By Steven Barrie
The Press Enterprise
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Riverside firefighter-paramedic Joe Reed has joined an elite group of U.S. military personnel.
Reed, 39, of Murrieta, was recently promoted to the rank of master chief petty officer in the Navy Reserve. Master chief is the top rank the Navy’s enlisted personnel can attain.
A member of the Navy then the Navy Reserve since 1989, he is a supervisor in Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 1 based in Coronado. The unit drills at both the U.S. Naval Amphibious Base south of San Diego and at March Air Reserve Base between Riverside and Moreno Valley.
“My job is to take care of the troops and mentor junior officers,” Reed said during a recent telephone interview.
After serving 11 years of active duty in the Navy, Reed joined the Reserve in 2000 and began civilian firefighting in the Los Angeles County city of Downey.
The Navy tapped him for active duty in 2003 when the U.S. invaded Iraq.
“We were among the first units to cross the border,” Reed said.
As a construction battalion, Reed’s unit was responsible for quickly getting war zone bases up and running.
“Nothing was established,” he said of his first trip to Iraq. “Living conditions were horrible.”
Shortly after joining the Riverside Fire Department in 2006, Reed was again called to active duty, starting in Iraq and then moving to Afghanistan, where the unit again was tasked with setting up bases.
“The second time, the living conditions were 100 percent better,” he said with a laugh. “We moved to Afghanistan to start the surge of Seabees” — construction battalions, CBs — “coming in to expand bases.”
He does see similarities between his military and civilian occupations: “When you’re worried about bullets or getting hit with rocket fire, there’s stress,” he said. “In this job (firefighting), you never know what’s going to happen, and that’s stressful, too.”
According to a Navy Reserve spokesman, only a handful of enlisted personnel hold the rank of master chief petty officer — fewer than 400 among nearly 42,000 enlisted reservists.
“It is a major accomplishment to be selected for master chief petty officer,” said Lt. Cmdr. Doug Gabos, spokesman for the office of the commander of Navy Reserve Forces in Washington, D.C., in an e-mail.
Master chiefs are considered technical and management experts within the units they serve, Gabos said. Most of them were promoted to the rank in their mid-40s after a quarter-century of service.
“Master Chief Reed is much younger than average and with fewer years (of service) than the average master chief in the Reserves,” he said.
As part of the promotion, Reed will extend his naval reserve service at least two more years, continuing to serve with the Seabees.
“The Fire Department and city of Riverside are fortunate to have an employee such as Joe Reed,” Riverside fire Division Chief John Martinez said in a prepared statement. “He brings those same qualities of loyalty, strong work ethic, common sense and leadership to our organization and the citizens of Riverside.”
Reed works out of Arlington Fire Station 2, a hazmat unit.
He lives in Murrieta with his wife, three daughters and a son.
Copyright 2010 The Press Enterprise, Inc.
All Rights Reserved