There was no way of knowing that one Plan B decision would lead to a 45-year career in firefighting for Terry Garrison.
Back then, the future Glendale Fire Chief was 19 and fresh off two years in the Army. He was looking for something in line with what he’d been studying in the service when he returned to the Valley in the early 1970s, as he and his crew cut — as a self-proclaimed clumsy kid — approached the city of Phoenix about any openings in the aviation department.
“She laughed and said, ‘You’re a knucklehead, we don’t have aviation jobs. But that’s the fire department over there if you want to apply for that,’” he recalled.
