Mounted search and rescue

["irvin lichtenstein" <ilichten1@verizon.net>]

The point I was trying to make politely was that most of what we now call
citizen's disaster training was taught in high school health classes when us
old guys went to school. Maybe it was the Cold War or something else that
motivated education then. If we got stuck in a disaster, whether manmade or
natural, we could survive with what was normally in the house and even help
neighbors. And we didn't expect anybody to come get us either. I see that
times have changed and we will all be rescued by FEMA now. There are some
limitations-- I am not allowed to store more than 10 gallons of gasoline in
my garage for my generator by fire code so I will run out in 20 hours or so.

MSAR people must be self reliant in difficulties because we volunteer to
respond to difficult situations. And even if we are not on a mission we must
assure the care of our mounts so we can respond if needed. To that extent
cross training is not cross training, it is primary training.
There are some areas we can skip- without equipment training for bugs and
nukes may not make sense. Learning how to wire a pump to a generator is
always useful, as is using a fire extinguisher as an escape tool to flee a
burning building. Survival is always better than the alternatives.

Irv Lichtenstein


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