FDIC 2009 Speech: Celebrities and Leaders
By Bobby Halton
FDIC Education Director/Fire Engineering Editor in Chief
Today this stage will be graced by the presence of five giants, true leaders in our industry. Each one them focused on making critical advances in different aspects of our profession. What is it that makes these men so influential, so compelling, and so critical to the future of our great profession?
It is simple. They all possess one undeniable quality: Leadership, each one is unique and each one of them have very different styles, methods, and abilities, yet they are all true leaders.
Some might mistakenly say they are celebrities in the fire service, but they would be wrong. That is not to say we do not have celebrities; we do. Unfortunately, we firefighters and most of the world often cannot tell the difference between a celebrity and a leader, and this difference, although subtle, is important.
There is a place for both celebrities and leaders in the world. Today we desperately need our leaders--not for who they are, but in a greater sense, for a higher purpose, for what they represent. We need our celebrities for how they can call attention to our issues, to our leader's causes.
This morning we are thankful because we have both celebrities and leaders in this room. And they are all good firefighters, and if we are to be successful, if we are going to be united and effective, we need to recognize and use them both. The celebrity firefighter seeks to use their skills and talents to bring attention to our causes as we see them.
The celebrity uses the recognition of others to motivate and educate the fire service and the community about our struggles against nature and technology. The honest celebrity enjoys the attention and loves the recognition but stays humble to the greater mission.
Leaders are very different, and they are far more diverse and therefore more difficult to identify.
All of you in this room here today are the real leaders. You are all humble dedicated servants, and you seek only to live principled lives. It's important that we are able to recognize the real leaders. But recognizing a leader can be much harder than it sounds.
The fundamental difference between a celebrity and a leader has to do with their different skills and abilities. Unfortunately it is often very extremely difficult to recognize someone's skills and abilities.
For example, recently during the rush hour in a Washington, D.C., subway station, a man took out a violin and began to play. He played for more than 45 minutes, and thousands of people walked by. A few people threw coins and bills into his open violin case, but none stopped to listen. About six or seven people did pause briefly, but no one stayed for any length of time.
He played beautifully; however, when he finished there was no applause. There was no recognition of his skills. Undoubtedly, if we had been on that subway platform most of us would not have recognized his skills, either. Most of us lack the understanding of the complexity of violin music, and so his celebrity is not universally recognized.
We all have blind spots in our vision, in our ability to recognize others' skills. However, our views of principles, of values are commonly held views, shared by all Americans, shared by all firefighters. Recognizing this shared collective vision demands firefighters be ever more aware, be ever more alert to what each of us mean to each other and to our communities. This means how others see us affects the entire organization. How others see us affects the entire community, and ultimately it affects the entire country.
Oh, and the man playing the violin in the subway? His name is Joshua Bell; he is one of the greatest violinists of all time, a great celebrity, and a good person. The piece he played that day involved some of the most intricate and beautiful violin music ever written. The violin he played on that day was worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before he played in that D.C. subway where no one even stopped to listen, Joshua Bell played to sold-out audiences where the average seat went for more than $100. Those D.C. subway riders who heard the music could not be expected to appreciate it or recognize how well it was played. They were not trained musicians--they were just normal citizens.
Mr. Bell may be the most skillful violin player in the world, but violin music doesn't connect most people to any personal feelings or any personal values. It does not connect us emotionally to any images or history of lives well-lived in service to others, principled lives, unlike how true leaders' lives do.
But what difference could it make? Why be concerned how others see us? Firefighters don't lead the entire country, what we do or represent matters little except to us.
Consider this: Back in the mid '70s at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs there worked an unimpressive figure, a janitor. This man, Bill Crawford had been working there for about 30 years and most airmen just took him for granted.
The airmen were polite to Mr. Crawford, but he was simply the squadron janitor. While cadets busied themselves with academy life, Bill quietly moved about the squadron, mopping and buffing floors, emptying trash cans, cleaning toilets, and just tidying up the mess. For almost 30 years, few gave him much notice.
Bill seldom spoke to a cadet unless they addressed him first, and that didn't happen very often. This simple janitor blended into the woodwork and became just another fixture in the squadron. The Academy, one of our nation's premier leadership institutions, keeps its members busy from dawn till dusk. And Mr. Crawford...well, he was just a janitor.
That changed one fall Saturday afternoon in 1976. A young cadet was reading a book about the tough Allied ground campaign in Italy when he stumbled across an incredible story.
On Sept. 13, 1943, a Private William Crawford from Colorado, assigned to the 36th Infantry Division, had been involved in some bloody fighting on Hill 424 near Altavilla, Italy.
The words on the page read: "in the face of intense and overwhelming hostile fire…with no regard for personal safety and on his own initiative, Private Crawford single-handedly attacked several fortified enemy positions."
It continued, "for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at risk of his own life above and beyond the call of duty, On Hill 424, Pvt. Crawford took out three enemy machine guns before darkness fell, halting the enemy platoon's advance.
