In the first half of this article, we explored some of the historic parallels between the U.S. military and the U.S. fire service. (See "Wave of the future (part 1)," January 2000, available at .)

We discussed the concept of "Third Wave" thinking espoused by Alvin and Heidi Toffler and the thoughts of Gen. Gordon R. Sullivan on shaping the future in his book "Hope is Not an Option." These observations serve as a useful introduction to the direction set forth in the U.S. military's capstone document, "Joint Vision 2010," which is available at .

What is "Joint Vision 2010?" It's an unclassified 35-page statement of the who, what, why and how of the U.S. military through the year 2010. In essence, it's the military's master plan or strategic concept guide.

It outlines how the separate military services (Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force) can be integrated to conduct joint operations and offer support to one another. The idea is based on the thought that "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts," a concept popularly described as synergy.

"Joint Vision 2010" has four main sections:

* Threads of Continuity,

* Dynamic Changes,

* Conduct of Joint Operations and

* Implementing Joint Vision.

Change in perspective In "Threads of Continuity," the Joint Chiefs of Staff discuss how any vision of the future must be firmly grounded in the traditions of the past. For the military, maintaining the traditional base while building a more integrated operational force may prove challenging, since tradition varies with each branch of the service. For example, how is 200 years of Marine Corps tradition reconciled to 50 years of the Air Force? Similarly, changes in the fire service are doomed to failure when leaders don't account for the traditions of the past, and more specifically to the different organizational cultures of each individual fire department.

Simply put, the military's role is to deter conflict, but when deterrence fails, the military is responsible for fighting and winning the nation's wars. The fire service serves similar types of roles. For example, a parallel can be drawn between the military's role and the fire service's new mission of community risk reduction through public education and code enforcement. And perhaps the military's role is also equivalent to our use of new technologies in detection, and how when all else fails, we fall back on our traditional role of fire/ems responder.

How can the military accomplish its mission? The military is looking to attract people with the "intellectual tools, physical skills and motivation to serve ... in a professional, robust and ready force." The Joint Chiefs call for the retention of experienced members, and the use of realistic and stressful training with technologically superior equipment to achieve success.

Does that also ring true for the fire service? Are we not in search of the right balance of people, technical equipment, training and leadership to meet the needs of our community? Are we, like the military, honestly asking if that balance means recruiting the same people we have in the past?

A common future In the "Dynamic Change" section, one sentence jumps out: "Accelerating rates of change will make the future environment more unpredictable and less stable." This could describe today's fire service as well. With the threat of domestic terrorism and the need for urban search and rescue and other specialized teams, in addition to the standard fire, ems and hazmat response, the roles being assumed by the fire service are more unpredictable and less stable.

The military response to this question is found in the doctrine of joint response among the services. Their goal is to be able to have a fully integrated military in which any service can come to the support of another and be able to readily combine their information, technology and supplies into one cohesive force. Eventually, the military wants to go one step further and be able to seamlessly integrate the forces and supplies of other nations into a combined multinational response force.

How does this need for integration affect the fire service? After all, fire is a local problem. True, but an example of "joint" operations may be an automatic response policy among fire departments or a mutual aid agreement among jurisdictions. A parallel for "combined" operations may be that day-to-day local problems will be better solved by using the resources of all departments in local government, including fire, police, public works and health.

Just as we use joint operations when a serious conflagration threatens more than one jurisdiction, and combined operations when the incident encompasses the authority of several different organizations, long-term or serious problems may be solved only with the resources of other agencies, such as the state fire marshal, department of emergency management or fema's Project Impact disaster mitigation program.

We may even see that some of our problems aren't unique and that solutions may lay with other fire services throughout the world. Fire may be a local problem, but it is truly international in scope.

Technological advantage The "Conduct of Joint Operations" section may be a prelude to what's on the horizon for the U.S. fire service. Based on the hardware and software being developed for the military, we can envision a whole host of products using improved information systems integrated with advanced technology. Infrared cameras based on military technology are just now coming into widespread use in the fire service, but there are other emerging technologies that will benefit the fire service in coming years.

