Goodbye 2009!

 

Looking back at the year that has past I have a lot of things to be thankful for and proud of. This year in my fire life I accomplished many new and exciting goals. Well Sort of? You see writing articles and blogs never was even on my radar until I met up with an old friend from years past. Chief Richard Gasaway and I met up last year in Charleston and again in Baltimore for a training opportunity and better yet chance's to discuss our chosen careers. He was setting out on a national speaking career as I was getting settled into my new department. His wisdom made me begin to refer back to some of my experiences and taking his advice, Bam I started writing! I must say that I have enjoyed writing this blog and was captivated by the number of people who read my article of firehouse.com

With that being said 2009 also brought challenges and opportunities until the end. Each challenge was met HEAD ON with the strength and the support of my gracious family. I do realize that without your families love and support that you will never be able to reach your potential. In today's world of divorce and deception it is truly the love of friends and family that pushes us to succeed and meet our challenge's HEAD ON! I would encourage all of us to take some extra time off and reward the one's that helps us fight our battles and is always on our team! THE HOME TEAM!

 

Be safe everyone….and Thanks Rich for introducing me to the written word!

 

 

See you in Chicago!

Dear Jumpseat Readers,

I haven't been able to post many new updates due to the weather and the holiday season. But I received a HUGE email today. Ryan and Chief Winter from the Charleston Fire Department have been selected to present at Fire Rescue International in Chicago August 24-28 2010. It is a huge accomplishment for both of us and at the same time a huge undertaking. We are going to pull from our experience's in training to put together a new and exciting program. You might say it's a little OLD SCHOOL with a lot of NEW SCHOOL. This is a great opportunity and can't wait to share some of our experience with the world. Thanks for all the support from everyone and I will have a new posting up soon to close out 2009...!

Man...the surprise's keep coming...

Hello from the jumpseat!

Once again the blessing's keep pouring out... View's from the jumpseat has hit 700 hits now....just a few weeks from the 600 mark.....Thank's agian for reading....I can't count all the blessing's in 2009. I look forward to some new and exciting post's and experience's in the year 2010!

Thank you from the jumpseat...

Today is a huge day for the View's from the jumpseat. View's hit the 600 visit mark! I would have never imagined that I would hit 100 much less 600. Thank you to all that have taken time to stop and read View's. I hope to expand view's toward the future. I hope to add some Podcasting, Video, and Some new article's. I am so excited for the potential to deliver my idea's and thoughts to each of you. Please continue to stop and I hope to earn your return with some exciting new idea's. Thank you again for visiting the jumpseat and Have A Great Weekend Everyone!!!!

Senseless Acts of Firefighting!

I heard a new saying around the fire service today. “There is no common sense in the fire service, “Everything that we do is a learned behavior that must be learned, relearned and drilled on over and over again. So is it true, is there no common sense in the Fire Service? Does this statement apply to us and what we do every day. Is it fair to say that the thousands and thousands of men and women that pull on their boots and roll out the door looking to help their fellow man and protect the property have No common sense. It seems like this couldn’t be true, but let’s spend some time analyzing it from one point of view. Let’s use the view from the jump seat that’s where I am riding and let’s use it for a starting point to determine if the fire service “Has no Common Sense”.

Help, Help, my house is on fire! This is a statement that you and I would say if indeed your house were to catch fire. We probably be saying it as we are running or crawling out the front door or looking for a place to jump. But here they come, like knights in shining amour on the BRT(Big Red Truck) or whatever color your trucks are, they jump off grab a hose and into a raging out of control force that is looking to destroy everything that comes in its path. So, is there any sense to what they are doing? Just like the old adage states “Why do they go running in while everyone else is running out”? Well it’s this simple we have chosen to serve our community and been trained in how to mitigate emergencies or is it that we are all adrenaline junkies looking for the next high? Maybe a little bit of both. I think that we can have common sense while doing senseless acts as long as we revert back to our training, experience and COMMON SENSE!