Davy Crockett

addressed a crowd of Peachtree City Fire Department promotees and their

loved ones Sunday, telling them that for the fire service to improve,

its officers must improve.

No, really.

It was Davy Crockett, retired longtime instructor at the Georgia Fire

Academy, whose sixth great-grandfather was the frontiersman of legend.

This Crockett's

career stretches from seven years as a volunteer, beginning in 1955, through

18 years with the Palm Beach, Fla., department, 10 years as chief at Boynton

Beach, Fla., and culminating with more than a decade at the academy.

It's all about

change, Crockett said at promotion ceremonies at Leach Station. "People

don't like change." The fire service of his youth was "like

Walden Pond ­ it used to be fun, laid back, reflective," he

said. Now the flow is faster, there are rapids and flumes to navigate,

to the extent that some call the pace "white water change."

"We're

not just 'the fire department' anymore," he said. "Yes, we do

fires, but so much more," and Crockett related that Peachtree City

Fire Chief Stony Lohr had been up most of the previous night delivering

a suspicious white powdery substance to the FBI.

Training is

going to change, he said, and all officers ­ not just designated

training officers ­ will be responsible for the training of those

under them. Equipment is going to change; firefighters will be developing

their own. Personal safety equipment is changing. Technology is changing.

"And there

will be changes in the political environment," he continued. "Politics

is good. It works for us but also against us, and we need to develop new

strategies to deal with it."

Crockett closed

with a single mandate. "It's not enough to strive for excellence,"

he told the assembled firefighters and paramedics. "You must create

excellence instead."

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