Kirk’s EMS began with the Kuykendall family’s wrecker service.

They recognized a need for ambulance services in the community,
which led to the founding of Kirk’s EMS in 1972 by H.P. (Kirk) and
Betty Kuykendall with a single station in southwestern Oklahoma.
The first ambulances were two 1972 Oldsmobile limousines
purchased for $8,000. Replacing them with a modern equivalent
would cost roughly $350,000, a measure of how much emergency
medicine has changed. Over more than fifty years, KIRKS has
grown to five stations with 109 employees. Its mission has stayed
constant: providing the community with quick, courteous, and
compassionate care.
KIRKS is a family business at heart whose history is a story of continuity. Paul, the founders’ son, sits on the company’s board, carrying the family’s service into a second generation. Many employees have been there since the earliest days. The current director was on staff during the September 11th terrorist attacks, proving the longevity of the company’s values.
With nine ALS ambulances on call daily and stations in
Lawton,Walters, Elgin, Apache and Carnegie, KIRKS covers 2,000 square miles of service area in Comanche, Cotton, portions of Caddo, portions of Kiowa and Washita Counties. Last New Year’s Eve, the service reached a milestone of 15,000 calls for the year. An EMS workers stated the reason people should choose KIRKS over other EMS services is for their compassion, dedication, and training of its employees, which they refer to as their grade “A” care.
KIRKS operates under Heartland Medical Direction, which holds the service to a higher standard than state and national requirements and allows crews to do substantially more in the field. The clearest example of this is blood. Last year KIRKS partnered with Our Blood Institute and began carrying blood on its ambulances. It is the only ground service in southwest Oklahoma to do so, with blood typically only carried by helicopters. So far, crews have given it in the field six times.
Simulation competitions, known as SIM games, are a staple
of EMS events. Teams of paramedics and EMTs work through timed, high-pressure scenarios. Actors or high-fidelity mannequins play the patients, and judges score triage, protocol adherence, communication, and hands-on treatment. The games are also a competitive way for responders to sharpen practical knowledge, learn from peers, and practice crisis management. KIRKS recently won a competition at a three day state wide event. Two KIRKS teams reached the finals, with one taking home the trophy as state champion.
Military service runs through KIRKS’s workforce, which includes many veterans and former combat medics. H.P. “Kirk”, the founder, served during the Korean Conflict and with the Oklahoma National Guard following that tour Amongst the others are a married couple who also work as flight paramedics with Airevac. KIRKS offers internships to medics coming off active duty to help them transition into civilian EMS, though they must first earn their EMS certification. The company also directs staff to military resources as needed, including the Warriors Rest Program, however, Heartland PEER Support is their primary mental health and peer support resource.
Many of KIRKS workforce come from law enforcement and fire service backgrounds. A number of them are pursuing further medical careers and include generations and decades of invested service professionals working together.
Historically, EMS has less mental health support than fire and police departments. KIRKS is working with the state of Oklahoma to change this. Recognizing the importance of caring for the caregivers, five staff members are trained as peer supporters with one of them holding a certification in Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD), a structured way of helping crews process difficult calls.
Nine staff members recently earned certification in community paramedicine which extends the service beyond emergency response. KIRK’s paramedics have received Oklahoma Paramedic of the Year and National Paramedic of the Year and one of KIRKS ambulances is set to appear on the big screen in an upcoming feature film.
The KIRKS culture includes a family first environment with an emphasis on supporting neighboring first responder agencies. They are proud to serve the SW Oklahoma communities and view growth as a responsibility, not simply to add territories or more ambulances.
From a pair of ambulances at one station, to blood on board and a
state championship team, KIRKS EMS has stayed true to its founders’ commitment: people who stay, train hard, and treat every call with care.The equipment, medicine and footprint have changed dramatically, yet the foundation of family, community and taking care of people, has remained the same. •story by Jill Stephenson, contributing writer

Bill Norfleet has been collecting coins for years. After retiring, he took his hobby to the next level by opening Brazito Coins and Collectibles, located at 2525 Northwest Expressway, Suite 222 in Oklahoma City.
“I’ve collected coins for a long time, and when I retired, I decided I’d just start selling some and buying some and trading back and forth,” he said. “It keeps me off the sofa. It helps me to meet people and do things.” I especially enjoy meeting with veterans. Roughly 38% of U.S. older veterans report actively or in the past collecting coins.
Norfleet sells and buys coins at coin shows, sells coins online and meets with individuals by appointment only at his Oklahoma City office.
