Mounted search and rescue

[Una Smith <una.smith@att.net>]

Jorene Downs wrote:
>Does NM have a different process / expectation for Mutual Aid response other 
>than people showing up knowing their team members? IIRC there is an 
>expectation in ICS to provide personnel information to management upon 
>check-in.

New Mexico is so very different from everywhere else.  All SAR
missions in effect are on a Mutual Aid basis, as understood in
other states, but this is normal operating procedure so it does
not work exactly like Mutual Aid elsewhere.  Remember a crucial
point:  only one SAR head in the state is paid.  Which means 
all ICS staff have come up through the ranks, ie come out of a
"recognized SAR team".  New Mexico has annual 3-day conferences
with attendance of about 250, and as many training missions as
we can manage to organize, and smart teams go out of their way
to participate in other teams' trainings.  By "team" I do not
mean field team, I mean all the people who know each other and
have a past history of working together on prior SAR missions.

At check-in we give our team name and the senior person present
reports what resources we've brought to the IC or ops chief,
as appropriate.  That can be as simple as "you got me, Leroy,
and Brenda, all on our best horses, 6 VHF radios, 6 FRS radios,
and 4 GPS units.  Sorry it's just 3 of us today;  no one else
can make it."  Some teams are short on radios, GPS, etc., so we
sometimes mix and match people to make up the largest number
of Type II qualified field teams.  New Mexico's SAR operation
is founded on personal knowledge of and networking among many,
many people.

I have been bugging Ian Vowles for years now to file paperwork
to get his team recognized in New Mexico (he is just over the
border in Colorado), so that his people can attend New Mexico's
annual 2-day ICS Section Chief school.  Some teams in Arizona
and Texas do this every year, and they all say there is nothing
like it in their home states.  Section Chief school is the
first step on the ladder from field team member to SAR mission
management.

Note this is all ICS stuff;  outside of missions, there is *no*
statewide structure!  Many people see that as a major weakness
of New Mexico's system.  The non-prof member organization NMESC
(www.nmesc.org) is trying to develop that structure, but it is
slow going.

        Una Smith
        New Mexico