Junior Fire Wardens from Cynthia Heights, Resurrection and St. Joseph Schools attend annual picnic at German Fire Dept.

Chief John M. Buckman III receives Governor's Award

In the April edition of The IDHS Hoosier Responder Newsletter, Executive Director Joe Wainscott announced members of IDHS team had been selected to receive one of this year's Governor's Awards for outstanding service and contributions to the State of Indiana and IDHS. Chief Buckman, who is Chief Indiana Firefighter Training System, was recognized as an individual award recipient. "For the past three years he has worked diligently to develop and implement the first state funded and supported fire training system in Indiana.

John established a local fire training committee in all ten Homeland Security districts, helped each district complete its training needs, assessments, and plans, identify and select a fiscal agent for each district, identify and select a district training hub, and establish an effective budget. He has aided the District Fire Training Committee in the delivery of National Fire Academy courses across the state through the use of NFA grant funds to firefighters around the state. He has also successfully promoted the NFA's Indiana Weekend, more than doubling the number of Indiana firefighters participating within just two years. Although, Indiana had a statute which outlined the mandatory level of training required for an individual to become a firefighter, no uniform curriculum for this training had been developed. This led to very poor test results by the new trainees.

Buckman organized a team of subject matter experts, developed a curriculum with learning objectives and practical skill expectations and created a comprehensive instructor guide, student manual, power point presentation, and other support materials. The instructional materials have now been supplied to more than 1000 fire instructors and nearly 4000 students in the past two years, resulting in a 15% increase in test scores for mandatory fire test.

Today, he continues to lead several other fire training initiatives including Fire Chief Leadership Seminars, Firefighter Safety Initiatives, Courage To Be Safe Program, Instructor In-Service Seminars, Recruiting and Retaining Volunteer Firefighter Programs, and Hazardous Materials and Technical Rescue Training Initiatives."

As his director said, take a few moments to congratulate him and thank him for a well done job.

Annual Awards Banquet

On Sunday February 17, German Fire Department held its annual Awards Banquet. The banquet was held at the FOP Camp on Happe Rd. The turnout was pretty good considering the recent weather and the short notice. The food was great thanks to Lisa Eickchoff and her crew of Tim, Brittney, Don Neel, Mike Plumlee and Ben Woodward. A talk about reporting incidents to the state offices was given by Gary Robinson,Indiana Office of Homeland Security Grants and Risk Manager. The Reverent Steve Walker gave a talk on being a care giving servant.

Service awards were given out to the following:

One year of service pins
• Scott Laugel
• Joey O'Neal
• Dustin Botzum
• Matt Molinet
• David Guffy
• Josh Burns
• Kyle Alexander
• Jamie Estham
• Darrell Eastham

Five year pins
• Mike Plumlee
• James Marquis
• Lieuteant Tamara Esche

Ten Year pin
• Captain Cindy Gries
• Nick Raber

Other awards

Highest number of runs made in 2007
• Lester Garrett
• Assistant Chief David Bretz
• Lieutenant Nathan Beach

Highest training hours for 2007
• Captain David Magary
• Division Chief Nick Adams
• Darrell Eastham

Volunteer of the year Scott Laugel

The Chief's Award Divison Chief Don Neel

New Officers Appointed

On Monday November 26, Assistant Chief David Bretz announced two new promotions of members of the department.

Effective November 30th, Lt. Jeremy Hoesli is promoted to Captain and will have the designation  8A10 and Captain Dave Magary will assume the designation 8A7.

Firefighter Mike Tanner was the next one on the promotion list and becomes a Lieutenant. Mike will be have the call number of 8A13.

Explorer Scouts put on training exercise for German Firefighters