Pvt. Crawford could not be found the next day and it was assumed he was dead. The request for his Medal of Honor was quickly approved. The Medal of Honor was presented posthumously to Crawford's father, George, on May 11, 1944.
Nearly two months after that, it was learned that Pvt. Crawford was alive and a prisoner in a POW camp in Germany. During his captivity Pvt. Crawford was nearly beaten to death. Bill Crawford was forced to marched 500 miles in 52 days in the middle of winter, subsisting on one potato a day. Pvt. Crawford was liberated from a prison camp in the spring of 1945.
Instantly, the young airman realized the man he had casually dismissed as a janitor could be a Congressional Medal of Honor winner. When he found Mr. Crawford and showed him the page from the book, Bill the janitor, starred at it for a few moments and then quietly uttered: "Yep, that's me."
The young future officer asked why he hadn't told them about it. Bill slowly replied: "That was one day in my life, and it happened a long time ago."
But after, that things were never again the same around the squadron.Word spread like wildfire among the cadets that there was a hero in their midst--Mr. Crawford, the janitor, had won the Medal of Honor.
Cadets who had once passed by Bill with hardly a glance now greeted him with a smile and a respectful, "Good morning, Mr. Crawford." The cadets began to stop Bill to talk.They began inviting Bill to squadron functions.
Pvt. Crawford would show up dressed in a conservative dark suit. The only sign of his heroics being a simple blue, star-spangled lapel pin. Almost overnight, Bill went from being a simple fixture in the squadron, to being a role model, to being a leader.
It was not the man, Mr. Crawford, who those young airmen were so impressed by it what he represented: it was the sacred honor and principled life that he lived. It is those same principles and honor that you all have sworn to represent, that those who will follow me here today on this stage have so clearly embodied.
The airmen recognized Mr. Crawford as a true leader because of how he lived, not only on that heroic day in Italy, but the way he diligently and deliberately honored his work as a janitor, the way he honored himself and them with his humility and gentle manner.
Today you too are recognized as leaders, and you too are recognized that way not as an individuals, but because of the collected experiences, history, and the sacred honor the world has come to see in you.
These leaders we will enjoy this morning are all much like Bill Crawford: they have all shown their heroism, they have all displayed their courage, but now they choose to serve in a different ways, behind the scenes cleaning up messes with contracts and relationships, diligently and quietly going about mopping up spills in government and on the fireground, setting an example by offering us the examples of their highly principled and honorable lives.
This morning, let us enjoy the skills and talents of our celebrities and honor the sacrifices and hard work of our leaders. But lets us always understand the differences and not confuse the two.
Let us remember the celebrity is only recognized by those who are familiar with the work and difficulty of the skills they have mastered. And firefighter celebrities are good firefighters first, or they could never exercise their other talents for our mission. But celebrity firefighters exist only within our community to serve our community.
I urge you though to be very aware that undeniably the leadership of the fire service is an other matter altogether. The man or woman seated next to you and the five heroes who will honor us with their time this morning have relevance and meaning far beyond our community of firefighters.
Today the chief or the firefighter sitting next to you perhaps yesterday morning left an entire school board more aware of need to provide immediate and competent fire-based EMS to every school in their community.
The lieutenant or chauffeur sitting next to you perhaps last week lead their entire department to become more aware of their responsibility to be able to respond to increasingly more complex and challenging fires.
Perhaps the union officer and the volunteer chief who are sitting together in this room side by side both left a meeting recently where they explained honestly and passionately why more firefighters are so desperately needed.
They risked their future advancements with reckless abandon because they so deeply understand that only a fool believes that you can do more with less and that numbers equal safety on the fireground.
You are the leaders, leading those principled lives which you forever will be remembered, the instructors, the inspectors, the dispatchers, the firefighters, the chiefs and the recruits. Dedicated humble servants who have touched the lives countless citizens and each time made them better.
I stand before you today with great humility and appreciation for being allowed to be here with you. I do not consider myself a leader but rather a minor celebrity, not of my own making but by the generosity of your patience. It is indeed an honor and a privilege to be allowed to be here this morning to simply say thank you. Thank you for your service and your compassion for what you have done for me and my family and for others and your communities.
And I swear on this stage today before you and God that I will not let a good firefighter be injured--not by words or deeds, not by omission or commission. I will use this celebrity which you have briefly allowed to me to speak out against those who would do you harm and to defend you when, if by God's design, you have given that last full measure and, your sacrifice notwithstanding, the unwashed would dare impugn your memories. I pledge to assault those despicable leaches who would attempt advance themselves or their agendas at the expense of your dedication, who would threaten your sacred honor.
I stand before you not as a leader but as your brother, one whose time on the field of battle has past but whose willingness to fight for you will only die when my breath is done.
Thank you all for your leadership, your courage, and your unfaltering honor. Our nation and I love you all more than words can ever express. God bless you all and God bless this great nation.