O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU?

摘要

I've Spent A Great Deal Of Time Over The Past Few years talking to training officers about the various facets of the job and common challenges we face. A common theme that seems consistent across the country is the change we see in our new recruits, career and volunteer. Most training officers find it hard to put their finger on exactly what the changes are; we simply notice a difference. Some offer theories of Generation X and Generation Y, variations in social and skill sets, morals, ethics―the list goes on. Almost everyone has encountered at least some moderate change in their recruits. How will this change in our recruits affect our fire service? Where is the theme of brotherhood or the sense of duty and obligation? If someone doesn't do something about this soon, will our beloved fire service in the future be left asking the question, "O brother, where art thou?" Before we tackle this question, let's take a moment to applaud our successes. Training officers from coast to coast continue to provide excellent training on increasingly complicated technical proficiencies with fewer resources than ever before. We've gotten good at delivering the bottom-line training that gets us past the minimum standards for firefighter. For this achievement, we should stand proud! We've been able to home in on the minimum standard and meet these requirements with resources that make such achievements borderline miracles. But have we been pushing so hard for so long to go so fast that we're missing something we used to enjoy back in the good old days?