Amannda Fix

She’s in the right profession’
Serving in Iraq is one of many duties Amannda Fix takes on

By JESSICA RYEN
Observer-Dispatch
jryen@utica.gannett.com

UTICA - Susan Fix always knew her daughter Amannda would go into a service profession such as firefighting.

“She’s the kind of person that was always thinking of someone else,” Susan Fix said. “She’s in the right profession.”

Utica Fire Chief Russell Brooks II can testify to that, which is why he nominated Amannda for the 2006 Accent on Excellence Award.

“She’s quite an extraordinary person,” Brooks said. Some men may have been apprehensive, “but she made us all believers that a female can do this job and do it well.”

Currently, Amannda Fix, 29, is serving her second tour of duty in Iraq as an assistant chaplain with the U.S. Army Reserves. She deployed in July to serve 345 days.

“I can tell you, when she came back from the first tour, it affected her,” Brooks said. “It would with anyone. But she dealt with it, didn’t take any time off of work and continued to do her job in an exemplary manner.”

As an assistant chaplain, Fix continues to help those in need. She is involved in community outreach, counseling soldiers in her unit and overseeing other assistant chaplains, Susan Fix said.

“It makes you look at life differently, it makes you appreciate every day and it makes you appreciate the little things in life,” Fix said in a 2005 O-D article.

Fix grew up in Waterville, Ohio, and graduated from Central Catholic High School, where she was involved in the Eucharistic ministry. She attended the University of Ohio and graduated from Hamilton College in Clinton with a pre-med degree.

During her time at Hamilton, Fix became involved in the Kirkland Fire Department as a volunteer and worked at Kunkel Ambulance as an emergency medical technician. Meanwhile, she played softball and ice hockey on Hamilton teams.

After being accepted for employment with the UFD - the second female on the department’s payroll, Brooks said that Fix’s character really shined - she was especially caring with aiding heart patients, delivering babies and treating accident victims, as well as extinguishing fires.

Fix may have gotten her service tendencies from her parents - her mother is a diabetes nurse educator; her dad is a retired teacher.

Having their daughter in a combat zone isn’t always easy, Sue Fix said.

“We hear from her periodically,” Sue Fix said. “We have to be confident that she has been there, done that and she knows what’s going on.”

After Fix’s first tour of duty, the American Legion Post 229 awarded her the 2005 Firefighter of the Year award. It is a prestigious award that the Legion has been doing for many years and Fix was the first female ever to be honored. Soon thereafter, she received the Oneida County Firefighter of the Year award.

After being awarded by the Legion, Fix told the O-D, “As I go to work each day, I have a greater want and need to help people, to go that extra step. I go in knowing that I’m able to help them.”