Tracy Banta eats, sleeps and lives emergency services medical work – on the ground and in the air. He works for Uncle Sam, the state of Tennessee, UT Lifestar, AMR Ambulance in Blount County, Anderson County EMS, Rutherford County EMS and Roane State Community College.

He’s a big man – 6-5, 270 pounds – who carries a big load on his big shoulders. So, what does he do? He is a Critical Care Flight Paramedic (CCFP), a ground-based EMS Critical Care Paramedic and a teacher. Perhaps a list of his jobs will help you reach your arms around his work.

  • Banta is a Sergeant First Class for Company C, 171st Aviation Regiment at McGhee Tyson Air National Guard Base.
  • He has 32-plus years in the Tennessee Army National Guard at Joint Force Headquarters (JFHQ) at the State Army Aviation office in Nashville as the Aviation Standardization NCO for the state. He teaches crew chiefs and other personnel the ins and outs of the Black Hawk helicopter on life-saving and emergency flights.
  • Four years as a CCFP for UT Lifestar. He works part time catching night shifts.
  • Five years as a part-time critical care paramedic with AMR Ambulance in Blount County.
  • Six years as a part-time paramedic for Anderson County EMS in Clinton.
  • Paramedic on ambulances for almost 12 years for Rutherford County EMS in Murfreesboro.
  • Continuing Education EMS Training Adjunct Instructor at Roane State in Knoxville for six years.

These are the seven jobs he juggles.

SFC Tracy Banta

In 2012 his Tennessee National Guard unit was deployed to Afghanistan. He was there for a year flying life-saving missions in the Helmut Province, day and night, taking fire most of the time. “Our motto was ‘If you call, we haul’ and some called us angels with wings,” Banta says. “In those 12 months my ship carried 1,375 patients out of war zones – Marines, NATO troops, Afghan soldiers and the Taliban enemy soldiers. We had helicopter gunships guarding us in and out of the LZs (landing zones). We’d have 12 to 15 flights a day most days. It was really scary. There was not a day or a night that I didn’t pray.”

His day job is at McGhee Tyson Air Base, also his home away from home. He sleeps in the barracks there and two weekends a month drives to Smyrna to see his wife of 30 years, Melissa, a nurse, and two of their sons, Cody and Stephen. Their youngest son, Austin, is a U.S. Marine stationed at Camp Lejeune.

“It’s anything but a normal family life and Melissa has dealt with it great and is very flexible and it works for us,” he said. “Maybe it wouldn’t work if I were home all the time. Maybe that old saying that absence makes the heart grow fonder is true.”

He’s been on numerous search and rescue missions in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, hoisted a young girl attacked by a bear to safety and a man who ran into a bear problem. He helped drop many a bucket of 660 gallons of water on cabins and homes during the Gatlinburg fire in 2016. He’s done rescue work after hurricanes.

With his military jobs, why does he feel the need to work the other five jobs. “Well, the boys are expensive and the money is OK but it’s a lot more than just that,” he said. “I found myself wanting to be challenged. It’s fun. I can’t go to work without learning something. I want to continue to help people as much as I can for as long as I can. I’ve always put others before myself. It’s who I am.”

Banta has a degree in health care administration/management from the University of Phoenix and a degree in liberal arts and sciences from Middle Tennessee State. He’s now in a master’s program and would like to become a physician’s assistant.

Banta loves the teaching aspects of the job and says he spends at least 60% of his time teaching vs. flying. When he has the time or can find the time, he enjoys hiking and scuba diving.

And what led this professional of many talents into this life of emergency services? “Do you remember the old TV show Emergency (1972-79) and the paramedics John Gage and Roy DeSoto? That got me hooked on this career. It’s as simple as that,” he said. “When I was 18, I joined the Charleston Volunteer Fire Department and I’m still at it. Saving lives and teaching others how to do it.”

Tom King has served at newspapers in Georgia, Tennessee, Texas and California and was the editor of two newspapers. Suggest future stories at tking535@gmail.com or call him at 865-659-3562.