All it took for Jonathan Lu to volunteer for the Bald Hills Fire Department in 2016 was its sign that read: “Wanted: hard work, no pay, cool hat.”
More than seven years later, Lu was named the 2024 National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians Military Medic of the Year to cap off his seven-year tenure with the department. He volunteered while on active duty as a U.S. Army Green Beret at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, and he recently retired after 20 years of service.
Lu will be recognized at the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) World Expo and National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians (NAEMT) Annual Meeting in Las Vegas this month.
“It means the world to me. It’s really an honor that culminates my career,” he said. “I just retired from military service in July, and to be honored with the prestigious military medic award at the end of my career is really something else and just a testament to those that supported me along the way.
Lu had more than a decade of experience in the Army before volunteering with the Bald Hills Fire Department. When he joined, he said he felt like a private again upon arrival. He worked 24 hours per month and had multiple drills per month on Tuesdays and Sundays.
“It was super refreshing to not be in charge of anything and also to be on complete receive mode,” Lu said. “I think that was truly very formative in my leadership style that I hold today because it taught me that true professional humility of being on receive mode and being open-minded to the idea that there are professionals out there that have more experience and more talent in this particular discipline. In order to grow and be the best that you can be in that discipline, you owe it to yourself to just listen to those around you.”
Lu said the Bald Hills Fire Department was unique because his superiors gave him leeway and understood that he was serving as an active duty soldier at the same time and that his military service came first.
“I recognize that is not something that most stations do. They offered me a lot of grace and leeway in order to fulfill my obligations to both my military service and the department,” he said. “Many of them actually had military service.”
The Bald Hills community of about 5,000 residents is mostly protected by a fire department of about 10 volunteers, Lu said, who “carry the lion’s share of response volume.” With the platform that comes with the military medic of the year award, he hopes to promote volunteerism in rural communities.
“I get the feeling that there isn’t a lot of impetus to get the young to volunteer, and to me, that’s an absolute travesty because volunteering in that fire department has taught me more about life and service and so many lifelong skills than I did in higher education, for example,” he said. “It’s really important to me because those fire departments depend on volunteers to protect their communities, and as that volunteer population ages out, it becomes more and more important to advocate for younger volunteers to take their places.”
Lu now works as the director of the Center for Health Professions at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, and is the founder and CEO of HardHat Wellness Solutions, a consulting company that promotes wellness to those who serve in high-hazard industries, law enforcement, fire and EMS, health care, military and government agencies. He thanked the Bald Hills Fire Department for helping him work toward his desired career in higher education.
“This award is a testament to the volunteers that trained me at Bald Hills, just as much as it is to the military personnel that I served with throughout my 20 years of military service,” Lu said. “I know it says ‘Military Medic of the Year,’ but my training in my service in that fire department made me a better soldier, Green Beret and combat medic, just as the skills that I brought from the military to the fire station made me a better volunteer.
“I really want to use the platform to highlight that. Although they’re very small, rural fire departments are punching way above their weight class, and I really would love nothing more than just to spotlight the talent and dedication that is within that fire station in the hopes that others will see it and be curious enough to venture in on a Tuesday night.”
