FDIC Education Director Bobby Halton fired up the standing-room-only crowd of 3,500-plus attendees to the FDIC International Opening Ceremony on Wednesday, April 27, 2022, in Indianapolis.
He began: “We learn very young that everything in life has a price, everything. Being a firefighter has a price, sometimes, the ultimate price, and death notwithstanding, it always comes at a high cost. The path we have chosen is sometimes hard to explain and sometimes impossible for others to understand. Every firefighter here today has accepted the costs.
Editor’s Opinion: You Were Worth It
We have publicly acknowledged what we are willing to endure, what we will pay for this honorable life, for the privilege of being an American firefighter.
“So, what is it that drives us? Obligation, responsibility, duty, honor, fidelity?
All these fine words and their virtues fall short of explaining why we believe the rewards of being a firefighter far outweigh the costs.
“The life we have chosen is a hard one. Maybe that’s why we chose it. Choices, the actions we take, what we actually do, that is what defines us, not words.
“We are living in very serious times; some say we are going through hard times. Amid these hard times, there is a robust and spirited tactical debate happening in the fire service. It surrounds the needs of victims, their rescue, firefighter safety, and operations.
“The author and novelist G. Michael Hopf, in his post-apocalyptic novel Those Left Behind, wrote: ‘Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. Weak men create hard times.’
“As firefighters, we can see the implications of these powerful words. Hard times create strong firefighters. When strong firefighters face adversity, they do not hide from it. Obstacles are opportunities to strong firefighters. Oh, we complain about them, don’t get me wrong. Hell, we complain about everything. But nobody leaves.
“Firefighters do not run from hard times. We run toward them, we embrace them, we welcome them, we seek them out.
“Strong firefighters make a difference. Strong firefighters make the world a better place. Strong firefighters are resilient, honest, and reliable. Strong firefighters, like strong people, however,
are not always popular.
“We learn very young that everything in life has a price, everything. The good times have a cost.
The hard times have a cost. Being strong has a cost and being weak has a cost. There are many who will say that this rescue discussion we are engaged in, that this tactical debate we are having, is very simple. They would have you believe that there are silver bullets, that all you need is a slogan, something for a T-shirt or a coffee cup. They would have you believe
that there are straightforward answers. There are those who would argue that we simply need a standard dogma, one-size-fits-all rescue profile.
“We have been having this debate throughout the generations long before anyone in this room was born, but now it is taking a more prominent stage. The conundrum is a clash of our fundamental virtues, intellectual virtues, the habits of the mind and moral virtues, the habits of the heart. We achieve our intellectual virtue from study and learning. We gain our moral virtue
from habit and training. The struggle we now face results in applying some of the interpretations
of our ongoing research and study while simultaneously applying our innate instinctual compassion in real-world settings.
“It is a struggle for all firefighters professionally and individually. Is the price you are paying
or are willing to pay worth the outcomes, the immediate results, and the distant consequences?
There is nothing simple about it. For us dedicated to the fire service, intellectual virtue is scientific knowledge, an understanding of building construction, fire behavior, incident command. It is our relentless inquiry in improving our methods, tactics, organizations,
and operational deployments. This virtue requires study, learning, thought, and examination. Our moral virtue does not come from classrooms or study. It comes from habit. Moral virtues include courage, compassion, responsibility, friendship, fidelity, integrity, loyalty, and faith. Moral virtues come from our training in developing good habits. We train to act with restraint of our own first impulses. We don’t judge.
“We always act with respect for others’ dignity and their humanity, and we have a reasonable concern for the distant consequences that we may face. We call it our code, our oath, our ethics.
“It is not uncommon to be at one of our awards banquets and hear stories of bravery and sacrifice–stories that civilians find impossible to understand. Our stories, stories of strong men and women going into raging fires, marching into hell, exposing themselves to disease and injury, often risking death without hesitation, and routinely at tremendous personal cost.
“Our friends and family often ask was it worth it, being a firefighter, spending the holidays, birthdays, special moments away from family, was it worth it, getting cancer, being burned, broken bones, broken hearts, and broken marriages, often living so drained emotionally and spiritually that you find yourself tired all the time. So, was it worth it? Was the price you paid or are paying worth it?
“When I was sent to the Personnel Department, that is what it was called back in the day
before it became the oxymoron “human resources” and they started screwing up, well, everything. Anyway, in the Personnel Department at the annual wellness checkup,
I routinely got the ‘If you had to do all over again, would you do anything differently?’ question.
It is always an interesting but a pointless question to ponder. It is pointless because of the character of the American firefighter. It is in our American blood.
“We find meaning and purpose in doing difficult things. Doing hard things, dangerous, risky things makes us who we are, strong firefighters. Did you ever notice that strong firefighters
fight to get on busy companies–companies run by really demanding, strong bosses? These strong, hard-charging companies don’t take on slackers or square rooters. They look for and recruit the best, the most dedicated, the go-getters. These companies don’t hand out trophies
and ribbons for showing up. As a matter of fact, excellence is acceptable and anything less will get you kicked off. These strong, high-powered officers are clear. The price you pay will be high,
you will work harder, you will train more and be expected to be better with every day.
“Firefighting has changed little in principle from the beginning of recorded history.
The high-tech and advanced tools and machines we use today are only an evolution
from the time when brave men and women used wooden buckets. Machines and tools are nothing without the firefighters, the men and women who decide where and how to use them.
Some say that technology, artificial intelligence as they call it, will someday be able to replace these brave men and women as decision makers, but they have something no machine will ever have. They have empathy, compassion. They have intellectual and moral virtue.
“Thinking back to our friends in the Personnel Department wondering, if we had to do it all over again, would we do anything different? Sure, we would have avoided getting in the wreck
on the way to the call or falling off that roof or ladder. We would have avoided getting burned or stabbed. We would have preferred a life without autoimmune diseases and cancers. Most of us would have avoided marrying our third or fourth husband or wife. We would have loved seeing our kids take their first steps, being with Mom before she passed, not seeing our friend take his own life. We would’ve had our friends leave those buildings sooner or not let them go in at all.
Yeah, it would be nice to be able to clean up the past, rearrange the deck chairs, as they say.
“But if it meant not being there when that lady on the 12th floor needed us or not being there to intubate that baby, pull the driver from the car, or hold the rope during the rescue, no, we would not change a thing. We would be willing to do all over again, despite suffering the distant consequences. If it changed the outcome, we would not do it all over again, no question about it.
“I was sitting with a good friend of mine outside of a coffee shop enjoying the sunshine.
We were telling fire stories to one another when a young woman walked by. She stopped, pointing to my friend’s Vietnam veterans ballcap, and asked him, ‘Were you a soldier?’
“My buddy leaned back, pointing to his hat, and said, ‘I sure was. It’s how I got this hat!’
“The young lady smiled, started to walk away, but turned and said, ‘Thank you. Thank you for your service.’
“My friend looked her in the eye and without hesitation said, ‘You were worth it.’
“You were worth it. You were worth it. I guess there has never been and never will be a better explanation. ‘You were worth it.’
“Was it worth it? Every call, every incident has a face, a human face behind it, and that person, irrespective of their station in life, their circumstances, compelled the heroes we honor at banquets and funerals to do what they did.
“Was it worth it, to all our fellow citizens, to our fellow brother and sister humans, who called us in their time of need, you should know that in our eyes, our hearts, whatever it took, whatever price was paid, whatever suffering was endured, whatever the cost, ‘You were worth it.’”
