The Stuarts Draft Rescue Squad began with a community meeting on October 23, 1969 with the formation of a steering committee. The early part of 1970 was spent in recruiting members and training them in Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR), Standard First Aid, and Advanced First Aid. Twenty-three members were certified on March 5, 1970. The first ambulance was purchased in February 1970, a 1966 GMC Carryall.

     A "Fund Drive" for $35,000 was started on April 4, 1970, for the purpose of purchasing land, building a rescue squad building, training costs, uniforms, and other necessary equipment and supplies. The first officers of the rescue squad were elected April 9, 1970. On May 15^th, 1970, the Virginia Department of Health certified the Stuarts Draft Rescue Squad to start emergency operations. The emergency phone, 337-2222, rang for the first time on May 21^st, 1970, to transport a chest pain patient to Waynesboro Community Hospital.

     Ground was broken on August 30, 1970, for a 60 x 70-foot, combination rescue- squad /community center. Construction began September 5^th and was completed in the spring of 1971.

     January 1971 dawned the first full year of squad operations. An article in the Waynesboro News-Virginian on Friday January 8, 1971 asks for volunteer block layers to help with the interior construction of the squad building. The majority of 1971 was spent in training classes, recruiting new members, and completing the new squad building.

     A junior rescue squad was started in January 1972, with 4 young men. Current SDRS president Gary Radford was one of the young men. SDRS delivered its first baby on Saturday April 15, 1972, to Mr. and Mrs. Thomas H. Sharkey.

     The majority of calls that SDRS ran in the 1970’s would be of the class that most EMS providers call "taxi runs." Most of these calls involved transporting someone to the doctor’s office or home from the hospital. There were of course the serious calls for Motor Vehicle Accidents and other serious injuries and illnesses, but these were definitely the exception and not the rule.

     SDRS experienced a major crisis in 1977. Personnel come and go from volunteer EMS on a regular basis. Demands of home, job, and family along with rescue squad commitments take a heavy toll on everyone. In 1977, internal strife and outside obligations almost caused the disbanding of the Stuarts Draft Rescue Squad. Meetings were held to consider dissolving the organization. Membership had dropped to 17 members. Several articles and editorials in local newspapers along with an aggressive membership drive, saved the day. Membership climbed and SDRS was back on track.

     Regional EMS councils were started in Virginia in 1978. Along with the councils came coordinated training, standards of operating, and EMT certification mandates. Although EMT certification was available in Virginia as early as 1971, it was not necessary to have an EMT on the ambulance until 1978. These requirements caused much grumbling amongst all the local rescue squads as attested to by many articles in the local newspapers.

      The 1970’s closed out with SDRS surviving a major crisis and evolving into a hard working group of team players devoted to providing good Basic Life Support care to the citizens of our communities.

     The 1980's arrived with Stuarts Draft Rescue Squad making preparations for its 10^th year anniversary celebration.  Squad members were becoming certified as EMT-A's at a steady pace.  In 1980, SDRS Squad member Mrs. Frances Brown became certified as the squad's first EMT-Instructor. The EMT-A course of 1980 required only 71 hours to become certified.

    One of the major squad calls of the early 80's occurred in February 1982.  A 6 year old autistic boy wandered away from his family's home near Shenandoah Acres Resort.  Hundred's of people volunteered time searching for the youngster.  The child was found safe and sound after an intense 3 day search.

    The rescue squad continued to grow during the 80's.  New members were added and new trucks were bought and placed in service.  Most members were certified at the EMT-A level. The minimum training needed to be a member in the rescue squad during the 80's was Advanced First Aid.   In 1983, SDRS had 2 members in the area's first EMT-Shock Trauma class, Sharon Tutt and Henry Jarvis.

    The most serious event to happen to SDRS during the 80's was an accident involving one of our ambulances and a private vehicle.  This happened on Friday April 11, 1986.  The two vehicles collided in the intersection of Rt. 340 and Rt. 608.  No one was seriously injured, but SDRS lost the services of one of its newer units for several months while repairs were being performed.

