Virginia firefighter, father & Air Force reservist serves around the clock

VIDEO: As a firefighter with the Harrisonburg Fire Department, Zack Gentry is no stranger to being on the go. โ€œItโ€™s super sporadic,โ€ Gentry said. โ€œYou get to work and sometimes you just donโ€™t know. You donโ€™t know how many calls youโ€™ll run, what time youโ€™ll run them at. You donโ€™t know if youโ€™ll get a workout in, when youโ€™ll be able to eat dinner. You just make stuff happen.โ€

Gentryโ€™s go-go-go mentality was engrained in him when he began volunteering with the Elkton Volunteer Fire Department. After graduating from East Rockingham High School in 2016, he decided to make it a career with Rockingham County.

In 2020, Gentry said, he wanted to take his service to the next level. He enlisted as a reservist in the U.S. Air Force at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. โ€œI decided that it was something I had to go back and do because when I was a kid, that was what I wanted to do as a career, and I never took the opportunity to do it,โ€ Gentry said. โ€œSo, I kinda backtracked and made sure I went back and checked that box.โ€

WHSV-TV ABC 3 Harrisonburg

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