The U.S. Army Installation Management Command, or IMCOM, -- Central Region, awarded the Annual Department of Defense Civilian Fire Instructor of the Year award to Joshua Jimenez, assistant fire chief for operations, Fort Huachuca Fire and Emergency Services, on Monday in honor of his extensive knowledge and dedication to training.
Each year the DoD recognizes outstanding accomplishments and honors fire departments, firefighters and heroes through the annual DoD Fire and Emergency Services Awards Program, according to Col. Bradley Graul, Headquarters, IMCOM, Fort Sam Houston, Texas. In particular, the Civilian Fire Service Instructor of the Year award recognizes individual superior job performance and outstanding contributions to the fire service, specific to instruction and training.
In his two-page nomination, Col. Dan McFarland, Fort Huachuca garrison commander said, "Mr. Joshua M. Jimenez, Assistant Fire Chief for Operations is a highly skilled and competent fire service leader with extensive knowledge of firefighting operations on and off Fort Huachuca.
"Through his mature guidance, he has responded and supported activities dealing with hazardous material, airport rescue and structural fire fighting. Assistance Chief Jimenez continues to lead the U.S. Army Garrison, Fort Huachuca firefighting operations to great success."
Jimenez coordinates and conducts training daily. Instruction consists of structural training, hazardous materials, specialized rescues, emergency medical services, wildland firefighting, aircraft rescues, prescribed burns and more. He educates himself and his firefighters to ensure they are trained at the highest levels, meeting their training and career advancement objectives.
Some of his accomplishments include communicating and consistently providing senior leadership with invaluable information during the 30,500-acre Monument Fire during the peak of the incident, prepared 77 individuals from federal, state and local fire and law enforcement agencies in their roles of incident commander and public information officers. He also eliminated the need to establish helicopter landing zones resulting in increased speed and quality of care for emergency medical services patients.
When asked how he felt about this accomplishment, Jiminez said, "I feel good about winning this award. I honestly wasn't expecting to be recognized. It is definitely a great accomplishment. I enjoy training above the rest of the things that we do here. We get out there and get dirty and have fun, but we train, and that way when we have to perform the real deal, we are ready."
For 15 years Jimenez has worked with the fire service, with 10 years dedicated to the Fort Huachuca community. In that time, he has worked at each of the three fire stations on post, currently assigned to Station 1.
This is the first time anyone at Fort Huachuca has received an award through the DoD Fire and Emergency Services Awards Program. Jimenez will be presented with an official certificate once it is delivered from IMCOM -- Central Region.
"It is my distinct pleasure to nominate Assistant Chief Jimenez for the DoD Civilian Fire Service Instructor of the Year. [He] takes the lead to ensure fire loss is minimal and all U.S. Army Garrison -- Fort Huachuca Soldiers, Family members and the entire Fort Huachuca community live in a fire-free environment," said McFarland.
The winners of the Annual Fire and Emergency Services Awards, including Jimenez, have been submitted to the assistant chief of staff for Installation Management for competition at the Department of the Army level.
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