Gregory Heckenbach is a Bloomingdale, Illinois Firefighter and Paramedic. He is also a Staff Sergeant in the U. S. Army Reserve. He is challenging his public employer's actions which appear to discriminate against Reservists in Federal Court in Chicago.
Having mobilized pursuant to Federal orders to guard dangerous international terrorists while they awaited trial at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, FFPM Heckenbach returned to the Fire Protection District and things were not the same since.
He seeks only the District's compliance with the law, nothing else, to ensure that he can effectively serve our country in the Armed Forces while smoothly continuing to serve the Bloomingdale community. When he brought the law's requirements to the Fire Department's attention, senior leaders were hostile, defiant, confrontational, and antagonistic.
Maher Legal Services has stepped in to argue his case in this USERRA Federal lawsuit.