For example, there's a new family of miniature robotic sensors that can be flown through large buildings or high-rises to pinpoint the location of both fires and savable victims. (See Technology Update, page 21.) This information could be programmed into a preplan fire model designed to predict the most likely spread, helping the incident commander formulate a quicker plan with better use of available resources.

Other cutting-edge technology also has fire service applications. Imagine lost firefighters quickly found using the same gps technology that pinpoints a downed pilot within 10 feet of his or her location anywhere in the world.

"Joint Vision 2010" states, "Realtime information will likely drive parallel, not sequential, planning and realtime, not prearranged, decision-making." Parallel planning requires an excellent understanding of the commanders' strategy, goals, outcomes and level of acceptable risk. It rules out extremely detailed guidance and, much like the fire service's Incident Command System, provides a span of control for ensuring that tactics and tasks are carried out quickly and efficiently to obtain a common objective.

Shaping tomorrow How will the fire service be able to make important changes? The military's plan, as outlined in "Implementing the Joint Vision," provides a useful guide.

First, we must attract and retain dedicated, high-quality people. These individuals must have both the intellectual ability and physical stamina to handle the changing role of the fire service in the ever-evolving information age.

The fire service must also develop innovative leaders, individuals who are willing to use the creative and energetic ideas of their people and provide the resources to turn those ideas into ways of delivering safer and more efficient emergency services to the community. These leaders must also be able to provide the fire service with expertise, core values and high ethical standards, while leveraging leading-edge technology to enhance their capabilities.

Will all of this mean we won't need firefighters to do the physical work of rescue and extinguishment? Absolutely not. Does it mean that we can provide a safer and more efficient means of effecting that rescue and extinguishment? Yes, absolutely!

A view of 2010 The concluding statement of "Joint Vision 2010" also may sum up the vision statement for the future U.S. fire service: "Even during a time of unparalleled technological advances, we will always rely on the courage, determination and strength of America's men and women to ensure we are persuasive in peace, decisive in war and preeminent in any form of conflict."

If we were to rewrite that statement for the fire service, it would sound something like this: "Even during a time of unparalleled technological advances, we will always rely on the courage, determination and strength of America's firefighters to ensure that we are trained and prepared, decisive in emergency services and successful no matter what the task."

So why should the fire service use this military model as a guide for its future? As we indicated in the first part of this series, the histories of both services parallel one another and continue to be linked today.

How is that? Well, just look at where we'll be receiving the bulk of the new grants, training and equipment to prepare and respond to domestic or foreign terrorism: from the Department of Defense via the National Guard or fema. One possible scenario under discussion even calls for the fire service to use local National Guard sites for more advanced federal distance learning sessions via national videoconference links. Perhaps the need for both training and technology may even lead to a more formal strategic partnership between the fire service and the military.

But what about the criticism that the military has taken on too many roles? Wouldn't it be foolish for us to follow their lead? Well, to some degree that sounds the same as the criticism some of our friends on the traditional side of the fire service are saying today.

The military, however, has been smart enough to come up with a master plan that contemplates all the roles they may be expected to fill and an outline for the people, technology, information and hardware to get them there. If their projections are correct, the new integrated response force will be capable of performing most, if not all, of these tasks while remembering that their primary goal is to protect the interests of the United States.

If they aren't called on to perform each of these assignments, is it any different from the fire department that practices ice rescue even though they never have to use it under actual rescue conditions? Does it make that training any more meaningful when you know the next call this winter may be for an ice rescue?

The military has done the hardest work for us. They've provided us with a vision of the future, and we will piggyback on the development of advanced technology that can also benefit us as firefighters. Now it's really up to us to adapt their plan to one that can help lead the U.S. fire service to 2010. Truly, the only limits to the fire service of the future rests within our own imagination.