From its inception the Kingsport Lifesaving Crew has been an all-volunteer agency dedicated to serving the emergency service needs of Kingsport and the surrounding area.  As an early Times-News article summed it up, “The Life Saving Crew will be made up of public spirited citizens who pledge themselves to take the training necessary to equip themselves to serve when need arises; and pledge themselves to answer the call for service when it comes.  What will they get out of it?  If you don’t know the answer, there’s no use telling you.”  The “it” is the satisfaction that the Crew’s members get by serving their fellow man in need.

From the 140 calls answered in 1949, the Crew’s first full year of operations, to the over 3,000 calls answered in each of the most recent years, the Crew’s members have responded to calls as varied as “Tongue frozen to refrigerator freezing unit” in 1949 to the special teams rescues performed by today’s Crew.

In 1947, the Kingsport Safety Council contacted Julian S. Wise who was one of the organizers of the Roanoke, Virginia Rescue Squad to enlist his aid in establishing a rescue squad in the city.  In addition to his involvement as a volunteer with the Roanoke Rescue Squad, Mr. Wise was an executive with Southern Oxygen Company, Inc. in Roanoke.  It was his position with his employer which had a plant in Kingsport, that the Safety Council became aware of Mr. Wise’s involvement in the Roanoke Rescue Squad and began a series of communications with him to determine what would be needed to start a rescue squad in Kingsport.

In August, 1948, the Safety Council supported Kingsport fire chief C. M. Kenner and the other founding members in organizing the Kingsport Lifesaving Crew as the first rescue squad in Tennessee.  In addition to chief Kenner, the founding members included W.T. Bond, Sr., W.T. Bond, Jr., E.L. Brickey, C.E.C. Britton, W.A. Bryant, Ralph Burke, Joe Byrd, S.H. Carter, T.E. Galavan, Orval Greer, Steve Hagen, Kenneth Hunley, A.V. Maddux, John McNew, T.V. Overbay, J.C. Perry, Clarence Rector, John Stiles, E.L. Townsend, J.B. Weaver, and George Williams.