Welcome to Operation Swagger Back
WELCOME to Operation Swagger Back — where our mission is to restore coolness to homeland security.
Why “swagger” you ask? Well, let’s spend a minute exploring the word according to the ultimate guide to pop culture, urbandictionary.com. This Rosetta Stone for coolness defines swagger as “. . . to move with confidence, sophistication, and to be cool. Swagger is to conduct yourself in a way that would automatically earn respect. . .” We feel that somehow, somewhere, in the last several years, a bit of that energy has been lost in homeland security, and we need to restore it. Buckle your seatbelts as we explore how to re-energize homeland security and bring the swagger back.
So, ok, this is extreme coolness, and probably a bit unrealistic at this point (although, according to the site, these vehicles have been deployed by LAPD). Maybe, for the sake of balance, I should have inserted a picture of my first government car — a 1989 Plymouth Grand Fury — which was neither grand nor furious (and mud brown to boot!). The point is, how many kids saw these cars and imagined themselves driving one?
Some may read this and think coolness is a superficial trait: we believe that is far from the case. For those who are currently in public service, and homeland security in particular, think about what influenced you to your career choice. Maybe it was a movie you saw as a kid, or getting to climb on a fire truck, or the way a uniform looked, or the storied history of your organization. Maybe it was all of those things and something even deeper that inspired you to pursue your calling. Things that are, at their essence, cool.
Coolness may describe our origin stories as public servants, but it projects into our work as well. A proud and focused organization trains well, demands excellence from one another, and prevails over challenges that seem impossible to overcome. This is why that ethic matters — we better serve the community when we believe in ourselves, our partners, and the purpose of our sacrifice.
Our dialog with you will be about what produces that coolness. We will look at the gear we carry, the training we do, the vehicles that take us to the scene, and the technology and design that may be used by the next generation of cops, firefighters, soldiers, and disaster response professionals. We will also get a little deep, and take a look at the different origin stories that brought us to our callings; the influence of movies, television shows, music and “new” media on homeland security’s self-image; how the way we look and feel is more than skin-deep (or with uniforms, cloth-deep) and can affect the way we perform.
Who wore it better?
Pride and appearance — Do you really think the guy in the third image is as proud of his uniform as the ones in the first two?
We go into this examination recognizing the risk of overselling this concept — there is a fine line between pride and arrogance. Those of us who have served for a period of time can recognize the tribal nature of our fields, which can harden into a sense of us versus them. We also hope to explore where that line exists, and how close to it we need to tread in order to fuel our pride without characterizing everyone else as outcasts.
Operation Swagger Back is a diverse group of homeland security practitioners — a soldier, a police officer, a firefighter, an attorney and a federal agent — who all arrived in our positions from different walks of life and have a few stories to tell. This is where the examination begins.
