Hope you have a Happy 4th (and fifth)…

I love this time of year, more renewals: a new champion victorious from a fortnight at the Championships (Wimbledon) and the initial stages of the Tour de France. As fire consumes (and replenishes) acres nearby I rest & recover thinking of my mom and sister (Laura) with their physical rehab efforts: every day a new challenge. This upcoming weekend I’ll don the USTA Officials uniform for a national juniors tournament as hard court season begins inching its way towards The US Open. The Director of Petra Archaeological Park, Dr. Emad, is on a 3-week Leadership tour of the USA, and their schedule brings them to Santa Fe (“The City Different”) this Wednesday for a brief look-see.

I’ve missed sharing memories & thoughts since my last post, and 2011 is the 24^th anniversary of becoming a qualified Safety Officer in the Incident Command System (ICS), plus the death of my Dad that bleak autumn. As a semi-Former Action Guy, I’d recently been a Medical Unit Leader for a season, but wanted the increased responsibility (OK, one-year was enough and I wanted to escape the requirements of 24-7 at the Incident Command Post (ICP), and have the ability to recon what was happening on the line: it is sometimes hard to rid oneself of the adrenalin factor).  Headed into more involvement with the planning and Command Staff side of emergency equations I’d emerge as “Safety Dude” teaching at the Advanced Incident Management & Area Command courses during the 90’s. In 1987 I was green to this level. While on my 1^st assignment as the Safety Officer with a CA-South Zone Type II Incident Management Team (IMT) my father was becoming increasingly ill from his battle with cancer, and in his last 2-months of life. I can still feel his pride today. While at incidents (Yellowstone, Katrina, etc.) I have similar feelings with thoughts and reflections of the experiences that have made-n-molded me, with gratitude for: Meme, Justin, my family, Burbank High & Humboldt State chums, Navy & National Park Service (NPS) colleagues, and the list keeps growing… including you. The 1^st night my IMT arrived at the Klamath National Forest’s Elk Complex ICP it was late, dark, and foreboding. Our team was to start the transition to relieve a Great Basin Type I IMT that had been there for 21-days. The smoke from the inversion was so acute that a large tent with oxygen released was erected. I felt like I was in a scene from “Apocalypse Now.” Before turning in for the evening I grabbed my toothbrush and tube and wandered into the darkened woods for oral refreshment. At first taste this Safety Officer was reminded of Situational Awareness: the tube I grabbed in the dark was Ben Gay.

Next time: Thank you Peter Falk…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_de_France