Meet the official: Idleman; raised in MC

Madill Fire Chief Mike Idlemanhasbeenadedicated firemanforover30years.The Idleman family has been in Madill since Idleman’s family moved to Madill from Wilson when his dad took a job with SouthwesternBellTelephone Company.

Born and raised in Madill, Idleman graduated from Madill High School in 1991. He worked at J& I Manufacturing and worked his way up to yard. During that time, Idleman began working as a part time volunteer for the Madill Fire Department and a Marshall County Ambulance Service. Idlemen and his wife, Lisa, have three children; Chris who works for the City of Madill, Dylan who recently retired as a Professional BullFighter and their youngest Braxton.

They also have a total of five grandchildren ranging in various ages up to eight years old. Brian Idleman, the owner of EMCO Feeds, is the brother of Idelman. IdlemanhasbeentheChiefof the Madill Fire Department since2020.TheMadillRecord recently sat down with Idleman for a short Q&A for the residents of Marshall County to get to know him.

Q: Tell our readers about yourself.

A: “I was born and raised in Madill. Graduated from Madill High School in 1991. After graduation I started my firefighting career as a volunteer here at Madill Fire Department. Took a little while to get on full time. I was a volunteer here for nine years and then started full time in 1999. I also work for J&I Manufacturing. Started there right out of high school, kept both jobs all the up until four years ago when I became chief here. So I worked at J&I from 1991 to 2020. Unfortunately I had to give up J&I. J & I was a real good career. I worked the yard mainly, I did a little bit of everything. I’malsoanEmergency Medical Responder. I have been doing that since 1991. I started that and my volunteer career at the same time. I worked part time for MarshallCountyAmbulance Serviceonmydaysofftoo.Did that up until 2020, I became a fire chief here.”

Q: I’ve interviewed your son, Dylan before at a Bullfight at the Hardy Murphy Coliseum Ardmore. It was my first time going to a Bullfight. It wasn’t what I expected. What is that like for you as a parent to watch?

A: “Try being in my shoes. Having a kid out there doing it. It’s nerve wracking. You basically can’t watch. Because you know it’s not if they are going to get hurt, it’s justwhentheyaregoinghurt. He was grown and out of the house when he first started, there was one of your firemen Cody Patton, who was a ‘protection person’ which isn’t as bad as Freestyle. Still dangerous, not as dangerous as Freestyle. He was doing that mainly, and we thought that alright, that's pretty neat. Then the Freestyle stuff started coming and he started doing that kinda behind everybody’s back, he is a grown man and knows what he wants to do. When it finally came out what he was doing I don’t think anybody liked it very much. But he is a grown man and he makes his own choices and he made a good career out of it. That’s a young man's game. He was pretty lucky not getting hurt really bad in his career.”

Q: What advice do you have for parents whose kids are out pursuing other endeavors in life, not necessarily somethingdangerous,just not what they had in mind? What advice do you have for them to just continue to support their children?

A: “Whether you like it or you don’t like it, don’t try to stop them. Support what they do and let them learn on their own. If they are old enough to make their own choices and own decisions the more you try to stop it the more it is going to pull you two apart. We didn’t try to stop it , but we talked to him [Dylan] about it. He was like ‘I’m going to do it’. And they are going to do it.If that iswhattheygottheirmindset to do, they are going to do it. Trust me. If there is any sport, or any thing, in this world that you don’t want someone to do and that’s go head to head with a Mexican Fighting Bull, that is there for one thing and that is to hurt you. Do you want to see your kid out there doing that? No, but he is going to do it. So we supported him, and luckily he had a good career at doing it. That is what I’d tell anybody. Don’t try to stop them from doing anything. If you can talk to them and talk them out of it, sure, but don’t say ‘you're not going to do this’ because that will push them even harder to do it. If they get out there and they make a good career at it, fine. If they don’t they are either going to see they are not any good at it, or they are good at it. They will go one way or another. They will either quit or they are going to keep going. If they keep going hopefully they are good enough to make it work. And he [Dylan] was and that is what I am proud to say. He did make a good career out of it and made a name for himself and for the little town of Madill.”

Q: Whenyouarenotworking as fire chief what do you like to do in your free time?

A: “I like to hunt, I like to fish. I got a lake house in Tamaha on Robert S. Kerr Lake up in northeastern Oklahoma. Got a lake house up there we spend a lot of time on. It’s a good way to relax. Don’t really think about anything when we are up there. Hunt and fish, I do some turkey guiding. Coming up in April I guide for the Oklahoma Lieutenant Governor. His hunts coming up the first second week of April. I’ll be guiding for him. He has six hunts over the state of Oklahoma in that week's period of time. Where he invites people from all overtheworld.FromChinato Australia, wherever. I have been guiding for him on this hunt since 2014. This is going to be my tenth year doing this for him. It is a three day hunt. I have took people who are from Africa, Australia, and diplomats from Taiwan. What that does, is they invite big business owners to the state of Oklahoma, to see if Oklahoma might be a good placetheymightwanttostart a business. A Lot of people like a turkey hunt. I guide this hunt here in Marshall County.”

Q: Is there anything that youwouldlikeourreaderand the community to know?

A: “Our community is growing. It is a nice community. This community a long time ago used to be really small and nobody thought it was ever going to grow. Everybody thought Madill is what it is, Madill is Madill. There is no room for Madill to grow. Well now it is growing. Madill’s getting bigger, everything’s getting bigger. The county is bringing in businesses, industries, the population, and the housing additions that’s going up. I encourage anybody to come and if they read this to look at our town and look at our county. There is a lot of people moving here for a reason. It’s nice, it’s quiet. We do have our upsanddowns,ourbadtimes in the county; but we have an excellent Sheriff’s Department, we have an excellent law enforcement. They stay on top of all our crime, that I have seen. I work pretty close with all the law enforcement people and they do their very best on keeping us safe and keeping our community and small towns in check. They are doing a pretty good job of it. I think it shows with the people that are actually moving down here. Retiring from Oklahoma City and movingtoMarshallCounty. I know a lot of retired police officers and retired firefighters and medics and nurses and doctors. I didn’t realize that until I got this position and people started introducing themselves to me as being retired from the Oklahoma City Fire Department, or Oklahoma City P.D., etc. And if they have been in that line of work their whole life and they are going to know what they are moving into. They are going to check the surroundings andthecrimerate, the fire services and what their fire protection is going to be, and what our EMS is like. How is this EMS going to save my life if I move down hereandsomethinghappens. So they are moving here for a reason. They are seeing all of our emergency service work and how good it is. They are moving down here so that ought to show something. It’s a nice community and I think it shows. The population is getting bigger everyday. I like it and I know one of these days I will move aways. And that is only because I have got a house on a lake. We have had that for a while and it’s a nice place. It’s quiet and we are right on the water. It’s a dream type home.”