SAR -Busy Week

This week has been a very busy week with riding the bike to and from work, to being called out to a search, training and a river rescue. I joined the county Search and Rescue (SAR) team in January, to be part of the dive team. I love to Scuba dive and I thought this would be a way to get more dives in. Well instead of just being part of the dive team, I jump into the unit with both feet, doing repelling, searches, and learning about the drug culture in the local area (good info for wandering around the local hills looking for lost people.

This week started on Tuesday with a call out for a lost little girl in town. I got in the car and raced (within the speed limit) to the location of her last sighting. I got no closer than about 5 blocks when the 10-22 (cancel) call came in. On Friday night was training. We learn to put up a quad high line for transporting people and equipment over gullies, rivers, etc. On Saturday, we used Friday's training to assist CARDA (California Rescue Dog Association) in their training dogs and we hooked up about a dozen dogs and trainers, then moved them across the creek and back. This was something that the dog team had to do together to be certified by CARDA. On Sunday, I got called out twice. I was relaxing around the house in some sweatpants when we had a call for four lost youths. I quickly changed pants and even before I got my shirt on, the 10-22 call came out. The kids were located. A while later, Lori was just starting dinner, where we had invited the Evelyn, Tracy and the kids over for dinner and a dip in the hot tub, when another call out came of a boy trapped on a rock in the river. I drove up the river and we were able to get a line to the boy and he put on a PFD (personal floatation device) w/ line attached, and helmet, and we pulled him across the river. I was informed that if he was injured that I would have been sent swimming across the river to set up a high line and get the boy across. Luckily, he was just a little cold. Then it continued today. I was at Dr. Cole's getting my treatment when the pager went off. I quickly threw on my clothes and ran out the office and proceeded up Highway 199 to a car over the side, with possible injuries. I got as far as Gasquet, when the 10-22 came in. Unfortunately the driver of the vehicle was 11-44 (DAS, expired.) The car was only slightly off the road and there was was no problem with the fire department being able to to extract the victim. With the weather being like summer, it might be quite busy around here. But then I did volunteer for the SAR. (You'd think after all those years in the Marines, I would have learned to not volunteer.)