Marion Firefighter Greg Yeakle Retires after 30 Years Share

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Fire­fight­er Greg Yeak­le has retired from the Mar­i­on Fire Depart­ment after more than 30 years. Since join­ing MFD in 1989, Yeak­le com­plet­ed sev­er­al state cer­ti­fi­ca­tions includ­ing Haz­mat, Mas­ter Fire­fight­er, Strat­e­gy & Tac­tics, Inves­tiga­tive, and Instruc­tor. Of his train­ing, Yeak­le most­ly enjoyed deploy­ing Strat­e­gy & Tac­tics skills when approach­ing fire scenes. Short­ly after one year on the Dept., his team relied on Yeakle’s excep­tion­al knowl­edge of Marion’s streets. ​“They would even let me dri­ve the truck because of their con­fi­dence in my knowl­edge of the city’s lay­out,” reflect­ed Yeak­le. ​“We would even have com­pe­ti­tions in the fire house where they would try to stump me on a street name, but they nev­er could.”

With MFD, Yeak­le served in every posi­tion except Fire Chief, hav­ing served as Deputy Chief from 2012 – 2015. With col­lec­tive bar­gain­ing train­ing, he served as Pres­i­dent of Mar­i­on Pro­fes­sion­al Fire­fight­ers Local 676 for 15 years. He also ran the Fireman’s Tour­na­ment for Grant Coun­ty Lit­tle League Base­ball for near­ly 12 years. 

“It’s been quite a ride. It’s all been worth it, and I would do it all again,” said Yeak­le. He offered words of wis­dom to new fire­fight­ers. ​“Get as much train­ing as you pos­si­bly can. When you’re on a call and you don’t know what to do, your train­ing will take over.” Yeak­le also encour­aged that fire­fight­ers will learn they are best in a cer­tain role and will begin to be relied upon in that role. ​“Not every­one is good at every posi­tion, but every­one is good at a cer­tain posi­tion,” expressed Yeakle.

Yeak­le also reflect­ed on being part of the first fire depart­ment haz­mat team in Indi­ana through MFD, which was formed in 1992.

Yeak­le says he will miss the com­radery, help­ing to make a dif­fer­ence in the com­mu­ni­ty, and being there to help peo­ple in time of need. 

Fire Chief Paul David reflect­ed, ​“Yeak­le put the Dept.’s needs before his own. He was always a plea­sure to work with. We’ve had a lot of laughs and shared many seri­ous times. I’ll miss his great cook­ing and being around in gen­er­al. The Dept. wish­es him all the best.”

Yeak­le looks for­ward to work­ing on his hob­by of restor­ing antique radios and fans, as well as spend­ing time with fam­i­ly includ­ing grandchildren.

Yeakle’s offi­cial retire­ment date was Jan­u­ary 14^th, 2020.