Rodney is a division Chief with the US Forest Service. He is currently working in California for the Happy Camp Ranger District. Mendes has been involved in the fire service going on 38 years and will be retiring at the end of this year. As of late he has been teaching classes for the US Forest Service and local agencies at the Northern California Training Center for the USFS as well as working with the Humboldt County Office of Education's HROP program on the north coast. Rodney has a passion for fire fighting and has been involved in instructing SFM and NWCG classes for most of his career. Mendes started his exposure to a fire career as a Marine in 1970 as a crash fire rescue man, then a short stint as a federal firefighter with the Department of Defense at Naval Air Station Alameda. In 1976 he started his Municipal Fire Career with the San Leandro Fire Department, Retiring early in 1995 to seek a second career in wildland fire. He has been involved as a member of Interagency Incident Command Teams and has experience in large fire operations across the western US.