Recruits and Command

This episode, Josh Blum, Chris Stewart and John Vance connect recruit training to stronger incident command by showing how day-one decision making, radio discipline, and functional evolutions create safer firegrounds. Along the way we share first-arriver expectations, Mayday triggers, air management, and the myth of “just do work.”

• day-one radio use and communication norms
• building decision-making through functional evolutions
• size-up, critical factors, and risk choices
• priority traffic, Mayday structure, and channel discipline
• problem solving under pressure
• air management triggers and round-trip ticket planning
• accountability at task, tactical, and strategic levels
• aligning field training officers with academy standards
• clarifying “alien abduction” and preventing freelancing

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This episode was recorded on March 10, 2026.

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