THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Sunday, April 30, 1995                 TAG: 9504280235
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON    PAGE: 20   EDITION: FINAL 
TYPE: Cover Story 
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH THIEL, STAFF WRITER 
                                             LENGTH: Medium:   58 lines

COVER STORY: SCHOOL BUSES AIDED IN RESCUE BEACH TRANSPORTATION CALLED ON AT 2 A.M. TO GET FEMA TEAM TO THE PLANE ON TIME.

The call came about midnight, 14 hours after a bomb ripped through the federal building in Oklahoma City: A local search-and-rescue team was ordered to fly out to help with cleanup.

The only problem was, the team didn't have a ride to its plane.

A private bus company that normally would have driven the 56-member Federal Emergency Management Agency team and their equipment to the Norfolk Naval Air Station to catch a cargo plane could not make the trip that night.

So team leaders called on Virginia Beach schools for help.

David L. Pace, the school system's director of transportation, was startled to get a call at 2 a.m.

``My first thought was, `Oh gosh. . . The Oceana garage must have burned down,' '' Pace said, referring to the school system facility where a fleet of school buses is stored and serviced.

But as soon as he found out the emergency crew's predicament, Pace went into high gear.

He and one of his assistants, E. Allen Basnight, rounded up bus driver B. Cris Sprouse and three school buses. With few hitches - when he climbed behind the wheel, Sprouse had a fleeting thought that he dreamed the emergency call; then a toll booth operator questioned why Sprouse was cruising in a school bus in the wee hours of the morning - the three arrived at the Fire Training Center on Birdneck Road, where the team was waiting.

. . . And waiting. The plane was delayed. Pace eventually had to report to work, and was replaced by a second bus driver, Jason B. Wheelwright.

Basnight, Sprouse and Wheelwright finally transported the team to the Norfolk Naval Air Station at about 7 a.m. Thursday.

The team, made up of firefighters and rescue workers from as many as six area agencies, arrived back home Wednesday. This time they were transported by a private bus service with a police escort.

``I guarantee you, we could have called any one of our bus drivers and they would have done it,'' Pace said. ``We all feel good about working cooperatively with the city and all of its agencies.'' MEMO: [For a related story, see page 18 of The Beacon for this date.]

ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by D. KEVIN ELLIOTT

Jason B. Wheelwright, left, a Virginia Beach school bus driver; E.

Allen Basnight, a transportation staff assistant; David L. Pace,

director of transportation; and B. Cris Sprouse, another school bus

driver, hauled 56 local FEMA workers and their equipment to Norfolk

Naval Air Station to catch a cargo plane to Oklahoma City.

KEYWORDS: OKLAHOMA BOMBING FEDERAL BUILDING RESCUE by CNB