EDITOR'S NOTE: The following is the first in a series of profiles that manninglive.com will be posting each Saturday to highlight our first responders and dispatchers who keep Clarendon County a safe place to live. After each Saturday posting, the piece will appear in the following Thursday's Manning Times.
Capt. Glenn A. Costello Sr. has been with the Clarendon County Fire Department since 1982. He is a graduate of Strasburg High School in Strasburg, Virginia, and has been married to his wife, Lorraine, for 49 years. He joined the U.S. Air Force in 1964 and volunteered for service in Vietnam in May 1966. He came back in 1967 to Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter and married his wife in 1968. She was from Manning. I found out that when you marry a girl in the South, they will bury you in the South!
WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO BE A FIRST RESPONDER?
The need in the Foreston and Brewington areas. We are 10 miles from Manning, and 35 years ago, it could be 20-30 minutes before help would arrive from the city area.
WHAT IS THE MOST CHALLENGING THING ABOUT BEING A FIRST RESPONDER?
The knowledge you need to react in different situations. From delivering a baby, auto accidents, assessing an unconscious person (heart attack, stroke, drug overdose). I feel our training and staff is the best there is.
DESCRIBE A MEMORABLE MOMENT DURING YOUR SERVICE.
Sitting in the back of an ambulance with a 6-year-old child, reassuring her that her mother will be oK (when she is hearing her mother screaming from the pain of being trapped in an auto wreck and other responders cutting the car apart to get her out). This was 25 years ago. Her mother lived, and when she sees me even now, I still get a hug when we meet.
PLEASE TELL US ABOUT YOUR FAMILY.
My wife of 49 years, a beautician, still works several mornings a week. She was diagnosed with CMR cancer 12 years ago and given five years to live. She is still on medication, but won't give up. She told the doctor that God would decide how many years she would be here and that she would be praying for him.My oldest son, Stoney, works construction and enjoys hunting when possible. My youngest son, Chad, is a pastor at Eastside Christian Church in Florence.
