To me, these men, their departments and these towns have redefined the word hero

Today I drove the area to acquaint myself with this part of the Pan Handle’s various towns and beaches. Oddly enough in some ways I wish I hadn’t.  The Pensacola Beach / Gulf Breeze / Navarre region is so strikingly beautiful that time and again I found myself wishing that I’d been here under far different circumstances.  Whether it was out at Ft. Pickens or further east on Santa Rosa Island, I found each area seemingly more beautiful than the last.  I watched schools of rays swim the emerald shallows of the gulf, herons stand in stoic silence and sea turtles effortlessly glide the tide line.  And then I’d be reminded in no uncertain terms what brought me down to this section of paradise;  from time to time I could smell the not-so-far off oil in the air.  Rounding a bend in a narrow, two lane beach-road I’d see evidence of booms being laid out on the bay, or county trucks with workers heading towards the latest oil sighting.  Sunbathers on the beach would bravely hold up a baggie with oil-covered soda cans telling me, “We found some.. that’s one less handful to get us.”  The courage of this area and its inhabitants is breathtaking, motivating, inspiring.  And two of the more inspiring I met today were Peter Paulding, the City of Gulf Breeze’s Chief of Police and W. A. “Buck” Lee, the Executive Director of Pensacola Beach Santa Rosa Island Authority.  Both men and their staff are facing a situation which defies to be done by-the-book, because there simply is no book for something of this nature.  Yes, this oil spill falls neatly into their expertise of Natural Disaster Response (as in hurricanes) but that’s about as far as it goes.  Phones, constantly ringing off the hooks, Peter and “Buck” deal with everything from private citizen’s concerns to Federal Disaster Coordination to requests for network interviews… yet they immediately found the time to talk with me and take me on their own personal tours of the area.  If you have a minute take a look at and listen to their interviews, you’ll be stunned by what you hear, how they’re trying to reinvent the wheel with one arm tied behind their backs.  Both men and their departments seemed to be stretched to just beyond the limit, yet they keep smiling and dig in to “get her done” (my words not theirs).  And as if utilizing every resource they have, to deal with this unprecedented man-made disaster wasn’t enough, they’ve just been given 24 hour’s notice to secure the town, close all the roads and render the entire three town area safe for three hours tomorrow morning; the president is going to be driving through here tomorrow and despite the fact that what has to be history’s largest oil spill is sitting only few miles off shore, there can be no complications.  To me, these men, their departments and these towns have redefined the word “hero”.