Leadership Under Fire

Battalion Chief Pat Connolly is a twenty-three year member of the FDNY. Chief Connolly began his career at Engine 39/Ladder 16 on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, then promoted to Lieutenant and was assigned to E231/TL120 in Brownsville Brooklyn. Chief Connolly promoted again to the rank of Captain and was assigned to L-133 in South Jamaica, Queens. Recently, Chief Connolly was promoted to the rank of Battalion Chief and is assigned to Battalion 35 in Brooklyn. Chief Connolly is a graduate of Fordham University and has attended the FDNY’s MPI weeklong program.

This conversation is a continuation of an episode about Building the LUF Team which was published on May 16, 2024.  LUF Senior Man Jim McNamara and Founder Jason Brezler revisit Leadership Under Fire’s origins and the genesis of LUF’s Making Yourself Hard to Kill construct, and more broadly the team’s endeavor to challenge and encourage leaders to think critically.  Jim and Jason discuss the inherent limitations of operational safety in real-world operational environments and conversely its suitability in largely controlled training settings.  The conversation was recorded in mid-May and mid-August of 2024 and coincides with a season in which influential organizations that shape doctrine and narratives in the American fire service are evaluating the merits and shortcomings of their methodologies which have been primarily anchored in the operational safety concept.    Image: Sgt Tylor Belshe, USMC and Cpl Bill Cahir, USMC (later KIA) at FOB Black in Fallujah, Iraq 

Since our formal inception more than a decade ago, the LUF Team has championed professional reading.  The LUF team believes that a careful examination of history’s most accomplished mission-oriented leaders reveals that their success was strongly correlated to a scholarly appreciation of literature and professional reading.  In 2022, LUF launched our inaugural book club.   LUF online book clubs have been a conduit to meaningful discourse, reflection, and critical thought.    In this podcast episode, LUF’s Senior Mentor Jim Roussell unpacks Nassim Nicholas Taleb's "Black Swan" with a LUF Book Club.  Jim provides valuable insight into the leadership traits and organizational practices that will equip mission-oriented leaders and units to respond to unpredictable and improbable events.

Lieutenant Ben Baus joined the ranks of the Milwaukee Fire Department in 2012.  As a firefighter, Ben served in Rescue Co. 1 and on the department’s Heavy Urban Rescue Team which provides technical rescue throughout the city and surrounding areas.  He was promoted to Lieutenant in 2020 and is currently assigned to Rescue Co. 1.  Ben has been a contributor to the LUF Emerging Leadership Development course. 

Today we are joined by LT Evan Bergman with the United States Air Force. Evan is a Tactical Air Control Party Specialist, or TACP, at the 15th Air Support Operations Squadron in Savannah Georgia.  He spent most of his youth in Annapolis Maryland before attending the Virginia Military Institute where he majored in Psychology.  After graduating in 2021 Evan attended TOPT, the AF Special Warfare Officer selection course for the TACP career field.   In 2022 Evan began the arduous TACP pipeline where he helped lead his teams through nearly two years of intense physical and mental training. 

Paul Conway is a third-generation firefighter who served with the Milwaukee Fire Department for 31 years and retired as the Chief of Operations in 2012.  He also served with the New Berlin Volunteer Fire Department for seventeen years.  Paul used his fire service experience and passion to start Conway Shield. Nearly 40 years later, the Conway Shield business he founded strives to be a leading source of protective gear, safety equipment, and educational resources for first responders in the U.S.  Paul continues to actively serve in his community and serves as both a chief sponsor and senior advisor for Leadership Under Fire. 

The filing period for the FDNY Firefighter Open Competitive exam #4044 opened on Monday, June 24, 2024. The last filing period was in 2017. The path to joining the Greatest Job on Earth is competitive and tedious – it requires both perseverance and patience. That is why the Leadership Under Fire Team and Paddy Brown Program hosted an information session to educate and encourage those military service members and veterans desiring to join the FDNY as well as those who are considering military service prior to joining the FDNY. The conversation featured the perspectives of several current FDNY members whose path to the FDNY was shaped by their military service. The conversation also provided insight into the FDNY’s hiring process, employment requirements, the professional benefits of military service, and commentary on military veterans who have served our Nation and FDNY with distinction.       Of note: The Notice of Examination for Exam #4044 was released after the conversation was recorded. Subsequently, those who are interested in joining the FDNY are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the NOE prior to filing for the exam.  

Lieutenant Jason Leone started his career with the Baltimore City Fire Department in 2010 and is currently assigned to Rescue Company 1. Prior to promotion, he was a firefighter in Truck Co. 23 and an Emergency Vehicle Driver in Truck Companies 23 and 6. Jason is a member of the BCFD’s Special Operations team and is an adjunct instructor at the Fire Academy. Jason is a former Captain Timmy Stackpole LUF Scholar recipient.  This conversation you are about to hear was delivered during an online LUF Leadership Development Course to which Jason contributed. The final module of the course is dedicated to an examination of mission-oriented risk and resilience, specifically “what science, history, and experience” informs us about what happens when we compete to win and lose. Jason candidly reflects on his professional and personal journey following the Stricker Street fire which claimed the lives of Lieutenant Paul Butrim and Firefighters Kelsey Sadler and Kenny Lacayo in January 2022.

In this conversation, Deondre Smalls and Tom Flores of the Camden City (NJ) Fire Department’s Squad Co. 7 discuss balancing the job with life away from the firehouse to optimize both professional and personal performance. Deondre is a second-generation member of the Camden City Fire Department. He earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism/media studies from Rutgers University and has worked as a research assistant at NFL Films since 2020. Tom is a first generation American. Since 2022, he has worked with nonprofits mentoring fatherless and undocumented youths. This conversation was recently delivered during an online LUF Emerging Leaders Development course. The course is uniquely built around the perspectives of emerging leaders with 5-10 years of job time from several different departments. The course equips and encourages emerging leaders to embrace, create, and recognize opportunities to lead and exercise initiative in a fashion consistent with relative experience and culture.

In this conversation, Jim McNamara and Jason Brezler discuss the genesis of Leadership Under Fire. Jim and Jason explore how Jason’s experiences as a combat leader in Iraq and Afghanistan shaped his leadership philosophy and how he went about building the LUF Team.