Pride, Honor, Respect, Tradition, Duty. Is it still taught to our people?

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Permalink Reply by Stone on January 12, 2009 at 12:21am

Hi,
It's a matter of pride to live for our nation,to live to your responsibility.It is still in the people to live proudly for their duties.

Surveys

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Permalink Reply by Shawn "Wally" Weilamann on January 20, 2009 at 1:44am

I can totally see the generation gap in members. When i Joined the department in 2000, I was taught to respect the guys who had put the time in. I loved every stupid and often times the same tasks that i was given because i wanted to be a member. Being an officer was the farthest thing from my mind and i just wanted to be the guy that could drive the truck. Now the younger generation ( Just some not everyone, we have some great younger members who want to learn and be a part as i'm sure everyone does), hates these same functions, the love to fight the fire but they hide when it comes time to clean-up. They never want to drill with the 5-inch hose because they hate re-racking it, i racked 5-inch at least once a month when i was 16 and 17 and i loved it.Training is something that they put little to no effort in and i dont know how many times I personally have heard a member tell me in drills "I can't do it!". I don't look for perfection, that is the catalyst for learning the desire to better our efforts but the key is effort, and if they try it shows they want to learn and be better. They have no pride for what the fire service is, and when you do try to tell them or teach them they think i'm being a d@#k. And i love when they just flip out and get mouthie and tell me or the other officers to $%^& off, that just makes me wanna help them even more!

Stay safe
hope i made some sense this one struck a huge nerve reading it!
Wally

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Permalink Reply by Shawn Tibbitts on January 20, 2009 at 9:44pm

I was vary fotunate at my dept when I was hired. On my first day I was given a book called "A Transition in Red" written by Leo Duliba it told the history of our dept from its early volunteer days, historic fires and when and why we became a paid fire dept. I was also told to read this in my free time. Im happy I did! Its to bad more depts dont have a book written for them of their history. I do wish however that we had more photos of the "old days" but we dont,maybee we can start our history now for the unborn. I here your problem, unfortunetly I think some people would rather think their a big bad fire fighter with out knowing who we are and were we came from and what we stand for. Maybee if every one was educated from the get go maybe we wouldnt have a few bad apples start fires just to be the first on scene and be the so called "hero" but thats another topic all on its own.hmmmm that being said yes tradition good! education good! I need a beer! its been a long day...

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Permalink Reply by Jason Hoevelmann on January 22, 2009 at 6:46pm

I have thought and cussed about these same issues. It seems that the people on this forum are preaching to the choir. Throughout my career I have battled this and for about a two year period my career department actually got to me and I stopped applying myself. I let certifications go and did nothing extra except to try new things not related to the fire service; which was a waste of time and money and not very productive. Luckily, I had good people around me who I grew up with and volunteered with that helped me out of my funk.

I still deal with the frustrations at my career department, but I finally decided that the initiative that I was willing to put out could cause a positive ripple for a younger guy. It also helps me to read other people having the same issues. The basic attitude that I carry with me now is that if I can get at least one new guy on the right track and in the right direction, putting up with all of th slugs is well worth it. That keeps me going and happy.

Take care and stay safe.

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Permalink Reply by Nick Weiland on January 22, 2009 at 9:18pm

Jason, I understand exactly what ur saying, I have the same issues, more at my volly house. I walk thru those doors 4 or 5 times a week. At least 80% of the time i try and drill or teach or learn, and the slugs make it almost impossible. But I can always find 1 guy who wants and wants more! We'll go back n forth on different skills etc. GOOD STUFF! Those damn slugs turn all the speakers down, the scanners down, but make sure the pillows on the couch are perfect and the surround sound for latest movie sounds good, forget the fact the scba (scott 4500) are only filled to 3000 or 3500, the pump hasnt been checked in a week, only fueled 1/2 way! And then I become the bad guy! Dont even get me started when the bells go off! "SLOW DOWN"...."NO RUNNING"...."ITS NOT YOUR HOUSE ON FIRE"

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Permalink Reply by Doug Price on January 22, 2009 at 10:24pm

Joe, my wife also loves the history and wants everybody to know it, she has put together a history class and is still working on it but I'm sure she wouldn't mind for you using it. She has put it on here in the tradition group see if you can down load it if not give me a yell and i will have her send it to you.It's on the teaching Tradition.
Stay Safe

KTF!!!

