Deploying EMTs Leave Void in Maine Community

[CBEMT]

MILO, Maine -- In small communities, there are few people willing to get the training necessary to serve their local ambulance service as emergency medical technicians, especially when they have jobs elsewhere.

When three of the EMTs on a roster are called to active duty with the military, it can leave a void that is difficult to fill.

That's the case for the Three Rivers Ambulance Service, but no one is grumbling about pulling extra duty when they know their counterparts are protecting them, according to ambulance service chief Mike Larson.

EMT intermediate paramedics Kendall Noke, 21, and David "DJ" Olmstead, 20, who are with the Brewer-based Bravo Company of the 3rd Battalion, 172nd Infantry Unit of the Maine Army National Guard, will leave early this month for Afghanistan. In February, Duane Applebee, 36, who has been reactivated by the Army, also will leave for Afghanistan.

"It's going to be hard trying to fill the shifts because they put in a lot of hours each week," Larson said of the three men this week.

The soldiers are among 14 licensed intermediate paramedics on staff at the privately owned department which answers calls in Milo, Brownville, Medford, LaGrange, Orneville and the Unorganized Territory in the region.

http://www.emsresponder.com/article/article.jsp?id=11600&siteSection=1

[Richard B the EMT]

Safe return, Citizen/Soldiers Noke, Olmstead, and Applebee.