With the news of Osama Bin Laden's death, the fire service community celebrates a huge victory of vindication for our fallen brothers and sisters that paid the ultimate price on that fateful day. Since Sept. 11 the fire service has had its highs and lows, but one thing has remained constant, persistence.
Whether its budget cuts or staffing shortages we have taken on this new challenge of terrorism with the normal "can do" attitude. The same attitude lead our brave armed services to the compound that held this tyrant. With his death we take time to reflect on that day and pay our respects to our fallen. The actions will never bring back our loved ones but the avenging of their deaths will fill a void left in our hearts.
Persistance has won because our nation never gave up. We stayed the course to bring this villain to justice. He is gone now and our nation is stronger than ever. As we move forward following bin Laden's death we must stay ever vigilant. He may be gone, but his followers remain.
We take this time to celebrate while remembering that our job is not done. We have a country to protect and surviving family members to take care of. Let's all join together, just like we did following Sept. 11 and push forward to make the fire service more prepared than ever.
One nation, under God...with liberty and justice for all!
God bless the fallen and God bless the USA!
