Happy Holidays to one and all.

Don’t forget the GCSO Christmas Party at the
American Legion Post 69, 709 E Hwy 260 Sat Dec 6^th at 1800 hrs.

 

Commander’s Corner

Here’s hoping everyone had a good Thanksgiving! We in Rim Country have a lot to be thankful for, particularly, those of us in Tonto Rim Search and Rescue. Anywhere we get to work in the out-of-doors is great, but to be surrounded by the beauty and grandeur of this area is nothing short of remarkable. The climate is perfect, the terrain is interesting and the forest is nature at its best. The community support we have received is a direct reflection of the caring nature of the folks who inhabit this area. What more could we ask?

 The December meeting marks the election of officers; the ballots have been prepared and mailed to all eligible voting members. As I have stated in the past, this vote helps determine the future direction of your organization. If you can’t attend the December meeting, make sure to mail your ballot in advance of the meeting so it can be opened and counted during the meeting. Please make sure that your name is on the envelope. Your ballot and envelope will be separated so as to remain a secret vote. If you are at the meeting you can either mail your ballot ahead of time or submit it at the meeting.

 Mission activity has slowed considerably as is the usual case in the late fall and winter. This is by no means a time for us to lay back and do nothing! It is the ideal time for us to sharpen our skills through organized training exercises and individual practice. Colder weather, in many activities, offers us some challenges and tests our abilities in training; but on the other hand, if our skills are needed under the same circumstances, the speed and accuracy of the mission is usually more crucial. The response we have had for tracking training has been very good, and it is heartening to see more of our members becoming at least “track aware”. With additional dirt time practice and training along with the certification program we now have in place, we should be able to produce some reliable trackers for future missions.

 B.C.N.U. on the trail,

Jim  504

Don’t forget; the meetings this month are Dec 9^th
for the Board and Dec 11^th for the General Meeting.

A Senior Moment

By Jane Boyles

                                         JIM MARTIN and RUBY

A lot of changes have happened during the five years that Jim Martin has been involved in Tonto Rim SAR.  He came out here to the Southwest, expecting to take life easy after his retirement from General Motors.    Along with Jim came his lovely wife Janet and the beautiful Bloodhound Ruby.  He dropped into the Sheriff’s office one day, introduced himself and the rest is history.  Jim brought with him a lot of expertise in the search area from Michigan where he and Ruby were very involved.

Knowing the value of continuous training, Jim has encouraged official sessions and helping set up a certification course in man tracking.  He himself is certified in Technical Rope. He has encouraged high level instructors from outside Gila County to lead classes here.  Jim has lead by example in attending and encouraging others to attend conferences out of state.  His time spent doing Public Relations work has brought Tonto Rim some good equipment from the County.  Following in the footsteps of former Commander Mike Taylor, encouraging participation and involvement by everyone in the Squad, Jim has helped to raise the level of expertise to tops in the State. 

While Jim has retired Ruby and plans to step down as Commander himself, you will still find him involved with the Squad.  You will be electing a new Commander who will have big shoes to fill, but there is no doubt that your new leader will have that capability.  Knowing that each and every member of Tonto Rim will give the new Commander the same support, Jim can step down with peace of mind.  The future of SAR in Gila County is in your hands.  Training, certification and participation in missions is why you joined.  Each member needs to be a part of the team all the time, not just on a warm sunny day. Rescues, recoveries and search missions can and do happen any time of the day or night.  Experienced and well trained personnel are always needed at the scene—THAT OTHERS MAY LIVE. 

