Sweeping changes marked the 1970's. In 1972, the squad was in need of daytime volunteers. For the first time, seven women -- some nurses, a school teacher, and a few housewives were recruited. Although everyone was a bit apprehensive, it was obvious from the beginning that these women were equal members of the squad - they shared in the exhilaration, the joy and the sadness that comes when working in the line of duty.

In July of 1972, the Emergency Coronary Care Program for treatment of heart, respiratory and trauma victims (the first program of its kind) was established in Virginia Beach with the help of James P. Charlton MD and W. Andrew Dickinson, Jr. MD. Seven members of the Virginia Beach Rescue Squad were in the first graduating class and that very day they had a successful conversion of a patient in cardiac arrest, the first ever performed by a volunteer squad -- a fact that brought national media attention to the Virginia Beach Rescue Squad.

In 1974 the federal and state governments became more involved in setting minimum standards for vehicles, and the Cadillacs, which were the squad's trademark vehicles, could not meet the government's minimum height requirements. So, in 1975, the squad purchased its first van-type ambulance.

In an effort to shorten the response time to the rapidly growing Alanton-Great Neck area in the mid 1970's, the squad inaugurated service from a substation at fire station 8, just a block from Virginia Beach General Hospital. By the end of the '70s, the rescue squad was answering 5,500 calls a year and the average response time was 4.6 minutes, a dramatic decrease over the hour it took for the ambulance to pick up the woman Peter Holland helped in 1951. 

1950's   1960's   1970's   1980's   1990's   Future