January 21, 2024
By: Dwayne Page
A member of the Cookeville Highway Station and training officer has won the DeKalb County Fire Department’s most coveted award.
Luke Green is the 2023 Wilson Bank & Trust Firefighter of the Year.
Green was honored Saturday night during the DeKalb County Volunteer Fire Department’s Annual Awards Program at the county complex auditorium. Wilson Bank & Trust was the headlining sponsor of the program. The emcee was Alex Woodward, a firefighter of the Cookeville Highway Station.
Meanwhile, Lieutenant Dusty Johnson repeated as the Liberty State Bank Officer of the Year and Justin Bass was selected to receive the DeKalb Funeral Chapel “Git R Done” Award. The DeKalb Telephone Cooperative (DTC) Rookie of the Year Award went to Clayton Anstis and the Temperance Hall Station was the FirstBank Station of the Year award winner. The first ever Smithville Marine Station Commander of the Year award went to Andy Pack.
Luke Green’s award was presented by his father, Fire Chief Donny Green along with Chad Colwell of Wilson Bank & Trust
In making the presentation, program emcee Alex Woodward said Green was selected from firefighters demonstrating excellence in training participation, incident response, and community service.
“Luke is an upstanding citizen in DeKalb County. He is a Volunteer Firefighter, an educator and a role model to many people throughout the school system, fire department, and his church. Green has an upbeat personality that we all wish we could have and many people look up to him. He always wants anyone to excel in anything they do in life and is the type of motivator that any fire department would love to have. Luke assumed the department’s training responsibilities at the beginning of the year and has taken training to a new level within the department. He has set up and coordinated many extra trainings for firefighters not required of him and through these trainings, all ages have been able to continue their education and learn from being a safety officer to someone who does interior attacks. Green always has a job for everyone at the training so no one is ever left out and they never stop until the job is done or until they can mentor someone else to achieve their goals. Luke has worked hard in continuing his education to better serve DeKalb County and the fire department over the last year. He not only performs in his role as a training officer but also leads by example showing his skills on the fire scene. Green also coaches football and when some of the students do not have rides home, he will take them home out of the goodness of his heart. Firefighters who display these characteristics deserve to be awarded for the hard work not only done at the fire department but also for our community. Luke is the type of guy that every department across Tennessee wishes they had on their department”.
Ten members have earned Length of Service awards. The 5 & 10 year awards were sponsored by Walmart while Middle Tennessee Natural Gas sponsored the 15 & 25 year service awards
5 years of service: Sandra Caffee (Cookeville Highway Station), Andrew Harvey (Liberty Station), Tony Moore (Station Commander of Cookeville Highway Station), and Jason Young(Short Mountain Highway Station)
10 years of service: Matt Boss (Liberty Station), Harley Lawrence (Main Station), Brent Reed (Blue Springs Station), and Robert Sartin (Station Commander of the Short Mountain Highway Station)
15 years of service: Steve Repasy (Midway Station)
25 years of service: Anthony Boyd, Assistant Chief.
(Other stories from the banquet will be posted later)