As new year 2021 begins, I think now is the perfect time to reflect on where we have been this past year and where we are going. We saw the return of terrorism at a level we have not seen since September 11.

We saw a domestic terror incident in one of our greatest downtowns in America. The question is: are we ready?

When celebrating New Year’s, we often make resolutions to lose weight, give up cigars or do better about some weakness. For me, I think the public safety industry’s biggest vice might be training. I am lucky to speak across the country and meet a variety of public safety professionals. Often I see us going through the motions with our training. When I see organizations that are uncommitted to training, I will usually inquire and hear that “we do this every day.” Generally, I do not believe that to be the case, but I do believe that you may be asked to respond to a unique situation. Without preparation, you will find yourself ill equipped to slay the dragon we face.

In the latter’s case I pray we do not play like we practice. It will lead to innocent people being unnecessarily hurt or killed just as quickly as not practicing at all. While walk-throughs have their place, are you really practicing enough on vehicle placement, hose deployment, SCBA failures and cardiac arrest management? These are some of the scenarios where we find ourselves in trouble on the fire ground and in emergency medicine.

New Year 2021 – New Training

Training is tough. It requires us to move away from every day issues like checking apparatus, handling public relations requests and responding to calls. It forces us to recognize that this industry changes almost daily. We have to keep up with those changes or find ourselves unable to answer the call.

Training has to be a resolution we plan to keep in 2021. It makes all the difference in every day performance.

Let me use my son as an example. He pitches with both arms like the major league baseball pitcher Pat Venditte. People are always amazed that he can throw strikes at a league par velocity with both arms. Other teams’ coaches will come up to me and remark on his talent. They don’t realize that his talent is not accidental. It is from training his body to throw with proper mechanics from both sides. His journey to throwing from both sides was not a eureka moment where the clouds parted and a voice arose which said, “Dodge, you will throw with both arms!” He just had a coach who would not allow him to play the infield as a left-hander other than first base. He wanted to play shortstop and thus began a journey where he taught himself to throw right-handed.

He has to do double the training to keep up now. The point is that it wasn’t a miracle. It was about training.

I challenge each of you to use the same mindset to become the responder you want to be and live up to the traditions set by one of America’s first firefighters, Ben Franklin, this New Year 2021.

If you are a firefighter, are you practicing for an SCBA failure? The life you save may be your own. If you are a medic, are you working with the EMTs in your system to practice pit crew CPR to provide the best chance of survival for your patient? If you are an officer, are you keeping up with building trends so that you can ensure your crew’s safety on firegrounds? Are you a stern father figure who requires your crew to be seat belted while making runs? Do you require each of your crewmembers to have their reflective vests on every call on a roadway?

These are the areas where our careless and inconsistent attitude toward training leads us down a dangerous path.

Let’s make New Year 2021 a year where we follow America’s first firefighter Ben Franklin and be at war with our own vices as they relate to training.