Mounted search and rescue

["Jorene Downs" <Jorene@CEOates.com>]

 

From: John Fourcade

Howdy Y'all,

    Rather new to the list, but I do have some input on working with dogs.  We recently held a training where our mounted patrol worked with our K-9 unit.  It was more or less to get both the horses and the dogs used to each other.  [...]

Have you tried doing any mounted-dog cross training where the horse packs the dog? Very handy to have that basic capability when you are deep in the backcountry with a tired search dog needing help. Also handy to pack the dog and handler mounted to conserve their strength, then when you have something for them to work, they start work from the ground. The key to packing the larger dog (or any dog) in a pannier is to be real careful that the weight is balanced on both sides, and the dog knows to stay still.

 

You mentioned a narcotics training exercise. I just returned from 2 back-to-back Wilderness SARs. The first one included a search area where a couple of years ago there was shooting as guards defended a marijuana garden. A few of our SAR Deputies are also on SWAT, Narcotics, etc., and mentioned that they'd seen suspicious activity as if someone was rebuilding the garden. These are the times that we (I'm part of Hasty Team management) send armed Deputies to search wearing camo instead of sending in volunteer SAR in their bright and visible attire. We actually had a garden guard shooting at ground searchers there during a SAR a couple of years ago. Picture a couple of Deputies returning fire, scrambling for cover ... wearing orange shirts. The ranks finally understood there is no Kings X safety zone because the shirt says Search And Rescue. Deputies no longer respond to Wilderness SAR wearing the orange SAR t-shirt. And in certain areas we only send armed searchers in, wearing camo. ;-/

 

We're careful where we send the air support chopper, too. Typically a chopper rigged for medical and insertion/extraction, they're not normally armed. Another trigger happy garden guard popped some rounds off at the ARMY rescue chopper a year ago. They regrouped, returned with armed Deputies, but used the Penetrator hanging off the winch to chase the shooter around on the mountain. As the pilot explained it, the Penetrator was used like a retractable bomb as he tried to drop it on the fleeing shooter. ;)

 

Sometimes Search Management decisions address more than where the MP might be and natural local hazards. But with our vast mountain area to cover and the ongoing battle against marijuana gardens, we almost consider the situation a natural hazard. ;)

 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Jorene Downs
Tulare Co, CA
SAR, MSAR, Swiftwater Rescue, US&R,
Technical Rescue, Cave Rescue,
Hasty Team, ICP
www.CEOates.com/sar
Tulare-Kings CERT Program Coordinator
www.tk-cert.org