By James Small
There’s a phrase we hear often in public safety: “Thank you for your service.” It’s printed on bumper stickers, spoken at ceremonies and echoed in moments of national tragedy. For EMS professionals, it’s meant to be a gesture of gratitude — a verbal salute to the long hours, the trauma absorbed, the lives saved and the ones lost.
But lately, I’ve found myself listening for what’s not said. The fine print. The asterisk.
“Thank you for your service”*
*Unless you need something
*Unless you challenge the system
*Unless your mental health falters
*Unless you ask for fair pay, better staffing or respect
This article is about two symbols: the dash and the asterisk. One represents what EMS professionals control. The other, what they don’t. And together, they tell a deeper story about service, sacrifice and the conditions under which gratitude is offered — or withheld.
The dash: What you’ve done
In every obituary, there’s a dash between the birth and death dates. It’s small, almost invisible. But it holds everything. The dash is the life lived — the choices made, the relationships built, the work done. In EMS, your dash is your career. It’s the years you’ve served, the calls you’ve answered, the skills you’ve sharpened, the moments you’ve held someone’s hand while they took their last breath.
The dash is yours.
It’s the part of your story that you control. You chose to show up. You chose to train harder, to mentor others, to stay late, to go back out when you were already spent. You chose to serve rural communities where your ambulance might be 45 minutes away. You chose to innovate, to lead, to advocate.
And for many of you, that dash spans decades. It’s filled with grit, grace and growth. It’s the reason your colleagues trust you. It’s the reason your patients lived. It’s the reason your community is safer.
The dash is your legacy.
The asterisk: What you can’t control
But then there’s the asterisk.
The asterisk is the caveat. The exception. The footnote that says, “Not always.” It’s the part of your story shaped by forces outside your control.
You didn’t choose to be underfunded. You didn’t choose to be short-staffed. You didn’t choose to be politicized, scrutinized or ignored. You didn’t choose to work in a system that praises you in public but fails you in policy.
The asterisk is the public’s conditional support. It’s the applause at parades that fades when budgets are cut. It’s the praise during a pandemic that disappears when you ask for hazard pay. It’s the “hero” label that vanishes when you speak out about burnout, PTSD or unsafe working conditions.
The asterisk is the uncomfortable truth: Many people support EMS — until EMS needs support.
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“Thank you for your service*”
So let’s talk about that phrase again.
“Thank you for your service.”
It sounds complete. But for many EMS professionals, it feels incomplete. Because it’s often followed by silence when you ask for change. Or worse, resistance.
What if we started acknowledging the asterisk?
What if we said: “Thank you for your service”*
*And we’re fighting for your mental health resources
*And we’re advocating for fair compensation
*And we’re listening when you say the system is broken
*And we’re not just grateful — we’re accountable
Because gratitude without action is just sentiment. And sentiment doesn’t save lives; systems do.
The dash is earned. The asterisk is imposed.
Every EMS professional earns their dash. You earn it through training, through experience, through sacrifice. You earn it every time you choose to serve when it would be easier not to.
But the asterisk? That’s imposed. It’s the result of systemic neglect, cultural misunderstanding and political inertia. It’s the gap between what you give and what you get.
And here’s the thing: You shouldn’t have to fight for the removal of the asterisk. You shouldn’t have to prove your worth beyond the dash.
Rewriting the narrative
So how do we change this?
We start by naming it. By calling out the asterisk when we see it. By refusing to accept conditional gratitude. By demanding that “thank you” be followed by “what do you need?”
We educate the public. We tell our stories — not just the heroic ones, but the hard ones. The ones where we were left out, left behind or left to pick up the pieces.
We advocate for policy that matches praise. We build coalitions that turn appreciation into action. We mentor the next generation to expect more — and to ask for it.
And we remind ourselves: The dash is enough. The dash is powerful. The dash is proof.
A message to EMS professionals
To every emergency responder: Your dash matters. Your dash is sacred. Your dash is the heartbeat of public safety.
You’ve earned every ounce of respect, every dollar of funding, every moment of rest. You’ve earned the right to be heard, to be healed, to be whole.
So when someone says, “Thank you for your service,” listen closely. If there’s an asterisk, call it out. If there’s a gap between words and action, bridge it. If there’s a system that fails you, change it.
Because you are not just the responder. You are the reformer.
And your dash is not just a mark of time — it’s a mark of transformation.
The EMS experience
Symbols matter. They shape how we think, how we speak, how we lead. The dash and the asterisk are more than punctuation. They’re a framework for understanding the EMS experience.
Let’s honor the dash. Let’s challenge the asterisk. Let’s make “thank you” mean something more.
And let’s never forget: You control the dash. But together, we can erase the asterisk.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
James Small is a nationally recognized public safety leader with over 30 years of experience across law enforcement, EMS and fire services. He has led transformational initiatives in workforce diversity, organizational development and rural EMS reliability, earning multiple innovation awards. A published author and educator, James also holds key state appointments influencing policy and public health systems. His leadership blends data, humanity and strategic vision.
