truck6alpha's page

Consistency and Standardization - Terminology Blog In Extremis

Well, I'm glad that there's been a lot of discussion about the terminology issue, but my point wasn't just about terminology and communications standardization being a problem for the fire service. Without digressing, despite some of the very considerate and well expressed views pointed out by readers in the Terminology blog I wrote, it is a problem- go back and look at the reports of any disaster th… Continue

Posted on October 7th, 2008 at 5:30pm — 15 Comments

Terminology - The Language We Speak

Surprisingly enough, I'm sitting here at my computer wrangling over the definition of a "working fire" although after 28 years on the job, I know exactly what I mean when I say I have arrived and have a working fire, but putting it into words for our procedure manual doesn't seem to be going well. This whole revelation occurs at the confluence of two events: 1) I'm working on our SOG manual's definitions section and 2) the other night I arrived on scene of a well-involved structure that I decla… Continue

Posted on September 28th, 2008 at 1:00pm — 24 Comments

Customer Service - The Short Version

Customer relations are essential for any department operating in this day and age, as our customers (read: taxpayers) are more educated and have higher expectations of the emergency services. These expectations come from watching television shows that portray us in a certain light as well as more information going out in the form of public education efforts. There are considerable efforts being made by leaders in our industry to increase our professionalism. We need to consciously market our co… Continue

Posted on September 21st, 2008 at 11:10pm — 2 Comments

With Gustav and Hanna Elsewhere, One and a Half More on Deck

When I went to look at my blogs and realized it has been nearly a month since I posted something, I was a little shocked. The last few weeks since I returned from the NFA have been a blur; trying to get caught back up at home and at work evolved into a lot of planning and gathering information and talking with other US&R professionals around the nation as we had to deal first with Gustav and then with Hanna. And it's not over yet with Ike and Tina- no, sorry, Josephine - on deck. I'm not ki… Continue

Posted on September 6th, 2008 at 9:01am — 5 Comments

At The NFA, Part Deux

So anyway, I'm still here and continuing to learn some pretty amazing things about myself, since that's the jist of the fourth class in this program, Executive Leadership. One of the discussions, however, evolved around some of what I discussed in the first installment of this trip, that the NFA is underattended by the fire service. This is the same American Fire Service that complains when funding is being cut, and the same American Fire Service that complains that they don't get the respect th… Continue

Posted on August 7th, 2008 at 5:13pm — 5 Comments

At The NFA

Just a very short post to promote an under-used and vitally important asset that is available to all of you- the National Fire Academy. I'm here for year four of my Executive Fire Officer journey and getting to network with people from all over the world- there's even a mate from Australia in my class. I get to learn from world-class instructors and I get to sleep in a government-regulation bed (maybe that's not so great) and I get to hang at at the legenda… Continue

Posted on August 6th, 2008 at 8:01am — 3 Comments

Still Out There, But Slightly Swamped

My family (or as you could guess, my wife) seems to give me the best gifts. While not much can top a little SCUBA diving with the whale sharks at the Georgia Aquarium (my birthday present this year, but I actually did the dive this past weekend), for Father’s Day this year my family (read: wife) gave me the super-cool T-Mobile Wing that I have been able to track my life with while on the road, which is a lot of the time. Just ask my boss what “a lot of time” is defined as. The problem with the… Continue

Posted on July 20th, 2008 at 7:00am — 7 Comments

SC-TF1 at South Carolina Vigilant Guard Exercise

Posted on May 6th, 2008 at 11:00am —

Motivation- It's What Moves Us

So if you think I haven't been motivated lately, and thus no recent blogs, you are wrong; just busy, is all. Motivation is all around us; like beauty, it is in the eye of the beholder. if you aren't feeling motivated by something, you probably aren't looking. Motivation is what differentiates us sentient beings from ameobas, but even then, some painful stimuli from time to time will get even the lowest form of life to do something relatively modest and therefore, if we are just feeling plain-as… Continue

Posted on May 5th, 2008 at 10:58pm — 11 Comments

South Carolina Urban Search and Rescue Teams at Vigilant Guard 2008

Personnel from Burton Fire District (SC) were joined by South Carolina Regional US&R Response Team 4 (Hilton Head Island Fire/Rescue and Bluffton Township Fire Departments) and South Carolina Urban Search and Rescue Task Force One to work a simulated collapse during the Vigilant Guard 2008 exercises held in Beaufort County, SC. These emergency responders provided an excellent response to the incident, demonstrating exactly how the best case scenario should work: well-trained local responder… Continue

Posted on April 24th, 2008 at 1:32pm —