Battalion Chief’s Retirement no April Fools’ Joke

Battalion Chief Dick Neustaedter called in sick to work April 1, 2010. Being April Fools’ Day, no one believed him.

That’s because in 30 years of work, Neustaedter never called in sick ­– not once.

“This is such a fun job,” he said. “I would feel guilty if I called in and missed an interesting call.”

It was an April Fools’ Day prank that he couldn’t pull over the firefighters. This year’s April 1 was prank-free as firefighters past and present gathered to honor the battalion chief at his retirement party.

At 8 a.m. Saturday, Neustaedter, 53, will leave the Waukesha Fire Department for the last time after starting with his hometown department in 1980.

Neustaedter always thought it would be hard to get into the firefighting career but when he was encouraged by a high school buddy who was joining the fire department to consider it as an option.

Thirty years later and plenty of memories of all things good, bad and funny, Neustaedter shared a little bit about the pranks.

One Waukesha firefighter had a fake skunk that had its head in a jar, looking like it was scrounging for food. He set it outside and watch the reactions as the other firefighters would come into work in the morning.

“The rest of the grown men are just cracking up, watching these guys,” Neustaedter said. “Two minutes after that you could be going to a heart attack or a fire. These guys just change so quick.”

As for pranks pulled by the outgoing battalion chief?

“I can’t divulge on those because then they would know that I did them,” he said. “I guess I wasn’t a big one on that. The ones that I did, they still don’t know who did them.”

Pranks and jokes helps to pick the firefighters up after being at particularly rough calls. Nuestaedter didn’t talk about those but reflected on the good ones ­ – fires that were put out before they spread to create further damage and the recent river rescue of an elderly gentleman who drove his car into the Fox River.

“Those are the fun things that you think of,” he said. “They could have been a disaster but they had a great outcome.”

Neustaedter said he will miss the job he loved. Waukesha was a great city to  work for and he will miss the firefighters at the station.

The battalion chief described those he is leaving behind as professional, compassionate, educated, motivated, dedicated and hard-working people.

“They are willing to go out of their way 24 hours a day and not seek any recognition for it,” he said “They truly believe that it is their job to do whatever it takes to get the job done.”