04/09/2026
This month we recognize and appreciate Mike W. with an amazing story to tell.
I’ve been a volunteer with VRT since 2004. When I started, I worked as an engineer for the City of Vancouver, WA. A few months after joining the team, I started a business, quit my government job, and continue to run it today. I’ve been married to Lisa for almost 25 years, and we have two grown children who are now married. As of last August, we also have a beautiful granddaughter!
My story revolves around two men whose example of public service had a big impact on me. Back in the mid 1970's, my Dad, Dennis Williams, was a Clark County Sheriff's Office deputy, working under Undersheriff Tom McDowell. My Dad then moved into a career as a 911 dispatcher. As a kid, I had a public-safety scanner in the living room where I would listen to Fire, EMS, and Police radio traffic and hear Dad when he was at work. Dad would often come home with stories about Tom McDowell, who by then had transitioned from Undersheriff to full-time Chief at North Country EMS and Fire District 13. Tom was highly respected and known for always getting the job done, no matter what it was. At 19 or 20 years old, I found myself in the back of a North Country EMS ambulance after crashing my dirtbike in the hills above Hockinson. Tom McDowell was driving the ambulance that day, and my Dad happened to be working the Fire/EMS dispatch radio. At some point during the call, Tom realized I was Dennis' kid, and my Dad figured out it was me in the back of the ambulance. I'll never forget hearing the radio traffic between those two while lying in the gurney, telling Tom to tell my Dad I'd be fine and not to worry. That was the first time I met Tom in person.
A few years later, I thought I wanted to be a deputy like my Dad. I was out of college and already had a good career, so I tried out for the Sheriff’s Office Reserves, a way to become a Deputy and give back to the community while still having a "normal" job. I tested twice and received 69% on one part of the test, which required 70% to pass. I was pretty disappointed, but later learned it was for the best. Fast forward another couple of years, and I had a co-worker and another friend who were both volunteers with the Volcano Rescue Team, a specialized team under the North Country EMS umbrella, led by Tom McDowell. With my love for the outdoors and with what I knew about Tom, I figured it would be a good fit. In the fall of 2004, I took the test and passed the oral and physical. My business schedule allowed for flexibility, and I was able to participate in pretty much every training and rescue. My appreciation for Tom grew quickly, and we developed a deep mutual respect. I didn't have much experience, but Tom quickly gave me more and more responsibility, eventually making me team chairman and helping run field operations after less than 2 years.
Over the years, I went on countless rescues and wildland fires with Tom. One of the most memorable VRT missions was my first. A young man from Tennessee was driving a rental Cadillac, trying to drive around the east side of Mt. St. Helens in winter. This area is very remote with no civilization within at least 20 miles. The car became stuck in the snow on a side logging road. As a child, the young man was told that if he ever got lost in the woods, he should simply follow a creek downstream to the nearest house. While that may work there, it wasn’t going to work here. Instead of walking back on the roads he had driven in on, we found him in the middle of the night, wearing penny loafers, jeans, and a sweatshirt, in the snow at sub-freezing temperatures, walking in large circles through the old-growth forest, following drainages that led even further from anything. If the Sheriff’s Office hadn’t found the car so quickly and we had not found him that night, his chances of survival were very low. Some of the more difficult missions involved recoveries when the family was on scene. I once had the responsibility to notify a family in the parking lot that we had found their mother and wife deceased at the bottom of a cliff. While these outcomes are not what anyone hopes for, we still do it, knowing it’s necessary and brings the family closure.
In fall 2022, both Tom McDowell and my father, Dennis, passed away a week apart. Their examples continue to drive my involvement with VRT today.
