Some weeks, you cannot stomach another cynical look at our cynical times. Instead, you seek a few hundred words of inspiration. Then you spot Captain Benny Ashley shuffling across Columbus Avenue in midtown Phoenix and you know his is exactly the story to tell. Why? Because Benny Ashley is 100 years old. He is the oldest living retired firefighter in this Valley, this state, and, hell, maybe even this nation. Benny joined the Phoenix Fire Department in July 1942. There was no fire academy in those days, Benny recalls, no training at all except on the job.