08/04/2026
Our 2014 ambulance is preparing to retire from our service, and while the new truck is beautiful, there is something about an old rig that is difficult to let go.
For more than a decade, this ambulance has been present for moments most people will never see. Babies have taken their first breaths inside it. Others have taken their last. It has carried patients through fear, pain, relief, heartbreak, and hope, often on the most difficult days of their lives.
It has also carried generations of EMS providers.
Inside those walls, seasoned clinicians taught younger providers how to care for patients, how to stay calm, and how to keep moving when a call followed them home. Skills were learned, confidence was built, and friendships began in the front seats and patient compartment. Some of those friendships will last a lifetime.
This truck has seen good seasons and difficult ones. It has traveled through snowstorms, heavy rain, dark back roads, long nights, and countless miles. It brought our crews safely to the people who needed them and, just as importantly, brought them home again.
Every old ambulance carries more than equipment, it carries stories. The laughter between calls, the quiet moments after the hard ones, the familiar rattles, the worn floors, and the memories tucked into every compartment.
The new ambulance will begin its own story soon. It will serve new patients, carry new crews, and create memories of its own.
For every mile, every patient, every lesson, and every safe return, I am grateful.
You served this department and these communities well, old girl. Thank you 30A2.
