Mounted search and rescue

[<Jorene@CEOates.com>]

The advantage to a vest is consistency -  regardless of weather it can be the outer layer. Far less expensive than all buying the same shirt, same waterproof jacket, same layers in between. High visibility colors mean you're more likely to be spotted by others (including the missing person) even when looking down the search line in more dense cover, more visible from a chopper, etc.

 

Locally the Sheriff isn't near as strict about wearing uniform shirts since we do have guarded marijuana gardens and even labs in our backcountry and the majority of our call-outs are up the mountain. We're a combination of volunteer and SAR-trained deputy response. A few years ago a couple of the deputies on a mountain SAR ended up in a garden shootout ... wearing orange shirts! ... and now we are more careful about who gets assigned where, and armed deputies are assigned to search the more likely garden areas ... wearing camouflage. ;)

 

I'm SAR Management and I wear a vest at the CP. A lot of gear just stays in the vest pockets. Name and a patch badge are sewn on the vest. I can respond from wherever I am (all SAR gear stays in my truck for Hasty Team response, including a change of clothes) and normally just slip on that vest over whatever I'm wearing. Often I'm the first SAR person to arrive, and that vest identifies me to any law enforcement already there taking the preliminary report, civilians, etc.

 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~
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

----- Original Message -----

From: pennbo@bbv.net

Although many New Mexico SAR units have uniform shirts etc.,
few teams report for missions in uniform.  Effectiveness,
not appearance, is the priority.

We have no choice. We MUST be in uniform and there has been some discussion about exactly what that uniform "should" be. We have been told they must all be exactly identical. Being attached to the Sheriff's department has some real benefits but it also has some restrictions that we might not otherwise have. <g> Our main concern with getting blaze orange vests is that we are in an area with lots of trees and tall scrub. We need to be highly visible- to the victims and other SAR teams as well as to the choppers. There is a company in San Diego that Jorene turned me onto and I am trying to get the team mobilized in that direction. The vests aren't cheap though!

Chris Pennington
Big Bear Sheriff's Posse
Mounted Search and Rescue