News

Kan. Firefighters, EMTs Present Flag at Royals Game

Erin Mathews

09/01/2014

Sept. 01--Before the first pitch is thrown when the Kansas City Royals take on the Texas Rangers tonight, four Salina firefighters will take the field.

The Salina Fire Department Honor Guard will be making its second appearance posting the colors in Kauffman Stadium. They have been invited back again Sept. 13 as well.

The first time Salina's firefighters brought in the American flag was at the Aug. 12 game against the Oakland A's.

"It was just an amazing feeling to be out on the field and turn around, and you could just see all the players standing right there," said firefighter/EMT Chad Perez. "It was an awesome experience to be able to be behind the scenes of the game, and everything was really cool."

It was definitely the biggest audience the newly formed honor guard had appeared before.

Cost a concern

Capt. Derrick Herzog said he had been pitching the idea of an honor guard to department superiors for about five years. But cost was a stumbling block.

"I was shooting for the moon, and I was asking when we weren't getting raises and money was tight," Herzog said.

When the Salina Fire Department hosted a statewide fire conference four or five years ago, the color guard from St. John's Military School was asked to present the flag.

However, there was a miscommunication, and the flag bearers arrived a half-hour after the meeting had started, Herzog said.

When the fire department was preparing to host the conference again in April, Herzog said he suggested again that Salina form its own honor guard.

"We go to these things every year, and guess what happens at every other place we go?" he said. "They have their own honor guard to present the colors."

In February -- the month before the conference -- Herzog got his wish.

Training from St. John's

He contacted St. John's again -- this time to see if anyone there would teach firefighters what they needed to know about marching and handling the American flag. Sgt. Geronimo Rivera, who works with the school's drill team and color guard, agreed to help.

Herzog said six black Class A honor guard uniforms were ordered in two sizes, and then he set about looking for firefighters on different shifts who would fit the uniforms and be interested in volunteering their off-duty time to participate. At present, there are a total of nine honor guard members, three on each shift, who rotate appearances. In addition to Herzog and Perez, honor guard members are Lt. Wade Baringer, fire engineer Chris Stansberry, Lt. Kirk Stover, firefighter/paramedic Dave Gardner, firefighter Brady Srna, firefighter/paramedic Kendall Johnson and firefighter/EMT Limber Ibarra.

"To me, it's something we should have here," Johnson said. "It's something that will represent our department in a positive way."

Perez said the honor guard is "a way of honoring our department and honoring firefighters in the area."

He said as the group gets more polished, eventually he hopes they are good enough to participate in a national memorial service for fallen firefighters held annually in Colorado Springs.

Available for funerals, etc.

Department personnel began seeking vendors who could supply special helmets, shiny silver and oak pike poles -- a traditional firefighter tool that serves as a flag pole -- as well as axes, gloves and other elements of the honor guard dress.

"Our initial idea was if there was a line-of-duty death, we wanted the uniform to be plain jane because it would not be about us but about the guy we were burying," Herzog said. "When we present the colors, it's not about us, it's about the flag."

Herzog said the group is available to serve as pallbearers for funerals of current and former firefighters.

"For me, the brotherhood is a pretty big thing, and that's just one more way to honor your brother if something like that were to happen, and we hope it never happens," he said.

Starting from scratch

Herzog said when they first started practicing in the gym at St. John's, the axes and pike poles they would be carrying had not yet arrived.

"We were carrying broom handles and everything else to practice with," he said. "That stuff was way shorter, so then when we got the real poles we were getting them caught in the basketball goals. We were used to it just being a couple of feet above our heads, and now it was way up there."

Rivera said he didn't realize what he was getting into.

"Our boys (at St. John's) at least know how to march when they get to color guard," Rivera said. "Apparently, they don't learn how to march at fire academy. I didn't realize we had to start from there."

He said he worked with the firefighters until they learned to stay in step and keep a straight line. Then he taught them how to turn in unison.

"I tried to make it as simple as I could," Rivera said. "I told them not to worry so much if they were a half-step off or not perfectly shoulder-to-shoulder."

He said the firefighters picked it up fairly quickly.

"You can tell they practice a lot on their own," he said. "That makes a big difference."

Figuring it out

He said there were standard matters of procedure he could teach, such as proper positioning of the American flag, which always leads any other flag. But there were also new things to figure out.

"We use rifles; they use axes," he said. "How do you hold them? How do you salute with an ax? We put our heads together, and said, 'OK, guys, my Army manual doesn't tell you how to hold an ax."

Herzog said he felt sorry for Rivera when he began working with the honor guard. He said guard members met with Rivera twice a week for about three months at first.

"It was, 'OK, today, we're just going to try to march in a straight line with everybody in step,' and then it was, 'OK, now we're going to practice carrying something when you're doing it,'" Herzog said. "We started off just trying to keep it simple so we'd at least look decent doing it, and then we tried to add a little higher step or a little sharper turn."

Gardner joked that they didn't start completely from scratch.

"Most of us knew left from right," he said.

First appearance goes well

Herzog said the honor guard's first appearance at the statewide firefighting conference in April went well, even though the firefighter who had been practicing to carry the American flag went home sick the previous day. He said the night before the conference a replacement was brought in to train in that position, and the colors got posted.

Now he said all honor guard members practice in all positions so they can fill in for each other as needed. They meet at Station 1 every third Thursday to practice.

Since that first appearance, the honor guard has posted colors at a Salina Bombers game and served as pallbearers at the funeral of a former firefighter in Lindsborg, in addition to posting the colors at the Royals games. Herzog said the group also hopes to march in parades.

"The guys have really kind of bought into it, and they're helping out as much as they can," Herzog said. "Every time we go somewhere I hear, 'Oh, you guys looked really good. You did really well,' which makes me feel really good. We're obviously doing something good enough."