The course taught the ARFF personnel to run an incident command, said Joe A. McNeece, a retired fire chief with 30 years experience, who taught the course.

The students learned how to accomplish the duties of the first-line commander, so when they are first on the scene of a fire, they know what steps to take to gain control of the scene and maintain order, he added. McNeece, teaches for the University of Maryland’s Fire Rescue Institute fire program.

“With this class, they will be prepared to take over as the commander of a fire scene,” said McNeece.

The students were from Headquarters and Headquarters Squadron, Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, and Kadena Air Base. Students even travelled from H&HS, MCAS Iwakuni.

During the class, the ARFF personnel learned the roles and responsibilities of each member of the team, said McNeece. With this knowledge, they can effectively communicate and coordinate tasks. They learned records management, budget review and requirements, legal issues and ethics, human recourses and tactics for running fire scenarios.

“The most important lesson learned in the class is how to react to fire situations,” said McNeece. “Learning the different scenarios is key to keeping everyone safe and making sure the fire is contained.”

Fire Officer One is a career-progression course, said Chief Warrant Officer Brent A. DeBusk, officer-in-charge of the ARFF with MCAS Futenma’s H&HS. The class is required for certain promotions and considered an advanced school.

Since the students are taking this course, they will be qualified to serve as fire officers with many more responsibilities, said DeBusk.

“This course greatly increases the training and overall capabilities the unit can handle,” said DeBusk. “This makes our Marines more self-sufficient and better quality trained.”

They will teach the others in their unit the same skills, said DeBusk.

“Not only will the senior guys in the class go back and teach their shop the lessons learned, but the eight junior Marines as well,” said DeBusk.

“We have been privileged with this opportunity to share the training with other air crash fire rescue (units),” said Staff Sgt. Nathen K. Lanham, section leader for MCAS Iwakuni ARFF personnel, H&HS.

This training allowed the Marines to brush up and learn new tactics, said Lanham.

“Having the mix of people that we have and the wealth of knowledge that they bring is a great opportunity,” said Lanham. “With training like this we can work better together during fire scenarios and when forward deployed.”

In the end, it is the entire fire crew that benefits, said DeBusk. Each team member will be better trained and more qualified to combat a fire.