You've heard this cliché before, but humor me by pondering it again: “The fire service is 200 years of tradition unhampered by progress.”

That saying is wrong, and at the risk of repeating myself I'll tell you that the fire service is years of tradition with sporadic improvements that have hurled us into the forefront of community safety. I'm mentioning this quote because I continue to hear it, but now it's coming from outside the fire service — from local and even state government representatives.

Those government officials still believe that firefighters are tradition-bound, and they make it sound like a bad thing. While I often have stated that a tradition is anything you keep on doing once you have forgotten a reason for it, in reality traditions are worth preserving because they symbolize something of true value, representing what we stand for.

Let me use a military analogy, specifically one out of the U.S. Marine Corps as I'm a former Marine. I recently saw the cover of a national magazine showing Marine Corps Gen. James L. Jones, who had been named the overall commander of NATO. He was in full dress uniform, which reminded me of the symbolism of various elements.

Why do officers in the corps carry a Mameluke sword? The answer stems from the pirates of the Barbary Coast. A North African desert chieftain presented Marine Lt. Presley O'Bannon with a scimitar to show his appreciation for the Marines' successful storming of Derna in Tripoli. The scimitar was used by Mameluke warriors of North Africa. By 1825, all Marine officers were mandated to wear replicas of that sword. What about the quatrefoil on the top of a Marine officer's hat? It represents the rope that used to be coiled atop officers' hats so sharpshooters firing from the ship's rigging wouldn't inadvertently kill their own personnel.

Both of those symbols are on the uniform of Gen. Jones as he assumes his new command. Is he a different type of person from the first officer to carry either of these symbols? If we're considering superficial elements like missiles and computers, then yes. Deep down, however, all have earned the respect of their enemies and the support of their allies.

You see, tradition is not necessarily the way of doing something as much as it is the why of doing something. We need to preserve our traditions, and we need to know what those traditions mean. I have been engaged in some fairly lively debates in restaurants, at conferences and even in the front seat of my car with the different generations of the fire service who think that tradition is a bad thing.

I remember a period when a tradition of ours was challenged, with some interesting consequences. Some of you may not recall it, but there was a time in the fire service when it was considered counterproductive to be identified as a fire chief. Uniforms disappeared into closets and were replaced by white shirts and blue blazers. People seemed embarrassed to be firefighters and felt that they had to fit in.

More than 30 years ago I taught a class at the Asilomar Conference Center in California where this very concept was debated loudly. The class was badly divided. One half believed that we should be in uniform all the time, using the symbols of our fire service as an indication of our role. The other half disputed that assertion, saying that we needed to blend in with the city management team. We needed to look more like the public works director or the finance director.

I'm not sure that anyone now can point to any advantage that was gained by us eliminating the image of the fire chief. Instead I believe that it reduced the visibility of the service, but things have come full circle. Today I see more and more fire chiefs on public display wearing their uniform rather than looking like they just stepped out of a Brooks Brothers ad.

So here is my question to you. Why do we do what we do? What traditions should we be preserving? What traditions should we be giving up? As we move into a more modern era, should we be adopting the same concept that the medical profession has, using an ancient oath to reflect contemporary responsibilities?

As far as I know, medical school graduates are still asked to swear to the Hippocratic oath. I have seen many individuals raise their right hands and swear to uphold the Constitution, the city laws of their community and more, yet people seem to think that is a trivial act in today's society. I disagree. I believe that we enshrine many aspects of the fire service in more structured and symbolic ways.

For example, I believe that badge-pinning ceremonies should be formally structured events. I could not help but feel compassion for the New York City firefighters who all were promoted in the aftermath of the World Trade Center disaster. As I watched their faces at the badge-pinning ceremony, I realized that many of them would have given anything not to be there under those circumstances. Yet it was important for that fire department to recognize that event.

What I'm asking for here is an attitude adjustment. Yes, I think there are traditions that we ought to preserve. We need to recognize that technology and tradition are not mutually exclusive. Regardless of how sophisticated our profession becomes, we have to retain the concept of the phoenix, the badge and the firefighter's cluster. I would even go so far as to say that we ought to restore the concept of membership certificates to fire departments. I have originals of these in my personal collection. As you look at those works of art, you can't help but feel that the person who received one must have felt a strong sense of pride.

