A LITTLE OFF BASE

  • Published
  • By Deb Phelps
Via e-mail --  In reference to the "Torch Talk" letter called "Fat Chance" in your November/December 2007 issue (page 2), I think the writer is a little off base. While size and strength certainly wouldn't hurt, those are not the only criteria that make good firemen ... or women. I'm sure that a lot of people wouldn't say 5-foot-3 Mugsy Bogues was a perfect fit for the National Basketball Association. Yet, he still carved a highly successful career in the "land of the giants" ... and made millions doing it, I might add. My point is he had other attributes besides height that proved to be valuable -- heart, smarts, court vision and mad speed.

While Airman 1st Class Erin Metzger (from the story "The Fire Within," September/October issue, page 12), didn't have great size, she obviously had great desire, work ethic, courage and other intangibles that can't be measured in inches. If I'm trapped in a burning building, I'd want her to be one of the firefighters trying to rescue me because I can tell there is no quit in her.

She may not appear physically to be the prototypical firefighter, but she does have the qualities that describe another type of person ... hero.

Thanks for a great story on the firefighting school at Goodfellow Air Force Base, Texas, and for the glimpse at Airman Metzger's struggle and ultimate triumph in becoming an Air Force firefighter.