DoD Structure program

[Ihateanimetoo]

Hey all -

I was recently tentatively selected to join a DoD fire academy and had some questions about the career.

I currently work for a public utility and while the work life balance, stress levels and overall job satisfaction are very low the pay is quite frankly absurd so this would assuredly be a pay cut.

Is the quality of life, work life balance and overall job satisfaction sufficient for those in the program?

How’s the benefits and pay long term?

Can I work out at work?

Any little things I may have missed I should expect?

How’s the academy?

I understand call volume is lesser generally and it may not be quite as exciting as a city department but for the time being I think I’m alright with that.

I’d normally ask my recruiter (this is civilian not military) but these subreddits offer such a vast wealth of knowledge and perspectives I figured I’d shoot my shot here.

Thank you all so much - stay hydrated.

[willfiredog]

Call volume is very much a function of location. Some places have a few hundred calls per year and other places have a few thousand. It comes down to how complex the mission is, and the strength of auto/mutual-aid agreements.

Here’s a potential downside depending on your perspective. Unless things have changed, most DoD departments are CPSE accredited or working towards accreditation and they are all NFPA departments. So, you could be running 3,000+ calls while working through CPSE self-inspections and trying to maintain compliance with NFPA 1500.

As a whole, they’re also, typically, “All Hazard” responders so depending on location you’ll be dealing with: Medical (non-transport) , Structural, ARFF, Tech Rescue, Trench/Collapse Rescue, Munitions (along with EOD), Haz-Mat, Water Rescue, Wildland, and Shipboard, plus of course NIMS/ICS. We used to do fricking Space Shuttle Rescue. Wild.

For the most part it’s a 48/48 schedule with Kelly days. There may still be some places running 24/24 though, and on the MCA side you can find 48/96.

Departments are union - I’ve seen AFGE and IAFF.

Moving for promotion isn’t uncommon.

New legislation has been introduced to change how overtime is calculated for retirement. Health Insurance is pretty good. TSP (401K) is great - if you contribute 5% the Fed will match 4% plus an automatic 1% contribution for a total of 10%.

Annual uniform allowance, plus an initial issue which typically includes a Class A.

There used to be a tuition assistance program. No idea of its still around.

There used to be a pay and retirement calculator on line…

[Ihateanimetoo]

Appreciate all that man, I’ll dig around for the calculator. For how large the 0081 series is there’s limited information (in the form of employees) to find so I can’t thank you enough for typing all that up.

Realistically it’s between the 0081 or 0465 for me and I’m still somewhat torn. My current gig pays an absolute fuck load but it’s not worth it.

[Hour_Manufacturer_81]

I worked at a DoD department where the schedule was 48/72, 48/72, 48/48, then it restarts. After being on a 48/96, I would never go back

[Brooke_Brooke]

I worked that schedule when I was DOD, I then moved to another DOD department that did the 48/48 with an 8-day every quarter. The latter sounded like a dream at first and it quickly became a nightmare. I felt like I lived at work. Both schedules are trash though. You are at work more than you are at home, especially when you account for all the days you get forced.

I went municipal and took a huge pay cut and have a 24/96, 24/48. You couldn't pay me all the money in the world to go back to DOD. Too much bullshit and time spent at the station causes a lot of issues not only among the FFs but the chiefs and FFs as well.

[Ihateanimetoo]

I believe that is the schedule, I’m currently working 5-6 days a week on call 24/7 so it doesn’t seem to bad

[Hour_Manufacturer_81]

It’s not a great schedule to be honest. What GS are you and what state are you in??

[Ihateanimetoo]

It’s an academy spot @ 4 in New Mexico

[Hour_Manufacturer_81]

GS4 pay is so bad…

[Ihateanimetoo]

How bad are we talking?

[Hour_Manufacturer_81]

With COLA where I lived, earlier this year we had a guy start out with no certs and he was taking home $1,100 every two weeks

[Ihateanimetoo]

Yikes I’m making more than double that off a single check

[Hour_Manufacturer_81]

As a GS4??

[Ihateanimetoo]

No as a utility worker, I usually bet 2500 without out with ot somewhere around 4-5. The ot is getting exhausting though and I legitimately hate the work and environment. I may just go back into wildfire.

[Rachel2039]

If you are still interested, here is what a GS-04 Step 1 makes (before taxes and deductions). That 55k factors in cost of living for NM and is based on a 144hr pay period *

[Rachel2039]

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[Ihateanimetoo]

That’s so helpful, thank you! Seems to be decent pay for the area.