Doug.

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Permalink Reply by Joe McClelland on January 23, 2009 at 8:20am

Thanks Doug, I will for sure look it up right now. My wife was the charge nurse in the busiest Level 1 trauma center ER in Illinois for 8 years. Thank your wife for me brother.

Joe

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Permalink Reply by David Short on January 30, 2009 at 8:55am

I believe the biggest problem teaching Pride, Honor, Repect, Tradition, and Duty is that we have a generation of people working for us that have little of any of them. Many of these things have never been instilled in them about anything because 'its all about the $'. There are good people, but when you have a difficult time getting a guy(paid career) to actually come to work rather than go to his real job, its all about the money. We attempt to teach these things about the Fire Service and have good results with many, but too many that just don't care. Just keep plugging away, as will I, and know that some will catch on and hopefully spread it to others.

Know more today than yesterday
Share today about yesterday
Look forward to tomorrow to learn something new

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Permalink Reply by Jesse on February 6, 2009 at 3:58pm

I really am glad to be part of the super great world of FireFighting. People who take the job as a way of life not just another job

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Permalink Reply by Joe Heim on February 6, 2009 at 5:02pm

Joe,

We are currently going through this at my career department. We have had 8 new firefighters come in within the last 3 years. Morale one the department sucked up until approximately a week ago, a few of us decided to call a shift meeting with everyone and get things out in the open. The first thing that I had said is we need to get back to learning where we came from in this department and the fire service in general. We are starting to go back and teach and instill in our members the Pride, Duty, and Honor for this GREAT PROFESSION. We have started out by watching the Pride and Ownership video and then watching the History Channel's Into the Fire video. This has been a great help but we still have a long way to go. I am like you; I often get accused of taking the job to seriously but I live, eat and breathe this job. I get off shift as the training officer and go home volunteer as the chief of my hometown department not to mention collect anything that says fire department on it.

Hope this helped and Keep the Faith Brother!!!

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Permalink Reply by Brandon Krause on February 8, 2009 at 2:33pm

As a second generation FF i have seen the service go from everyone on the job is like family to we are just co-workers. It seems that so many younger guys, and im only 26 but still, are only here for the paycheck and benefits. I see so much of the pride and tradition being lost despite the hard efforts of a few. One thing we now do in our department is a class on tradition and pride in the fire service durring orientation of all new recruits. This way they at least go to in with a base knowledge of the significance of people like Ben Franklin, and where our terms come from, our history, and our roots. I praise all who fight to keep the tradition alive and the pride instilled in the fire service.

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Permalink Reply by Bill "Grits" MacGregor on February 14, 2009 at 7:57pm

Joe,
I expect nothing short of pride, honor, respect, integrity, and compassion out of the people I lead. Of course I can't change people but I can certainly influence them to change should they not meet the latter mentioned. I have an awesome quote on my page it states: "Leading by example" may be a cliche`, but if you don't exemplify what you want people to do, they won't do it. (Michael Abrashoff "It's Our Ship"). This is the key ingredient for those of us who are leaders and believe in those key words. We must "exemplify". This sence of History, Tradition, Pride, Honor, and Respect however are fading away from our system because the very core values that our great country was founded on is erroding away right before our eyes. Each new generation that comes now loses the very moral fibers needed to up-hold our traditions. Unless we fight for the true moral values founded upon our country, these words we use Pride, Honor, Respect, will amount to mere dust in the wind. The question should be; "What are we doing to protect the values that our founding fathers brought into this great nation"? It isn't only the militaries responsibility to protect our nation. It is our job as public servants to fight the fight here at home to maintain the true value of our service and our country.

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