A Veterans Fire Corps Crew in the National Capital Region

Wildland firefighters monitor a prescribed fire at Monocacy National Battlefield. NPS.

From January through April 2023, the National Park Service's National Capital Region hosted a three-person Appalachian Conservation Corps (ACC) crew of wildland firefighters, all of them military veterans.

The season

Based in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, and lodging at Catoctin Mountain Park in Maryland, the crew worked under the region's Fire and Emergency Management Team.

• Prescribed burns at Monocacy National Battlefield, Prince William Forest Park and Antietam National Battlefield.
• Wildland fire response at Fort Washington and Rock Creek Park.
• Help for partners: prescribed burns with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, The Nature Conservancy and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

All but one crew member had firefighting experience before arriving. After the 12-week program, all left with wildland firefighter and basic faller certifications.

The program

According to the ACC, the Veterans Fire Corps lets veterans work alongside fellow former service members while gaining skills to move from military to civilian service. Members earn an AmeriCorps education award and get professional development, including help writing federal resumes and applying through USAJobs.

Cory Spychalski, who served three deployments in Afghanistan, said he learned a great deal and was able to do much more working in the National Capital Region. William Thompson, four years in the Navy, came in with some experience as a shipboard firefighter and valued the connections and the chance to learn many ways of doing things through networking in the region.

Both said they jumped at the chance to put their military experience to use in a new field, and were grateful for a program built around veterans. Spychalski said he would do it again and would recommend it as a good way to help veterans move into similar careers.

Afterward: two crew members went on to work for the National Park Service outside firefighting, and the third is pursuing wildland firefighting.

Sources

• National Park Service, National Capital Region, "Firefighting corps helps military veterans transition to civilian life": https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/ff-corps-helps-military-vets.htm
• Words on this page from people and organisations outside the federal government are paraphrased; rewritten in hubnx's own words.