Every community relies on its firefighters, and right here in Oxford, Mississippi, we’re honored to share the powerful journey of retired Fire Captain James Pritchard. From a young age, James knew his calling, trading hot power lines for the intense heat and demands of the fire service. He recounts the thrill of training, the physical challenges, and the dedication it takes to protect and serve. For years, James bravely answered the call, experiencing both the profound joy of helping others and the difficult sacrifices that come with a demanding first responder career, often missing precious family moments.
But beneath the uniform, the daily realities of confronting tragedy take a silent, heavy toll. James openly shares how the constant exposure to car wrecks and other devastating scenes built up “little by little,” leading to intense nightmares and a struggle to cope. This is a crucial story about the often-unseen side of heroism: the emotional toll of firefighting and the critical importance of first responder mental health. Join us as James describes his journey from unspoken pain to finding healing with the support of his family, embracing the power of reflection, and learning that asking for help is a true sign of strength on the road to peace and recovery.
📖 Read the Episode Transcript
Speaker 1: This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories. And we tell stories about everything, including your story. Send them to OurAmericanStories.com. That’s OurAmericanStories.com. They’re some of our favorites. And by the way, as you know, we are a nonprofit. And what we do, well, it’s free to listen to, but it is not free to make. And if you love the stories we’re telling, go to OurAmericanStories.com, click the donate button.
00:00:36
Speaker 2: And do what you can to help us out.
00:00:38
Speaker 1: Today, you’re going to hear from James Pritchard, a retired fire captain right here in Oxford, Mississippi, where we broadcast. James is going to share with us the realities of working in the fire service, and how pushing down your emotions catches up with you in the long run.
00:00:56
Speaker 3: I guess I kind of always wanted to be a firefighter. I think that’s why God put me here. But beforehand, I was just a kid. I was working with the city Electric Department, actually, and I was in a bucket truck right across from the fire department, working with hot power lines. And I let one of the wires go, and it blew a fuse, and it out. And I hunkered down in the bottom of the bucket, and I got out of the bucket, and I walked across the street, and I said, “Chief, I’m coming to work.”
00:01:32
Speaker 2: I said, “This is it.”
00:01:33
Speaker 3: I knew the fire chief well, and he liked me a lot, and it worked out where the next hiring cycle, that’s where I went. I was just excited, and I was ready to go, and that’s what I wanted to do. I was a volunteer firefighter for about three years before I actually became a career firefighter, so I kind of knew what the process was. There was a lot of, lot of physical pain, but other than that, besides being away from my wife and my little boy, it was fun, especially looking back, you know, learning how to repel off the side of a building. At the start of my career, I was there for twenty-four hours, and I was off for forty-
00:02:20
Speaker 2: eight hours, which worked pretty good for me.
00:02:24
Speaker 3: But at the end of my career, we worked forty-eight hours on and four days off, so I was at the fire station for two days; I was at home for four days. But being away for forty-eight hours, you just missed so much. My little girl bearre races, so it was, you know, I missed the whole weekend of that, or ball tournaments, or just being home, because I’m a homebody. My family means everything to me. But the hardest part was absolutely the car wreck. Dealing with death in general. But when you, when you got to a house fire, if somebody was in that house fire and we couldn’t find them right off the bat, we knew they were gone. But when you got to a car wreck, lots of times they were alive, but there really wasn’t much you could do to help them. No matter how fast we got them out, we knew they, they likely weren’t gonna, weren’t gonna pull through, lots of times.
00:03:36
Speaker 2: You know, it was hard.
00:03:40
Speaker 3: Everything built up little by little, by little, by little. I was going strong, and then I was broken, and I didn’t know why. But it was, it was pretty obvious to everybody around me why, especially my wife. You know, I did pretty good at hiding it from my kids, but I couldn’t hide it when I was asleep. I would wake up swinging and kicking and punching and screaming, and actually hit my wife while I was asleep several times. And just, it was hard, and I still have nightmares. You know. I try to avoid places, scenes where hard things happened. I try not to go by those places, but sometimes I can’t. And you know, I’m probably gonna cry today, but that’s all right. I’ve got a great wife. She’s been my rock through all of this, and not being afraid to ask for help has been very important for me also. And I don’t, I guess, we’ve realized a lot of times our purpose until we, till we get into it. And I don’t know that we even realized that first one, or two, or three steps. I actually got hurt during a training exercise, and I had one back surgery, and then I went back to work, and then I had another back surgery. And after that, they said I couldn’t go back. So I didn’t get my last ride. I didn’t get to finish the way I wanted to finish. But God had a plan with that too. He knew that I was done. He knew that I was finished. I was so tired, and I needed, I needed to stop, and I needed to reflect, and I needed to get better mentally and physically. That’s, that’s what I’ve been working on ever since. I feel like God put me here for that purpose. I got to help a lot of people. But talking to somebody doesn’t mean you’re not to let it out; don’t let it build up. I never looked at the fire service as a way to be a hero or get recognition, because that’s not what it’s about. But there’s a lot of special people up there doing it right now.
00:06:38
Speaker 1: In a beautiful job by Madison on the production, and a special thanks to James Pritchard, a retired captain of Oxford’s Fire Department, and his special thanks to all the guys and gals who do this kind of work. And that’s the cops, the firemen, the EMTs, and even people in some emergency room situations.
00:06:56
Speaker 2: It is a little bit by little.
00:06:58
Speaker 1: Bit, seeing the world at its worst, near-death sequences, and sometimes not being able to help, sometimes blaming yourself, the flashbacks, the nightmares.
00:07:08
Speaker 2: My goodness, “I got to help a lot of people.” You sure did.
00:07:11
Speaker 1: And now, now James is helping himself. And God did have a plan, and it was time for James to be with his family and find peace. James Pritchard’s story in Oxford, Mississippi’s story, Our Hometown, here on Our American Stories. Folks, if you love the stories we tell about this great country, and especially the stories of America’s rich past, know that all of our stories about American history—from war to innovation, culture, and faith—are brought to us by the great folks at Hillsdale College, a place where students study all the things that are beautiful in life and all the things that are good in life. And if you can’t get to Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you with their free and terrific online courses.
00:07:53
Speaker 2: Go to Hillsdale.edu to learn more.
Discover more real American voices.
