Back in the early 90s, I got the most dangerous call you can get in helicopter air ambulance missions.

I was called to respond to an Officer Down report. That gets everyone involved overexcited and superadrenalized because the patient is someone inside the "blue line," one of our own, whether you are a peace officer or not. The normal rule book generally goes out the window.

The crew and I rapidly saddled up and departed to the scene, just a few miles away. We arrived and checked in with the scene command. They told us it was a barricaded suspect situation and one officer had been shot. They wanted us to make the pickup in a park across the street from the scene.

So we set up for the approach, and as soon as we started down, everybody who had a radio or signaling device started screaming for us to wave off. One officer even stood up to give a visible wave-off signal.

We climbed back up, and I inquired as to why they didn't want us to land. A little embarrassed, they admitted they had left an element out of the brief.

"What was that?" I asked.

"We're not sure sure he's out of ammunition."

We climbed back up out of small-arms range to wait. In a few minutes, they declared the scene was safe. We landed and picked up the patient and then took him back to the hospital, where he was treated and made a good recovery.

I made a mental note about making sure the scene is safe, especially in high-stress situations, and didn't think much more about it until two officers from the township showed up at our office a week or so later. One of them had some flashcards to show me, something that he said he used in police training.

The lieutenant asked me, "Do you know what this is?" as he held out a card with this on it: 1

"Sure," I said, "it's a 1."

He showed me the next card. It had this on it: *

"What's this?" asked the lieutenant.

"A star?" was my guess, but the cop corrected me. "It's an asterisk."

Then he asked me what I thought those two symbols meant together: 1*. He told me to sound it out slowly.

"One Asterisk?" I asked.

"Pretty close," said the lieutenant. "Try and visualize it this way: 1* = One A** to Risk."

HIs message for me was that, whether you are on the job, on the way to the job, or off the job, you are responsible for your own safety because you really only have 1*.

So I wouldn't forget, they gave me a 1* coffee mug.  It's been almost 30 years, and I still remember 1* every day. Maybe that's one reason I'm still here, 30 years later.

-- J. Heffernan