Where firefighters come to talk training

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

Do we still preach the meaning of the above words? I know I am preaching to the choir here, but lets be truthful, do we do our best to cover these topics? I see a lot of 'younger' firefighters, both career and not, wearing the FDNY shirts, the FOOLS stickers and such on the helmets, but do they really know what Pride, Duty, Honor, Respect and Tradition really mean? They all know that we lost 343 Brothers in FDNY, but do they know the history and traditions of their own job? Now I am by no means downplaying Sept. 11, please do not think that. I was there one month after with 3 friends attending services for 13 fallen Brothers and had an article puplished in the December 2001 edition of Firehouse mag. The point I am making is do some of our people really know what the stickers, shirts and hats really mean. And most of all, do they know their own history? I am asking because I have this problem on my job in a small way and me being the Training Officer, I feel responseable in a way that our in house traditions are not as well known as should be. We found old newspaper articles and publications of our department dating back to the very late 1800's to the early 60's. Then the history gathering stopped. In our station one, on the wall next to the door in to the offices, we have a typed letter from Chief Isenmonger from the Chicago Fire Department thanking our department for the response and assistance to the Stockyards fire!!!! Now that is something to be proud of. I have had people ask me, "what was the stockyards fire"?

So I am asking your opinion. What do you see around you in in your own house? Am I the only one who is seeing this situation?

Thanks and all be safe.
Joe

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Permalink Reply by Ian Crane on February 2, 2010 at 1:30pm

As a rookie on the job as a career firefighter, I am already picking up on the meaning of Pride, Honor, Respect, Tradition, and Duty. I thrive to learn more every day that I step foot into the station, and even on my days off. I am blessed to work with a great group of guys that seem to be "taking me under their wing" and showing me the ropes of the Fire Service. Granted, there are still people around that show no enthusiasm about that they do for a living, but I seem to be falling into the right crowd of guys. Coming into the Fire Service with no volunteer experience, I may have been out of the loop at first. After finishing college and attending a Fire Academy prior to being hired on as a career man, I have fallen in love with what I do. I get chills looking at old pictures of my brothers from the past and reading things about how our elders used to operate. It blows my mind to see how things have evolved. I look forward to the next 30+ years of my career and I pray that God keeps me and my brothers safe and gives us the drive to learn more every day that we are blessed with.

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