Mounted search and rescue

["T'mi Fi" <tfinkle@erols.com>]

You asked for feedback, so please do not be offended.  Nowadays 
volunteers in emergency response are better trained than their paid 
counterparts of 20 years ago.  Training, standards and credentialing 
insures inner operability between responding resource of various 
jurisdictions.  Yes more laws have been added but they were needed to 
insure the safety of the general public and those who put their life on 
the line to protect them.   If someone wants to help others during times 
of an emergency then will have to comply to standards because doing 
anything less makes them a grave liability. NIMS and ICS are the 
heartbeat for first responder and emergency manager who coordinate their 
resources.  Mitigation, preparedness, training and lessons learned set 
the stage for the best response possible for any given area, regardless 
if a responder is a registered volunteer or a paid full time 
professional..    

I have been in public service for over 30 years (25 paid and 7 
volunteer).  Between the federal, state and local levels (both 
government and non-government), I have attended over 4200 hours training 
hours and have lost track how many mock exercises I've taken part in. 
As I obtained command status experience and credentials, I began to 
learn the art of exercise planning (AKA: mock exercise).   Please know 
that mock exercises are not designed to produce an adrenaline rush, they 
are conducted to to provided realistic training and field experience 
without placing anyone's life in jeopardy.   When people are faced with 
a life threatening situation, they will rely on their training and this 
a fact that has been proven time and time again.  Without training, 
there is no telling what a person will do.  This is the reason why 
standards are written, testing takes place, training documentation is 
maintain and credentials are issued.   Just as a blind squirrel can find 
a nut, a non-trained non-credentialed spontaneous volunteer could save a 
life during an actual emergency.  It is also a fact that persons who 
enter public service for the adrenaline rush have the highest injury and 
accidental deaths rates

In the fields of government and non-goverment emergency response there 
is no place for a non-certified first responders.  Even in MSAR, having 
a non-trained person on horseback deployed as a spontaneous volunteer, 
is like turning a person loose on the roadways driving a personally 
owned fire truck responding to a fire as a self proclaimed firefighter . 
 I will whole heartily agree that there are problems with response and 
recovery efforts at the federal, state, local and tribal levels, but 
credentialing and standards are the only things that will fix the 
system.  Non-trained spontaneous volunteers have plenty of other 
logistical positions where they can help the most.  Operational 
positions should only be staffed by trained and credentialed first 
responder resources.  

Tomi`
TROTSAR

Karen Nesbitt wrote:

>  ========
>  A FEW WORDS ON MSAR ASSEMBLY - 
>     
>  I also don't know how any mock drill can  bring forth the adrenaline that comes with any given real search as it is very hard to mimick  the rise in adrenaline when urgence and a real emergency or when a dead vic is sought..  emotions can run the gamette and we are all human no less frail.
>   
>    A WORD ON VOLUNTEERING
>  I remain an unafiliated volunteer as I beleive too much regulation can strangle an organization.   Mind you not that I do not beleive in rules or regulations, but I feel society is so strangled with letting rules do their thinking that common sense has a tendency to go out the window. 
>   
>  To make a simple complaint you have to jump through a hoop, make a call and hope the person on the other end is the right department and will take your info down properly...If they don't and they spell something wrong, it may lose your complaint and without your being aware of it.  And that is how also nothing gets done., no first investigation nor followup.
>   
>      
>  Karen Nesbitt
>  Illinois - unaffiliated
>  Iroquois county
>  spanishequines@yahoo.com
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