year-by-year and bettered our time by 10 seconds.”

As a means of celebration, Sheppard’s fire department plans to host a burger-burn in mid to late September which will help fund their trip to the competition.

“This is an international competition,” Mounsey said. “There are some DoD organizations that participate, but I think it’s a great way to promote the Air Force and what we have to offer. It’s a tough competition, so to be able to compete in an international event is a huge honor. I’m proud of our team and I look forward to them bringing home the gold.”

The Sheppard fire department has historically supported sending firefighters to this competition by hosting various events, like the burger burn, to help fund their trip which is paid out of pocket by those who participate. Their team has also established a “go fund me” page to help offset their costs to travel and participate in the international competition.

To learn more about the Firefighter Combat Challenge, visit their website at www.firefighterchallenge.com/ or their blog http://firefighterchallenge.blogspot.com/. You can also stay updated with the Sheppard fire department by visiting their public Facebook group at www.facebook.com/groups/135180771210

Blau was an Air Force firefighter by day and piano player by night

By Carmina Danini, For the Express-News 

Published 6:24 pm, 

Thursday, August 25, 2016

Ira Leonard “Lennie” Blau, who was a fire chief with the U.S. Air Force and played the piano at clubs at night, died on Aug. 19. He was 91.

Blau had pneumonia and heart problems, said his son David Blau.

Stationed with the U.S. Coast Guard in the Virgin Islands during World War II, Blau later served with the Air Force where he attained the rank of senior master sergeant.

“He worked all the way till he made fire chief, chief of fire protection,” David Blau said. He ended his Air Force career at Randolph AFB and he and his wife, Edna, stayed in San Antonio.

Music and the piano were never far from Blau’s life, even when he was in the military. After his job on base, he would entertain guests at nightclubs in San Antonio, the Houston area and other cities.
When visiting artists needed a pianist, Blau was often asked to accompany them on stage. Two such artists were Elvis Presley and Frankie Valli, the New Jersey native who was once lead singer with the Four Seasons. Presley may not have made much of an impression on Blau because it wasn’t until years later that his family learned he had been pianist for the future King of Rock and Roll.
Blau’s family believes he accompanied Presley in the Houston area, possibly in the mid-1950s when the singer was appearing with his trio.

“We didn’t know dad had played piano for Elvis until about five years ago when my brother Johnny mentioned he’d played for Elvis,” Betsy Blau said. “I was stunned; I had no idea.”
Born in Houston, Blau was the son of parents who had a traveling magic show. He learned to play the piano at a young age but he never learned to read music, his daughter Betsy Blau said. “It didn’t matter because he would hear a song and play it,” she said. Blau could play any kind of music, but “oldies” were his favorites, his son said. Blau’s family recalls many jam sessions at home.
Calling themselves “The Fabulous Fakes,” Blau would be joined by sons David on drums and Johnny on guitar. “There would be a jam session every holiday,” David Blau recalled. “It was really wonderful.”

Ira Leonard “Lennie” Blau
Born: Oct. 23, 1924, in Houston
Died: Aug. 19, 2016, in San Antonio
Preceded by: Two sons, Clyde Temple and Johnny Blau
Survived by: Wife Edna Blau of San Antonio; son David Blau of Smithville, Texas; daughter Betsy Blau of San Antonio; four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Services: Visitation 5 p.m.-9 p.m. Sunday at Sunset North Funeral Home, 910 North Loop 1604 East. Chapel service at 9 a.m. Monday at the funeral home with interment at 10:45 a.m. at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery, 1520 Wurzbach Road.

Fire Department training climbs to new heights

Senior Airman Dallas Gullion, 436th Civil Engineer Squadron firefighter, repels off of a mobile T-tail maintenance stand Aug. 17, 2016, at Dover Air Force Base, Del. Gullion learned rope rescue techniques during a Rescue Technician Course. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Zachary Cacicia)

By Senior Airman Zachary Cacicia, 436th Airlift Wing

Public Affairs / Published August 23, 2016
See More Photos Here

DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. -- Team Dover firefighters now have a new tool for their tool boxes.

A Mobile Travel Team from the Louis F. Garland Department of Defense Fire Academy, Goodfellow Air Force Base, Texas, traveled to Dover AFB to teach a Rescue Technician Course for 12 fire emergency services Airmen August 2016, at Dover AFB.

The class was comprised of two Airmen from the 87th Civil Engineer Squadron assigned to Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, and ten members of the 436th CES.

