There was a post recently on a popular firefighter blog that got under my skin. It said that the firefighters that have come into this job post-9/11 are soft and in it for praise and discounts from local businesses. While I believe every person is entitled to their opinion and the right to state it, I took exception to the idea. In defense of that website, its a site with a lot of bloggers and guest bloggers, and today they had a piece that was almost its polar opposite.....so no harm, no foul. Like Twain said: Its a difference of opinion that makes for horse-races. But I wanted to say this anyway. I was a young career firefighter just off probation on 9/11, actually on-duty in my medium-sized suburb of Detroit that day. I had started helping out with practical-days at my local community college fire academy that same month. For almost 13 years now, Ive been a fire service instructor. Ive seen a lot fire kids come thru. And weve had a big hiring in the last few years in my department too. Twenty-five percent of our guys at work have 3 years or less on the job. And I like their generation of firefighters more than I like my own in most cases. One of the guys I was on probation with told me when we were hired that he came into the fire service for the time off. And the generation that trained me....well, lets just say they didnt really do a great job of it. I did a lot of that on my own with books and outside classes. I know you know what I mean. The men and women that have come into the fire service since 2001 are the same type of individuals who clogged up military recruiting offices and have been fighting and serving overseas in a decade-plus long, two-front war. Deploying, rotating home, re-deploying rotating home, re-deploying....that is, if they werent wounded first. These are the same firefighters that paid to put themselves thru 2-3 years of schooling before they could even apply for a job in many municipalities that required state fire and EMS certifications. The same firefighters that bought their own leather boots, their own halligan bars and roof hooks. The same firefighters that practice spinning 24-footers up onto their shoulders by themselves. The same guys sending me pictures now of props theyve built and tools that they maintain. The same guys I work with that always come find me in the work-room downstairs after dinner to ask if I need a hand with whatever Im working on. And Ill give you ANOTHER view of the generation of firefighters after 9/11. In October of 2002, I had two friends here in Detroit that were still looking for a fire job, and were applying to the FDNY. I had no intention of leaving my job or Michigan, but a chance to spend a few long weekends in NYC with a couple pals appealed, as did measuring myself against the FDNYs process. I did okay, ranked number 3,241 on Exam # 2043. For the next several years, I made irregular trips to NY for various steps. In late 2006, while at FDNY HQ I asked the lady handling my all my paperwork that I had to bring for the latest step what was next. She told me, so long as I passed the med screening and the psych, Id probably be in either the class starting in early 2007 or Fall 2007 depending on my number. I dropped out at that point, figuring that Id learned what I wanted to know. About the process and about myself. But I havent mentioned my favorite part. What I havent told you yet, is that application period....the first after 9/11....was the largest in the FDNY history. Over 60,000 people applied to be NY firefighters. A little more than a year after hundreds of them were killed. From a cold-hard-math standpoint, it defies logic. Americas young men and young women, from an accounting standpoint, SHOULD have looked at what happened and said, Boy....thats a dangerous job, I dont know about that. But they didnt. America not only did not flinch, America stepped forward to be counted. The youth of America, instead of staring at their shoes.....said, Where do I sign?. What I was doing for vanity and for kicks, they were doing for realsies. And every firefighter who has sworn into the Fire Service in the last 12.5 years, volunteer or career, has done so with 9/11 informing them about the world and about their chosen life. I personally think--and Im not just saying this, I really think it--that this generation of firefighters will come to be known....for their enthusiasm, for their hunger, for their appreciation of the past....as one of the greatest generations of American firefighters. And I say that as someone who is NOT one of them. Who is older, and who belongs to a more cynical generation. Who envies them. They are learning in the environment Id hoped to find when I joined, but didnt. And who made that environment for them? They did for the most part. Bravo, ladies and gentlemen. Keep up the good work. Be safe, and HAVE FUN.
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 02:59:03 +0000
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