“Fail forward, take risks, and do your best to fully understand what you do.”

Fire Chief AJ Kehl

Fire Chief AJ Kehl is a man of many hats. As an airman, speaker, author, coach, and Fire Chief at Dover AFB in Delaware, he is on a constant forward trajectory — both in body and mind.

In this interview, Chief Kehl talks about his early days in the service, his love of travel and coaching, and one particularly harrowing experience that caused him to question the entire industry’s approach to mental health.

Why did you initially join the fire service?

Growing up in a poor family raised by a single mom, Kehl saw the military as his only route to a good education. He chose the Air Force specifically because he could have more control over his career trajectory. His decision to become a firefighter within the Air Force was partly influenced by his father, who was a volunteer firefighter, but the events of 9/11 and the 343 firefighters who gave their lives that day impacted him in a much more significant way.

“More than anything, it was definitely about what I saw those 343—and then all the other hundreds on 9/11—do when that call came,” he says. “I thought it was pretty cool. I wanted to be a part of something bigger than my little hometown.”

Today, Chief Kehl is an airman, author, speaker, coach, and Fire Chief at Dover AFB in Delaware and helps military and civilian managers reach their peak through robust leadership development opportunities, coaching, and public speaking. In 2019, he earned the Air Force Innovator of the year award.

What do you enjoy doing outside of work?

Chief Kehl has a passion for travel and has been to 73 countries. He is proud of that number because of the effort involved in money and time, but also because he believes in the value of collecting memories rather than things.

As a leader and forward-thinker in his industry, he also enjoys coaching less experienced individuals, both those within and out of the fire service. “I’ve been so blessed,” he says. “I had great mentors, like Ben West that have really helped me along the way, so I’m just trying to pay it forward.”

What advice do you have for those who are new to the fire service?

“Fail forward, take risks, and do your best to fully understand what you do,” Kehl says.

He also encourages new recruits to constantly ask themselves if there is a better way of doing things. “If you just ask that for everything, a lot of creative ideas will come from that.”

At the same time, he acknowledges that a balance needs to be achieved and maintained between the knowledge of the old school chief officers and the innovative ideas sprouting from the younger generations.

Chief Kehl maintains that the reason the fire service has gotten to where it is now is that people have been challenging the status quo over the last hundred years. “There’s always going to be a need for firefighting,” Kehl says. “It’s just a matter of how it’s going to evolve over time, and we should be a part of that evolution.”

What changes do you see coming down the pipe for the fire service?

“The big disruptor is going to be how we utilize big data and the fire service to have more options at our fingertips in real-time,” Kehl says. Additionally, the innovations provided by smart buildings allow firefighters to do a significant amount of preliminary work before entering a building, like closing dampers and shutting fire doors. With these kinds of real-time analytics, firefighters can immediately assess risk in a certain situation.

Do you have a story that you’d like to cap this article off with?

Chief Kehl recalls a story of when he was a younger firefighter responding to a call at a residence. A woman ran out of the residence and handed him her 14-month-old baby who was unresponsive. She was understandably emotional and expected him to do something as she handed her baby off like “a baton in a relay.” His instincts from training kicked in and he did all that he could, performing CPR and defibrillation on the way to the hospital. Unfortunately, there was nothing more to be done, and the baby died at the hospital.

Chief Kehl learned two lessons from this event. One is that his mental health took a significant hit for a time after the call. No one asked him how he was doing, and he found himself unable to sleep that night, wondering why he was expected to be the tough guy. “The mental health aspect really is an important facet that we have to focus on,” he says.

He also had a realization about the value of his training and the essential role it played in kick-starting his instincts during emergency situations. “When that mom hands you her unresponsive baby, when that person’s waiting out the window that they need help, and there’s smoke coming out from two sides of the building, you have to have the instinctive reaction to let that training kick in,” Kehl says. “And if you weren’t focused on it 100%—you know, practice like you play—then it’s not going to have favorable outcomes.”

To learn more about Chief AJ Kehl and the work he’s doing within the Air Force and fire service, check out his LinkedIn profile.