THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 27, 1995 TAG: 9501260149
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JO-ANN CLEGG, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines
THERE ARE SOME people who just seem born to be called Chief.
Take Bill Laws, for instance.
Back in 1986 the Aragona resident retired after spending 22 years in the Navy. He was a chief then, a yeoman chief petty officer in the Submarine Service. In Navy lingo, that's a YNC (SS). One of the run-silent, run-deep guys.
After retirement, he went to work as a civilian on the staff of the Commander-in-Chief, Atlantic Fleet Submarine Force (COMSUBLANT).
For most people the title disappears when they return to civilian life.
Not for Laws. He just switched to being a chief in another outfit. These days it's the volunteers of the Davis Corner Volunteer Fire Department and Rescue Squad who call him that.
He's also brigade commander of the Virginia Beach Department of Emergency Medical Services Special Operations Unit. In that position, as the equivalent of a major, he oversees such special operations as bike and boat patrols for all of the volunteer rescue squads in the city.
No more running silent and deep. Most rescue squad components go out of their way to be seen and heard as they thread their way through the city's clogged roads and intersections.
Actually, high visibility was one of the things that attracted Laws to fire and rescue volunteering in the first place.
``I had recruiting duty in Cincinnati and we were living in Florence, Ky. One day an ambulance went by with sirens and lights. I figured it looked like fun, so I checked into it and decided to volunteer,'' he explained, tongue only slightly in his cheek.
When he, his wife Kay and sons Bill, Mike and David moved to Virginia Beach he joined the Davis Corner squad and has been with it ever since.
Kay joined, too. She's active in both the auxiliary and the squad itself. Currently, she is the Davis Corner Rescue Squad president and the vice president of District II of the Virginia Volunteer Rescue Squads.
The volunteer work is something from which both Lawses get a lot of satisfaction.
``When you get to a certain age,'' Bill Laws said, ``you do things because you want to do them.''
He still thinks volunteering with a rescue squad is fun, but he's keenly aware of the serious side of his volunteer work as well. Calls can range from extracting bodies at the scene of a fatal traffic accident to assisting senior citizens who fall and need assistance with something as basic as getting back into bed.
It's those senior citizen calls that Laws finds most rewarding. ``You get a good feeling when you know they're trying to stay independent and you've been able to help,'' he said.
In a city where all rescue squad workers are unpaid volunteers, any position requires a significant commitment of time. The positions that Laws holds require more than most, about 150 hours in any given month. That time includes one or two 12-hour duty shifts a week plus many additional hours of administrative work.
In order to maintain rapid around the clock response, Virginia Beach rescue squad volunteers have their own bunk rooms at the fire stations where they serve.
A busy night for the squad could make it tough to stay alert at work the next day but after a Navy career spent standing four-hour watches around the clock, Laws is used to that.
Certainly his involvement with the Davis Corner Rescue Squad hasn't interfered with his work at the Force Training and Physical Security Office on the COMSUBLANT staff. On Feb. 8, he will be awarded the Navy Meritorious Civilian Service Award as that command's Civilian of the Year.
His hard work, his ability to get a job done and his willingness to take on extra work and responsibility all were mentioned in the nomination that won him the award.
Those are the same traits that served Laws well during his Navy career and have led him to the position of chief at Davis Corner and commander in the Special Operations Unit. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by JO-ANN CLEGG
Bill Laws, volunteer chief of the Davis Corner Rescue Squad, was
recently named Civilian of the Year for his work with the Navy's
Force Training and Physical Security Office for Atlantic Fleet
submarines.
by CNB