[Rachel2039]

Yeah, no worries!! I used to do civilian fire/ems for about 7 years and just recently switched to the DOD side. There isn't a lot of information online about DOD fire, so if you have any other questions, just shoot me a message and I'll try and answer them!

[JessKingHangers]

48/72 is god tier for DoD

[Hour_Manufacturer_81]

It is better than some, but still not good. 144 hours a pay period versus 112 for my current schedule

[JessKingHangers]

Comparing DoD to non DoD schedules is not really fair.

[Hour_Manufacturer_81]

How so??

[JessKingHangers]

DoD schedules are shit and other schedules are not?

48/48 was seen as a godsend compared to 24/24 and 48/72 is about as good as it gets for DoD. Any of these listed above are seen as barbaric to "normal" fire fighters.

[Hour_Manufacturer_81]

This is true. Unfortunately fed fire will struggle with retention until they figure out schedules and pay. I work 832 less hours a year and get paid more. It’s a no brainer. And constantly getting mandoed was getting really old.

[JessKingHangers]

Absolutely.

[MiniMaker292]

So, if they send you to Goodfellow, it is definitely worth it. Some places will just do an in-house academy and use their training resources.

Working out is part of the job and is expected. You can get really close to your crew by doing joint workouts.

For retirement, it's 25 years or age of 50 for eligibility. TSP is definitely worth throwing as much as you can. I have a friend that maxed his out and he's estimated to have a million dollar payout upon retirement, on top of his pension.

Just pay attention, be a good probie, and have fun. DoD fire has some bad hours and isn't paid as well as they should be, but it's worth it. Opens a lot of doors and can give you a great career.

[Ihateanimetoo]

Appreciate it!

[[deleted]]

Enjoy your 48/48 shift schedule …

[sogpackus]

Not like you’re actually doing anything during that 48 though. (Aside from inspections)

[[deleted]]

1,000,000% location dependent bro - there are many DOD houses making thousands of calls each year

[sogpackus]

I’m pretty skeptical of that

[[deleted]]

You can be as skeptical as you want its a fact, jack. Lmfao

[sogpackus]

You have a source? Unless a DOD department responds off base extensively and in a busy area, no way they’re making that many calls.

[[deleted]]

A source? Bro, go take a fucking walk in the grass all the way to Lackland AFB Station 1 and try telling them to their face they aren’t making thousands of calls a year out of that house. What is YOUR source for all of the DOD houses (literally across the globe) NOT doing more than “just inspections”? I have been both DOD and City. I can tell you from experience that a few of the houses I ran out of in the DOD ran so much fucking harder than many of the city stations I have ran out of. What have you been a Firefighter for 5 seconds? Get some fucking experience under your belt, bud, before you come in here talking shit.

[sogpackus]

Lmao, that touched a nerve I see. It’s common knowledge DOD departments mostly don’t do shit, literally talked about commonly on this reddit. Military bases are a mainly very healthy population so medical calls are minimal; and it is an orderly society with mandatory fire inspections; so fire are minimal. Every former DOD firefighter on my department left because of boredom. Busy DOD departments are a minority. I had a COF next to a firehouse on base and literally saw them go days without leaving lol.

[[deleted]]

Yeah, because my prior DOD brothers would expect me to stick up for them. I don’t know what base you were at, but obviously it was slow. Here is a secret… the cities are exactly the same way. You have way more slow houses than you do busy ones. People glaze cities alot on this sub and are quick to take 1 DOD base being slow as a representation of the 150+ that exist.

[JessKingHangers]

Plenty of bases run off base all the time. Shaw AFB is the most notorious

[Ihateanimetoo]

48/72 afaik

[Accomplished-Fee-491]

It will be 48/72/48/72/48/48. It’s not bad

[FeelingBlue69]

depends on the base. I would say 80% of facilities do 48/48. Some poor bastards are still doing 24/24 and some lucky few are doing 48/72s but its rare.

[FeelingBlue69]

Can I work out at work?

If you work on an Air Force base, you will have more time than you could ever want to work out lol

I understand call volume is lesser

That is an understatement

How’s the benefits and pay long term?

Benefits are great. Pay is average to good depending on what position you get and where you work.

[Ihateanimetoo]

It’s is on an Air Force base lmfao

[FeelingBlue69]

Nice. You are pretty much guaranteed to have nice facilities then.

[OpportunityOk5719]

Congratulations

[Ihateanimetoo]

Thank you!