Bill Voorhies

Bill Voorhies is a retired Deputy Chief for a department in Metro Atlanta. He lives in the county he worked in, which made for a very interesting speech he would give to new recruits about "making damned sure they know what they're doing." He worked in Operations for most of his 27 years and retired as the Deputy Chief of Training and Professional Services. He came up through the ranks and spent three years as Chief of Staff before being promoted to Deputy. During that, he took 5 1/2 years to complete the four-year Executive Fire Officer Program at the National Fire Academy (thanks COVID-shutdown).

Bill was born in Atlanta and attended both the University of Georgia and Georgia State University. His Bachelor’s Degree in Film and Video has proven to be a colossal waste of money, time, (and let's be honest) very little effort. You know that famous pig movie "Babe" that was nominated for Best Picture? Well, he worked on the other pig movie that came out that year; the abysmally bad "Gordy." (Look him up on IMDB) He worked for the prop department, but his arm and the right side of his face have starring roles in the movie. After about 5 years working in the film business and becoming incredibly disillusioned, he decided to give firefighting a chance. It was something he wanted to do for a long time but hadn't really given consideration to. In addition to film and firefighting, he’s done landscaping, high-end custom cabinetry, fire sprinkler company truck driver, kids’ crafts maker, handyman work, home construction, real estate appraisal photography, and for about six months he took staples out of documents for a huge international construction firm.

He and Shane used to work together, and he met Pabel and Hatch through MAFFC, which he was involved with for eight years teaching, being a committee member, and running the social media and website for a few of those years. Shane thinks that Bill makes things overly complicated. And for someone who has a film degree, Hatch thinks that Bill sure does seem to hate a lot of movies. Pabel thinks that Bill writes excessively long texts which is kind of in opposition to the nature of the medium. And Bill was pretty disappointed when he learned the Twitter handle "@Combustibill" was already taken.

Bill Has a Rungu

So I got an email from Jon Cannon. The name didn't ring a bell, and I initially thought it was some kind of spam. The subject of the email was "Assist - Mailing Address," and I didn't really look at it. But a day or two later I started thinking about that name and it was familiar. That's when I realized that Jon Cannon is one of the authors of a leadership book I recommended on my reading list (Leadership Lessons of the Navy SEALs). When I actually read the email, Lt. Cmdr. Cannon had asked for my address, mentioned that it's been a while since he wrote the book, and, most importantly, said that a friend had forwarded the words I wrote about his book to him. Oooooohhhh, crap.

Now, two things worried me immediately. First, I was worried that his friend only forwarded the first half of what I wrote about his book; and the first half only talks about how hesitant I was to read the book because I thought it would be a book that traded off the Navy SEALs’ name. Second, I was worried about the fact that he is actually a Navy SEAL. I was suddenly consumed with visions of this dude showing up at my home and throat punching me when I opened the door.

I replied back to him after a few days of worrying and explained that I hoped whoever forwarded him my words had included the part where I spoke about how much l liked the book; about how surprised I was at how great it is. He was very cool about it, and said he had read all of what I wrote. I couldn't help myself and took the opportunity to ask him what he would recommend for leadership reading. He took some time to type something up and sent me back a list of a few books (three of which I had already read, and a couple of which I bought solely on his recommendation.) Then I replied and thanked him for taking the time. And that was it until a few months later.

I figured I might get a signed copy of the book. But in a package that looked a little like it had been around the world (it had) I received what you see in the pictures below with a handwritten note. It's called a "Rungu" and the note read:

"Bill - I was talking to a local boss about your challenges. He recommended this, a 'rungu.' A Swahili club used for tribal raids, mostly for cattle or vengeance, and he went off and brought this back. Enjoy, Jon Cannon."

Words really fail me trying to describe just how flattered I am that this Navy SEAL Lt. Commander author took time to have this made and then shipped it around the world. I don't know what I did to deserve it, but the honor is not lost on me. It's really one of the coolest gifts I've ever received.