“I’ll be here when they need me, but I turn my pager down a little bit more at night now,” he said.
Out of 51 years of service, Sullenberger has been in an officer’s position of some sort for 46 of them, said Fire Chief Bob Hoey.
“Mike led this department with a lot of calls that he would go on,” Hoey said. “We’re very thankful. We could always count on that attendance stuff regularly. It doesn’t matter what it is, this man was there.”
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Sullenberger said the one thing he would have done different is to get more education.
“You can’t get enough,” he said. “When I first started, you could walk into a burning building without an air pack, but now days you don’t dare do anything without an air pack. It’s a lot more dangerous than it used to be, so you got to keep yourself educated.”
The toughest part of the job, Sullenberg and Hoey said, is who the people could be that they are going to help.
“It could be people from town that we know, to our family, to people kind of close to us,” Hoey said. “You just never know what you’re going to show up on. That’s one of the bad things about that, but it’s also the most rewarding that you helped them.”
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Sullenberger said one of the biggest things he will remember the most will be helping people.
“Just helping people that need help,” he said. “Just to help humanity as best I could.”
Hoey said Sullenberger was always willing to help and had great dedication.
“Mike was always into keeping our people trained real well. The unselfish part of going on a run, it was like no question, he’s going to be there,” he said. “He brings a whole new meaning to the word dedication. We’re just glad we can have the dedication that Mike has put into this department.”
The open house and award ceremony to honor Sullenberger’s retirement will be held from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 23, at the Christiansburg Fire House, 10 W. First St. in Christiansburg.
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