LINE OF DUTY DEATH (LODD)

On Friday, August 22nd 1976, Assistant Chief Albert R. “Pappy” Benke was working a Bingo fundraiser at the station when a call came in for a vehicle accident at the corner of Shore Drive and Diamond Springs Road. Asst. Chief Benke responded in the ambulance, providing care to a critically injured teenage patient. 

While transporting the patient to Virginia Beach General Hospital, Asst. Chief Benke began to develop chest pains but continued to provide care. After transferring his patient to the hospital staff, Asst. Chief Benke collapsed to the ground in cardiac arrest. 

Though hospital staff were initially able to resuscitate him and transfer him to the Intensive Care Unit, Asst. Chief Benke succumbed to his condition a few days later becoming CBVRS’s only Line-of-Duty Death (LODD).