Photo By Petty Officer 2nd Class John Owen | NAVAL STATION ROTA, Spain (Mar. 03, 2021) - Assistant Fire Chief Thomas Wiley...... read more read more
Thomas Wiley, assistant fire chief for training at Naval Station (NAVSTA) Rota Fire and Emergency Services (F&ES), has embraced the opportunity to improve and implement many changes within the department. Since arriving to Rota almost six years ago, he has seen many of his projects and efforts come to fruition, yielding one of the best medium fire departments within the Navy.
“Overall, you start somewhere and you make these subtle changes but over time – over a span of six years – it makes a big difference,” said Wiley. “I think we’ve come a long way as a department in that time…and it’s not just me, it takes a team to do that.”
While the department’s overall success is a team effort, Wiley’s contributions have not gone unnoticed. He was recently awarded Department of Defense (DOD) fire instructor of the year in addition to awards he won earlier this year as fire instructor of the year for Navy Region Europe, Africa, Central (EURAFCENT) and Navy fire instructor of the year.
“I was very excited to hear the news and it was a bit overwhelming,” said Wiley. “You hear of people winning every year, but you don't really think it’s attainable and it's not something you set as a goal for yourself.”
While winning the award was not Wiley’s primary motivation, he appreciated recognition for his hard work here in Rota. NAVSTA Rota Fire Chief Shane Rayfield echoed this sentiment saying Wiley deserves all the attention for his hard work – which also contributed to NAVSTA Rota winning the Navy medium department of the year.
“I put so much pressure on my team to be the best,” Rayfield explained. “Without each and every one of them doing what they do day in and day out, I wouldn’t be the person or the fire chief that I am.”
Wiley is head of training for the over 60 firefighters – military, civilian, and local national – in a variety of firefighting scopes including structural fires, aircraft rescue, shipboard, wildland urban interface, confined space rescue, technical rescue, HAZMAT, and more. The diversity of NAVSTA Rota’s mission from its forward-deployed naval forces (FDNF) ships to the flightline makes it one of the most demanding training requirements within the region.
The intense training requirements cannot be a one-person responsibility according to Wiley. Therefore, he relies on individual accountability as well as his leading petty officers to meet the challenge.
Obtaining all training requirements are one aspect of the training environment; their training demands specialized equipment and facilities to complete their training. During Wiley’s time here, NAVSTA Rota has expanded and installed several upgrades, including doubling the size of the training ground and adding a drafting pit, in addition to general improvements such as electronic gates to control access and improve security.
“We got a flashover trainer right when I first got here that I got up and running,” he said. “We also have a shipboard trainer that we got last year that will be installed soon.”
Wiley has also several projects that he has walked from development to implementation. One such project was the development of a pier-side incident command post, a first within the Navy.
“It started out when Chief Herrara was here requesting a box down at the pier with equipment for our team to respond to shipboard fires,” explained Wiley. “I designed it with that concept but it grew. We decided to stack two on top of each other. Then why not put an incident command post on the top one?”
The project grew to include windows and an observation deck, resulting in a prototype for the Navy. It has been so well received that NAVSTA Rota is already planning to add a second one further down the pier to reduce required response time.
“To be honest, if we’re in an emergency, that is one more thing to worry about,” he said. “We don’t want to have to stop what we’re doing to wait for it to move. We are going to be worried about mitigating the incident.”
Being proactive in the mitigation of fire emergencies is a common theme with Wiley. Due to the unique nature of NAVSTA Rota with several branches of services being represented on the installation as well as it being a Spanish naval base, Wiley has pushed to collaborate and train with tenant commands and Spanish navy to improve responses in times of emergencies or crises.
To improve firefighters’ response to potential aircraft fires, Wiley has worked with the U.S. Air Force 521 Air Mobility Operations Group and 725 Air Mobility Squadron to coordinate familiarization tours and trainings on aircraft that routinely stop in Rota.
“We’re not required to do training on them since they are not assigned (to Rota),” said Wiley. “However we do take advantage of their frequent visits to familiarize ourselves.”
NAVSTA Rota firefighters also train with Spanish navy “bomberos,” or firefighers. These type of trainings highlight partnership between the U.S. Navy and host nation to respond to emergencies on the installation.
These improvements and collaborations are just some of the reasons Wiley was awarded the prestigious award. His work experience of over 24 years of firefighting – 10 years serving on active duty in the Air Force – is one aspect of his ability. Rayfield says that it’s something less tangible that sets Wiley apart.
“Every organization and team needs enthusiastic people because enthusiasm is contagious and Wiley exudes that throughout our organization,” said Rayfield.
Wiley’s enthusiasm to learn, work hard, find new solutions to everyday problems, and motivate the team is what sets him apart from others. His enthusiasm pushes the entire team of NAVSTA Rota firefighters to excel at their job.
Naval Station Rota sustains the fleet, enables the fighter and supports the family by conducting air operations, port operations, ensuring security and safety, assuring quality of life and providing the core services of power, water, fuel and information technology.
| Date Taken: | 07.15.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 07.29.2021 05:56 |
| Story ID: | 401973 |
| Location: | ROTA, ES |
| Web Views: | 127 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Small Changes to Make a Big Difference: Wiley Awarded DoD Fire Instructor of the Year, by Courtney Pollock, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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