Sunday, March 16, 2014

SAR DAY 2014

A glimpse of part of the search area. Acreage as far as the eye could see.

If I was worried about not getting in any exercise after having retired from triathlon training, my fears were lifted after today's exhausting training in New Orleans as our team took part in a multi-state Search and Rescue Training Day. Much of my day was spent hiking through miles of thick brush and grass, uphill, to flank those searching for a variety of human remains left scattered in an air tragedy simulation. For those handlers whose canines where trained for Live Search, they had to locate a live victim in the vast search area that was near the plane's transponder.

As if on cue, a group of "walkers" showed up. They were
escorted out to save our HRD sources from being eaten.
Later we learned they were actually bird watchers. I like my
version of the story better.
Civil Air Patrol was there to fly over in their aircraft and call in the coordinates of the transponder as it pinged up to them. Search teams consisted of Civil Air Patrol members, military, fire/police, and canine search teams from Louisiana and Florida. Boy Scouts were on hand to observe and volunteer as victims, and had even "gored" themselves up in zombie fashion for reality purposes. Maybe they were thinking Zombie Apocalypse??








Scent work in action as Quincy scours the pavement for crumbs
after lunch
After the morning scenarios we broke for lunch, and I got to work Quincy since, once again, we were not ready for all of the advanced fun that was to be had in search and rescue. We practiced his run-aways, with me now his handler, and added the challenge of the victim dropping behind a bush or tree. Although he doesn't have quite the same intensity in his desire to search for others as he does to search for me, he still eagerly performs his job. This week he will practice these obstructed runaways and if all goes well will be ready to start "L's" again by the weekend. Even without getting to participate as a dog team in the search training, we still had plenty of time to explore together. He was exposed to grated metal steps, new dogs, new terrain, and new scents. As buildings were lit on fire for the fire department to practice extinguishing, he got to experience the smoke that is often at the site of disasters. He was exposed to the sounds of the Civil Air Patrol's planes flying overhead and landing nearby. He got to see a variety of rescuers in their hardhats, rappelling gear, and uniforms. That in itself was great training and a lot to take in for a 4 month old!

Messy locating the lost sources
Messy saved the day by locating the remaining HRD sources that hadn't been found. There was some confusion as to just how many had been set out in the field...

It was a great opportunity to coordinate with other disciplines and replicate mock disasters in preparation for another catastrophe such as Katrina or 9/11. Communication amongst agencies is crucial, especially during stressful disasters, and it is important that everyone have some idea how the disciplines work so that they can adapt if needed. These training opportunities allow everyone to be exposed to each other to make search and rescue as smooth as possible.

All disciplines were represented

Escambia Search and Rescue came in from Florida


Rob trying to figure out where to search for Trey's mysterious source.
Did it really exist? No one knows...


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