Re: [amsat-bb] Volunteer Radiomen

["Robert Oler" <cvn65vf94@xxxxxxx>]

Hello John.

I think that Don probably would have worded his post a tad different if he 
was sending it to thelist...and this thread ought to probably die and 
..............


<<There's nothing 'special' about them other than that they've elected to be 
a firefighter
as a part time vocatation. <<

With all due respect and humility I think your wrong.  There is something 
special about folks who are "reserves" in something like firefighting.

I dont have a clue what Don does in the real world (dont know him) but the 
folks who are 'reservist' in the military, law enforcement, firefighting etc 
all have something in common.  Don called it a "lifestyle" (I think) but I 
refer to it as "a hatred of the enemy" and to a firefighter the enemy is 
fire.

To me fire is something to run from (closest I have gotten is Navy fire 
fighting training and a fire on the boat while I was on the LSO platform).  
But the guys and gals who are firefighters they hate the enemy (fire) so 
much they cant turn from it, particularly when others are in peril.  Even if 
it cost them their lives.

Not a single one of the firefighters who responded on 9/11 in NY didnt know 
that those buildings were likely to come down.  Yet the enemy was there and 
they charged to it.  (there is I am told a line on the tape from the 
Battalion chief that made it to the point of impact on the first tower where 
he says "We are likely to lose the building"..he knew what those words 
meant...)

The gals and guys who are reservist either got that hatred for the enemy or 
kept it after they left being a regular for something else.  As I said I 
dont know what Don does for a real job...but I know some reserves here in 
law enforcement and firefighting who did it for a bit and then went on to 
something else...and yet that hatred stayed there and they more or less 
volunteer their time.  What they make as a reserve is usually trivial 
compared to what they make in their day job.

Yet when the enemy is there they turn to it just like the "regulars" do.

I tell this story on my wife.  She graduated from Canoe U went to the Fleet 
and flew the F-14.  After her required time she could have stayed in but 
like a lot do she got out and flies for a airline making a lot more then she 
did flying the F-14.  But she stayed in the reserves flying the Tommy.  When 
the Kosovo thing flared up they started looking for "fillins" and called 
her.  She could have stayed but as she put it to me "The enemy is out there 
I have to go fight them"

Ham radio is a great hobby and a great service. To me its just a hobby but I 
know a lot of guys/gals in MARS etc who volunteer a lot of their time and 
hams do a lot of great work in desperate times (for us it was Tropical Storm 
Allison).  I know that some have but the odds of volunteer hams dying is 
pretty thin.

Don and other reservist have a real shot at being dead tomorrow because of 
volunteer work.

There is a difference.

Robert

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