Someone on Facebook posed that question. My response:
There is, or at least was, a number of awesome places to work in the park. Of course, my favorite was Area 5!
Every day was different. Throughout the year, 24/7/365, each day held the real opportunity to learn something new, do something new, work with any other internal department at any level or outside organization, meet and work with new people, or go someplace unexpected inside or outside the park. It didn’t matter what your position or role you held. You might help guests one minute due to an injury or other issue, reuniting lost ones or items, then helping employees that are locked out, injured, or in a crisis of some type. Then there were the natural disasters and human caused catastrophes. We were there.
And yes, sometimes we had to be firm.
The time of day didn’t matter, if someone didn’t know who to call for help, they called us. We strived to be there for them in every way we could.
Were we perfect? Of course not. Yet that remained our goal. Our motto was based on our priorities, “Safety, Security, and Service.” It might sound odd to have a hospitality operation putting customer service last, but if you can’t provide the first two, the last one suffers.
You could start a shift in the valley, and end up going to Tuolumne Meadows, Wawona, or beyond. We’ve had officers and staff unexpectedly go to Lone Pine, Sacramento, San Francisco, the coast, Fresno, Bakersfield, and points in between. When absolutely critical, we were faster than FedEx for guest and company needs.
Investigations grew to be a key resource and asset for employees, guests, the company, and NPS. Not to mention the variety of training we provided onsite and in our Briefing Room.
Firefighters were practiced, prepared, and ready. They prided themselves at beating NPS Fire to calls the vast majority of the time, including years ago, one above their firehouse. The Engine 7 crew trained far more often than NPS, and knew the inside of our facilities and what they contained extremely well.
Yet, thanks to the combined “insight and wisdom” of both Aramark and NPS leadership, the 80+ year old department was gutted, then dissolved.
“Fare thee well.”
Chief of Security & Fire
2000-2018
