The Granite Mountain Hotshots

In the summer of 2013, the Granite Mountain Hotshots faced a terrible tragedy. 19 of the 20 members of this elite wildfire crew perished while fighting a fire in Yarnell, Arizona. Eric Marsh, the supervisor of the crew, wrote the following explanation of the crew’s dedication in an open letter to their hometown of Prescott, Arizona.

“Why do we want to be away from home so much, work long hours, risk our lives, and sleep on the ground 100 nights a year?” he wrote. “Simply, it’s the most fulfilling thing any of us have ever done.” He concluded, “We are not nameless or faceless, we are not expendable, we are not satisfied with mediocrity, we are not quitters.”

source: Reader’s Digest