Chief Salas' Confirmation Hearing....Another new era in GFD

Well, its a new year and Chief Dave Peredo is out and the new appointee, retired Battalion Fire Chief John C. Salas is in.
Chief Salas is a great guy. When I first came in, during processing and initial assignment, he gave me my first GFD fire class at Tamuning Fire Station. Very knowledgeable about fire and easy going. I never saw him get his feathers ruffled.
Today was the Chief's confirmation hearing at the Guam Legislature.
Overall it was very positive.
There was a lot of support shown by the firefighters and other friends and family.
The Chief was grilled a little on the KAL Flight 801 disaster. The main issue was the alleged theft of passenger property. He was also questioned in detail about the hours of work and compensation of the uniform headquarters staff.  Refer to these news web pages for more info:
Pacific Daily News: http://www.guampdn.com/article/20110215/NEWS01/102150306/Salas-Trucks-recruits-coming
KUAM News: http://www.kuam.com/story/14022954/2011/02/14/john-salas-goes-up-for-confirmation-hearing?redirected=true
Pacific News Center: http://www.pacificnewscenter.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11501:fire-chief-nominee-salas-gets-strong-support-former-chief-paredo-criticised-at-confimration-hearing&catid=45:guam-news&Itemid=156
Senator Palacios asked the Chief to submit reports clarifying his answers to these questions to help determine his confirmation.
But all in all, I think that Chief Salas did well enough to secure his confirmation.
He has always been an easy Chief to get along with. If his 1 1/2 months in office is any indication of what we are to see in the future, I believe we firefighters will see the support that we have been looking for and the equipment and training that we need to serve the people of our island.
Only time will tell. Let us see where his leadership takes us.
Until next time....