SAR COORDINATES

Jim, TR4

Don’t forget; the meetings this month are July 9th for the Board

And July 11th for the General Meeting

LEADERS AND LEGENDS IN SAR

Lt. Jim Driscoll, Retired

Coconino County Sheriff Department

Currently; Coconino County Emergency Service Director

Jim, who has been in and around Coconino county for the past forty years, retired as a Lieutenant with the Coconino County Sheriff’s Department where he was the Search and Rescue Coordinator for many years. With his two partners they covered one of the largest counties in the United States. Searches and rescues happened from and in the Grand Canyon to Lake Powell to Sedona and along the Mogollon Rim. His team of volunteers ranged from retirees to college students. Having the largest and highest mountain in Arizona with the famous Snow Bowl centered in the county gave his team plenty of search activity during the snow season.

The first time I met Jim Driscoll was at the second SAR academy to be held in the state. We had just joined Tonto Rim SAR and the State Sheriffs Association was just getting the training of the volunteers organized. He and James Langston along with other officials had created a two day event with many speakers, instructors and hands on activities.

Jim had several large and very well publicized searches in Coconino County. One very well known case was Danny Ray Horning, who eluded captivity for several days. Danny was originally from Winslow. He spent several days in the Pine area, unbeknownst to the officials, hiding out in a secluded cabin. He then led the searchers on a chase through the forests with a family that he had kidnapped. The search became a federal offense when he took the family into the Grand Canyon National Park. In came the Marines from Quantico Marine Base complete with their armored vehicles. Horning was finally captured in Sedona. Jim also led the search for the missing Jennifer Wilson, a young lady from Yuma who was vacationing with her parents in Flagstaff. The results of this extended search gave closure to a grieving family. Jim’s compassion was so obvious to all of us who worked with him. One very blustery snowy night we were called to take the snow cat to Flagstaff Airport to hunt for a downed Fed-Ex plane. The crash site was discovered early the next day. I t was one time that the Command center was in a warm place—the terminal executive offices. The respect that Jim Driscoll received that day was so overwhelming. The press listened to him, asked intelligent questions and was satisfied with his answers. His calm demeanor put everyone at ease. My job that day was to sit with the missing pilot’s wife. We had a view of the whole runway area and could watch a lot of the aerial search activity. Jim kept her continually informed of the progress being made.

I have had the privilege of attending many SAR CITY trainings in Barstow. One year Jim sent me over there with the specific purpose to interview the coordinator of SAR CITY, find out how it was organized, and bring back a plan to create a similar training here in Arizona. The packet was put together, given to the Sheriff’s Association Coordinators and our current training activity that was held in Prescott in May is the result.

Jim really enjoys fly fishing and on his days off can often be found deep in the canyons of our wild rivers here and in Colorado. He has a new job now--Director of Emergency Services for Coconino County. We will probably cross paths again in our rescue work as our Counties do work together in times of disasters and Gila County borders Coconino all along the Mogollon Rim.

Planned Training Sessions (after next general meeting)

Scheduled Globe Training Sessions

13-Jul (Sat)+ "Blood Borne Pathogen" – 1400 hrs – SAR Headquarters in Globe

Note: This has supposedly become a state mandated training session to be conducted on a

yearly basis – getting further information.

