That job does seem pretty darn cool! I would love to do something like that I think, even the hectic hours but downtime is indeed very important so I get where you're coming from on that front.

I enjoy the feeling of getting an important job like that as well, though I've never had something as important as supporting that type of group of people, but I do support others in my own way in my work and get a lot of enjoyment out of that type of stuff.

While those weekends of work are indeed wild, it does feel good to get them here and there. My worst scenario myself was having to work 24 hours straight. I was working a 12 hour shift that I picked up but I was also the on-call person. I asked my boss to get someone to cover my call shift because if someone called out for the other half, it would be miserable to work 24 hours.

Sure enough they called out and I ended up working 24 hours. It was miserable but a valuable experience for me. I've only done that once and thankful that it was only once but those situations are good learning opportunities for what not to do if you can prevent it. Needless to say, my boss didn't let anyone who picked up that type of shift, also be on call.