Mounted search and rescue

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

From: "Tm' Fi" <tfinkle@erols.com>
> ICS is a template that every local, county, state or federal government
> resource must use "ONCE" an incident "outgrows the capasity/resource
> limits" of that lowest level of local government.  A local incident that
> has no chance of requiring outside help does not need to utilize an ICS
> template.

ICS was created in CA, and we've used it very successfully for many years. 
Folks will find that the general concepts are applicable from the first 
person arriving on the scene being the Incident Commander who does it all, 
handing off the IC role as someone better qualified arrives, delegating 
other command roles as the incident grows, etc.

Reality is most first responder agencies already have a very similar process 
in place ... everyone using ICS simply establishes what to call those 
positions and provides some clarification so we're all on the same page. It 
would be confusing for an agency to use local terminology for a small 
incident then swap over to ICS for a larger one, so anticipate ICS - at 
least as terminology - being implemented for everyday use. Agencies aren't 
likely to break out the actual ICS forms until the incident expands.

> From the SAR perspective you never know if your incident will need to expand 
with additional resources or if you'll quickly find the missing person. So 
we implement ICS - complete with forms - from the very beginning to have 
consistent documentation of all incidents.

> Civilian non-governement teams who
> want to play with the paid government personnel and their resources will
> need to comply or not play.

This bears repeating. ;)

-Jorene