Glen Simpson has been an EMT in Southern Nevada since 2004.

On October 1, 2017, he was the supervisor of 17 Community Ambulance personnel.

They were assigned to work at the Route 91 Festival.

Four others were there off-duty.

And as Glen always did, they came up with a medical plan.

“Something that still stands out five years later is, we talked about what were you going to do if there's an active shooter. These are all things that run through your mind when you're in my shoes.”

Once the bullets began firing, already with Las Vegas Metropolitan polie officers, they took cover.

"It was at that point that, you know, the officer that I was next to ended up taking a bullet to the neck."

He ran back through the venue towards the medical tent.

“First priority for me is, where are all of our people? Making sure that all of our people are accounted for, and realizing that, you know, this is, this is it, this is, this is what we talk about, this is what we train for.”

They began pushing out notifications asking for anyone who can come in to come in, with the ambulance companies all coming together.

“There were points throughout that night where people wearing our uniform or in the ambulance of ultimately our competitor because at that time, it- it just didn't matter. Didn't matter what color uniform you ordered, no matter what color ambulance you were in, the goal was to get ambulances on the road.”

Glen ended up working on duty for about 17 hours that night.

In the days, weeks, and years that followed, it was a mental struggle for him and many others, often thinking he’d see the shooter.

"Those are memories that will never, never leave my brain. Those are the- those are the hard things to get past during the anniversary."

Grief counselors were provided, and of the 21 EMTs initially there that night, Glen says they all still work in the healthcare field five years later.

And despite everything they saw, Glen never considered leaving the profession, saying it’s quite the opposite.

"It's to be able to take care of people at their lowest of their lows in their darkest moments. And to be able to do that day in and day out. I don't know what my life would be like if I didn't have that."

And looking back, Glen Simpson says he saw the best of the community that night, with strangers coming together to help in any way they could. In comforting thought amidst all of the despair.

“We can choose to allow these bad, bad incidences just run our lives, or we can choose to see the good. And there's there's a lot of good in this community.”

And looking back at the photo of the 21 EMTs hanging in the main lobby of the community ambulance, Glen Simpson calls them all heroes.

And surely, that’s something everyone can agree on.