Nicholas Papa's Page

     The title of this blog post is borrowed from Chief Van Dorpe’s 2012 FDIC keynote speech.  Within that address, he made one of the most profound statements regarding our duty as fire instructors:

“Those of us who call ourselves instructors, those of us who are teachers, must be agents of change – we must be the early adopters.  We must be the people, the advocates of the new and the different: new techniques, strategies, new tactics.  But at the same time, we must never…

     How is it that the Navy SEALs (and other special operations forces) are able to continuously prevail in combat situations where they are grossly outnumbered?  What is it that allows them to defeat their enemies despite overwhelming adversity?  You may think the answer is simply their extensive cache of high-tech equipment, but you could not be any more wrong.  While possessing the most advanced hardware certainly bolsters their capabilities, they are merely supplemental in nature.  As…