Fire chief to retire after 45 years of commitment, service

  • Published
  • By Kate Blais
  • 95 Air Base Wing Public Affairs
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  In an instant, the thousand or so gallons of JP-4 jet fuel went up in flames in what appeared to be a horrible accident and uncontrollable inferno. The few onlookers near the scene approached the flames, moving closer to a potentially deadly situation when many others would instinctively flee.

Armed with equipment to combat the fire and an inherent sense of duty, Air Force fire-fighter trainees in the 1960s and 1970s accepted the dangerous scenario as training for their job.

Chief Joe Ybarra, 95th Air Base Wing Fire Department, was among the fearless onlookers approaching large fires like the one intentionally set at Walker Air Force Base in 1965.

"I remember my first training fire," said Chief Ybarra. "The deputy fire chief wanted to show us how to fight fire. He went down the rescue path, fire surrounded him, above and below, you could barely see him through all the flames and smoke. And finally when he came out, he says 'and that's the way you do it.'

"His face-shield was cracked, his eyebrows and his mustache were singed. And I sort of thought about it again, but then again it's just one of those things where you come to a quick realization one way or the other that it's either for you or it's not. And I found that it was for me."

Chief Ybarra has remained true to his initial realization, and after 45 years of fire-fighting for the United States Government, both enlisted in the Air Force and now as a civilian, he's decided to retire.

Enlisting in the Air Force in August of 1965, Chief Ybarra began his fire-fighting career in October of the same year.

"As a young troop, I had no idea what fire protection was about at that time," said the chief. "Like everybody else who joins the Air Force, I'm sure the glory was in working on aircraft or flying aircraft. I had no idea what it took to be in that area, so the Air Force decided to assign me to fire-fighting. Maybe it was Divine Intervention but I found my niche."

During his tenure in the Air Force, Chief Ybarra was stationed around the country and throughout the world as part of the base fire crew. He retired from the Air Force as a senior master sergeant on Dec. 1, 1985.

Continuing his career in fire protection, the chief went to work at Plant 42 in Palmdale but found it didn't offer him as many challenges as he had hoped. So taking a major pay cut, Chief Ybarra returned to Edwards in 1987 to work for the fire department as a communications supervisor, and has remained on the base ever since.

"The contributions he's made to this fire department over the years and advancing the training have made the fire department much, much better," said Deputy Chief Michael Hurles, 95 ABW Fire Department. "Ultimately, the fire department serves the base, so he's actually, indirectly, improved the quality of life for the base residents by the things that he has done quietly in the background."

In particular, Chief Ybarra was the primary advocate for the development of the base's Hazmat team. As assistant chief of training for developing the team, he conducted the background research, developed the program and established the training.

"The Hazmat team that we have now, I'd put against any team in California," said Deputy Chief Hurles. "They're that good."

Not only has the chief been involved with critical flight test programs ranging from the SR-71 to the F-22 and F-35, but he was instrumental in developing emergency procedures for the Boeing 747 Space Shuttle Carrier Aircraft and the prototype orbiter Enterprise.

Chief Ybarra's tireless work to test these emergency procedures led to his appointment as the fire department's primary program officer for the Space Shuttle Program. He became responsible for developing, assigning and ensuring the training of the Air Force Flight Test Center Shuttle Support Team's fire department members. A physical example of this training can be found on the flight line in the form of the Department of Defense's only life-size space shuttle nose mock-up, used to simulate emergency scenarios should the space shuttle land at Edwards.

So why retire?

"It's that time," said the chief. "It's time to let younger leaders step-up, take the reins and run with them. You always want to leave something better than the way you found it, and well, I think I'm doing that and I'm hoping the next individual that takes the lead, takes Edwards a little higher."

It seemed like a common sentiment around the department; Chief Ybarra has left things better than he found them.

"He's what we call a 'mensch' in the Jewish faith," said Tammy Hurles, Chief Hurles' wife and friend of Chief Ybarra for over 20 years. "He is a good man. He does a lot that that you never hear about. He's one of the most kind and generous men you'd ever meet."

Chief Hurles expressed the same feeling.

"To me he was like the foundation of the department," he said. "Without a good strong foundation, what you build on it doesn't stand. He did his job quietly, professional and extremely competently."

"He's a mild-mannered person, I've never really seen him get excited about things, and I think that just comes from experience," said William Redick, 95 ABW Fire Protection specialist. "In our business things get hectic pretty quick and he just seems to take it all in stride. And when you have somebody who has that type of confidence, it puts everyone else in a good place. We're going to miss him."

Looking forward to spending time with his grandchildren, doing some travelling and a little gardening in retirement, Chief Ybarra admits that his career at Edwards has been fulfilling.

"You hear the cliché, 'Edwards is a great place to work and live,'" said the chief. "It's a true fact. The people and the mission are very important, and sometimes we tend to forget that. Edwards offers you a lot of fulfilling challenges, all you've got to do is be able to step up to them."