VFW Quartermaster, Robert Holloway, from Guernsey VFW post 4471 awarded local EMT Kevin Doucette with the annual Public Servant Award.
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GUERNSEY – VFW Quartermaster, Robert Holloway, from Guernsey VFW post 4471 awarded local EMT Kevin Doucette with the annual Public Servant Award.
Each year, the Veterans of Foreign Wars selects emergency medical technicians, law enforcement and firefighter personnel to receive VFW Public Servant Awards. Post Safety Chairmen are encouraged to submit a candidate for these awards to their Department Headquarters by Jan. 1. The Department must select a single candidate for each of the three awards and submit those to VFW National Headquarters by Feb.1.
VFW National Emergency Medical Technician Public Servant Citation is given to a selected individual, who actively gives emergency medical treatment, provides rescue service or civil disaster assistance as a member of any public or volunteer company organized to give emergency medical care, provide rescue and civil disaster assistance to our nation’s citizens.
Doucette started his work as an EMT when he was serving in the U.S. Coast Guard in 1976. His official title is
“I am responsible for Guernsey, but usually I work out of Wheatland,” Doucette said. “The people in Platte County make this an enjoyable job for me. When I was a paramedic in the big city, it’s so rushed and so busy that all you have time for is the technical parts of the job. Here in Platte County, you have more of a chance to talk to people and get to know them.”
In certain situations, knowing the people in a small town, there will occasionally be a call where the EMT knows the patient in crisis.
“Once you are properly trained, everything becomes muscle memory,” Doucette said. “When you get to high level care you do have to create treatment plans including diagnosis and training. It’s just like when we were in the military. We were taught to just go with your training. Mission first.”
EMT can be a stressful profession and when it is life and death situations, it can be sometimes hard not to take your work home with you.
Doucette says that his therapy after a stressful day is to come home to a fixer-upper house that he recently purchased.
