Message from Chief John Buckman
Dear Visitor,

•  Acceptance – with all of your foibles and strengths in totality.
•  Self-Esteem – feeling worthy and able to meet challenges.
•  Respect – high regard and honor.
•  Pleasure – physical manifestation of joy
•  Openness – you are presented with innumerable lessons, none of which will be useful to you unless you recognize them and their value.
•   Choice – desire and then selection of action.
•   Fairness – expectation of equity – the assumption that all things are equal and that justice will always prevail. Life is not, in fact, fair, and you may indeed have a more difficult life than others around you, deserved or not.
•  Circumstances – everyone’s are different and unique. Everyone deals differently. Don’t be too critical unless you have walked in their shoes.
•  Grace – difficult to describe but easy to recognize. Those who possess grace seem to walk effortlessly through life. Grace comes when you are able to move from your lower self, where your ego dictates the path that “should be” rightfully yours, to your higher self, where you are able to transcend your ego and expand into your greater good.
•  Compassion – open your heart.
•  Forgiveness – erasing emotional debt. Deliberate release of resentment. Perceiving past actions as mistakes implies guilt and blame, and it is not possible to learn anything meaningful while you are engaged in blaming. Four levels of forgiveness:                                                                                                 

  1. beginner forgiveness for yourself / compassionate toward yourself for doing the best you could with the resources at the time.

  2. beginner forgiveness for another / identify with that person’s motivation so you can understand why she did what she did, show compassion and release it.

  3. advanced forgiveness for yourself / understand why you did what you did, make amends as best as you can, then find it in your heart to absolve it.

  4. advanced forgiveness of another / allow yourself to fully feel the hurt or anger so that you can release it, then view the situation as a necessary part of your evolution.

•    Ethics – conforming to the established standards of right and wrong whether convenient or not.
•    Humor – invite levity and amusement into situations that might otherwise be dangerous.
•    Awareness – becoming fully conscious.
•   Willingness – real secret to anything.
•    Causality – you are the source of your manifestations. You attract everything into your life because of something you are projecting into the world.
•   Patience – tolerance while waiting for an outcome. A lesson will be repeated until learned.
•   Surrender – transcendence of ego and release of control.
•   Commitment – devoting yourself to something or someone and staying with it – no matter what.
•   Humility – modest sense of his or her own merits.
•   Flexibility – adaptable to change.
•   Gratitude – thankful and appreciative of what you have and where you are on your path right now.
•   Unattachment – release of need or expectation associated with a specific outcome.
•   Abundance – release being afraid of not having enough of whatever.
•    Peace – relaxing into the present moment puts you in the mental an physical state of calm, quiet, and tranquility.
•   tolerance – outward extension of acceptance.
•   Clarity – seeing clearly.
•   Healing – restoration to a state of wholeness and well-being.
•   Support – holding up from underneath.
•   Responsibility – admit your accountability and acknowledge your influence and role in the circumstances.
•   Release – simple act of letting go. In every situation you can either take responsibility and attempt to cause things to happen or you can let go. Neither option is better or worse.
•   Courage – finding inner strength and bravery required when confronting danger, difficulty or opposition.
•   Power – demonstrating your ability to manifest reality.
•   Adventure – your life has potential to be a wondrous journey, filled with exciting moments and astonishing experiences.
•   Listening – actively focusing on what messages you are receiving both verbally and non-verbally.
•   Trust – take a leap of faith and believe that your instincts are guiding you toward a greater good.
•   Inspiration – moment in which the spirit is accessed and revealed.
•   Faith – remember your truth and the knowledge stored deep within your soul.
•   Wisdom – highest and deepest degree of knowledge, insight, and understanding.
•  Limitlessness – the sense that there are no boundaries to what you can become or do.

 

We are striving daily to do our best to protect the public.

We work hard at preparing for the next disaster and assuring that ourselves and equipment is ready to respond at a moments notice.

Please look through our website and if you can’t find something let us know and we will get it for you.

The members of this department have always stood above the crowd. The commitment, dedication and innovative concepts and ideas have always helped to keep this department ahead of the rest.

If you would like to be a member of our fire fighting and emergency medical family, please complete the membership form or call us at 812-963-9077.

As always we sincerely thank you for your appreciation and support,

 

Sincerely, 

 

John M. Buckman III
Fire Chief

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Biography

 

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Chief John M. Buckman III serves as Fire Chief of German Township Volunteer Fire Department in Evansville Indiana. He is a Past  President of the International Association of Fire Chiefs. In 2001 he received designation as Chief Officer from the Commission on Fire Accreditation International. Chief Buckman graduated from the Executive Fire Officer Program at the National Fire Academy in 1988. President George W. Bush appointed Chief Buckman to the Department of Homeland Security State, Tribal and Local Advisory Group. In 2000 he was appointed to the America Burning Revisited Commission by President William J. Clinton. He is the co-author of the 3rd Edition of Recruiting, Training and Maintaining Volunteer Firefighters. Chief Buckman was selected by Fire Chief Magazine in 1995 as Fire Chief of the Year. He has authored over 70 articles and presented at a variety of conferences in all 50 states as well as Canada. The Indiana Fire Instructors Association selected Chief Buckman as Instructor of the Year in 1986. In 2002 Chief Buckman was presented with the Distinguished Hoosier designation from Indiana Governor Frank O'Bannon and was made a Sagamore of the Wabash - the State of Indiana highest honor for a citizen. He has been a member of the fire service for 34 years and Fire Chief for 27 years. He is married to Leslie and they have four grown daughters and four grandchildren.

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