Mounted search and rescue

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

Irv Lichtenstein wrote:
>Depending on where you are in the region there may be man made dangers as
>well in the form of un-cleared ranges- White Sands was used and is still
>used as a range for the Army, missiles and artillery now, bombs and bomb
>aimer training in WW2 and Korea.

This may sound over the top but Irv is correct.  Adjacent to the national
monument is the White Sands Missile Range.  A fraction of SAR missions on
the monument do involve subjects who get very lost and travel out onto the
missile range.

Tracking is difficult because much of the sand is in the form of loose
dunes and almost constant winds swiftly obscure tracks across the dunes.

Air scenting and aerial visual search are high priority task assignments
here.  In the case of the lost teen this month, searchers were helped by
the fact that he had a bright red sled and he was still carrying it when
found.

In our desert terrain infrared searching usually is feasible only very
late at night or near dawn.  In summer it may not be feasible at all
because the background temperature of ground surfaces remains near or 
above the human body surface temperature.  In winter on grazing ranges
and wildlife management areas, infrared search will be made difficult
by false positive detections of cattle, elk, and other large animals. 
Finally, infrared viewing equipment does not have a wide angle of view,
so in effect search is performed in narrow strips across the terrain.
It is well suited for searching confined spaces such as ravine bottoms,
but not for large areas of complex terrain.

        Una Smith
        New Mexico