{"id":74295,"date":"2025-07-19T02:57:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-19T02:57:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/74295\/"},"modified":"2025-07-19T02:57:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-19T02:57:11","slug":"emt-dispatch-vet-celebrated-for-his-decades-of-responding-to-crashes-wildfires-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/74295\/","title":{"rendered":"EMT, dispatch vet celebrated for his decades of responding to crashes, wildfires, more"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Gordon Anderson at his dispatch post. (Photo courtesy of AMR)<\/p>\n

After 58 years on the job, Gordon Anderson, one of San Diego County\u2019s most experienced emergency response professionals, enjoyed a retirement party in his honor Friday.<\/p>\n

He went on his first ambulance call at 17 with Ballard\u2019s Ambulance Service<\/a>, according to a press release.<\/p>\n

After two years with Ballard\u2019s, he jumped in 1969 to Hartson\u2019s Ambulance Service \u2014 one of American Medical Response\u2019s predecessors \u2014 because they offered him a $15-a-week raise.<\/p>\n

Anderson, 75, stayed with the company for 56 years. He retired as the longest-tenured employee at AMR, which has nearly 30,000 employees nationwide.<\/p>\n

According to the Chula Vista resident, in his early days as an EMT, he and his dispatcher would contact each other through a Mexican restaurant on El Cajon Boulevard if they had a poor radio connection.<\/p>\n

The dispatcher would call the restaurant if they couldn\u2019t get through to Anderson, who would be out driving around in an ambulance. The restaurant would hang a red flag in the window for Anderson to see.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen you would stop and make a phone call,\u201d Anderson said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Gordon Anderson (seated) at his retirement banquet at the VFW in La Mesa Friday, July 18. (Photo by James Miller\/Times of San Diego)<\/p>\n

He has seen it all. He responded to the 1970 Laguna Fire<\/a> and the 1978 PSA plane crash<\/a> in North Park, which was the deadliest aviation accident in US history at the time.<\/p>\n

As a dispatcher from AMR\u2019s communication\u2019s center in Kearny Mesa later in his career, Anderson helped direct first responders to other calamities, including the 2007 Witch Creek Fire<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to AMR\u2019s Vice President for Operations Mike Rice, Anderson has been an exemplar for EMTs, providing holistic care in perilous situations.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour demeanor and your approach beyond just the clinical care is really impactful to people,\u201d Rice said at the retirement party, at the VFW in La Mesa. \u201cAnd I think he had the ability to really highlight that as a component of what we do and why it\u2019s important.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Mike Rice (left) and Gordon Anderson. (Photo courtesy of AMR)<\/p>\n

Rice said Anderson\u2019s passion kept him going.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t stay in an industry like this for 58 years unless you really care about what you\u2019re doing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Anderson tells new EMTs that they\u2019re never going to save a life without the wisdom of more experienced emergency response professionals.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always going to be the people before you \u2026 listen to them, listen to their stories,\u201d he said. \u201cListen to who they are and learn from them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anderson said a health emergency forced him to retire, but that it was his satisfaction with his work which kept him going for 58 years. <\/p>\n

He has four children, a grandson, eight granddaughters and four great-grandchildren.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I\u2019m looking for more,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gordon Anderson at his dispatch post. (Photo courtesy of AMR) After 58 years on the job, Gordon Anderson,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":74296,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,51790,51791,1582,276,16214,7716,10088,5884,51792,700,3549,7264,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,11003],"class_list":{"0":"post-74295","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-american-medical-response-amr","10":"tag-amr","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-california","13":"tag-chula-vista","14":"tag-emt","15":"tag-kearny-mesa","16":"tag-plane-crash","17":"tag-psa-182-crash","18":"tag-retirement","19":"tag-san-diego","20":"tag-sandiego","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-united-states-of-america","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-usa","27":"tag-wildfire"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114877657475479434","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}