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Subject: Mounted search and rescue

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  • From: "IRVIN LICHTENSTEIN" <ilichten1@verizon.net>
  • To: "'Mounted search and rescue'" <msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [MSAR] Back to Basics
  • Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2011 14:13:59 -0400

First, there are two kinds of stupid in the world.  The first is caused by ignorance and is curable with knowledge.  The second is a medically diagnosed condition
known as idiocy and relates to a pathology of the brain that does not allow learning.  The first we can work on, the second is not as yet curable.
 
For over 30 years it has been advocated by SAR groups that a task team of at least 3  persons be used in the field.  One person was a skilled SAR person, one handled radio and navigation, and the third was a local who knew the terrain.  This allowed the team to track or work a dog or row the boat or whatever at maximum efficiency.
This was particularly true in the parks and forests of the Mid-Atlantic areas where government topo maps often dated back to 1929.  Now we have satellite photos that are more recent but still can be misleading.  
 
We are also seeing a difference in the SAR subject.  We used to get calls for hunters, campers, walk aways.  Now the calls tend to be for kidnappings, dead bodies, and mysterious disappearances.  The primary difference is that lost people usually want to be found, even if mentally stressed by being lost. Dead bodies rarely walk into containment teams.
 
Your organization's skill set, whether dogs, trackers, mounted, motorized, or 4x4, must be demonstrated to every incident commander every time.  Each incident is a
possibility to show off or screw up.  And the screw up usually is remembered forever.
 
Tracking, or more properly scouting, from horseback dates back to the beginnings of cavalry.  It has been replaced in the current military with scouting from vehicles, 
or drones, but there are still mounted units in Afghanistan, working the mountains.  It should be noted that through the Indian Wars the US Army hired civilians to scout and track.  These were usually Native Americans or traders who knew the area intimately.  During the Second WW this practice was continued by the Office of Strategic Services and the Australian Coast Watchers who infiltrated behind enemy lines to observe and report.  Even today the US tries to recruit and assign personnel
who know the area, culture, and language to overseas locations for intelligence and reconnaissance duties.
 
For the most part we don't track people from horseback.  We track other horses, bicycles, ATV's, vehicles. We may mount ground lights on a van and load up with
Border Patrol officers to chase illegal's down a dirt road. The point is, the underlying skill is practical, demons ratable, and understanderable to a local incident commander. 
 
Nobody can come into an area without an understanding of the terrain, local skills, and the circumstances of the "missing person" and be successful. Additionally, it is often illegal to practice some techniques in public spaces.  Access by wheeled vehicles of any kind is often prohibited.  Dog training is controlled and off leash work totally prohibited.  Fortunately, by federal and often state law, horses are allowed most places people are so we get to play more.
 
Irv Lichtenstein


  • [MSAR] Back to Basics, IRVIN LICHTENSTEIN, 04/20/2011

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