Fascinating Conversation with A Retired FDNY Firefighter: Manhattan to Montana

• Blog author, Cynthia Ross Tustin.
• Avid Retirement Explorer; especially other people’s retirement!
• My conversation with retired FDNY Firefighter, Kevin Shea
• Posted Friday, January 14th, 2022
• Innisfil, Ontario
• Shout out to Feedspot for naming me #73 on their 2022 Top 100 Retirement Blogs and Websites

New York, New York

Retiring by choice is one thing. But what happens when fate intervenes, and makes the decision for you? What do you do with yourself when you have the best job of your life, it’s kick-ass cool, gloriously all-consuming, and suddenly gone? The answer is obvious of course…you go to Montana! This is the story of my friend Kevin Shea, an FDNY firefighter who was assigned to Rescue One in Manhattan. Kevin and his crew responded to the first World Trade Centre bombing back in 1993.

The long and the short of it is, that Kevin and his crew were sent into the parking structure of the building, they were responding to what came in as a transformer fire. “Black smoke billowing.”  It wasn’t until Kevin woke up in the hospital after falling four and a half stories that he was made aware that it was a terrorist bombing. Sincerely, it would be easier to list the bones he didn’t break than the ones he did! Truly a case of Humpty Dumpty.

He eventually recovered and went back to work. Miraculous! Although nothing was quite the same. Not the exact same job, the exact same operational tempo, or the exact same physicality. The bomb and the injuries made early retirement inevitable. Most of us would be doing anti-inflammatory drug-assisted cartwheels just to have survived.

Some People Are Just Wired Different

My friend Kev isn’t wired that way. Like many FDNY firefighters, their occupation is more than a job. It’s more akin to a calling. The family trade. A passion they take into their days off. And like many of my fire service colleagues, the adrenalin rush you get from saving lives while risking your own can be addictive. You also acquire skill sets that you just can’t use anywhere else.

Now, I could wax poetic about the fire service, or continue extolling the extraordinary daily heroism of FDNY. But let me show you a Kevin Shea, et al, a rescue that sums it all up nicely.

But this post isn’t about Kevin Shea then. This post is about Kevin Shea now. After taking early retirement, Kevin and his wife did the unthinkable for most New Yorkers, they moved from Manhattan to Montana. The pair had taken trips west because he enjoyed fishing and bow hunting, and his wife loved to hike. They fell in love with Kalispell Montana and moved. I’ve seen his backyard photos,  breathtaking!

You Old Goat…Not what You Think!

I saw Kevin in person last July at the Fire Department Instructors Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana. Kevin is a regular contributor to the Fire Engineering event. Chit chat. More chit-chat. Then, “Hey, Kevin, how are you filling your retirement time out there in Montana?” “Goats. I’m raising goats.” Picture my face with a “what the f#@K” expression.

Goats? You’re a city kid (no pun intended), what do you know about goats? Do you eat them? Have you developed a fondness for making cheese? Goat yoga? What?

Turns out, that Kevin is raising Kiko Goats and training them to be pack animals for his bowhunting hunting and fishing excursions up in the mountains. Darn, no goat yoga! Goats as pack animals aren’t as far-fetched as we all originally thought. They have been used in this manner for centuries.

Kevin’s goal is to train the goats, he has seven; and take them into the mountains when he and his friends go hunting or fishing. They hunt elk, moose, deer, antelope, or whatever is legally in season based on Montana’s tag/license system. And they fish for Cutthroat Trout, Bass, or Pike. When you hike in, it can be physically impossible to hike out carrying meat and fish. That’s where the goats come in. The goats will pack out the dressed meat.

That Kitchen Table Feeling

But the love of hunting, fishing, and all that endless natural beauty isn’t the only thing that provides peace for someone who was driven. Kevin likens time sitting around the campfire, or back at the hunt camp, as the closest thing to the comradery of the fire station.

Typically, after a fire, we all sit around the kitchen table after emergencies. Decompress. Talk about lessons learned. We talk about the mistakes we made, and what we’ll do to correct them. There’s no shortage of dark humour. The kind you just can’t share with civilians.

That’s the void that hunting and fishing with friends fill for Kevin. That tight connection with like-minded people. This is how he describes it.

Crush it!

I’ve had lots of conversations with people about retiring. Many talks about a different pace; coasting for a while. Kevin is the first and only person to offer different advice. “Crush it” is his advice. Throw yourself into something that ignites your passion and go full tilt. If you were full throttle at a job you loved, you should give the next phase of your life the same intensity. Dedicate yourself to something. School, a hobby, or writing a blog. But don’t dabble at it. Do it!

Kev may be on to something. We assume will miss the work, the colleagues, the adrenalin rush, or even the money. Few people ever consider the intensity void. At least not in those terms. Perhaps “crushing it,” whatever “it” is; is the better way to retire.

What’s your passion? Are you prepared to “crush it”? And stay tuned for upcoming posts on bowhunting and fishing. I’ll be exploring them, in case you want to “crush” those like Kevin!

Cheers,

Cynthia

I acknowledge that the land on which I live is the traditional territory of the Wendake-ionwl,  Anishinabewaki ᐊᓂᔑᓈᐯᐗᑭ , Mississauga, and Haudenosaunee peoples