Welcome to the Behind the Shield podcast. As always, my name's James Gearing, and this week it is my

absolute honor to welcome on the show, veteran firefighter, special operations member, and teacher

with the National Rescue Consultants, Rob Ramirez. Now, I've had a host of people on this podcast,

many whom have a story career. And when it comes to the world of firefighting, I would argue

that Rob's career has hit many of the pinnacle events over the last couple of decades.

So we discuss a host of topics from his journey into the fire service, responding to the

special needs community as a first responder, Hurricane Katrina, the Parkland shooting,

Hurricane Ian, the surfside collapse, mental health, firefighter fitness, and so much more.

Now before we get to this incredible 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 other people to find. And this is a free

library of almost 800 guests. So all I ask in return is that

you help share these incredible men and women stories so I can get them to every single person

on planet Earth who needs to hear them. So with that being said, I introduce to you Rob Ramirez. Enjoy. Well, Rob, I want to start by saying thank you so much for taking the time and coming on the Behind the Shield podcast today.

Well, thank you for having me. The honor, legit, it's all mine, man. Appreciate the phone call.

Appreciate the invite. And I'm ecstatic to be here.

Well, it's funny, there's a lot of people whose names come up over and over and over again,

and with the number of guests that I have, the universe always spits it out when the time is right,

and so here we are.

Yeah, absolutely.

I went through your list of guests, and I have no idea what I'm doing here,

...