A MESSAGE OF UNITY

A MESSAGE OF

UNITYFire Captain Andrea Hall’s Pledge of Allegiance at the Biden Inauguration epitomised her message of unity and togetherness.

Fire Captain Andrea Hall of the South Fulton Fire and Rescue Department in Georgia. O n January 6, protesters fired up by the rhetoric of former US president Trump stormed the Capitol in Washington DC in an act that underlined the divisions in American politics and society. Just two week later on January 20, Fire Captain Andrea Hall from the South Fulton Fire and Rescue Department in Georgia, stepped up to the podium at the inauguration of 46th President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris in an act that helped to underline a new sense of unity.

On a day of new beginnings and inclusion, with Harris becoming the first African-American, person of South Asian descent, and female vicepresident, it was fitting that Captain Hall took to the stage, having herself achieved several historic firsts. She was the first female firefighter in the Albany, Georgia, Fire Department, in 1993, and in 2004 became the first female African-American to hold the rank of Captain in the South Fulton Fire and Rescue Department, so she knew what it was like to be a part of a new, trailblazing era.

Understandably, with VicePresident Harris preparing to stand for her inauguration, and following a performance of the national anthem by Lady Gaga, Captain Hall was nervous as her moment arrived. “The Pledge is only about 15 seconds – but it felt like a very long time!” she tells me. “I was so

nervous because I was representing half a million firefighters, and I was thinking, I have to go up here and represent these people with dignity, honour, respect and professionalism.

“I wanted to make sure people understood this is a proud profession, I wanted to make sure I was articulating properly, representing all firefighters with dignity and respect, I wanted to make a good impression.

“Everything the Pledge expresses, I wanted to embody in that moment, making sure they understood the passion from which I spoke those words about being indivisible as a nation, because that’s what it’s going to take to move our country forwards.”

Surrounded by former presidents and watching a famous singer walk from the stage, the situation was not exactly normal, Captain Hall admits. “I mean, how do you follow Lady Gaga?” she jokes. However, her sister Whitney’s words of encouragement to “get it together” focused her, and videos of the event show her confidently taking to the podium, even giving President Biden a fist bump on her way, before reciting the Pledge in English and American sign language.

“My whole focus was on not forgetting the words, representing firefighters, representing women, representing African-Americans, representing deaf hearing,” she says. Captain Hall’s decision to recite the Pledge in sign language was something very important to her, and underlines the sense of unity she wanted to help represent on the day. As a child of a deaf parent, she felt the need to show her support for the hearingimpaired community.

“It wasn’t something I shared with others beforehand, but it was something I wanted to do because I have relatives who are deaf or hard of hearing, and there is a large community of people I know,” Captain Hall tells me. “I wasn’t trying to make a big statement about it, I just wanted the people I know who were watching at home to be included as well. And I thought it was in line with the president’s mission.”

Captain Hall only revealed her wish to also make the Pledge in sign language at the event’s rehearsal, and her request was approved on the morning of the inauguration, leading to another historic first.

Captain Hall delivered the Pledge of Allegiance in both English and American sign language.

FIRSTS

Those firsts are highlights of Captain Hall’s career, and she has taken each one in her stride. Becoming the first female in the Albany, Georgia, Fire Department in 1993 was not something she had been planning for, she admits.

“I didn’t think of being a firefighter as an option until I was around 19 years old,” she tells me. “I had never seen anyone who looked like me in the fire service. I didn’t know anything about it, but a cousin of mine was a firefighter and at a chance meeting with him, he told me about a hiring cycle. I applied, and thankfully was hired.”

This meant a little bit of adjustment all round. “I had never experienced anything like it before, but then, the fire department in Albany had never experienced having a woman in their ranks either, so it was new for all of us,” Captain Hall tells me.

“I had the physical ability, but it did take some time for my colleagues to warm to me and realise I had the ability to do the job. There had been this misnomer that everything would have to change when a woman came into the job, that they would have to

“I was so nervous because I was representing half a million firefighters, and I was thinking, I have to go up here and represent these people with dignity, honour, respect and professionalism”

hang pink curtains and put flowers on the bed linen. Back then, it was a very typical male environment with the usual racy calendars on the walls, but I wasn’t fazed by that because I have brothers. I understand how some women could come in and be fazed by that, but I just thought these are guys, and that’s what they do.”

Having spent a few years with the Albany Fire Department, Captain Hall moved to the larger South Fulton Fire and Rescue Department in 1999 because she wanted to be part of a larger organisation that could offer more opportunities, and in 2004 made that other historic landmark by becoming the first female AfricanAmerican to hold the rank of Captain.

“It was a significant moment in that when I was promoted, the fire department had been in operation for 20 years and there had only been one woman who had made any sort of significant rank – a captain at the time – and there were two other women who had become lieutenants – but there were no African-American women eligible to make rank.

“I wasn’t looking to become the first,” she tells me. “I was just on my career path, and when I did get it, it was mentioned to me about being the first African-American in the position. That made it a huge honour for me, and a lot of responsibility too. In South Fulton, even in 2021, when I tell people I am a Fire Captain, they are surprised that there are even women in the fire department at all. People here still don’t realise it is a viable option as a career for women.”

