Mounted search and rescue

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

Bob Boddy, Pinelands MSAR, wrote:
>Are any teams using a one call system to notify the team members? 

Good question.  Answer is yes, many do this.  Local to me, some SAR
teams have pagers for heads-up alerts.  The members call a voice mail
to get a summary and further instructions.  Call out often involves
some fast information gathering and planning to determine who is
available, how fast they can respond, etc.  For some missions (night,
foul weather, possible suicide, etc.), team leaders need to decide
before people leave home how to deploy the available people.  Eg,
deploy them as field teams or as individuals for SAR management on
scene to put together into field teams.  Also decide what team gear
is needed and who will go to the cache to get the gear...  Put new
members with old hands, etc.

Probably the most common arrangement is one team member is dedicated
to doing call-out by calling team members individually, under careful
direction from team leaders.  This frees the team leaders to deploy
themselves.  Calling out involves some important decisions about who
to call first (the members of highest value, most likely to respond,
closest to the incident, farthest from the incident, etc.)

        Una Smith
        New Mexico