Hobbs Fire Department Deputy Chief Barry Young is celebrating 15 years of service with the City of Hobbs, where he has worked with HFD for 14 years and two months.
Young was recently awared a 15 Years of Service coin and certificate by the City of Hobbs.
Young started working in the water lab for the Hobbs Wastewater Plant on June 24, 2002, 10 months later he transferred to HFD.
“Being with the city for 15 years has been a good ride so far,” Young said. “I remember we had a safety meeting that was being held at the Wastewater Plant and one of the shifts, I believe it was A shift, showed up to that meeting. There was about three or four guys that I knew personally that came up to me, talked to me and told me to come try out. That’s kind of where it started. I filled out the application and showed up for the testing and here I am.”
Young has been HFD deputy chief since April 2013, just a few months after he was promoted to EMS coordination. Young said he never thought he’d end up with that position. “I always told myself I would never promote,” Young said. “I just wanted to come to work. You don’t think about those things when you are early on in your career. As you get older in your career, you start realizing the benefits of moving up and promoting and what that does for you and your future with family, retirement and things like that.”
Young said being Hobbs fire deputy chief a continuous learning experience.
“It’s been a roller coaster,” Young said. “It definitely has its ups and definitely has its downs. It is kind of tough the decisions that have to be made sometimes aren’t the most popular decisions. But sometimes the best decisions are not the most popular to begin with. It has been quite a challenge. I moved up from the EMS coordinator position where I felt it was a good fit and being named the deputy chief, fairly quickly, there were a lot of things that I didn’t know that I needed to learn. Even today, it’s a continuous learning experience.”
Young recently received his master’s degree in emergency management and said he can’t see himself doing any other job.
“I’m eligible to retire in five years and I don’t see myself doing so,” Young said. “I would really like to stay 25 years if at all possible. I don’t have any plans to do anything else. I’ve been doing this for 15 years now and public service is kind of what I know. I don’t know if I could do anything else and I don’t know if I would want to do anything else.”
Young has worked with three HFD Chiefs including Tim Kent, Eric Enriquez and former Chief Manny Gomez. Gomez was the Hobbs fire chief for 12 years until his retirement in 2013 and returned in May 2016. He has worked with Young for most of his career.
“Barry has ranked as one of the top assistant chiefs,” Gomez said. “He hasn’t been in the position long but I think his progression and initiative to increase his formal education by receiving his master’s this year is just indicative of the type of individual he is.”
