Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Mysteryy on August 20, 2007 at 7:41am

I am from Crestline California. I belong to Rim of the World Search and Rescue out of Twin Peaks, CA. There are 22 SAR groups in our county. We are volunteers with the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Dept. Of the 22 groups we have the following specialized rescue teams: Dog, Mounted, Cave, Urban, Mountain, Dive, Technical Rope, Quad, and Air Medic. My team is primarily Mountain/Technical Rope rescue. Some of us have Quad certification. I plan to attend a cave rescue orintation in September. Caves have always facinated me!

As for my regular job, I am a service planner for Southern California Edison (Electric Company).

Permalink Reply by Chris Hodgdon on August 20, 2007 at 11:22am

I am located in Texas, founder and director of Southern Search & Rescue, Inc. and divisions which is a national and international first response organization. We do all forms of SAR, emergency communications, CERT training, some wildfire service and much more, currently we have two active teams in the nation with plans to expand to at least 50, one in each state.

During my downtime, I drive a school bus and work in other areas in the locate school district and I am working on upgrading my amateur radio license. If anyone is a ham out there, I would like to know. My callsign is KE5IGO.

Permalink Reply by Mick Mayers on August 21, 2007 at 11:57pm

I'm Mick. I live on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina. I'm the Director of the State US&R Task Force, which is a NIMS-compliant Type 1 US&R Task Force. There's representative pics of our units (I only put one of the tractor trailers on and one of the ISTs- you've seen one, youv'e seen them all) on my page, or you can check us out at the SC-TF1 website.

I'm also the Vice-Chairman of the State Urban Search and Rescue Alliance, which started over some beers and now has 41 member states. We are advocates for US&R, developing a network of over 450 individuals right now (not counting those who aren't on the e-group) who exchange ideas, SOPs, training opportunities, etc.

I used to be a "rock-breaker" but now I pretty much wear a white helmet and type a lot. There aren't too many rock-breakers in management, so it's something I like to point out; even Mongo can learn to budget.

Permalink Reply by dwn164 on August 23, 2007 at 2:32pm

I am from Columbia County ,PA. I belong to a group called the Columbia County Rescue Task Force which is made up of 5 home companies throughout the county. We do Search & Rescue, High Angle, Ag, Confined Space, Trench, Low Angle, Structural Collapse. I am currently the Training Officer and Communications Officer. I've been with the team for about 12 to 16 years. We currently have 4 members of the team who belong to the Pennsylvania Instate Urban Search & Rescue as Squad 1. Team members of Squad 1 are made up of Hazmat Techs, Structural Techs and Search Techs. The CCRTF currently has about 8 to 10 Wilderness Emt's and 2 members with dogs and are in training with them.

Permalink Reply by Mike Rehfeld on August 28, 2007 at 2:11pm

Hey all, I am from the Baltimore, Md. area. I operate 2 canine search dogs with the Gamber Fire Company. I am also a career ladder driver with Baltimore County stationed at Truck 13. Both K9's are live and cadaver operational with sub specialties in drowning victim and burned remains recovery. Boomer my 9 year old lab has 12 drowning victim recoveries and worked the Pentagon operation post 9/11. Zeus my 2 year old lab just got through the terrible 2's and is progressing well.

Permalink Reply by David on December 21, 2007 at 4:03pm

Hello all -
I am new to FFN, to this group, as well as to SAR - coming from rural VFD (3 years) as well as US Forest Service Wildland Fire (5 years) (Presciption Burn Crew and Intepreter with the MO DNR ten years before that and aircrew training with the US Air Force three years before that). I took a WFR course from Wilderness Medical Assoc. in 1993 - but didn't find a local group to connect with then. I've a year in, this month, with Barry County Search and Rescue in SW Missouri along the AR border and encompassing most of the west end of Table Rock Lake.
Nearly 7 months ago, the fates and a USFS Law Enforcement Officer (with canine) & friend conspired to fortune me with a fabulous female Malinois, Ebby, that I am training for the county Search and Rescue, with help from our county Sheriff's K-9 officer who also serves with the Barry SAR.
Mysteryy we have a plethora of caves in Missouri - hope your orientation went well!!
Chris, I'm a Tech+ Ham - KB0VAA. Dad and I studied together about 15 years ago for our initial test.
Looks like some trememdous SAR experience among you all!!

Permalink Reply by Bradley Richardson (B-rad) on December 29, 2007 at 12:17am

Hi Mudnut, I'm not too terribly far from you. I'm from Cobden, IL. I'm a member of the Union County Volunteer Rescue Squad. Nice to meet you.

Permalink Reply by Michael on April 23, 2008 at 12:13am

Hello, I am Michael from Canton/ Cuba Illinois. I am currenty on Cuba Fire Department, and Canton Emergency Services and Disaster Agency. I do belive that we did some search and rescue training with you guys from Alton. We attended one of the search and rescue trainings that was held in Adams County.

Permalink Reply by Rick on August 19, 2008 at 6:52pm

Hi, I'm Rick. I'm from Manitoba Canada. I'm a member of the local fire dept we deal with everthing from MCV to low angle rescue and anything in between.