our history

Julian Stanley Wise never forgot when, as a nine-year-old Roanoker, he stood by helplessly as two men drowned when their canoe capsized on the Roanoke River. He vowed then that he would organize a group of volunteers who could be trained in lifesaving. He did. In 1928 he and his crew of N&W Railway workers became the first volunteer rescue squad in America, still known as the Roanoke Lifesaving and First Aid Crew, to use lifesaving rescue and first aid techniques on victims. Later, they were the first to use iron lungs during the polio epidemics that struck the country. They pioneered the Holger method of lifesaving and modern day cardiopulmonary resuscitation. A National Museum, “To the Rescue”, has been built in Roanoke so that it can’t be forgotten that the rescue squad movement started in Southwest Virginia. A scholarship has also been formed in the memory of Mr. Wise for young men and women that are involved in EMS.