A Homeschool Dad and a Hero

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Not long after yesterday’s post went out by email, I received a sweet response from a proud wife. She wrote:

My husband has been in fire services since he was old enough to hang onto the back of the truck when he was a boy and went with his dad on volunteer calls.

Volunteer fire department in action, Terry, Montana, June 1939. Photo by Arthur Rothstein. Courtesy Library of Congress.

She went on to tell me about his almost 32-year career in Public Safety. He began as a volunteer—like father, like son— and then began working professionally as a paramedic/fireman. For the last decade and a half, he has managed the 911 center of a suburb in a major metropolitan area. She wrote:

Being a 911 operator is very high stress with not that great of pay . . . . The dispatchers work very hard to help save lives; after all, the calls start there!

Thank you for taking the time to notice and show your support for this area of Public Safety.

Right away, I asked this homeschooling mama if it would be okay for me to tell you about her husband. Not only did I get permission, I even got to watch him answer questions in a television interview about 911. I even got to exchange emails with her husband. He told me:

Please stress to your readers,
Location
Location
Location

One of the most important pieces of information that a 911 dispatcher needs is where the person needing help is located. I learned in the television documentary he sent me that our cell phones do not necessarily help a dispatcher know where we are located. At a given moment, your cell phone and mine are not necessarily connected to the right cell phone tower to get to the right 911 call center to get help to us fast. The reason is the complex interplay between cell phone companies, cell tower locations, and 911 technology. Believe it or not, just because our cell phones know where we are, that does not mean that our cell phones necessarily communicate our location with the 911 dispatchers. Many minutes can be lost and people sometimes die during the time it takes for a 911 dispatcher to learn our location.

Homeschooled students don’t have to know their home address as often as a public school student does. However, mamas and daddies need to make sure that they do know their address, in case of emergency. Also, when we are away from home, it is important that we know the actual address of where we are, just in case we need to tell a 911 dispatcher that information. So, as this brave and heroic homeschool dad told me yesterday, I am stressing to you readers:

Location
Location
Location

He should know. A woman in his state drowned while she waited for all the technologies to come together for emergency personnel to find her. After that tragedy, this homeschooling Dad worked for five years to make technologies work together efficiently at his 911 center. His is the only 911 center in his state that has this new technology, but efforts are underway to make changes in other locations.

Thank you, Mr. H, for all you have done to serve thousands of people during your almost 32-year career and thank you for letting me tell your story to help all of us.

For you were called to freedom, brethren;
only do not turn your freedom
into an opportunity for the flesh,
but through love serve one another.
For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word,
in the statement,
“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Galatians 5:13-14

 

 

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One comment

  1. Wow! I wish I would have kept up to date on reading my Daily Encouragements. Thankfully, God numbers our days, and my 14 month old grandson isn’t done living his. He started choking while his Momma’s sister was babysitting. She yelled out to Siri to call 911 while she gave the “baby Heimlich” her sister had providentially taught her the previous day. When the operator answered, she frantically pled, “Please get someone here now!” The problem was she didn’t know where here was. Praise the Lord He led my daughter to teach her sister the two different maneuvers to perform based on whether it was the baby or the toddler choking. And he pressed on my heart that morning to join in a special prayer session with my youngest daughter for the boys physical safety!!

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