[Times photo: Douglas Clifford]
Joe Taylor, foreground, a Clearwater firefighter for 21 years, gets some updated training from Fire Training Chief Jeff Patterson. Taylor needs the refresher course after serving with the Army in Iraq.
CLEARWATER - Some folks may dread getting back to the grind after the holidays. Joe Taylor, a 21-year veteran of Clearwater Fire and Rescue, was more than ready to return to work.
Taylor, 56, an Army reservist, was called to active duty in November 2002 for service on an Army transportation boat off the coast of Iraq. So far he is the only Clearwater firefighter deployed to the war in Iraq. Taylor spent about 10 months in Iraq. He returned to his Largo home in October. Tuesday was his first day on the job in more than a year.
"I've been off for a while and had military leave for 30 days," Taylor said. "I'm ready to get back."
Taylor spent his first day back on the job with Fire Training Chief Jeff Patterson. They spent a few hours at the fire training center on Belcher Road, where Taylor practiced regulating fire hose water pressure and folded mounds of hose into meticulous patterns in the afternoon sun.
It's routine for firefighters to train after being off the job for a while, but Taylor's situation is a bit different. Most of the time, firefighters on leave stay close to home.
"They're in the loop. They're in the area. He was totally gone. He couldn't talk to anybody," Patterson said.
Taylor said that during his service stint, he didn't feel like he was in much danger.
"I was real secure where I was. You had so many coalition vessels," Taylor said.
In addition to his 24 years of service in the reserves, Taylor served for four years in the Army. He is a veteran of the Vietnam War and remembers what it was like to be a young man away from home for the first time, so he tried to support the first-timers on board.
"I was kind of chaplain, mom and big brother," Taylor said.
Taylor spent much of the day riding around familiarizing himself with the city, which changed quite a bit in his absence. An apron was added to the inner lane of the Clearwater Beach roundabout, Drew Street was widened between N Saturn Avenue and NE Coachman Avenue, Fort Harrison was resurfaced and a new Memorial Causeway Bridge has been built.
Taylor also returns to a new station in Sand Key. Before he left, he was working with a unit at the U.S. Coast Guard station, which is about 1.5 miles south of the new Station 44.
In October, his peers were trained on new equipment used to rescue fellow firefighters. So, Taylor will have to have that training and make up for 15 Emergency Medical Services classes he missed while on active duty. Taylor also will have to read up on department policy changes and, no doubt, spend hours reading his e-mail and deleting spam.
