If you've spent any time at the National Fire Academy, you probably know the Ott House, a casual pub with good food and hundreds of fire department patches displayed behind the bar.

I was having dinner with three firefighters attending the NFA's Volunteer Incentive Program. VIP is an intensive six-day program for members of volunteer and combination fire departments that draws about 400 fire personnel from across the country.

As three more fire officers joined us, dinner turned into an impromptu focus group discussion. My dinner guests were from Minnesota, Missouri, Oregon, New York state, Indiana and Washington state. Three of the six were "two-hatters," working in a career fire department and volunteering in another. In their class on challenges for the future were 26 company officers, safety officers and training officers from 17 states.

How'd they get to the NFA? One firefighter/EMT from Minnesota was helping to review FIRE Grants when she learned she could sign up for classes. She paid her own way to the class, but her chief said he would try to help her with meals.

Another said his career chief was not in favor of the week-long class, but his volunteer chief was all for it and paid his way. Another officer said he had to do a shift-trade and use his comp time to attend.

Was it worth it? Absolutely, they said. They were anxious to get back and share what they learned at the Academy. They would go home with a new network of friends -- class started on Sunday and by Tuesday they were like family, they said.

Was it hard to get into the VIP classes? One applied at the last minute and got in because someone else had dropped out a week before. Others had applied multiple times before getting accepted, but they mentioned one guy in their class was attending his eighth class.

What did they find most valuable about attending on-campus NFA classes?

The officer from Missouri said local USFA classes were available through the FEMA region, but the opportunity to network with his peers from all over the country was worth the trip.

It's been three years since my last trip to the NFA, and I was surprised at the amount of activity on the campus. In addition to the 400 VIP attendees, 150 managers from the surrounding area were on campus for an emergency management seminar, plus FEMA had some management classes for its staff.

The Publication Center was packed with people going over hundreds of free books and pamphlets on arson, training, public education, wildfire management and thousands of other topics (many of these publications can now be accessed online at www.usfa.fema.gov). After my last visit, I wrote that the National Fire Academy was the best kept secret in the fire service. Today, I'd say the NFA has made a giant leap forward and is working hard to support and educate today's -- and tomorrow's -- emergency service personnel.

If you're not taking advantage of this resource, you're missing out on a tremendous opportunity. (By the way, vacancy information for the NFA's spring semester goes up in the Online Catalog today on the NFA Web page. Check it out.)

And if the six fire officers who were my dinner companions at the Ott House are an example of the quality of people leading our nation's fire departments, it's comforting to know America is in good hands.