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The primary goal of any first responder is to come home alive. Ongoing training is essential to improve the chances of that happening. To be effective, however, training must evolve to reflect and anticipate future emergency scenarios. Threats of the past become instruction tomorrow.

Firefighters who work at San Francisco International Airport are receiving additional training on how to respond to airplane crashes following the Asiana Airlines accident in which a teenage girl was run over and killed by two emergency vehicles while lying wounded on the runway. Commanding officers from the San Francisco Fire Department's airport division will receive 40 to 80 hours of advanced instruction next year at the Fire Training Research Center at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Saturday. Instructors from the center already have provided basic disaster response training in San Francisco to 80 of the department's firefighters and paramedics.

Evaluation and feedback forms now include promoting a healthy organizational climate as a performance factor. The Air Force defines "organizational climate" as the way airmen in a unit perceive and characterize their environment. In other words, you'll be graded on how well you do at setting the tone around you. Promoting a healthy organizational climate is listed as a leadership skill under the performance factors section of the new officer performance reports. It is listed as a primary duty on the enlisted performance reports. "We'd like every airmen to go look at the rewrite of the Air Force Instruction so you know how you're expected to perform and be rated," Grosso said. "If you have any questions, talk to your military personnel section."

Typically the work of science fiction, a zombie apocalypse has proven an effective way to engage citizens in disaster preparedness. Dispersing instructions within entertaining stories about the living dead, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention runs successful campaigns with this theme in order to share insights about how to brace for natural disasters. Getting residents prepared for emergencies helps trained first responders to become more effective in their own response within a community.

In a crisis, the difference between life and death is often having knowledgeable people on the scene with quick access to accurate information. With smartphone penetration in the U.S. up to 56 percent, mobile technology is an increasingly effective pathway to these facts. Mobile applications are now making it easier to find and share essential information during emergencies.

Defensive Tactics Instructor Richard Nance uses Officer.com Editor Frank Borelli as a demonstration punching bag to show various striking techniques using personal body weapons: hands, elbows, knees, shins, feet and head.