Rob Koons Quotations

I became a firefighter because I felt it was my calling to serve my community and others.

I had very mixed emotions. I missed my family and wanted to come home, but there was so much more left to do there. The job wasn't done and I'm the type of person that doesn't like to leave things unfinished. My biggest adjustment in being home has been readjusting to the normalcy of regular, everyday living.

When Hurricane Katrina hit, they immediately began calling everyone on their roster. FEMA entered into an agreement with the International Fire Chief Association and were requesting teams of two firefighters to be sent to the devastated areas. Greg Hershey and I were both on the roster.

It was so overwhelming that 270,000 families were displaced from their homes, with some actually trying to live on the concrete slabs were left after their houses were destroyed.

Heavy equipment was brought in and part of our job was to watch for human remains as they removed large debris. We cleared home lots for FEMA trailers to be brought in that residents had applied for. We helped move the trailers in and hooked them up. 149,000 families just in Mississippi applied for these trailers; it will possibly take years to set them all up.