     SDRS had to rely on other agencies for extrication assistance during the early years of the squad's existence.  Anything involving heavy duty extrication had to be performed by one of the area's larger rescue squads, Staunton-Augusta Rescue Squad or Waynesboro First Aid Crew.  That changed on February 23, 1988 when the Stuarts Draft Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9339 purchased an Amkus Rescue Tool System for SDRS.

    In order to carry the new rescue tool, Virginia Power donated a GMC utility truck in August of 1988.  SDRS members Richard Arehart and Joel Tutt then spent hundreds of hours converting the utility truck into a light duty crash truck.  The new crash truck was placed in service in January of 1989.

    Towards the end of the 80's it was realized that our current squad building was becoming too small for SDRS.  Some of our emergency vehicles had to be parked outside due to a lack of space.  SDRS began making plans for an expanded squad building.

    The end of the 80's saw the community of Stuarts Draft in a population  and industrial boom which has continued until this day.  It also saw an increase in the number and severity of the calls to which SDRS was responding.

     SDRS celebrated 20 years as an organization in 1990.  The decade of the 90's would be a time of profound change for SDRS.  

    SDRS experimented with a "Technical Rescue" team during the early 90's.  Membership was open to anyone with training or a desire to be trained in any of the facets of "Technical Rescue."  Some of the fields available were Ground Search and Rescue (GSAR), Confined Space Rescue, Vertical Rescue, and Swift Water Rescue.  SDRS participated with other Shenandoah Valley organizations on several overnight searches and conducted several "drills" in order to improve the teams proficiency.

    The "Technical Rescue Team's" highpoint occurred in 1991, when an elderly lady in Greenville wandered away from home.  The search for her lasted for over a week.  Hundreds of volunteers spent time searching for her but no trace was found.  Her remains were discovered almost a year later by a farmer near the small town of Mauzy, Va.  Approximately 50 miles north of Greenville.

In 1992, the Central Shenandoah EMS Council (CSEMS) started training providers at the Emergency Medical Technician-Cardiac Technician level.  SDRS already had one provider at this level, as EMT-CT Greg Dedrick had been trained in Charlottesville as a condition of his job as a dispatcher with the medical evacuation helicopter Pegasus. Two other SDRS members  would soon join him at this level when Sharon Tutt and Gary Radford completed the first class held in the area.

    This training allowed SDRS and other area squads to perform Advanced Life Support (ALS) to the acutely ill cardiac patient.  These personnel were the first members of SDRS to earn the title of "Medic."

  In March 1993, "Mother Nature" played a surprise visit to the Shenandoah Valley.  Stuarts Draft received around 36" of snow.  Traffic in the area ground to a halt.  Many SDRS members manned the building in order to provide any needed emergency service.  SDRS was relatively lucky as only a few calls were received and none were life threatening.

     Plans were being finalized for a building expansion in the early 90's.  Architectural drawings were made and a fund drive started.  The building was started in 1994 with construction of the building's shell and exterior by ADOM Construction.

      With the building expansion shell completed, SDRS was able to move all of its units out of the weather and park them inside.  It would take another 3 years of fund raising and hard work for the building expansion to be completed.  The building expansion was dedicated on May 4, 1997.

    SDRS faced some of its direst days in early 1997.  Dawn Snyder, squad member and wife of year 2000 Captain Bobby Snyder, turned up missing from her place of business one night in early February 1997.  An intensive search for Dawn followed.  Foul play had been suspected from the start.  No one was prepared for what was found.  Dawn's raped and murdered body was discovered in a local field about 10 days after her disappearance.

    A local man was charged and subsequently convicted of those crimes.  At present he awaits execution on Virginia's Death Row.  The loss of Dawn brought home to SDRS, that the current trends in senseless violence can strike anyone at any time.

    SDRS closed out the decade of the 90's preparing for the dreaded "Y2K Bug." New equipment was constantly being purchased and implemented into use.

    The Stuarts Draft area continued to grow through out the 90's.  The population and industrial expansion that started in the 80's continued unabated.  The forecast for the next decade is for much of the same.