It was over a year ago, but I still vividly remember the Redman Cave search last February.
There were some specific aspects of the search that were unusual and unique in my experiences in search and rescue work.
It was the first time I had been involved in a cave search. I have been in large, tourist caves such as; Mammoth Caves, Ky., Carlsbad Caverns, NM, and most recently, Kartchner Caverns, Az. (Highly recommend the Kartchner experience.)
But this was different. We had to crawl through an opening that wasn’t much larger than Ron Crimmins shoulders. I still don’t know how he made it through! After a period of crawling through different turns, we came into a large tunnel area where we could actually stand up and had room to move around. (Still no place for individuals with claustrophobic feelings!)
Two young men had gone exploring into the cave with a minimal amount of safety equipment and had gone diving in the pools located down a shaft beyond the tunnel where we were stationed. The water, according to Sgt. Adam Shepard was like chocolate milk and visibility was extremely poor to say the least.
The two young men had been swimming (with no scuba gear) and had gotten separated. One of the individuals made his way out of the cave and was able to leave and call for help.
After a number of hours of searching, Sgt. Shepard with the aid of his scuba equipment, was able to locate the subject and extricate the body.
When the "901" call was relayed back to us, we knew the subject was deceased. The young man had gotten his foot caught in a crevice underwater and unfortunately drowned.
I have been in searches where a deceased subject has been involved, but the part of this search, the aspect of actively lifting out the subject in a black body bag and dragging him up through the shaft and pulling him out of the narrow openings., was unique.
I think it was the environment of the cave interior, the proximity and actually handling the body and the fact that he was 25 years old and my youngest son was also 25 at the time, that heightened the emotional effect on me as an individual.
I believe all these factors coupled with the fact I have not had a lot of experience with dead bodies, must have affected me more, because I was visibly shaken when I finally got out of the cave.
An additional factor which I take responsibility for, is that I was the Safety Officer and I neglected to remind everyone to bring in water. We were in the cave for 5.5 hours. Perhaps the high humidity in the cave explained the reason we weren’t more dehydrated. I’m also sure that our physical state coupled with the death of the subject added to the dramatic aspects of this unusual search.
Still another interesting aspect of the cave experience was that we were looking for an anchor for our rigging and usually we look for a "Bomb proof" anchor such as an oak tree or juniper etc. We experimented using "Friends" (anchors) in cracks in the cave sides but they didn’t seem adequate. But there was a large boulder in the center of the tunnel area and we radioed out for 50’ of anchor tape. Fred Berneche did an excellent job securing our anchor and with Fred’s help, Ron Crimmins, Anita Carnine and Jim McMillion, we were subsequently able to rig our pulley system to raise the subject out of the cave shaft.
Terry Murray and Jim Martin were in the shaft aiding Sgt. Shepard in the first part of the body removal.
I would also like to acknowledge the other TRSAR squad members including Dave Pirtle, Cliff Sage, Bill Daily and Les Hulse.
Deputy Craig Smith also aided, and Sgt. Terry Hudgens was our incident commander.

I apologize if I omitted anyone who was involved in the search and/or if I mixed up any facts of the mission.

Everyone involved was commended by Edward Guerrero, Cruz Salas, and Ronald Christenson from the Gila County Board of Supervisors and sheriff John Armer for the TRSAR team who showed, "exceptional dedication and courage in an extremely dangerous situation."

Following this experience, I made up a "Safety" presentation with a suggested list for TRSAR in a future cave mission.

1. BRING WATER
2. Small rectangular duffle(rope bag size) for dragging through possible narrow openings to include water and the following. (a strap or handle on the end would be helpful)
3. Kneepads, and/or elbow pads…very handy if crawling is required.
4. If any climbing or descending is involved…rope techs should bring their harness and minimum soft and hardware.
5. Hard hat, head lamp, small flashlight, and extras batteries for both.
6. Radio with extra batteries…we needed extra radios to relay through the turns in the cave tunnel.
7. If the duffle is not water repellant…keep all supplies in ziplock bags as many caves are high in humidity and may have moisture present.
8. Bring some food…(we were in the cave for more than 5 hours) It wasn’t easy to leave for a food break and we didn’t….
9. Bring gloves for hauling rope and/or protecting hands if ;you have to crawl..
10. Wear layers – but nothing bulky…as you may have to go through narrow passages…it was considerably warmer in the cave than the outside February air..

SQUAD NEEDS:

1. SAR truck…we needed rope equipment
2. At least 12 squad members if possible….we needed extra SAR members for hauling, moving equipment in and out of the cave, for radio relays, for outside the cave etc.

I have to say that, in my lifetime, I have never seen 1st, such an incredibly disturbing event site, and 2nd, such an awesome response from a largely volunteer rural FD/EMS group. When it went to an announced recovery effort, the realization of what had happened was very apparent in the faces of all of the people on site--having been on several recovery missions as part of TRSAR, I not only recognized the emotion, but was struck by it myself. As of Saturday evening at 6:00, the dive teams had located 12 vehicles submerged, with a best guess of 15 to 20 fatalities. Additionally, the collapsed roadway sections appear to have several (2-5) vehicles underneath- number of occupants unknown. The local authorities are doing a magnificent job of managing a very major event--because of my TRSAR credentials, I was asked to observe the initial phases of the recovery operation, and give some feedback as to staging and crowd control---I have to say, that that was the last thing I expected. In the face of all that was going on, someone in charge was able to compartmentalize and utilize and manage the event on several different levels, to manage the rescue/recovery effort and to recognize the potential value that a qualified outsider might be able to bring into such a situation. I'M SO PROUD TO BE AN OKIE!!!