McAllen Firefighters Retire Following Decades of Service

Two McAllen firefighters were the guests of honor at a special ceremony on Wednesday, June 1, 2011. Greg Martinez and Pete Davila were both retiring from the McAllen Fire Dept. after decades of service. Both men were treated to a new McAllen Fire Department tradition.

The first assignment of all new recruits is to learn how to properly raise and lower the United States flag on the fire department grounds. The new tradition is to have all retirees with at least 20 years of service lower the flag as a symbolic last assignment.

All on duty fire staff gathered at the flag pole at 1:30 pm on June 1st as Pete Davila was marched to the pole to raise and lower the flag. When lowered, an honor guard carefully folded the flag and presented it to Davila as a memento of his years of service. Then Greg Martinez went through the same ceremony. Afterwards each man was given a “last ride” in a fire engine and given a seat of honor.

Several volunteers from the firefighter staff will be handcrafting a shadow box display case for each of the flags presented to the retirees. The flags can then be properly displayed in the retired firefighters' homes and kept as a family heirloom.