"Living my passion to help others while surrounded by amazing families helped me create a path to face challenges during my time providing Fire and EMS services. September 11, 2001, raised the bar on the challenges my family and I faced. As a fire department Captain, who lived about a mile from the Pentagon, I lead a team of firefighters to fight the fires caused by the passenger aircraft when it struck the Pentagon with full fuel tanks. Two days later I was reassigned as a collapse team leader until the structure was safe enough to be handed over to the FBI investigation teams. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be faced with anything nearly as perilous and challenging. But I was wrong. About ten years after 9/11, I retired from the Arlington, Virginia Fire Department as a battalion chief and moved our family to McKinney, Texas, a suburb north of Dallas. Two months after retiring, a routine home cleaning project nearly took my life. My journey of recovery has been remarkable when you consider that today I have annually cycled from Washington, DC to New York City each 9/11 and work as a public speaker to groups of military members and first responders to share my story and encourage them to fight for their own recovery and never give up. One of the most important things in life is accept changes and challenges, which I think played an important part in my survival and recovery. I share my story with you because I know that while you have your own story of true challenges. I want to inspire you to never give up. I want you to believe that it is possible for you to conquer your challenges just as I continue to do so with mine. Hopefully as you read this book, you will be inspired to do just that"--