With all of this being said, do you think it would be better for a department to have an older member with more experience fighting actual fires and less training OR a newer member with less actual experience, but much more training, as an officer? I feel that some departments could have a bunch of 25-year members that are complacent and come from the era of "charging into burning buildings without SBCA" and then many 7-10 year members that are progressive and would like to use the knowledge they received from classes they've taken. In this situation, maybe younger members, or members with less time in the department, would serve as better officers.