Of Course

More so because of my dad, I'm sure.

I have pictures of some of the fires he went to. I've heard some of the stories he's told about his days at work. My mom actually told him to stop telling her about his day because she couldn't handle all the gore. I never heard the really "bad" stuff...

I do remember him telling me what happens when you crash a motorcycle... You're not really wearing protection and if you get dragged on the road, your skin basically turns inside out and the firemen have to come and scrape you off the road.

And the story about the bride.... A groom and his bride were driving home after the wedding. They were drunk. The groom was preoccupied with the idiot that cut him off and wasn't paying attention to the road. He crashed into a tree. The other guy stopped to help, I guess. The groom, now irate, gets out of his car to start a fight with the other guy. My dad and the other firemen get there. Two go to break up the fight. The others go to the bridge. She crashed through the windshield and was decapitated. Her husband didn't even notice... My dad had to go get the head of the poor woman... 

I know some people think firemen do it because they want to be called heroes. Or for other lame reasons like that. Yeah, some of them do. But they never last long. The ones that do it because they like the job, and it's just a job, don't consider themselves heroes. It's... just a job.

So, yeah. I do admire firefighters. I'm proud of them, for what they do. I'm proud of my dad for what he did... I couldn't deal with what they do... I doubt most of us could...