Unfortunately, some people quarrel over what is tradition, and sometimes they resist change because they don't want to change the way they behave. That isn't preserving tradition at all — it's playing into the perception of fire service naysayers who say we're hidebound traditionalists.

I've accepted the idea that tradition is more internal than external. It's how we feel about ourselves in the context of our profession that gives us our deepest sense of pride. It has nothing to do with the type or design of our protective clothing, the size and shape of our fire trucks, or the composition of our helmets.

It doesn't even pertain to the nature of tasks that we perform in our society. Some of us only fight fires, others are in the medical business. All of these responsibilities have changed over time, yet the common thread that holds the fire service together has been retained by some and lost by others. For example, does it matter if some feel the term “brotherhood” is divisive and troubling to female firefighters? That traditional term can be replaced by the more inclusive “family.” What label best represents the tradition of looking out for each other?

As we consider the tension between change and tradition, is there anything necessarily wrong with being a traditionalist who is also a futurist? I hope not, because that's how I've approached my career. I truly respect the past of the fire service. I see layer after layer of the legacy and heritage deposited by individuals who have taken both moral and physical risks to improve the fire service. Many of their names have been lost, yet each and every one of us in a fire station today owes them a debt of gratitude. We didn't get to be the way we are by accident. People had to sacrifice and, in many cases, compromise to achieve the things that we take for granted today.

As I look into the future of the fire service I see more of the same. Tevya in Fiddler on the Roof sang of “Tradition!” even as he saw the world changing around him. And so it is for the fire service. We should never take for granted what we're doing or how we're doing it. We should preserve those things that make us special while creating new traditions for future members of the fire service to reflect on.

If there are others within the fire service like me who wish to preserve traditions while looking toward the future, then why is our perception by others in government so contradictory? Those government representatives whom I referred to earlier are our friends. They visit our fire stations. They take money contributed by our labor groups. They call us “America's Heroes” — and then vote down important issues a year or two later. Unfortunately, I think this is as much our fault as it is theirs. We, as a profession, tend to resist change as if it were as likely a threat as anthrax. We don't embrace new ideas, even as our overall society accelerates adoption of changes.

There's probably no one solution to this perception problem, but a lot of little changes may make the difference. It could be as simple as how you and the members of your department respond to the challenges faced by your own organization. No matter where you are, no matter what type of organizational structure you live within, the traditions of the fire service should be defined and respected. Conduct a little audit of your own to determine what symbols and traditions exist within your department that deserve preservation. Then make sure that those same symbols don't get used as an excuse for not doing the job right.

I recently had a firefighter ask me why I always addressed his boss as “Chief” instead of using his first name. I called that person chief out of respect for the rank. That's his title within that organization, and if I didn't respect it, others easily could choose to do likewise. Just because we've allowed many other levels in the organization input into management doesn't mean that we should denigrate the chief's role. After all, the chief serves as the department's representative behind many closed doors where key decisions are made.

As time goes on the fire service will continue to be challenged. There's a target-rich environment for the fire service to become even more of a value to the communities we serve. As we adapt to that role, we need to ensure that we preserve of our image as problem-solvers. Keeping that image alive tomorrow may require us to be the advocates of change instead of its opponents.

The beauty of that goal is that we can achieve it without ignoring any traditions worth saving. Wouldn't it be nice to see a fire chief on the cover of Parade Magazine in 10 years, complete with gold badge, the Maltese cross and the rest of the symbols of the fire service?

---

A 40-year veteran of the fire service, Ronny J. Coleman has served as fire chief in Fullerton and San Clemente, Calif., and was the fire marshal of the State of California from 1992 to 1999. He is a certified fire chief and a master instructor in the California Fire Service Training and Education System. A Fellow of the Institution of Fire Engineers, he has an associate's degree in fire science, a bachelor's degree in political science and a master's degree in vocational education.