Davy Crockett addresses firefighters

By SALLIE SATTERTHWAITE
SallieS@Juno.com

Davy Crockett addressed a crowd of Peachtree City Fire Department promotees and their loved ones Sunday, telling them that for the fire service to improve, its officers must improve.

No, really. It was Davy Crockett, retired longtime instructor at the Georgia Fire Academy, whose sixth great-grandfather was the frontiersman of legend.

This Crockett's career stretches from seven years as a volunteer, beginning in 1955, through 18 years with the Palm Beach, Fla., department, 10 years as chief at Boynton Beach, Fla., and culminating with more than a decade at the academy.

It's all about change, Crockett said at promotion ceremonies at Leach Station. "People don't like change." The fire service of his youth was "like Walden Pond ­ it used to be fun, laid back, reflective," he said. Now the flow is faster, there are rapids and flumes to navigate, to the extent that some call the pace "white water change."

"We're not just 'the fire department' anymore," he said. "Yes, we do fires, but so much more," and Crockett related that Peachtree City Fire Chief Stony Lohr had been up most of the previous night delivering a suspicious white powdery substance to the FBI.

Training is going to change, he said, and all officers ­ not just designated training officers ­ will be responsible for the training of those under them. Equipment is going to change; firefighters will be developing their own. Personal safety equipment is changing. Technology is changing.

"And there will be changes in the political environment," he continued. "Politics is good. It works for us but also against us, and we need to develop new strategies to deal with it."

Crockett closed with a single mandate. "It's not enough to strive for excellence," he told the assembled firefighters and paramedics. "You must create excellence instead."

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