“This was truly a unique opportunity for our team members,” said John Melvin, 436th CES Fire Department assistant chief of health/safety. “We would also like to thank the instructors from the DoD Fire Academy, Staff Sgt. Matthew Keenan and Staff Sgt. Alex Rodriguez. Through their guidance, we were able to increase the number of trained and certified rescue personnel by 35 percent.”

This 18-day course includes classroom sessions and practical application. This training teaches students proper techniques for low and high angle rescues.

“We would use these techniques if we had a victim that was stuck somewhere high, maybe they were injured and couldn’t use the stairs, or if they were stuck at the bottom of a canyon,” said Staff Sgt. Matthew Keenan, DoD Fire Academy rescue technician instructor.

Some examples on Dover AFB of where this training could be used in the real world include incapacitated workers on the base water tower, fuel cell confined space, communications vaults, base radio tower and light towers on the flight line.

According to Melvin, only about 350 students receive this training annually. Most of them, 290, at the DoD Fire Academy at Goodfellow, AFB, Texas. The remaining 60 are taught by the Mobile Travel Team.

“Fire Emergency Services would like to extend our thanks to the 436th Maintenance Group for allowing us to conduct most of the required course evolutions on the mobile T-Tail maintenance stand,” said Melvin. “This unique piece of equipment is only located at two locations worldwide: Dover AFB and Westover ARB, [Massachusetts]. At no other location in the active duty Air Force will firefighters be able to train from a more stable platform.”

Both the students and the instructors took full advantage of the T-tail stand.

“A typical fire station would allow us to have 10 to 12 on a rooftop, plus the two instructors; that’s 14; it gets cramped, it doesn’t give you a lot of room,” Keenan said. “This stand provides us a multitude of anchor points, a multitude of levels. What we can do really all depends on what we can dream up. We’ve never used a structure like this before. It’s a first.”

This T-tail stand is normally used by the 436th Maintenance Squadron to conduct Major Isochronal Inspections on C-5M Super Galaxy aircraft. The Fire Department coordinated with 436th MSG for the stand’s use while it was not needed for inspection.

“The students have performed well,” Keenan said. ”This is as typical as they go, and this will open up their ability to add more tools to their tool box.”

For the rope rescue portion of the course, the students learned proper repelling, ascending and basket raises. For the basket raises, Senior Airman Shawn Davis, 436th CES firefighter, volunteered to act as a simulated injured victim.

“It was pretty scary, it wasn’t what I imagined it would be,” said Davis. “But it was pretty cool; very different. It’s good to see what a victim would experience and go through, that way when I’m on the line, I have a good perspective of what the victim is experiencing.”

The two students from JB MDL also said they benefited from the training.

“The rescue tech course brought me here,” said Senior Airman Adam Green, 87th CES firefighter. “I work out of their rescue station. One of our trucks has equipment [for] high angle rescue, and I needed this course to learn how to properly use it. This is an amazing class.”

Ten firefighters assigned to the 436th Civil Engineer Squadron and two from the 87th CES assigned to Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J. conduct rope rescue training, part of a Rescue Technician Course, Aug. 18, 2016, atop a mobile T-tail maintenance stand on Dover Air Force Base, Del. A Louis F. Garland Department of Defense Fire Academy Mobile Travel Team travelled to Dover AFB to teach the course. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Zachary Cacicia)

CBIRF Marines, sailors put to the test during Scarlet Response

PERRY, Ga. – Lance Cpl. Dylan Emerson, an aircraft rescue and firefighter specialist with technical rescue platoon, Chemical Biological Incident Response Force, CBIRF, secures chains to lift a concrete barrier in order to extract a casualty, as a part of trench rescue training during Exercise Scarlet Response 2016 at Guardian Centers, Perry, Ga., Aug. 22, 2016. This exercise is the unit’s capstone event testing the skills of each individual CBIRF capability with lane training and culminating with a 36-hour simulated response to a nuclear detonation. CBIRF is an active duty Marine Corps unit that, when directed, forward-deploys and/or responds with minimal warning to a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive (CBRNE) threat or event in order to assist local, state, or federal agencies and the geographic combatant commanders in the conduct of CBRNE response or consequence management operations, providing capabilities for command and control; agent detection and identification; search, rescue, and decontamination; and emergency medical care for contaminated personnel. (Official U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Maverick S. Mejia/RELEASED)

PERRY, GA, UNITED STATES

08.22.2016

Photo by Lance Cpl. Maverick Mejia 

Chemical Biological Incident Response Force (CBIRF)