The HART RESCUE "Field Team"

 "Been there, Done that, Still standing !"

HART RESCUE

Don't let "RETIRED" confuse you.  We are still your backup!

Welcome to all of our brothers and sisters in the emergency / public safety services and the military services.  My wife, Linda, and I founded HART RESCUE after I retired from the US Army in 2013.  If you check in on us over the next few months, you will get to know more about our life journey and how we got to where we are today.  A very brief history of my careers and of our family will hopefully give you enough confidence to allow us to speak to you, and for you to trust us enough to allow us to listen to your personal stories.  I am currently a chaplain on a volunteer fire department in SE Wyoming, so communications with me under my "chaplain helmet" are confidential per state and federal laws covering privileged communication.

My police career spanned thirty-one years, plus one day, and three municipal police agencies.  Most of my career was spent in a patrol car.  I maintained my EMT certification over most of my police career.  My specialties and additional duties included: member of combat pistol teams (2), master firearms instructor (P.O.S.T. certified, including officer survival and patrol procedures instructor), honor guard trainer, and police chaplain co-coordinator.  Early in my career, I was a police dispatcher, and I was a member of my first department's SWAT team before being hired by my second department.  I retired from my police career in 2002.  I was also a firefighter / EMT on two fire departments, a small village volunteer department and a small city paid-per-run department in Southwestern Ohio.  I also worked part time on two private ambulance services as an EMT.  After moving to northern Colorado, there were no opportunities for part-time fire / EMS, so I joined the Army National Guard to give me some extra "action" on my weekends. 

 My military career spanned thirty-four years, eleven months, and fifteen days.  Since my military career is quite complicated, I'll just list some of my jobs / specialties (MOS / SSI / ASI for you military types).  My enlisted specialties were: Military Policeman (95B / 31B), Cavalry Aeroscout Observer (19DF / 93B), Air Traffic Control Tower Operator (93C / 15Q) / Tower Chief, and Assistant Operations NCO in a WMD Civil Support Team.  Some of my officer specialties and duties were: Canon Field Artillery Officer (13A) / Air Observer; Signal Officer (25A) / Platoon Leader; Military Police Officer (31A) / Platoon Leader, Physical Security Officer, and Company Commander; and Space Operations (ASI - 3Y) / Space Operations Center Crew Commander, Ballistic Missile Defense Operations Watch Officer, and Space Operations Officer.  During my military career, I accumulated ten years of active federal service, which included quite a few special schools and overseas travel: one short training exercise in Korea and two deployments to the Middle East.

 Linda was a cop / firefighter-EMT / Army wife and an at-home mom.  When our daughters were in their late teens, she began working as a volunteer EMT in a hospital emergency department, and she volunteered on the hospital ambulance service.  The hospital later hired her as an emergency department ward secretary.  We have been married for over forty years.  We are definitely veterans of critical incidents (CI), CI debriefings, and the CI aftermath issues.

I'll need to stop here to try and keep this "brief", but our experiences, to include the survival of our careers and our marriage, have given us a platform from which we can share with you and your family on how you can also survive your critical incidents and the other job stressors which might negatively impact your family and your career.

 Linda and I are the Field Agents for HART RESCUE, and we travel around the US to share our survival stories and to listen to yours.  The HART RESCUE team is a small group of your brothers and sisters who are concerned about the physical, emotional, and spiritual well being of those who have chosen to dedicate their lives to serve their "neighbors".  All eight of our team members have survived personal struggles, and we are willing to share our experiences with you to help you survive yours.

 God's blessings and protection to you all,

 Brother Mike S.