Editor’s note: Here is “The Best of Brennan,” a column of Tom Brennan’s that appeared in the October 1988 issue and that still rings true today.
I’ve often been asked to speak at recruit graduations. Just what do you say as a firefighter at the end of a career to those at the very beginning of theirs? After the formalities, rules, and procedures generic to that department were gone over and printed matter distributed, what would I have liked said to me if I were in their shoes?
One of the common threads within the fire service membership is that almost all answer (when asked), “I love this job.” And I think that an analysis of what brings you to that statement is of tremendous value to the new recruits who are just beginning to shape how they think during their careers. I would try to say:
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