Welcome to the Behind a Shield podcast. As always, my name's James Gearing, and this week I have an incredibly powerful dynamic for you.

Two of my previous guests, Jim Walsh and Tony Gillen, came to my home and sat down together.

Now, both of these men are fire service leaders, teaching at multiple conferences around the country.

However, they both had career-changing

or career-ending injuries. Jim had a stroke just before being promoted as chief of his department,

and Tony suffered a near-fatal injury after a Halligan struck him from falling from a ladder.

So as you will hear, we discuss a host of topics, not only their own physical and mental rehabilitation journeys, but also multiple areas

including firefighter fitness, leadership, mentorship, bridging the generation gap, the hiring

crisis, and so much more.

Now, before we get to this incredibly powerful conversation, as I say every week,

please just take a moment.

Go to whichever app you listen to this on, subscribe to the show, leave feedback and leave a rating.

Every single five-star rating truly does elevate this podcast, therefore making it easier for

others to find.

And this is a free library of well over 800 episodes now.

So all I ask in return is that you help share these incredible men and women's stories so I can get them

to every single person on planet Earth who needs to hear them. So with that being said,

I welcome back Jim Walsh and Tony Gillen. Enjoy.

All right. Well, I want to start by welcoming you to my home. This is amazing. Tony, you were here a while ago. Pre-Halligan, we'll get into that. Yes, sir. And then Jim, I was in your home last time,

I believe. So, so firstly welcome to the Behind the Shield podcast again. Thank you. Thanks for having us.

Yeah. I think the best place to start is since we did

our conversation, Tony, you know, you had a pretty life-altering event. So let's start there. And then

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