In order to be accepted or included within a discourse community, personnel must understand the typical methods of rapport and interconnection between those within the community. Within the following paragraphs, I will explain and prove that I entered a discourse community of my wild-land Firefighting Crew by continuously acquiring information, knowledge, establishing my integrity, and learning the career that I love to serve. I grew up watching my grandfather and my father serve my home town community through the fire service. You can ask my parents I always wanted to become a firefighter since I was young.
To join the fire service where it is simple and yet still very difficult. I am currently part of the Utah County Sheriffs Wild Land Fire Division. I have fought fires and completed suppression tactics on over 50 incidents. Individuals within the cities might have thought of us normal city firefighters but we were wild-land firefighters that grew to depend and have trust in one another within the brotherhood.
From having to work really hard on terrible assignments to working the incredible suppression assignment, seeing a lot of fire activity, using tactical but safe methods, members share experience, knowledge, and responsibilities. I understood that to feel included as a member of the crew I had show and demonstrate my dedication and commitment as crew member, I also reviewed my on knowledge, experience and skills in order to communicate with other individuals within the community. As we had studied in class I had to use ethos and logos to convince the experienced firefighters that I am committed to being part of the crew. We were taught that a member of the community must learn to appeal to the emotions and values of other crew-members. I really looked up to the more experienced crew-members. I wanted to be the best firefighter I could.
Equal to other departments, the first years hires had to handle various chores and dirty work. When it came to picking up trash, carrying bladder bags, carrying 5 gallons of water, I believed these were tasks and responsibilities that everyone should help out with. If the crew did not complete an assignment up to standards everyone was responsible. Completing these tasks it was in a way a test for a first, second or third year firefighter to prove how committed they were to crew and to the members on the crew.
As crew member I quickly learned how to appeal to the emotions and values of other personnel within my crew and within the fire service. It requires hard and dirty work and our crew boss is really good at seeing the traits needed to help our crew succeed and accomplish the assignments and tasks received. I worked with my crew boss often from the start of the season to the end trying everything I could meet those expectations and standards. This was done by training everyday, communicating tasks, completing responsibilities, and enduring through punishment as a crew.
Communicating and letting each other know where they could improve became a vital method of communication. I had to work with a variety of personalities. This meant that you had to collaborate and work with crew members even if you didn’t like them. Each year it was difficult losing and gaining team members. Also accepting new members into the brotherhood was difficult not knowing whether they can meet the set standards.
Crew Boss Seibach has been the best crew boss that I have ever had. He came of as a quite, grumpy young man at first but that quickly changed as I came to know him on a professional level. He taught me the absence of hard work and a great attitude would make this career choice very tough. Crew Boss taught that safety is a key role in making sure everyone goes home to their families.
Our crew boss prefers to hire firefighters that are safe, hardworking, in shape. Rather than hiring an out of shape individual who is not safe. I learned quickly that those who lead try to incorporate fighting fire effectively having taken the safety precautions first. This is what creates a good leader on our crew and becomes an idle for everyone to look up to. I understood that making mistakes was common and something that you don’t need to beat yourself up over.
By recognizing the standards of becoming a leader I was able to apply them and see the success from recognition and increased responsibilities. This was added with additional trainings for continuing education. Intense workouts helped me stay in shape and retain the stamina needed to complete the job. Above paragraphs I used appeals ethos, logos, and pathos. I explained and showed the pathos appeal through sharing an experience of overcoming communication challenges.
I was able to accomplish this by communicating with my team members through various tasks and assignments. To be part of this community and brotherhood, it take commitment, dedication and time to build relationships and strong connections with everyone in the community. I have learned and developed many skills and lessons that will be applicable for the rest of my life.
