SAR Member General Discussion

Discussion in 'Search, Rescue and Technical Skills' started by Reno Lewis, Sep 16, 2016.

  1. Kevo

    Kevo Member

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    Definitely will do! The last 6 months or so have been a very exciting time to be on the team. Lots of interesting training coming up and our leadership is working hard to raise the bar. My big training goals this year are going to be tracking, water rescue, tech II, and possibly GSAR train the trainer.

    I'm actually really interested in incident command and search management, so if given the chance I'm definitely going to jump on any training I can get in that regard.

    This month we have an inter-agency scenario that should be some good training. I'll follow up with pictures in a couple weeks and send you an email here shortly!
     
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  2. Kevo

    Kevo Member

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    So being on the training committee has been a real eye opener about the logistics and planning that need to go into a good sarex. This month has been my first go around contributing heavily to the planning and execution of a big session and it has been really something.

    Last weekend was scouting and mapping search areas. During the week I had been going through fixing up the maps and applying coordinates and waypoints for printing. Then we had to get together to write up forms on forms. Tonight was a final rundown of timing and assigning fto roles and saturday is the big day.
     
  3. Frigin

    Frigin Member

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    So I have a question for you SAR guys.
    So I moved here 5 years ago but I grew up just a town over. But when I moved here I found the central ma sar team and sent an email. Seemed to be the preferred contact and just asked a question and gave them my info to see If I could be put on a waiting list or whatnot to see how they excepted new members. There site said not looking for new members. Well 5 years later and I check it often and still says the same thing. Sent an email again a week ago and nothing back again. Any suggestions? I’d like to give back to the community in some way. And this type of stuff peaks my interest seeing as its stuff I do daily.
     
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  4. Kevo

    Kevo Member

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    That's a tough one. You can try getting in touch with MEMA (MA emergency response agency). They may take volunteers. Could also check with some of the local sheriff's to see if they have CERT programs or take volunteers for community help.
     
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  5. Jeff Randall

    Jeff Randall ESEE Knives / Randall's Adventure & Training Staff Member

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    We've seen this a lot with sar team websites. They build a presence and then get involved with life and never update it. We have a couple of teams in Alabama that have sites that look like they were built in the mid 90s (probably were) with the contact info not even working. My suggestion is (as Kevo suggested), reach out to your local sheriff's department and they should know who the team contact is for wilderness SAR. Once you get a contact then I bet they will want you. Problem is no one is checking the website emails or other they simply don't care and just delete the emails. Again, very typical of volunteer organizations. The main reason we started our own team was due to this very reason.
     
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  6. Frigin

    Frigin Member

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    thank you very much the both of you. I will try these option and see what happens.
     
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  7. Kevo

    Kevo Member

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    @Frigin definitely keep us posted!
     
  8. Kevo

    Kevo Member

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    Checking in here. Last month's training was based around special needs behavior with a great classroom session followed by a mock search with 2 subjects. It was a fantastic training, but way too cold to want to have my gloves off long enough for pictures in the field. I think we had team members from 5 or 6 agencies attend. This was my first exercise in a command team role, and it was a real eye opener.

    This month we are hosting another GSAR class for area trainees. We also have our monthly training based around critical incident stress management. It should be a decent class. We have a couple of doctors coming in to talk to the team about the subject.
     
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  9. Jeff Randall

    Jeff Randall ESEE Knives / Randall's Adventure & Training Staff Member

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    SAR is always 99% training and 1% real missions. Continual training like this makes the 1% go a lot smoother. Good stuff, Kevo! We're teaching a land nav class this weekend for Lawrence County SAR and then working a full mission training op next weekend in the mountains of NC with Haywood SAR - from initial callout to planning to search to actual technical rescue.

    Keep up the good work amigo!
     
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  10. Kevo

    Kevo Member

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    Absolutely agree with you! I'm looking forward to hearing how the full scale mission training goes. Those are always an experience. Our neighboring county puts on a full scale SAREX once a year that really brings a huuuge crowd.
     
  11. Kevo

    Kevo Member

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    Another successful GSAR in the books. We had about 12 new members from different agencies and they all did exceptionally well.
     
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  12. Jeff Randall

    Jeff Randall ESEE Knives / Randall's Adventure & Training Staff Member

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    We just got back from a weekend of mutual training in North Carolina. Will try to get pictures posted up here soon.
     
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  13. Kevo

    Kevo Member

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    Busy the last couple months up here. Slowly getting back to standard training again, which is awesome. June was throw bags with our local water rescue team.
     
  14. Kevo

    Kevo Member

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    We have open apps for a lutenient position on the team. I'm heavily considering throwing my name in the hat.
     
  15. Dave Hyer

    Dave Hyer Member

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    Did you ever fill that LT position? Old thread I know. Just got on this forum. I work on our swift water and dive rescue team here in TN. We just certified 5 new officers for swift water tech and advanced here, including myself. Been PSD certified for several years now and worked on a MSAR team down in LA. New to this team but now that we are 9 operators strong we have some unique opportunities opening up to us and have formed a county wide task force with two other local agencies.
     
  16. Kevo

    Kevo Member

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    Hey Dave, old thread on old thread here. I ended up not taking the LT spot. It took a lot of introspection but after a few hard searches I realized my interest is most definitely in field work. Our LT's spend a lot of time in command and doing admin work, and I found I'd much rather be in the bush ground pounding. Since then I did take up a spot as a fto and am lead instructor on gsar and bnav.
     

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