ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, May 26, 1996 TAG: 9605240030
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
MEMORIAL DAY, tomorrow, is a time to honor America's fallen in this nation's wars - men and women of the military whose sacrifices in our defense should never be forgotten.
Peacetime also requires Americans who are willing to put their lives on the line every day. Some of them, some of them our neighbors, also have fallen. To be counted among these, of course, are professional law-enforcement officers and firefighters.
But don't forget to count, too, the men and women who give their time, their talents - and yes, occasionally even their lives - in service to volunteer rescue operations.
On Saturday, a national memorial observance in Roanoke honored 33 emergency-medical service providers, including seven Virginians, who died in recent years in the course of trying to save the lives of others.
It was fitting to schedule such an observance in Roanoke. It was in this city in 1928 that Julian Stanley Wise founded the nation's first all-volunteer rescue squad - the Roanoke Life Saving and First Aid Crew.
It is here, at Tanglewood Mall, that a national museum-exhibit, "To the Rescue," has been established to commemorate the history of the emergency-medical service movement.
The names of seven late Virginians were remembered during a service at Greene Memorial Church on Saturday. They will be added to the Tree of Life memorial that's on permanent display at the Roanoke museum.
To cite just one example, Carter Dewitt Martin of the Brookville-Timberlake Volunteer Fire Department drowned last June during a search-and-rescue operation after a dam broke and flooded Buffalo Creek.
Most of us, luckily, won't require rescue services this weekend. But if we do, we can call 911, confident that a cadre of some 35,000 Virginia rescuers - highly trained EMS volunteers and professionals - is standing by.
These men and women deserve our thanks.
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