That may now change, given the level of coverage Captain Hall has received since the inauguration, but her involvement in the occasion came out of hard work and dedication that saw her recognised for some notable achievements.

Captain Hall with her sister Whitney Williams-Smith, who was herself named Savannah FD’s first female African-American Chief Fire Marshal in 2020.

REPRESENTATION

Captain Hall was asked to represent all US firefighters by making the Pledge of Allegiance partly because of her work as president of the Georgia chapter of the International Federation of Firefighters (IFF), a position she took up in 2019.

With South Fulton becoming its own municipality a few years ago, Captain Hall was at the forefront of a move to support a local ordinance that paved the way for the right to collective bargaining for its firefighters and to enter into contracts with the municipality.

“The only other municipality to do that in Georgia was Savannah, which as you will know has a huge connection to Dublin Fire Brigade,” Captain Hall tells me. This victory put her on the radar of the IFF, who were very early in endorsing Biden for President.

“As a show of gratitude to our organisation, we were invited by the Biden Transition Team to participate in the inauguration,” she tells me. This led to Captain Hall being put on the radar of not just the IFF, but nationally, as she explains.

“The organisation asked if I would be interested in doing the Pledge. I have to say I was in shock that the IFF would think of little ol’ me down in South Georgia. There was no answer to give other than ‘Yes.’”

Her 28 years of experience as a firefighter and roles as CEO, Chairperson and Licensed Emergency Medical Technician with various first responder agencies and as an instructor also didn’t hurt Captain Hall’s candidacy.

UNITY

We come back to the inauguration, and Captain Hall has spoken elegantly about the importance of unity, not just to firefighters, but to society, and to the American public.

“A lot of it has to do with how I was raised,” she tells me. “I come from a very big family and grew up where there is a big work ethic and the idea of working together to survive, even if you don’t agree, and that’s the key to achieving something both personally and as a community: You have to be able to find a common goal, find how to pull our resources together, regardless of our individual beliefs.

“The message I push is that we can’t do anything without each other and without other people. I mean, we can’t even enter this world without the help of someone else – we need a nurse or a doctor. There is nothing in this world we can do alone. That is true of all fire departments, and it is true of society.”

CALMNESS

Making that point to an expectant nation using only the 31 words of the Pledge is quite a feat, and despite her nerves, Captain Hall demonstrated remarkable calmness when she took to the podium – something she attributes to her training and work as a firefighter.

“That is one of the gifts we are given as firefighters,” she explains. “We are able to remain calm in chaotic environments. When others are losing their heads, we are calm and able to rationalise, take in massive amounts of information and distil it down to the one most important thing that needs to be done next.

“That certainly helped me when reciting the Pledge. But there was also a palpable warmth in the environment that day,” she recalls. “You could feel the joy of the transition. And that’s not to say anything negative about the previous administration – we all know what that looked like – but there was this feeling of, optimism and inclusion in the transfer to a new administration.”

Of course, after her involvement, Captain Hall admits that the occasion finally got the better of her. “Right after it was over, I went back to the dressing room they had put in for us, and a wave of emotion rushed over me and I wept for about five minutes,” she says. “I didn’t realise I was holding in all of this intense desire to do well, to represent firefighters, but also the sense of hope for this new administration. They were tears of relief and joy.”

RECEPTION

Captain Hall laughs at the fact that her own crew didn’t even get to see her recite the Pledge, having been called out to a fire. “That’s how it goes – the life of a firefighter,” she says. But she does fondly remember the days afterwards when she says she got a very warm reception from her colleagues and from the local community.

“There was a lot of ribbing, of course,” she tells me, “but the reception was great, from other firefighters and people I don’t know. I am humbled by it and am very appreciated.

“I expected I was going to go and say those words in 15 seconds, then sit down and it was going to be done,” Captain Hall explains. “Do my part, and bam – done! Then go home and retreat back into obscurity. But that’s not the way it happened.” Far from it.

“I have been talking to people from everywhere across the world – talking to you in Ireland, people in Japan, Australia, everywhere,” she says. “I wasn’t even on social media before this. So, when all of this coverage started to happen, I was really taken aback, thinking, wow, people are that interested?

“Perhaps because of our culture, firefighters don’t seek a lot of attention, but we have an obligation to demonstrate the value of what we do, because we want to continue the sense of respect and honour and pride in this profession. We can do that by being examples, and by showing that others can become a part of that community too, and I hope I showed both of those when I recited the Pledge.”

Having mentioned the DFB connections to nearby Savannah earlier, Captain Hall returns to the subject of Irish people and the firefighting profession, pointing out some Irish ancestry in the McSwaine side of her family.

“I have a very deep respect for the Irish and Ireland,” she is quick to tell me. “You have such an interesting and important history in this country. Your people came here and were rejected, and the only thing available was the dirty jobs such as police and firefighting, but the Irish embraced this opportunity and brought their heritage into it. So, we owe the Irish a huge sense of gratitude for what they did to establish our modern-day fire service.

“I think the resilience and determination and self-pride speaks volumes and carries over into what we do now, and that is why being a firefighter is such an honour. It is something to be proud of and we owe it to you guys. If it wasn’t for that, I wouldn’t be where I am now.”

Captain Hall with her sister Whitney and the Obamas at the inauguration.