BUCYRUS, OH (CRAWFORD COUNTY NOW) —Back in 1978, a young Crawford County, Pennsylvania, boy growing up on a farm in the middle of the Steel Belt found himself breaking out of the norm for the area. On his 18th birthday, he walked into the enlistment office to become a member of the Air Force.
John Cauvel knew he wanted a different path in life, especially with the steel industry in decline due to the steel crisis. He decided he would enter a life of service, joking that he wanted to do it on his own terms instead of potentially getting drafted.
After a delayed enlistment, Cauvel went off to basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. After basic training, he attended fire school in Illinois, where he learned “crash firefighting,” which focuses on aircraft rescue and shutdowns.
Upon completion, Cauvel was stationed at Grissom Air Force Base in Peru, Indiana, where he served for four years working with KC‑135 refuelers. After Grissom, Cauvel was assigned to Wright‑Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, for two years in an environment he described as being like a “big city” fire department due to the high volume of calls — the most being 16 in one day.
The next stop for Cauvel was a remote assignment in Alaska for a year, where he enjoyed hunting and fishing in his free time but missed his wife, Amy, and his two young children, Jessica and Joe.
Eventually, Cauvel went from cold to hot, finding himself at Columbus Air Force Base in Mississippi after Alaska. The base would serve as his last active‑duty assignment, wrapping up almost 10 years of active‑duty service.
Around age 30, Cauvel left active duty to ensure he could secure a civilian fire job before becoming “too old” for hire. After some searching, he settled on the 179th Airlift Wing, an Air National Guard unit in Mansfield, Ohio. He knew the unit operated C‑130 aircraft, and it was preparing to hire full‑time firefighters, which aligned with his goal of transitioning to a civilian fire service career.
At the time, the state had a hiring freeze. While waiting for the freeze to lift, Cauvel worked construction in Bucyrus for about a year before being laid off due to winter arriving and a lull in available work.
The next morning at guard drill, the fire chief — after Cauvel told him he had been laid off for the winter — informed him that the freeze had been lifted the night before, a moment Cauvel described as divine intervention.
“He had His hand on everything I did,” Cauvel said. “When God opens or closes a door, He opens a window.”
Cauvel was hired as the first lieutenant with the department.
While in the Guard, Cauvel was stationed in Europe and visited Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France. He had a six‑month deployment to the Gulf in the United Arab Emirates, which ended six months before 9/11. One year after 9/11, Cauvel found himself stationed in Egypt for a special assignment.
After 16 years in the Guard — totaling 26 years of military service — Cauvel retired as a master sergeant and deputy fire chief.
Cauvel said that once you serve in the military, you develop an internal “urge to serve” that never leaves. While working full time at the fire department in Mansfield, serving in the Guard, and holding a side job in construction and home repair, Cauvel was also a member of the Liberty Township Volunteer Fire Department, where he served for almost 20 years.
Though Cauvel is now retired, he remains heavily involved in service to his community by serving as president of the Bucyrus Preservation Society, as a member of the Crawford County History Alliance, and as a member of the Eliminators Car Club — a group of mostly veterans he described as a great bunch of guys with a heart for service who perform their work out of the kindness of their hearts, wanting nothing in return.
Cauvel’s family is no stranger to the military. Both of his grandfathers served in the Army — one in WWI and one in WWII. His father served in the Air Force from 1957 to 1961, and his daughter, a fourth‑generation military member, served 12 years in the Air National Guard. Veterans in his family have also been traced back to both sides of the Civil War, as well as the War of 1812.
His legacy, built on decades of duty and strengthened by generations before him, continues to serve the nation and the community he loves.
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