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I'm not active anymore, but can I pass this along to current paramedics for you? I'm sure they would love to participate, but they are not members of this site. Best of luck!!

Stolen from some website about whackers. Anybody who works LE, Fire or EMS is probably familiar with the term Whacker. We all know one or two and usually they are harmless if not embarrassing to be associated with. What's a Whacker you ask. It varies depending on who you ask. To cops a Whacker AKA "Holster sniffer, Badge Bunny, Baton Polisher" can be a mall cop who takes himself way too seriously. Or he could be a creepy old guy in a retired CVPI he bought at auction outfitted with amber deck lights, antennas, scanners, radios, LE supporter plates and anything else he can do to make himself look like a cop despite having never actually been one. Although he probably tested and failed the physical or psych eval at every local agency at some point or another. There's the Storm Chaser/Weather Alert Whackers too. These are the guys who jump in their vehicles (often equipped similar to the Holster Sniffer) at the first rain drop and provide their local weather service with up to the second updates on what they secretly hope is imminent doom. They have a knack for finding and reporting tornados that nobody else ever sees. We have one of these guys locally who is a bit of a legend but more on him later. You have the SAR Whackers too but they are rather rare. Now we move onto the most common of Whackers. The Volunteer Firefighter/EMS Whacker. Anybody who has ever spent time on or around a volunteer Fire/EMS company will instantly think of at least one person they know who fits the description. Somebody posted a list at the station the other day titled "How to spot a Whacker" Sadly it was torn down rather quickly by no doubt one of our POC guys who thought it hit a little too close to home (we are a combo department). I will share what I remember from it here though as it was some funny and true stuff. You made it a point to buy a red truck. Your POV has more LED lights than all the apparatus combined. Your POV has so many antennas it kills overflying birds with RF radiation. Your POV is plastered with stickers, memorial plates, and anything else you can put on it to identify you as a firefighter/EMT. You have multiple pagers on your belt because you're on multiple depts so you never miss a call. You're always the first on every seen because you spend all day next to a scanner so you don't miss a thing. You put a $2,000 light bar on a $500 car. You don't own a t shirt that does not say something about the wearer being a firefighter. You do all your clothes shopping at Galls. You spend more time at the station than the full time guys. Your wife fake dialed 911 just to spend time with you. You bought you're own hydrant/spanner wrench/s. You bought your own badge because your dept does not issue them to POC firefighters. There was more but that's all I remember. Sadly while highly devoted the Whacker is often the most useless person on scene and their behavior is embarrassing to everybody on their dept. Below is a good example of a Whacker's POV. Note it has more blue lights than KMart, it's red and has multiple firefighter decals. Three sure signs of Whackerdom. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqLIBb2Yh_M Did you guys know that there is a Whacker Technologies? They make EMS/Police/Fire Light bars. I do not lie. www.whackerusa.com

It always bothered me when my volley got full dress uniforms. I always avoided things that required wearing them, such as parades. I think this comes back to EMS being the lost, wayward child not knowing where they fit in. Is EMS public safety or is EMS part of the House of God? Does EMS want to function/act more like the cops/FFs or more like the ER? I tried to locate an MD/field physician/medical control badge on google images to make a bad joke, but I can't even find one. It seems to me, the more experience and/or education one has, the less they need all of the glitter telling people who they are. EDIT: I was able to find a website where I can make one. Opinions?