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For Aviation Boatswain’s Mate [Aircraft Handling] (ABH) 3rd Class Ethan Distor, he must quickly dress into a proximity suit, a firefighting ensemble designed to handle high heat temperatures and will work as part of a rescue team to put out a fire onboard, in such an event is needed.
“It's not that fun putting on a proximity suit,” explains Distor, “Which is layers and layers of fire protecting equipment, and it's hot, like you are inside a sauna.”
But this is secondary to everything else about being a part of a drill, explains the Chicago native. He loves knowing that he is ready for a high stakes situation and being able to save someone’s life.
That drive is nothing new for Distor as he has always wanted to make a difference and prior to joining the Navy in August 2014, at the age of 20, he was working as a patient transporter in a hospital on the north side of Chicago, while attending a community college with plans to get a degree in Nursing.
When he decided to take a bigger leap into making a difference when he joined the Navy, he thought being Hospital Corpsman would be his path. But the rate wasn’t available at the time he enlisted, so he decided to go into the aviation community.
“I did some research on my rate [ABH] and thought this could be something different,” said Distor. “I could take a step back from the hospital for a couple of years and just broaden my horizons, try something new and discover something new.”
It was taking that chance that helped Distor find a new passion.
“I like being an ABH because I work in the firefighting aspect of it,” stated Distor. “The knowledge I was able to obtain on deployment on firefighting was something very different and changed my mindset of my career and what I want to do.”
During the day-to-day work, Distor is primarily responsible for maintenance of equipment such as their firefighting vehicle and ensuring their proximity suits are in top shape, this way everyone is a safe as possible when heading into a fire or casualty.
“My job during deployment was rescue, which requires two people and I have had the same partner for two years now and we can communicate without talking to each other or even looking at each other,” remarked Distor. “We know step-by-step what each is going to do. We know how to work together in tandem to complete the job smoothly in a time efficient way.”
As Distor noted, a lot of job is non-verbal, as sometimes trying to talk is difficult between the suits, the noise, and even time available can make it difficult. As part of the training, Distor and his partner come up with various signals to communicate, like a tap on the shoulder to move left, or a nudge to the foot to move right.
Having a chance to work with a partner for so long is often a novelty, as people are constantly transferring to and from a command and with his partner of two years having recently transferred to a new command, Distor has a new challenge of training a new partner.
“With my experience, I have the ability to train someone as I know how things need to feel and how they need to go,” said Distor. “I know what I need to do and I know the opposite side of the spectrum. It's just another chemistry I get to build with someone new and I get to pass the knowledge on to them.”
While there is always work and maintenance to be done around the ship, Distor is happy to take everything one day at a time and spend time with his wife and five-month-old daughter and advises everyone to do the same.
“Just enjoy everything, because nothing ever stays the same,” explains Distor. “People you were friends with now and the people you love now, won't be there tomorrow, so enjoy it while it lasts. Don't worry about materialistic things because they are just materials, you can't replace people or memories.”
For more information on the USS Bataan (LHD 5) visit: www.bataan.navy.mil or www.facebook.com/ussbataan.
| Date Taken: | 12.08.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 12.08.2017 14:55 |
| Story ID: | 258059 |
| Location: | CHICAGO, IL, US |
| Web Views: | 25 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Fired Up to Make a Difference, by CPO Kegan Kay, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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