HARRY R. CARTER, Ph.D., MIFireE

I never know on any given day just what choice nuggets of wisdom and information will head my way. This morning a number of conflicting messages came roaring into my e-mail inbox, and frankly I am in a quandary as to how to react. Let me first share a few critical thoughts with you.

As we approach Veteran’s Day 2000, we need to remember the sacrifices of those people who paid for our freedom with their blood and their lives. Far too many citizens do not know what it is to serve their country. Whether it is our old line, me-too generation folks, or from the ranks of any of a number of our recent waves of immigrants, there seems to be an almost a complete lack of understanding about what it is to be an American. Each of us owes a bit of ourselves and our souls to this great country that allows us to live in a free society enjoyed by precious few people on God’s green earth.

This is a topic near and dear to my heart, as I was privileged to share the stage with a number of my fellow veterans on Thursday, November 9th. We were all being honored for our combat service, in a variety of conflicts, by the State of New Jersey. More than 200 wartime veterans received the New Jersey Distinguished Service Medal. Each of us had spent time in harms way. Each of us had answered the call of duty to America. As I listened to the incredible stories of many of my fellow honorees, I felt almost unworthy to be in their company.

I spent quite a bit of time with one elderly gentleman who was wearing the blazer of the Ex-POW’s Association. He shared with me the story of how his B-17 bomber was shot down during WWII. He spoke of how he stayed a bit too long with the ship trying to get his buddy out of the jammed ball turret position at the bottom of the plane. It was clear to me that 56 years had not wiped away the terror, grief, and sense of loss from his soul. He then showed me a letter he had received from a Czechoslovakian woman who had seen the crash. She and some of her friends retrieved the ball turret gunner’s body from the blazing rubble of the bomber. There were tears in his eyes when he spoke of how this lady had prevailed up the local church to bury the gallant warrior in their local churchyard. He even had pictures of the monument that had been erected in the man’s memory after the war.

As I sat there watching these aging warriors go up to receive their reward, I felt unworthy. What had I done to deserve the honor of being with these members of what writer and commentator Tom Brokaw called our "Greatest Generation? I had merely served as a firefighter at Nha Trang Air base in the Republic of Vietnam. Oh, our air base had been hit on a number of occasions, but it was nothing compared to the story told by the fellow who plummeted through the air, into the arms of the waiting German troops.

However, it slowly came to me that I had gone when others had not. I probably would have rather returned to college after being unceremoniously tossed out for being a party-boy who rarely went to class. But that was not an option in the America of 1966. You were either in school, in the service, or unfit for military duty. Coming from a family where my Dad had served in WWII, and for many decades in the National Guard, and my grandfather had served in WW I, there was but one choice. Having made that decision, whatever followed came as a matter of course, and when the call came to go to Vietnam, well, that was part of the bargain.

When my time to go forward for the decoration came, I did rise proudly and stride to the fore. I was fortunate to receive the honor from a fellow National Guardsman that I had worked with many years ago when I was the Fire Marshal for the New Jersey National Guard. Colonel William Bertsch and I had spoken a great deal about the military before the ceremony, and I felt proud to tell him that my son was considering joining the National Guard.

Colonel Bertsch made some excellent closing remarks. He spoke of one of the key core values of the United States Army: Self-less Service. During his speech he alluded to how we had all done our duty with no real thought as to what we would get from our service. He then hit one of my pet peeves directly over the head with a heavy club. He spoke of how too many people in today’s United States have but one response to a request for their time and their talents. They mouth the words, "What’s in it for me."

Surely you have seen my comments on that topic on this very website. As a person who has been a volunteer fire and EMS person for nearly 37 years, I do not think that I ever consciously asked, " … what’s in it for me?" I might have occasionally said on a cold, dark, and windy night, " … why in the heck am I doing this?" But that is not quite the same.

As I watched the gentleman who was a Pearl Harbor survivor go up for his medal, I wondered if he enlisted in the Navy of the late 1930’s knowing that he would participate in one of the pivotal days in American history? As he fought his way through the South Pacific, did he say to himself, " … what’s in it for me?" I sincerely doubt it.

My research on people in the military has uncovered a critical concept that I feel can be directly transferred to the fire service. When asked why they performed incredibly dangerous and heroic acts in the course of combat, the usual answer that a veteran will give is really quite simple. They will tell you that they did not want to let their buddies down.