“I’m not a high-pressure salesman at all,” he said. “I’m not going to pressure them to sell them (coins). I just try to help them (with coin information/values). Hopefully they’ll come back when they do want to sell them if they do.”
Norfleet said the internet has changed the way coins are
sold, with online sales increasingly replacing traditional storefront businesses.
“The online section is taking over from the storefront business,” he said. “Coin shows are not a storefront, but they’re akin to them. It’s face-to-face-stuff. I’m afraid that the (smaller) coin show deal is kind of dying.”
However, larger coin shows continue to attract buyers and sellers from across the country.
“One of the biggest ones in the country is in Orlando, Florida,” he said. “We went to that one in January. It had 660 tables. We went to one a couple weeks ago in Houston. That’s a pretty good size show with 120 tables. There was a lot going on there. A lot of people buy and sell. The bigger shows have many different things there, and you draw a whole lot more people.”
To help increase attendance at Oklahoma coin shows, Norfleet is using email to attract more attendees.
“We are trying something new. We’re going to send out an email to about the first 1,000 people that are identified as having an interest in coins,” he said. “We’ll send out a few emails, one of them four weeks before the event and one another week or 10 days before the event. We’ll see how that works.”
Norfleet said his website features a variety of certified coins. Certified coins have been graded by an authoritative third party, such as the Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS) or Numismatic Guaranty Company (NGC).
A certified coin is placed in a tamper-evident encapsulation, or slab, by the organization that certified and graded it. The slab contains the necessary information to verify the coin’s grade and authenticity.
“A lot of what we have for sale are what are called certified coins, and they’re in a plastic container,” he said.
Coin collectors have a wide variety of interests, Norfleet said.
“It’s just wide (coin interests),” he said. “Two of the most popular of all time are Morgan dollars and Peace dollars. The (Morgan) were made from 1878 to 1921. Now there were some years in the 1920’s and 1930’s when they weren’t made because the price of silver got to where it didn’t make sense to make a dollar with
it. They made a few in 1934 and 1935. The Peace dollars were made from 1921 to 1935. Gold coins are popular. The Indian head two-and-a-half-, five- and ten-dollar Indian head gold coins. The Saint-Gaudens coins are popular.”
Norfleet also receives phone calls from people interested in selling their coins and finding out what they might be worth.
“We talk about what they have, and that gives me a good feel whether it’s worth their time and mine for us to get together or not,” he said. “I had one lady call and said she had a lot of foreign coins she was interested in getting appraised. I told her I didn’t handle foreign coins, but I gave her information on some people who do. Sometimes you get people who don’t have any children or grandchildren, or as is my case, don’t have any children or grandchildren who are interested in coins. That’s true of a lot of people. We try to be helpful to them in figuring out how to make that decision, whether they want to sell them or keep them.”
Despite years of collecting, Norfleet said he has never lost interest in coins.
“I just enjoy the hunt, but I’ve always enjoyed going to coin shows and taking a list with me of things that I want and looking for them,” he said. “Sometimes you don’t find what you are looking for. But a lot of times, you’ll find something.”
For more information about coins, call Norfleet at (405) 495-4000, email [email protected] or visit
www.brazitocoinsandcollectibles.com.

The Oklahoma City VA Health Care System (OKC VAHCS) is making it easier for Veterans in Oklahoma and North Texas to get the care they need.
With several new and expanded outpatient clinics opening soon, Veterans will have access to more services, closer to home.
These projects are all about delivering timely, high-quality care. The VA is adding and expanding services like primary care, mental health, dental, rehabilitation, specialty care, and diagnostics throughout the region.
“Expanding access to care remains one of our highest priorities,” said Wade Vlosich, Director of OKC VAHCS. “These new and expanded clinics reflect our continued investment in the health and well-being of the Veterans we serve. By increasing capacity and offering more services closer to home, we’re making it easier for Veterans to receive the care they’ve earned.”
One of those expansion sites is at the Broadway Extension
VA Clinic, located at 9400 Broadway Extension, Suite 300, in Oklahoma City.
A ribbon cutting ceremony was held Oct. 13 for the opening of the new addition.
This clinic is where Behavioral Health services relocated from the VA medical center near downtown Oklahoma City.
“So, this is a full-service mental health clinic for our Veterans,” Casey Zwirtz, Assistant Director of Operations said. “This is one of our domino moves to prepare us for our future expansions at the main facility. And so, what we’re doing is we’re taking a lot of our mental health services for outpatients and bringing them here, expanding services. This is our next phase of trying to expand and give more access to mental health care.”
