The Opening General Session at APCO 2021 featured a summary of the state of public safety communications, awards for technical and operational public safety communications staff and teams, and a motivational talk by the commander of forces that captured Saddam Hussein and killed Osama Bin Laden. The session was sponsored by FirstNet Built with AT&T.
The session began with a briefing by APCO Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer Derek Poarch. Poarch noted that bipartisan legislation – the 9-1-1- SAVES Act – has been reintroduced in Congress that would direct the Office of Management and Budget to change the classification of public safety telecommunicators to protective service occupations rather than administrative support.
“APCO will never rest or never tire until we accomplish the reversal of this travesty,” Poarch said in the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center.
Poarch said legislation has also been introduced to authorize $15 billion funding for implementation of Next Generation 9-1-1 by states and localities. Meanwhile, Poarch said, APCO and other public safety groups continue to press for full interoperability of NG9-1-1.
“Your ECC should be able to receive emergency calls and data from the public, then process and share the calls and data with other ECCs and responders in the field, regardless of jurisdiction, equipment, software, or service provider and without costly after-the-fact integrations or proprietary interfaces,” Poarch said.
Another piece of legislation supported by APCO, the PROTECT 9-1-1 Act, would create a grant program for health and wellness programs in the industry, including to develop prevention and treatment for PTSD.
APCO President Margie Moulin welcomed APCO 2021 attendees with recognition of the life-altering events since APCO’s last in-person conference in 2019.
“We have experienced a world most of us could not imagine as little as two years ago,” Moulin said. “Yet throughout these challenging times, our profession continued to step up and serve our communities even as we struggled to navigate changes both professionally and personally. These have been tough times, but you have been even tougher.”
Moulin also pointed to the association’s drive to improve diversity, equity and inclusion. “Recently, APCO announced a new, in depth, multiday course addressing diversity, equity and inclusion in public safety communications,” she said.
Public Safety Communications Awards for the Years 2020 and 2021
The APCO Executive Committee presented awards to top performers in their jobs for 2020 and 2021. Winners and their categories categories were:
- Information Technologist for 2020, John Powers; for 2021, Kevin Biegert
- RF Technologist for 2020, Nick Condaras; for 2021, Steven Morlan
- Telecommunicator for 2020, Mark Nava; for 2021, Kathryn Schmelzer
- Trainer for 2020, Randy Dasho; for 2021, Christine Law
- Line Supervisor for 2020, Jason Meeder; for 2021, Deranecque Rogers
- Team for 2020, Emergency Communications and Citizen Services, Virginia Beach, Virginia; for 2021, METCOM 9-1-1 in Woodburn, Oregon 2021
- Comm Center Director for 2020, Jada Leen; for 2021, Stephan Hooke
- The 2020 Technology Leadership Award for a small to medium PSAP was presented to Augusta (Georgia) 9-1-1 Emergency Communications Center; for 2021, the Chula Vista (California) Police Department
- The 2020 Technology Leadership Award for a large PSAP was presented to the Missouri State Highway Patrol Communications Division; for 2021, the Dekalb County (Georgia) Emergency 9-1-1.
Keynote Address from Admiral William H. McRaven, USN (Ret.)
Admiral William H. McRaven, retired four-star admiral delivered his keynote on lessons of resilience, teamwork and attention to detail that he learned in 37 years as a Navy SEAL.
McRaven commanded forces that captured Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003 in the wake of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. And he commanded Naval special forces when a SEAL team killed Osama Bin Laden in his Pakistani hideout. But it turns out that McRaven learned most of his life lessons in SEAL basic training that he underwent in the mid-70s.
Seal trainees had to make their beds perfectly so the drill instructor could bounce the proverbial and literal quarter off the sheets. He found that skill useful when he found that his hut and its neatly made bed served as a refuge in Afghanistan where outside chaos reigned.
One of the SEAL trainees’ training missions was to paddle over waves to get past the surf of a San Diego beach. The surf was high and this could not be done unless everyone on a rubber dingy put in maximum effort and worked together. The lesson was that goals require teamwork.
They also were turned into what the SEALs called “sugar cookies” by drill instructors. Instructors ordered them into the surf, then to douse themselves in sand – including when they had just won a race or scored tops on an exam. The lesson of this treatment is that life isn’t fair.
McRaven learned about the benefits of having a team to support him when he was severely injured in a parachuting accident. McRaven’s wife, colleagues and commander helped him recover, helping him keep his life and career on track. McRaven saw how a fellow-SEAL had internalized the lesson that life was not fair when he was paralyzed in a bicycling accident. The man went on to artistic and other achievements despite the crippling injury. “Not once did (he) say ‘why me.’” He “has done more from a wheelchair than any 10 men I know standing erect.”
Toward the end of their training, SEAL trainees were tasked with a night swim in shark-infested waters near their California training grounds. The safety advice before the swim was: don’t swim away from a great white. Instead, punch it in the nose if it darts for you.
In Iraq, McRaven figured he found a shark in the person of the Iraqi dictator. Saddam Hussein was full of the arrogance of a potentate when he was discovered by forces commanded by McRaven. But after a month Saddam he was reduced to the aspect of an old man in captivity, McRaven said.
“We always have sharks we have to deal with, and sometimes you just have to stand your ground and metaphorically punch them in the mouth,” he said.
SEAL trainees must maneuver through an obstacle course, and they learn that taking a risk with their bodies is sometimes the only way to get through it in the allotted time. Careening headfirst down a rope line without stopping would pass the time test when nothing else might. It also could end with falling 40 feet and being washed out of SEAL training.
McRaven said he recognized similar risk only with the consequences multiplied to a geostrategic level in the decision to raid a Pakistani compound with Osama Bin Laden as the target. McRaven said government intelligence placed a 40% to 60% probability that the tall man spotted pacing around the compound was actually Bin Laden. A SEAL raid would likely result in dead Pakistanis, while large concentrations of military and police forces lay only a few miles away from the compound. Also, Pakistan has nuclear weapons. If the man was not Bin Laden “it would be a disaster of epic proportions,” McRaven said.
Of course, it was Bin Laden who paced that compound, and Seal Team Six shot him dead even as one of their helicopters crashed during the raid.
“What I learned from my time here – and by that time I had been in the military at 35 years – if you want to be good at what you do you can take the safe way. But If you want to be great at what you do, you’ve got to get on that rope and go headfirst,” McRaven said.