I know that I experienced this same type of dedication and devotion during my years in the fire service. How often did my fellow firefighters and I do battle in some incredibly dangerous situation? More times than I can even remember, to be sure. But none of us would have ever considered bailing out, unless ordered, because we did not want to let the team down. We arrived together and we would damned sure depart together.

Many of you will probably remember the scene from the early part of the movie, Backdraft, where the floor falls away during the big warehouse blaze, and there is a firefighter hanging on by a handshake. When the firefighter tells his buddies to let go of him and save themselves, he is met by an answer that I have often pondered in my heart. "If you go, we go!" That was a pictorial display of the type of self-less service that seems, in many parts of society, to have gone by the wayside.

It is with all of these thoughts in my heart and mind that I received two very disturbing e-mail messages from associates around the country. In each case the word self-less was replaced by the word selfish. In one case, a buddy of mine was called upon to teach a course in leadership for a missed class of career and volunteer troops. I am very familiar with the course he taught, as it teaches a number of the critical, basic leadership skills so essential to the creating a viable fire fighting team. The reactions of the class were very good, and he felt as though he had hit a home run.

Can you imagine how astounded he must have been when he was told that his fire chief was absolutely incensed that my buddy had felt the need to teach leadership skills? The chief issued a department memorandum that there was no need for leadership training, and that in the future instructors would limit themselves to firematic subjects. Now there my dear readers, is a man so emotionally crippled by rectal-cranial inversion, as to render him for consideration as the victim of a terminal disease. There is a man so inwardly oriented that service to others can have no possible place in his heart.

Another friend wrote to tell me of his department being led by a chief who attempted to lead from the hidden confines of his office in fire headquarters. When finally confronted by his assistant chiefs and training chief with the entire litany of problems, his response was as unbelievable, and it was telling. "How long has this been going on," was the essence of his reply. He was so busy hiding that he never did come to grips with the problems in his own agency. He was so busy servicing his own selfish interests that he had little time for his people. And apparently had little time for the citizens of his community either.

Why, are we continually being crippled by people like this? And I don’t mean just in the fire service. The phrase, "What’s in it for me", has become a pervasive disease in our country. Can all of these people possibly be citizens of the same country that produced heroes like Audie Murphy, Alvin York, Colin Kelly, and Butch O’Hare? How would these moaning, whining, grasping people have done at Valley Forge with George Washington?

It is my personal opinion, that many of the problems which we think exist solely in the fire service, are merely subsets of this society. A society that has generated an "every person for themselves", "grab what you can", rabble that threatens the very fabric of our great land. How can we cure the ills of the fire service, when we are recruiting graduates of the school of "what’s in it for me?"

I think that the solution is as simple as it is difficult. Each of us who really cares for the fire service needs to live the example of self-less service. For some of us, the task grows older with age. Many of us will soon have to cheer on the troops from the sidelines. Each of you will discover that advancing age catches up with everyone, eventually.

Because of this fact of life, each one of us that really cares about the fire service must take great pains, and at the very least, find our personal replacement. We must work to implant within them with the fierce love and pride we have in the fire service. We can mentor them to care for their troops, and to put the needs of the community and fire department before their own. This is not a quick fix, but we must make a conscious effort to share what we know and live an example of dedicated service that will challenge all that know us to follow in our footsteps.

As we pause to honor the veterans who have fought in wars around the world to preserve this great land of ours, let us make the connection to what we do in the fire service. Each of us is merely one of the current torchbearers for our fire department. There were those who came before us, and hopefully there will be someone to take the torch from our hand when the time comes.

That is your task during the days and weeks that lie ahead. Demonstrate the concept of "Selfless Service" and work to locate and motivate our next generation. You have no one else to blame if you fail in this mission.

The commentary in this column does not necessarily reflect those of Firehouse.Com, Firehouse Magazine, their employees or parent company Cygnus Business Media. Harry R. Carter, Ph.D., MIFireE, is an internationally known municipal fire protection consultant and contributing editor to Firehouse Magazine. He recently retired as a Battalion Commander with the Newark, New Jersey Fire Department. His commentary appears regularly on Firehouse.Com. For more commentary and information, visit Carter's web site at www.harrycarter.com Harry has published several books available for online ordering, including Firefighting Strategy and Tactics and Management in the Fire Service