Mike France's Blog (6)

       As I now sit in the Back Corner of the Training Room , and watch , I'm coming to realize that there are 2 things missing from our Beloved Volunteer Fire Service , Training and Communication , As a Past Chief , I now relaize that once you leave Office you become a Nobody.I found it a harsh reality the next day , and becoming one of the "guys " is even tougher , you really do not fit in and when you offer advice it's frowned upon .

        Training is the number 1 key in our…

       Tradition is a very big part of the Fire Service, Next to Training and Fighting Fires it's a Key element that defines us as to who we are. From the day we walk in as a Probationary Firefighter to day we Retire or Leave a office that we have held , Tradition is there, Its  A Right of Passage .

      Tradition can best defined as a Ritual, belief or object passed down within a Society, also a baiscal character of a society meaningful clothes [ i.e Uniforms , and such] . The…

   Why is a very profound word , esp. in our line of work. Today we are seeing this word being used quite a lot , not only by our younger Firefighters , but our older firefighters as well. years ago we did we didn't ask Why, we did as we were told , we did the job that was required by us, did we ask Why? , of course we did , but not out load , because we knew that an order was given and followed it .

  In today's Fire Service , you hear Why , asked quite alot , at least 5 times a day…

  Over the last year I have met several FF's via the social netwrok  and there are a few that i have formed unique friendships with. To my amazement , it's not that i have never fought fires with Female firefighters , because I have within my own dept.and they are outstanding , but there are some that I formed a social friendship with are very unique in their own different ways.All hail from different parts of the United States ,

  The first one , is not a Firefighter althought she is…

      As I had stated in a prevoius blog, The best thing that I had ever done was to join the "FOOLS", thanks in part to my good Friend Jeff Schwering , even thou Jeff and i have never met face to face , we've formed a great friendship , bouncing Ideas off each other, discussing the everyday…

             As a person who has been in the Fire Service for more than 25 years , i have seen some things that we used to do and Now we do not do many of those things . The days of "WE" are growing very short ,it is now all about "ME", i'm reminded of a Former Chief of mine always correcting me , saying there is no "I" in "WE" and boy was he ever so right , but the funny thing was he never practiced what he preached me.

            I was the guy that sat back and said "I'l never wear…