For almost three years now Monday’s feature we call “Our Town Heroes” has been my baby, my gig for KnoxTNToday. A KFD firefighter had carried a resident out of a South Knoxville house after a home search missed him. That got my attention.

This weekly feature began with some planning in the summer of 2018. On Nov. 5 the first of what is now 132 stories was published. It was about John Whited, the deputy chief of what then was known as the Knoxville Volunteer Emergency Rescue Squad. Today, it is the Knox Rescue Squad (KCR). More about that interview later.

Saving a life every day for our first responders just does not happen. Dramatic rescues like the KFD one are few and far between.

So, I thought and thought. A lot. Entwined in those thoughts were my six years as a military policeman in the U.S. Army and Georgia National Guard. MP school then was at Fort Gordon, Georgia, in Augusta. About half of our class were civilian rookies from city and county law enforcement agencies in Georgia and South Carolina. That’s when I knew, for sure, that being a military cop is nothing like civilian cop work. That world is much tougher and larger than military police work.

Emergency professionals wear all kinds of hero hats.

  • A THP trooper who stops a driver going 103 mph is a hero to me. He probably saved that driver’s life and maybe others he could have killed.
  • A deputy spending three hours talking a man into giving up his .38 revolver and hugging him is a hero.
  • Remember that KPD officer who rescued the little dog thrown over the Alcoa Highway viaduct to the ground below. That dog today loves his new family. That’s all about love, compassion and caring exhibited by that officer.
  • And I’ll never forget Knox County Sheriff’s Deputy Jordan Hurst, just 29, telling me across a lunch table about confronting the man, face to face, who had, just minutes before, murdered three female employees at the Pilot Travel Center on Strawberry Plains Pike on April 7, 2020. He repeatedly told the man to put down the knife, stop and get on the ground. The man kept coming at him. And coming. And coming. As close as 15 feet. Three bullets from Hurst’s Glock put the man on the ground. Lives were saved.

These men and women who dedicate their lives, their love and their passion to their jobs and the people they serve don’t much like talking about it. They don’t do it for recognition and a story or interview … and they sure as hell don’t do it for the money. It is a calling to help people. As many of them say, they help people on “what is probably the worst day of their life.”

These professionals are real people, with families, with struggles, who shop where we do. Their kids go to school with our kids or grandkids. Most were born and reared here. They are not perfect. Their jobs are stressful, their hours long and at times they face danger.

I admire them, those firefighters who run into the flames and not away from them. For the KFD paramedic who crawled in on his back inside a car on its top and put an IV in the driver’s arm as he hangs upside down, still strapped in his seatbelt and shoulder harness. He survived.

For Jordan Hurst, he’ll have to deal forever with being forced to take a life.

KFD Asst. Chief Robert Roche holds his Service Above Self Award.

On Friday, Dec. 14, 2018, an alarm sounded at 1:47 p.m. at KFD’s Station 1 downtown. The fire was at the Morningside Hill Apartments, 2060 Dandridge Ave. Assistant Chief Robert Roche was the first to arrive. He looked into a window and saw a woman on the floor with black smoke thickening. He didn’t have time to get his gear on or his oxygen. He crawled down the hallway, could not see and was groping for her. He found her, rolled her onto his back and crawled to the door and to safety. She survived. Roche is in his late 50s. A tough man. An impressive leader. He did not consider himself a hero.

Back to John Whited. Late in my interview with him my question silenced him. “Have you ever saved a life?” He was quiet for at least a minute. “You may not believe it, but that thought literally has never crossed my mind. It takes a team to do what we do. We pass them to the ambulance crews and they do their work and then they pass victims to the ER doctors. It takes everyone, all of us.”

The 132 first-responder professionals and those who work behind the scenes who I have interviewed have impressed me with their love of their jobs, love for the people and the community they serve – and for one another. Theirs is a tight knit, family bond brotherhood and sisterhood held together by the respect they have for one another. And down deep, for each of you too.

My aim is to do them justice and let you know that we’re in good hands when it comes to emergency work. They do the jobs the rest of us don’t want to do.

Tom King writes Our Town Heroes each Monday. Suggest future stories at tking535@gmail.com or call 865-659-3562.