To: Mounted search and rescue <msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [MSAR] Long time no post
Date: Mon, 9 Mar 2015 18:05:15 +0000 (UTC)
Congratulations Una!
Happy Trails,
Yvette
Rollins
Indiana
‘Tread Lightly upon the Land and Leave No Trace!’
From: Una Smith <una.smith@att.net> To: Mounted search and rescue <msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org> Sent: Monday, March 9, 2015 1:58 PM Subject: [MSAR] Long time no post
MSAR-Riders folks,
Wow, it has been a while! I have been super busy with life including SAR. Here's a short update. After working for many years as a Section Chief (Logistics, Planning, Operations, in that order) I have moved up to Incident Commander. I will be working Type 4 (least complex) SAR missions without staff support, which means concentrating more on the operations role; also interviewing the mission initiator, reporting party, concerned family, etc.
Resources available to us ICs include 53 recognized SAR teams in the current NM SAR Resource Directory. Of those 53 teams 10 list MSAR as a specialty. Many other teams have some mounted resources.
I have taken a lot of courses in recent years. One course that stands out is Bob Koester's Lost Person Behavior. The foundation of the course is his book, but the real value of the course is in the map exercises. Students learn to *use* the book. NM SAR has selected LPB as required training for all Incident Management Team members, meaning ICs and SCs.