当你第一次戴上消防头盔时，你还记得你的想法或感受吗?也许你的感觉和这里写的不一样，但你可以跟着回忆。在那一天，可能会有快乐、兴奋、兴奋和对即将发生的事情的期待。求救，紧急响应。红灯，警笛，汽笛，天啊!你可能会有一些焦虑、紧张和害羞，尽管最终你会符合A型人格。也许根本就没有感觉。我对此表示怀疑，但这是一种可能性。你为自己能成为消防队的一员而骄傲。 From that first day and throughout your firefighting career, be it volunteer, paid or combination, you grow into that helmet and that growth will continue until you retire. The helmet is meant to keep your head safe, but it provides much more. It presents as a symbol of protection and safety. It’s symbolic of actions like rescues and advancing hose lines, throwing ladders, and more. It is also symbolic of sadness, destruction, injuries, and loss of life. Those are some of the reasons behind the calls that go to 911, which cause us to respond. It is symbolic of a brotherhood, of leadership and tradition. It is symbolic of heroism and a duty to serve. That duty to serve is what caused us to put on the helmet in the first place, no matter what our underlying reason was at the time. There is a lot of responsibility that goes with wearing that helmet. Responsibility adds weight to the helmet. You maintain that sense of pride by washing the trucks, checking, and maintaining the trucks, tools and ensuring your self-contained breathing apparatus, face pieces and flashlights are in good working order. We work to save lives and protect property because that is our primary mission. That mission statement itself contains a lot of responsibility in and of itself. It is not only civilian lives and property that we concern ourselves with, but those of our fellow brothers and sisters who serve with us. We train to perform and perform as trained. That helmet helps contain the knowledge from leaking out from the many, many hours of fire academy and in-house training, to which we know we are responsible for on test days, but especially responsible for during our responses. And so, the helmet has gained some more weight since we first put it on. Your helmet may or may not change colors in your time. The color changes indicate a higher level of rank. And with that rank comes increased responsibility. Strategy, delegating tasks and managing the risks that go along with them. There is crew integrity, crew development, resource management and most importantly crew safety. If your helmet is white, then those responsibilities grow to department wide and the helmet takes on even more weight. However, with helmet color changes, increasing responsibilities, commitments, delegation of duties, also comes an increased sense of pride. One that you feel personally, not just for you, but for your crew and your department. You see, they too have grown and shared in the times of loss and in the times of great success with you. Responsibility and pride are in place to help set the example and to keep your head from getting too big to wear that helmet. In fact, I would bet that pride will help offset the weight of the helmet. Be responsible. Be proud. Most of all, stay safe.  See More