Robert J. (Bob) Roller is the author of the memoir Trail Dogs and Firefighters: A Memoir from the Burning West. He is a certified emergency manager and a nationally registered paramedic, and he lives in the Washington, D.C., area.
Q: What inspired you to write this memoir, and how long did it take to write?
A: Two weeks after earning a master’s degree in International Studies from the University of South Carolina, I had a job clearing isolated mountain trails and fighting wildfires in Wyoming and then in Idaho with my older brother.
I had never performed this type of work before or lived in this part of the country, so every day was filled with rich and memorable experiences that I knew I’d always cherish and want to remember.
I took detailed notes and many pictures at the time, and I wrote the middle third of the book when I moved to the D.C. suburbs shortly after the events occurred and were still fresh in my mind. However, I set the manuscript down for years to focus on other responsibilities while always keeping those memories close.
As I got older, I realized that folks might enjoy a coming-of-age story set in an exciting and dangerous location, so I made the effort to finally complete the book. In total, it took me 16 years to write, revise, and publish the book including an eight-year gap in the middle.
Q: How was the book’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?
A: The book is set during a summer when I was employed by the Bridger-Teton National Forest located in Wyoming just south of Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks.
My time was divided into an early season spent high in the mountains clearing isolated hiking trails on a three-person crew led by my brother and a late season spent fighting wildfires all through Wyoming and Idaho once the forest became dry enough to burn.
Both the early season trail “dogging,” as we called it, and firefighting were dangerous, exciting, and often humbling experiences, and I needed to tell them all to explain how they shaped me as a young adult. The title reflects these two very different yet equally important and compelling parts of my memoir.
Q: What first got you interested in firefighting, and how would you compare your experiences out West with your more recent experiences in the D.C. area?
A: Firefighters hold a special place in our society, especially in the eyes of children. This was true for me, as I am sure was also true for many of your readers.
In fact, I recently combed through a box of childhood mementos that my parents had stored away, and in the box I found a picture drawn by me that my kindergarten teacher captioned with “Bobby wants to be a firefighter when he grows up.”
The funny thing is that I forgot all about that dream until years after I started serving as a firefighter. As an adolescent and later in college and graduate school, I simply wanted to get as far away from the Iowa farm life I was born into while somehow maintaining a close relationship with my family.
It was mostly luck that as I finished grad school I did not yet have a job, but my older brother had an opening in his US Forest Service district that he thought I might like, especially after I spent more than six years deep in academic work.
He was right. It was good to reconnect with him after years apart, but our experiences together had a profoundly deep impression on me that continues today.
I’ve spent most of my time since moving to the Washington, D.C., suburbs in 2007 working to prevent or respond to all manner of emergency situations, both big and small.
This includes 15 years with Montgomery County as a firefighter, paramedic, swiftwater rescue crew, as well as service with mountain rescue teams all through the Appalachians, and an entirely separate career as an emergency manager responding to major disasters.
I cherish each role in each organization I’ve served. These experiences have also shaped who I am, but I don’t feel these more recent experiences as deeply as those initial days out on the trail or out on the fireline first did.
Q: What impact did it have on you to write the book, and what do you hope readers take away from it?
A: It is very hard to translate the feeling – the terror, the sorrow, and the anguish – that comes with being absolutely certain you are going to die, or the relief, exhilaration, and sometimes guilt that follows when the dangerous moment passes without causing physical harm.
I spent a long time developing the voice I needed to explain these feelings, and through years or writing and revising the work while continuing to mature as a person through my other experiences, I could chart my personal growth as I reread and reflected upon each page.
It was amazing to compare how my written voice changed during these years, and it made the writing experience as richly rewarding as the events they described.
Publishing the book provided further unexpected benefits. I’ve met many authors, readers, and other interesting people eager to share their own stories, and this has further enriched my life.
My favorite highlight is the book talk I gave with my brother in the banquet hall of the volunteer fire department in our small Iowa hometown. The hall was filled past capacity with our parents, friends, and extended family all eager to hear our stories and learn how these experiences changed us.
It was the most enjoyable professional experience of my life, and it further validated my choice to write and publish this book.
I hope readers can take away an enjoyable and exciting story about personal growth and relationships set in some of the most beautiful and dangerous conditions imaginable.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: My second book is another memoir. This one is set on our struggling Iowa farm during the economic crisis of the 1980s.
I have a positive and proactive view of life that has helped me navigate decades of service in harsh and stressful environments, but this outlook was forged years earlier on our family farm.
It’s an upbeat story filled with adventures and important life lessons learned the hard way, and I’m excited to share these stories alongside my firefighting and trail “dogging” experiences. I hope to publish it sometime in 2025.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: I live in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Rockville, Maryland, with my wife Merabeth, our two young children, and rescued Labrador named Radar. They are my support network, and I could not do what I do without them.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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