Zwirtz said 70 Behavioral Health employees have relocated to the Broadway Extension VA, which offers everything from individual mental health therapy to group therapy.
“We also offer psychotherapy and various other mental health related services,” he said.
Zwirtz said taking care of your mental health is important for everyone.
“So, I think we do a really good job of making sure that veterans know that we’re here to help and to get them back to where they want to be mentally,” he said. “We’re trying to get them into our classes and get them into our sessions and we can help normalize the need for mental health, not just for veterans, but for everyone, that mental health is a need and we need to make sure that we’re supporting each other and giving people the resources they need to be successful in their day-to-day life.”
Zwirtz said the new Behavioral Services wing has 70 individual offices for their mental health providers to be able to meet with veterans and their family members if needed.
“We also have three group rooms for group therapy. And then
we have a couple different offices that are set up specifically for things like psychotherapy or cognitive therapy and then also with any type of brainwave and things like that that we might adhere to,” he said.
Zwirtz said the new clinic has one exam room used primarily for nurse intake.
“We have one exam room and it’s mainly for nurse intake clinics where we’re going to do a blood draw. So, if they need to get labs done, they can get them done here or we’ll do a physical exam here from a nursing standpoint just to make sure that they’re ready for their appointments. And then sometimes we’ll do drug screens and things like that if they’re in a program that requires them to stay clean or sober.”
Zwirtz said the VA has utilized various media outlets to get the word out about the new Behavioral Services clinic.
“So, we’ve done multiple tele town halls where we’ve had veterans from different locations throughout our catchment area where we’ve updated them on the opening of the clinic,” he said. “We’ve also sent out emails and gov delivery, which is our email service where we send out those notifications and then also tap into our local media to help notify them.”
Zwirtz said the new clinic is designed to make mental health access easier.
“This is our first mental health only clinic that’s outside of our main facility. So, this was exciting to be able to put this one together and get it to this step,” he said. “It’s providing the care that we need for our veterans in this area and being able to expand and grow our mental health care. And this clinic is going to provide a less stressful environment for our veterans to come into.”
For more information call the Broadway Extension VA main number at (405) 456-7200.

My name is Mark Miller and I have been blessed to be on staff in ministry for over 35 years now. I am currently the pastor of Delaware Baptist church in Sand Springs Oklahoma and am also a part of the “Synergy Home Care” team out of OKC. This is my second opportunity to share an article in the Oklahoma Veterans News Magazine & I pray the following is a challenge & encouragement to those that read it.
Revelation 2:10 – “Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.”
Most of us recognize the phrase “Semper Fi.” It is the shortened version of Semper Fidelis, the famous Latin motto of the United States Marine Corps. It means “Always Faithful.” For a Marine, it isn’t just a catchy slogan; it is a binding pact. It means standing by your nation, your mission, and your brothers and sisters in arms, no matter how severe the firefight or how heavy the cost.
As followers of Christ, we are called to a spiritual battle, and we have been given an even higher marching order: to be Semper Fi to the King of Kings.
The world’s definition of faithfulness usually depends on circumstances. People stay faithful as long as it is convenient, profitable, or comfortable. But true Semper Fidelis means remaining loyal when it hurts.
In 2 Timothy 2:3, the Apostle Paul tells Timothy to “share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.” Faithfulness is not tested in times of peace, It is forged in the trenches of hardship, of doubt, and temptation.
Being “always faithful” means your loyalty to God does not waver when our prayers aren’t answered on your timeline or when our life takes an unexpected painful turn.
We, as believers, can only strive to be always faithful because God is already perfectly faithful to us. Human beings will fail us, and we will sometimes fail ourselves but our Savior never does. Lamentations 3:22-23 reminds us: “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”
God is the ultimate Marine of our souls. He does not leave
the fallen behind. He does not break His covenant. Even when we are weak, He remains Semper Fi to His promises and encourages us to do the same through His example.
Living a life of Semper Fi requires endurance and a steadfastness that is not common to the world. Jesus tells the church at Smyrna, “Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Revelation 2:10).
The Christian life is a marathon, not a sprint. It is a long deployment and the reward is not found in temporary comfort on this earth, but in the eternal victory speech of our Commander, when He looks at us and says, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
So I encourage my brothers and sisters in the faith in this way. Let us lace up our boots today with a renewed commitment. Let us be loyal to the truth, dedicated to prayer, and fierce in our love for one another. Let’s live in such a way that our lives shout Semper Fi to the Lord. •by Mark Miller, Pastor