Lately these days I feel like many of our nation’s first responders and those involved with the system do not get near the recognition and thanks they deserve. Our Police, Fire, and EMS teams are performing some very hard and dangerous tasks at any given hour, in any given place, any time of the day, seven days a week. Our emergency dispatchers are sitting behind a desk with only a phone and radio at their disposal, unable to help anyone on the other end of the lines except to make sure the first responders are on their way and to try to keep the caller calm. They have to leave their families behind for many hours, many of which do not know if this is the last time they may see their mother, father, brother, or sister alive again.

Anything can happen, but all we ever seem to see are the times when the Police are being criticized, when the Firemen are at a scene making their job look so simple, or when the EMS are responding to a severe car crash and rushing away to get their patient to the hospital. We never really see the law enforcement officer helping the kid find his family at a sporting event after they got separated in the crowd, or the struggles the firemen who make it seem so effortless when they move the large water hoses and go into houses to find people. We don’t see the dangers the EMS face when responding to a call where there are drivers not paying attention, where the cars driving past at high speeds alongside a highway when at a critical crash, or when they arrive upon a scene of a shooting where they don’t know whether or not the shooter is still nearby. We don’t see the stress caused to the dispatchers who may hear someone passing away on the other end of the phone, unable to help any further until EMS and/or Police arrive on scene. What we as citizens see is not all there is to any of our first response systems, and we need to know more in order to understand what they go through.

Our first responder system would be impossible to operate without what is probably the most over-looked person in the system: the dispatcher. The dispatcher is like a secretary whose abilities are on steroids. Yes, they sit in the office and await phone calls, but they do so much more than that. They answer the phone and have to assess a situation based only on information given to them by the caller, decide who to send to the location, if anyone is needed at all, then relay all pertinent information via the radio to that person, commonly while keeping the caller on the line for updates and provide information to them about who is on their way and what to do in whichever situation. They have to be able to communicate effectively with anyone and everyone, and not get annoyed with the frequent callers, and I think the population in general really doesn’t let them cross their mind because they are not out in the field, visible people. Thank you to all dispatchers.

The next group that catches a lot of crap from the country is our Police system. There is a lot of tension right now about police brutality and other subjects of interest which are similar to that, however, that is not what I am here to talk about. The stress that officers go through every shift is high. They walk up to cars pulled over for speeding, not knowing whether the driver or passenger may have a warrant out for their arrest, or if the occupants are just people trying to get to their destination a few seconds faster. Along with that they have to serve warrants, they help look for missing children and adults, investigate crimes from a minor theft to a major homicide. No matter what they are doing, however, they always face challenges and have to live with that stress. They get put through a lot of shit with very little thanks or reward, and their families go through a lot of stress when their loved ones when they are on shift yet continue to put up with it, and for that I am thankful. Thank you to all Law Enforcement Officials.

The next group that most everyone sees are the Fire departments. Fire departments are a necessary part of the system because they are trained and equipped to put out fires, then go in and make sure to do what they can to keep them from starting back up again. Along with that, many of the firefighters are EMTs and Paramedics, along with their firefighting duties. This is a very important resource because they are able to provide services to people who may have been trapped inside the burning building and are suffering from anything from minor smoke inhalation to second and third degree burns, to possible cuts or other dangers if the building was so bad that portions fell and had struck the patient. The men and women of the fire departments are thanked more often than others, but still do not receive the thanks they deserve, and neither do their families. Thank you to all Firefighters.

The final main group of the first response system that don’t receive enough credit are the Emergency Medical Responders (EMRs), Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs), and Paramedics. In some cases, besides the police, EMRs may be one of the first people on the scene of a medical call providing basic medical assistance until the EMT and Paramedic crew arrives. They do a lot in the first few minutes of care, and that is awesome. EMTs and Paramedics do so much that is sometimes just a guess at what might help. There is a little joke I saw on a picture with a caption that went along the lines of “EMS: Doing everything a doctor does at 60mph” in reference to care being given in the back of a moving ambulance. They do a lot of good for a lot of people, sometimes feeling like they are flying by the seat of their pants with what they do, but they do it well. They are highly trained, think fast, are problem solvers, and above all else, are empathetic. They are there to help whenever they are called, whether this is the first time you called or it’s the hundredth time you’ve called, that’s their job. Every call is not the same, no call is textbook, and they know that. They often care for people in the balance, and they will do everything they can to keep their patient here. For that, I respect them more than I can put into words. Thank you to all EMS professionals.

I hope now that you have come a little closer to understanding the stressors of their jobs and can maybe empathize with the first responders. What they do is not easy, the thanks they get is few and far between at times, but they keep doing what they vowed to do regardless. Thank you to all first responders.