In a message dated 12/11/1999 5:04:26 PM Eastern Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

<< betty, i'm not sorry you posted your experiences in the fd.  that was a
 terrible thing to have to go thru. i respect you all the more for it.
  >>
You are very kind Mag.  Maybe I should be glad then.  Maybe it was the right
thing to do after all.  I wasn't the only one who got treated like this.
They worked on one guy so much that one day he went home and put a gun to his
head in front of his Mother.  She called the police and he went out on their
porch holding the gun.  When the police arrived they nearly shot him because
he was holding that gun.  He ended up in a psych ward for a while, but I saw
him within the last year and he seems fine now.  Just before he did that, we
had also run three suicide calls within a month -- all teenagers.  One
suicide was successful, the others were not.  I was on two of those calls but
I seem to remember that he ran all three of them.  I think that influenced
what he did too.

But I'm absolutely sure that is an unusual situation.  I've visited many fire
departments in this area, and went through the fire science program at my
local community college with guys from municipal departments.  They all
seemed top drawer to me.  This particular department was simply a good-ol boy
network and they didn't want to see that disturbed.  All in all, I am still
glad I stayed.  They can never say they ran me out.

Betty