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Yes I did Thank you for the clarification

Yes everyone should be expected to serve in some form of civil service as they are able. There are countries all through Europe which still require every man (and some that require every woman too) to serve a minimum of X number of years in the military regardless of physical limitations, they will put you at a desk if that is where you can best serve. Now for my one problem: Volunteers often dont have the time to be held to the same physical requirements as the paid guys do (they all should have the ability). We dont have multiple days off in a row to get to a gym and work out. We hold jobs that are your regular 9 - 5 and many of us are up and out of our houses well before the sun comes up (4 or 5 AM) and dont get home from work till it is back down (7 or 8 PM) at which point we get changed and quickly go down to our department for drill night or house duty where we very often dont finish up till after 10. Then we still have to go home and take care of work around the house, kids and work left over from our paying job. We then are hopefully in bed by midnight (on a good night) and start all over again in the morning. (not to mention many of us are signed up on a standby ambulance crew multiple nights a week) This doesnt mean that it is impossible for all of us to be as physicly fit as the paid guys but it does severly cut into our time even more. Yes some businesses are promoting the use of gyms by their employees because studies do show that an employee who has time to work out and relieve stress is a much more productive employee but unless the company gets $$$$$$ to pay for that expense of giving memberships to the employees they aren't going to do it. Please dont get me wrong however, a firefighter no matter what age should be physicly fit and qualified to actually fight the fire but it is knowing your limitations and isnt that what training is supposed to show you - what your limitations are and what you need to work on. I wouldn't expect a member who weighs 100 pounds soaking wet to take a 2.5" line by themselves but I would the 200 pound body builder. It is all about knowing who you have and working with each others strengths and weaknesses. That is my two cents, Thank you

If you took the course at Phelps and tested for your EMT in March than I feel your pain. My CPR card actually just came in the mail about a week ago and i took the CPR part around early January.