Students in the two semester Allan Hancock Fire Academy suit up for training in a direlict building in South H Street, Lompoc. The students spent a long Saturday doing structure search and rescue drills under the guidance of an instructor who is now a retired firefighter and himself graduated nearly 100 classes prior to this one at the start of his own career. Discipline and the development of esprit de corps is an integral part of the program. The class is standing in front of a mural entitled The Price of Freedom. Completed by muralist Eliseo Art Silva on the 27 May 2000 to salute all the men and women who fought and died in all the foreign wars and conflicts of the 20th Century. It is estimated that this total is 293 131 dead with 1.3 million wounded. This would exclude the recent Iraq War. The mural does not seek to dignify war but to portray the high price of freedom and liberty and as such forms a fitting backdrop to a class of firefighters in training. Ian Vorster / Staff 111406
