“With a little bit of initiative, especially when recognizing others, the ripple effects can be huge.”

Dr. Gamaliel Baer is a firefighter, U.S. Coast Guard Reservist, health and wellness educator, State Advocate for the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, and a father of three.

With over 12 years of experience as a firefighter for Howard County Fire and Rescue Department (HCFRD), Dr. Baer knows that firefighting is a great career for him. However, it wasn’t until a friend of his recommended firefighting that he realized it could even be a full-time job.

“The fire service was the right alternative to the military for me. Firefighting gives you the opportunity to provide service for your community and your country.”

As a firefighter, you serve your local community every time you report to duty but your impact doesn’t have to stop there. In addition to many other opportunities, you can provide national support as a seasonal wildland firefighter, Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) member, or a National Fallen Firefighters Foundation Advocate.

Gamaliel’s service in the Coast Guard affords him a different perspective on firefighting. He leveraged this perspective to improve search and rescue efforts in his community.

There is a reservoir in Gamaliel’s fire district where residents like to swim. Unfortunately, the reservoir takes about one drowning victim each year. When this happens, Howard County Fire and Rescue is deployed to help locate and recover the victim’s body and has historically relied on a dive team.

A dive search can take hours and is sometimes unsuccessful. The divers have to rely on information that is often inconsistent and incomplete from traumatized witnesses. Then they have to make a guess where the body may be based on the movement of the water and the nature of the accident. Diving is also inherently risky.

Gamaliel knew there had to be a better way to do it.

As a member of the Special Operations Division that was responsible for water rescue, he and a team set out to create a better solution. As the lead researcher and developer of this Special Operations project, Gamaliel began looking for options that they could use to locate a body in the reservoir. He and his team decided that the best option was a combination of a boat with sonar and an underwater remotely operated vehicle (ROV).

It turned out that the U.S. Coast Guard was using an ROV for similar search missions and Gamaliel leveraged his connections to gather pertinent information from those missions.

Gamaliel and his team were able to procure a grant to cover the cost of the boat, sonar, and ROV in 2017. Since then, the tools they purchased have decreased the time it takes to find a body to an hour or less. This saves time, improves efficacy, and prevents dive teams from having to go in and search for the body. In 2017 when the ROV was placed in service, Gamaliel led the first successful ROV-based body recovery mission.

The Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) is a Department of Defense program that promotes cooperation between U.S. Guard and Reserve members and their civilian employers. As a Coast Guard Reservist and a full-time firefighter, Gamaliel was pleased with how accommodating his fire chief had been.

After learning about the Patriot Award, which recognizes employers who accommodate reserve personnel, Gamaliel nominated his employer, Fire Chief John Butler (now the Fire Chief of Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department in Virginia) to receive the award. Upon Gamaliel’s nomination, Chief Butler received the award at the local level.

The Maryland state representative for the ESGR encouraged Gamaliel to nominate his chief for the state-level award and Chief Butler ended up earning this competitive award. As a reward, Chief Butler was invited to join the Air Force Reserve on a re-fueling mission.

They didn’t stop there, however. Their state representative was confident that Chief Butler and Gamaliel had a great story that could earn Chief Butler the Secretary of Defense Employer Support Freedom Award. This is the most competitive award that the ESGR delivers with only 15 out of 3,000+ applicants receiving it each year.

Chief Butler received one of the 15 awards on behalf of the Howard County Fire and Rescue Department. Both Gamaliel and Chief Butler were invited to attend the award ceremony at the Pentagon and they were able to earn recognition for their department at a national level.

“With a little bit of initiative, especially when recognizing others, the ripple effects can be huge.”

If you are a U.S. Guard or Reserve member and you would like to nominate your employer, you can do so here.