Jason Hoevelmann's Page

I am one who has had my share of frustrations with the fire service at times.  There were times that it would have been really easy to sit back and just glide into a recliner and drift away into the land of complacency and doing as little as possible.  

It would have been real easy to become one of those guys that learned all I needed to know at the academy and on the job.  I could have been the one who wears the t-shirts and puts the stickers in the back window of my truck to…

The fire service has so many different sayings and mottos that they become cliche and difficult for newer firefighters to truly understand what they mean.  But, more than just saying these slogans and even understanding, in some cases we need to make sure we act on those mantras.

One of the sayings that I hear a great deal of and say myself is "do the right thing."  For some of us we probably take for granted that the persons we are telling this to know what it means to do that.  …

I remember being a young, volunteer firefighter and learning as much as I could from whoever would share.  Being in a small, mostly rural department, and with no social media--only the monthly trade journals---I depended on the more senior guys around me to pass on what they had learned and I always assumed that they knew what they were talking about.

It didn't matter what the topic was, I seemed to always come away with something I didn't know before hand.  The one thing that I can…

As progressive, engaged and enthusiastic firefighters, we all took classes, trained hard and created an image of the way we would be when we got promoted. We would do this and we would do that, damn the consequences and those we might piss off. But, when we got there, it may not have all gone as planned. Hmmm.....did you ever wonder why?

I have seen this happen over the years and it has happened to me during my first years as a young company officer and later on as a chief officer,…

We know we don't spend every waking hour at the firehouse running calls or training or working out. There typically is some down time during your shift or rotation.

As a prospective officer candidate and informal leader, what you do with your down time can make a huge difference in how you are perceived and what separates you from others interested in promoting up.

I have seen firefighters spend hours on end looking on the internet for cars, car parts, campers, motorcycles and…