On November 17, 1877 P.Y. Everett and Clifford Thompson began a publication called the National Fireman's Journal, its tagline was "Devoted to the Interests of the Fireman of the Country". That was the founding of what we know today as Fire Engineering Magazine. Today much of what we do is electronic and in keeping with the efforts of Everett and Clifford we are introducing the Fire Engineering Blog Network.

Most of our bloggers are going to be in the training section because that's what Fire Engineering is devoted to. In this section, The National Fireman's Journal we will be devoted to the interests of the firefighters on a more broad scale. In this section you will read people's opinions. These opinions are solely those of the writer and will not be edited by anyone at Fire Engineering. Nor will they reflect the editorial opinion, except for mine, of Fire Engineering Magazine. Some of it may be satirical and humorous, some of it may be political, some of it might just be of interest to firefighters in general. We hope that you will enjoy what's written in these sections. We hope that when you agree you will take time to add your voice, and when you disagree you'll take time to add your voice.

I thought I would do my first blog on one of the things I enjoy most about being a firefighter that really goes to the core of who we are. And that is attending FDIC. I always love this time of year because this is when the fire service gathers for its annual pilgrimage to Indianapolis and the running of the FOOLS. My wife was asked the other day when FDIC was and she answered spring! For many of us in the fire service especially those of us who train and teach the coming of spring each year also means the opportunity to link up with old friends, hear new ideas and be part of the greatest training conference in the world.

You can feel it the minute you get off the plane in Indianapolis or the minute you park your car at your hotel. You can feel it as you pack your bags at home and fill your cooler with cold beer for the hotel room. You can feel the excitement building in side of you as if you're 10 years old and you're waiting to get your first BB gun at Christmas. You can feel FDIC has been called the Woodstock of the fire service, it has been called the annual recharging of our batteries it has been called many many things but for 83 years firefighters from all over the world have all come together to be part of FDIC.

It's a pretty amazing conference when you consider that roughly 30,000 folks gather in downtown Indy for six days to celebrate the calling of the firefighter. And FDIC really is devoted to the interests of firefighters solely. At FDIC everyone who's teaching is an instructor, a real firefighter, they're not there trying to sell you any kind of managerial program, or any kind of product they are there to help make our profession safer, more effective and more confident.

You know I might've been wrong about being 10 years old and the BB gun, it's more exciting than even that. If you've never been it's hard to explain, if you have then you get it it's just FDIC! I'll see you there.