Mounted search and rescue

["IRVIN LICHTENSTEIN" <ilichten1@verizon.net>]

Much of the problem is that as people come and go the knowledge comes and goes. Unless someone writes it down and allows others to learn from the history

It is lost and much be relearned.  Most volunteer responders burn out or leave the area after 5 years or so.  I have been in SAR research and actively participating since 1979 with field activity breaks (but not a research break) due to work or health totaling 5 years over that time.  All the people I trained as search mangers have left the field years ago.  Most of the emergency responders active today don’t know there are search managers available.  Or SAR resources available in many cases. 

 

Under FEMA guidelines each emergency response plan must be an all hazards plan and include wilderness SAR, Large Animal / Livestock Rescue, Disaster Relocation, and Food stock protection plans.  There are NFPA standards that cover wilderness SAR and ASTM Standards as well. NASAR is in the certificate business, and is trying to organize the state and regional SAR coordinators into a NASAR SIG.

 

When I started it was somewhat easier to try new techniques as there were fewer experts out there to argue with.  When the SAR organization I was chief of in the early 1980’s through 1995 insisted that dog handlers not work alone and carry stuff like radios (which they didn’t have because the organizations were too small to afford them), the handlers screamed like the proverbial stuck pig.  But as their dogs learned to discriminate they realized how much more territory they could cover with three persons and a dog versus one handler and one dog.  We convinced 3 nationally known handlers and the concept was accepted across the country.  We started teaching MSO as a fire academy course around 1986, just as NASAR eliminated volunteer instructors.  There were close to 40 students in the first class.

 

What you have to realize is that volunteer fire companies usually have rapid turnover in leadership, as do some volunteer SAR organizations that annually elect officers.

Every time the leadership changes the corporate memory takes a hit.  You must reestablish relationships, convince potential mutual aid users of your capabilities, and keep up your qualifications.  Having a pack rat mentality and large filing cabinets also help.

 

Irv Lichtenstein       

 

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From: msar-riders-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:msar-riders-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Dana Mc
Sent: Sunday, August 02, 2009 8:53 PM
To: msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [MSAR] Dogs, Horses....rats in SAR :)