This year has been a bit of a whirlwind both personally and professionally. So far this year I have gotten married to a beautiful woman, who has given birth to our beautiful baby girl. I have had the opportunity to go to Firehouse Expo and hang out with some amazing people. I have also been allowed the opportunity to continue and further the reach of training others through the County and assisting with the Fire 1 and 2 classes.
Training has always been important to me, but this last year as the Training Officer of my department has been a bit of an eye opener. Members don’t want to spend any more time than they have to doing training. Whether it is because of school, work, or laziness – I don’t know. I had scheduled for us several quality, hands-on drills (including live-fire) and had to cancel most of those due to too few people showing up. It is impossible to conduct multi-company drills with only a probationary/non-certified member.
Training has become even more important to me now that I have a family sitting at home waiting on my safe return. It is important that the men and women I am with keep up with their training and are on top of their game every time we roll out the door.
Things are still a whirlwind as I’m getting ready to head back to work from paternity leave and college classes start back up for me this week, but I’m hoping that I will be able to shape this site over the coming months into what I had pictured when I started it earlier this year.
I hope everyone got to enjoy their Thanksgiving, whether it was at home or on duty.
