Chief John Buckman's Speech at Lt. Matt Kirkman's Funeral

Funeral Pictures at bottom of this page.

Fairy wand – story - display

I am honored and privileged to speak with you on this solemn occasion. I may have known Matt for less time than many of you in the audience with us today but I got to know him extremely well over the last 5 years. First of all as one of my volunteer firefighters and then as one of my paid firefighters but most of all I got to know him as a person and a friend. The fire service unlike many other professions are extremely close knit.  The tragic circumstances that firefighters confront while helping others in their time of need brings us close together. It is during those times that our training pays off. I never had to worry about Matt’s training. He knew the job. Being a full time firefighter for us means that you get to make lots of responses and in many cases you get to be in charge. Being in charge is important in the personal development of a firefighter and Matt had really grown in that role.

Before Matt joined our department he had a excellent role models in school, church and the Boy Scouts. He became an Eagle Scout – the highest possible honor. Most of all he had great role models in Jay, Becky and Mark. Jay, Becky and Mark you did good. You raised a son and a brother to care about others and who wanted to help others. I thank you for letting him do that with our fire department.

  When he first became one of our firefighters he was young but he looked younger than he was in age. Leslie Buckman my wife told me about the one of the first responses that she ever saw Matt on. When you make a response with most fire departments you have to get on the report. In order to do that you have to make sure that the person filling out the response report gets your badge number. She was going around the station looking at the firefighter and here was this very young looking young man. Leslie was asking for people's badge number and she thought to herself who brought their little brother up to the station. But Matt kept trying to get her attention but she kept looking away. Matt kept telling her his number and she thought he was kidding but he wasn't.

From the time we first met I knew that he had the desire and the drive to be successful as a firefighter. It was in his blood. But what I also knew about Matt was that he was a practical joker because he has this funny little twist to his smile. But it took Matt a couple of years to loosen up or lighten up around me. It is one of those things that Fire Chiefs do to people and firefighters.

Some stories to relate:

Food – the boy liked to eat. He especially liked to go back to his home on Chastain Drive and get some free food from Mom and Dad’s refrigerator.

Computers - favorite assignment – passwords – two days on the phone with Gateway technical support

Cat rescues - favorite assignment

Writing articles – and getting credit

8635 St. Joe Road – Lifesaver Award – it was a bad accident. A motorcycle rider had…

Barn fire - when he burned his helmet. He took the helmet home to be a trophy. When I got to headquarters on Monday I asked where the helmet was and he said it was at home. I told him to go home and get it because I wanted to see how bad it was damaged. What I really wanted was the helmet to display in our headquarters – so that other firefighters could learn from this incident.

Bear and the eagle story

But what Matt liked most of all about working for German Township Volunteer Fire Department was when I was out of town. I didn’t realize this until his friends told me last night while visiting with them outside.

It’s like when the Chicago Cubs were in the playoffs. I would come into headquarters and the big screen television would be on. In fact I understand that he had a date with a young lady but he cancelled it when the cubs were still in the playoffs. I sometimes questioned his decision-making ability in his dating life. He had standards or at least that’s what he told me - when it came to dating. A young lady would visit the fire station and I would ask Matt if he ever thought about taking her out and he would remark – “I have standards.” It became one of his trademarks. I am not sure about his standards when he picked his friends after all everyone he met became a friend. He liked his friends. He liked to be with people. He liked to be with many of you in this room. He was affable and always willing to help.

I like you were leading our lives when we received word. There is nothing harder to hear than those dreaded words of the loss of one so young and full of life. I was in Florida attending a conference with about 300 firefighters from all over the United States. Matt played a role in that conference. His name was on the screen every morning along with his work. He had taken fire pictures from around the country and developed a PowerPoint program. I had added the music and for a few minutes every morning we tried to help those firefighters in room feel a little better about themselves and their service. After being told of his death his picture was displayed and a moment of silence was held in his honor. After the break so many of my fellow Chiefs from around the country came up and offered support and also recognized that he had helped them find me in many cases or help them obtain some fire service material. Some of them also told me some short stories about their talk with him.

Don't be mad at Matt for leaving instead I think we should rejoice in knowing that he is with his God and immediately after God accepted him into his kingdom Matt asked to be assigned to station 1 – where the big one’s occur.

He made me look so good over the last two years. I would be somewhere in this country doing a class or a meeting and someone would say I don’t know how you do so many things or I would hear someone remark that I sent me an email and asked for something and about a week later it showed up. I would tell people that was because of Matt. I would forward the email to Matt and on Monday he would take care of it.

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. - Mark Twain

Matt - If my heart had wings I would fly to you.

You did what you have to get through not just get by.

Lord it isn't easy out here in the dark without Matt

Matt - I ask for your help in keeping us together when we are so far apart. I know you are watching over us guiding us to make the right decisions as we go travel the path of life.

Help us to be steady and strong so that we can stand and face the fire burning higher and brighter but we also must face life again. A life without our friend, our son, our brother. If we want to make the world a better place we can choose. We must continue to do live our life in service to others and in service to our God as our brother Matt has done.

Always take time to say thank you to those who give to you and say I love you to those you love.

Matt - If my heart had wings I would fly to you and lay beside you as you dream. I will always love you. I will cherish your memory. You will never be forgotten.

Chief John M. Buckman III, CFOD, CFPS, GIFire

German Township Volunteer Fire Department

Pictures thanks to 8A2 Assistant Chief David Bretz for the pictures!