16 Years ago Today Maurice and I worked together on Rescue 31. I had requested 10 months before that  he be transferred from Engine 4 on the West Side and assigned to the back of Engine 5 that was house at Station 1 with Rescue 31 and Ladder 11. I promised the Battalion Chief that I would mentor him and give him the direction he was looking for. Maurice was close to being finished with his Fire Science Degree and loved the JOB! I also requested that when my Life Long Friend George Foss was off that Maurice be the driver of Rescue 31. I Loved being on the Rescue and getting to do all Truck type functions at a fire and having the ability to not only be a boss, but most of the time be the boss on the interior. I was consumed with the fire service and totally consumed with Truck/Rescue Company Operations. I wanted nothing more than be doing what I was doing and that was to be on the Rescue cutting up cars, forcing doors, venting roofs, searching without a hoseline, and all the other things that Rescue/Truck Operations involve. Luckily I had been studying and Attending everything Andy Fredrick’s had to offer and had already attained smoothbore nozzles from Elkhart and received authorization from Captain Beaty to start putting them on Engine 5 at watch change for our watch. We had started the debates years before about the use of SB nozzles and proper water flows and application. I was introduced to BIG Water in 1992 by then Florida State Fire College Instructor Bill Richards and the PROs of using a 2.5″ to achieve rapid KNOCKDOWN of Fires and move in with a smaller line.  The Thursday night of the class in 1992 we had  a well involved single family dwelling that was ARSON/A gasoline pour. We arrived First Due with over half the house going. We stretched the 2.5″ off the back STATIC BED based on it was a smoothbore and the 2.5″ cross lay had a 2.5″ selecto matic nozzle and Bill had educated already earlier that week about GPM and BTUs. We stretched the 2.5″ static hose with an OLD SCHOOL 2.5″ smoothbore and made the connection on the side pump panel discharge. I will never forget that night and watching a well involved house “fire out over a half a dozen windows”. For the  Midway guys reading this it was a house off New Hope Road. It was 1992 when someone with more experience educated me and then it was that same week I tried it and saw the results. I kept an interest in GPM and Engine Operations but did get caught up in the coolness of Rescue/Truck Company Operations. I share this story because for the last 16 Years I have carried guilt of not making the most of the TEN MONTHS before November 25, 2000. I should have done more to be a true MENTOR and passed on to Maurice what Bill & Andy passed on to me. When individuals with more time on the job argued with me about the FOG ATTACK/Penciling and that we should never operate a 2.5″ off the booster tank, I should have been more aggressive about telling them they were wrong. I should have understood then that IT”S  WORTH THE RISK! to standup for what you  know is right about Fire Attack. To many people working for fire departments truly do not understand GPM, GPS, and Water on BURNING SOLID FUELS. Still today “16 YEARS LATER” we have uneducated OFFICERS arguing about FOG ATTACK and LITTLE DROPS OF WATER. We have OFFICERS not understanding why we can have opposing streams and also have firefighters operating inside with Fire Stream