Born and raised in West Seattle, with detours to the Bay Area and Washington D.C., Andy Hail was heavily involved with Boy Scouts, competitive swimming, lifeguarding, volunteer fire fighting and emergency medical work until my high school graduation in 1975. During a cross-country post graduation experience, he learned about a Para-Rescue program in the Air Force that transformed my life dramatically. Enlisting through, and serving with, the 129th Air Rescue and Recovery Group between 1976 - 1982, Andy received a wealth of training and field experience that laid the foundation for a 37 year fire service career that began in Redmond, WA and ended with retirement in Spokane Valley, WA. Along the way I acquired a BS degree in Fire Service Administration and a MS in Executive Leadership & Emergency Management.

Over the past 3 + decades, Andy has been the proud parent of two daughters, one son and grandparent to five g’sons and one g’daughter. He continued with community service through participation in youth sports coaching baseball and umpiring, becoming a youth sports organization board member, organizing community focused special events, food bank work, political activism, mentoring of grade school students, working with the Redmond and Spokane Valley Fire Fighter Benevolent organizations, serving on the Spokane Valley Fire Fighter Scholarship selection committee and assisting with the operations and fund raising for Veterans Community Response and Spokane Veterans Forum organizations.

After retiring from Spokane Valley Fire Department in 2016, Andy met and married my best friend, Suzie Spencer, and has been able to spend time involved in long neglected outdoor activities and travel, including two cross-country motorcycling adventures and backpacking into the the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area. More importantly, both have invested time and energy contributing to helping organize, sponsor and conduct veterans retreats through the Veterans Community Response (VCR) organization and participating with VCR partner organization All Hands and Hearts – a humanitarian disaster relief organization deployments to hurricane and tornado impacted areas in the Caribbean and Southeast USofA.

Additionally, Andy has spent over two years assisting with the operations of the Spokane Veterans Forum while also mentoring veterans involved with regional court systems. He looks forward to the continued development of the Community Response component of VCR, providing veterans with the opportunity to use their military background and skills in a productive manner while assisting communities prepare for, respond to and recover from disasters involving their towns and / or regions. While veterans contribute to communities through their contributions of time effort and energy, communities contribute toward the healing and development of veterans through recognition and appreciation of their previous military service and continued service to community.