 

MEMBER Memories

By Dave Pirtle—507

My first mission as a Tonto Rim Search and Rescue member was a week after I had joined and it was the Norwin Dixon search near Parker Creek.  I had just bought an old jeep and had not outfitted it with anything but gas.  When I arrived at the Command post myself and Ron Crimmins were given the assignment to drive up Pocket Canyon to an old mining cabin.  We got up there at dusk.  The wind was blowing very hard and it was cold.  After searching the cabin area and reporting back to command, we were told to hold up on high ground for the evening and keep a big fire going all night.  I didn’t smoke and had no matches.  Ron Crimmins had some waterproof matches.  They were old and wouldn’t light.  We got the very LAST match to light and were somehow able to get a fire started in that wind.  A lot of effort was put into gathering firewood.  The wind made the fire consume fuel quickly.  My jeep being an older model did not have reclining seats, so sleeping was not easy.  Ron is a big man and his knees were tucked up under his chin while trying to sleep.  Needless to say it was a very long night.  At sun up we were told to return to Command for reassignment.  During our return I got the Jeep high centered on an old culvert.  The screw jack I had did not work.  Needless to say I was highly embarrassed at my predicament and at not being prepared.  I was determined we were NOT going to call Command for help.   Ron and I built a Fulcrum out of rocks and a small log to pry the front corner of the jeep up to enable stacking rocks under the wheels to get traction in the rear.  We finally got going again and returned to command.  I remember being giving day old Mc Donald’s hamburgers and they tasted very good.    That was just the beginning of a weeklong search.  Needless to say my first mission was a learning experience. 

 GCSO

The Dispatcher’s Job in Search and Rescue

By Bill Daily, GCSO

I have been asked on occasion, “What does the Dispatcher do on a Search and Rescue?” I’ll try to give you an idea what we do when we get a call from beginning to end in a call scenario form. 

 We get a call from a frantic parent somewhere in the woods.  I say this, as many callers really don’t know where they really are.  Usually they do, but you would be really surprised how many don’t.  They give you a general area where they are and some of the information as to what occurred prior to the call.

 We get calls from family members in the Valley wanting us to locate a loved one they haven’t heard from that was to be back several hours or days ago. The only location they have is “In the woods by Payson.” Sometimes it takes quite a while to find out where to even start a search. If they say they are camping by the lake, we then know that they are not “in Gila County in the woods.” They’re in Coconino County. We don’t have lakes in northern Gila County. They are given Coconino County phone number.

 Not in this scenario!!!!!!

 Usually one or more people, and many times, children have gone for a “short walk” after breakfast, after lunch or whenever.  They were only going to be gone for about an hour or two.  It now has been 4, 5, 6 hours and they’ve not returned.  Usually the time coincides with the age of the lost person/s.  Lost children are called in before teens or adults. 

 Our first response is to send a Deputy to the scene to get more particulars on the situation if it is an adult.  We then notify the on-duty or on-call supervisor. The SAR Coordinator is notified and given what information we have. When in the case of children, SAR is paged out immediately. As you know, time can be of the essence with children.  The Deputy goes to the scene and gets more detailed information. This is relayed to dispatch and is then relayed to the SAR Coordinator. He evaluates if it is necessary to call out SAR at that time. Many times only specialized members are paged out, such as; Rope Team, Quads, Hasty teams, Jeeps, and on occasion only a call for DPS Helicopter.  The dispatcher may also do an “All Call” for all members.

SAR can only be called out by the Sheriff’s Office, Fire Departments, and other law enforcement agencies. All call outs are done through the SAR coordinator.

 Next is to notify the Chain-of-Command. The Dispatcher then does a “Supervisor Page” notifying all supervisors of the SAR call out. Usually this page is limited and the Supervisors call on the phone for more details. The supervisors paged are Sheriff, Chief Deputy, Under Sheriff, Lieutenants, (Payson and Globe) and all Payson Sergeants.   

Now that things have “Calmed down” a bit, a news release is typed up, put on our letterhead and faxed to all news media in Gila County and Maricopa County. The news media then begin to call for information. In the case of the TV stations they want to know if they can send a helicopter to help, what the particulars of the search are, where it is located, how many people are on scene, information on the lost or injured party, what frequency the helicopter can call the Command Post on, and a hundred other questions, most of which we have no answer for.

 You are now looking at a time span of about 15-30 minutes. Hopefully you have more than one dispatcher on duty.  This will get the information disseminated in a timelier manner to all involved.

 We do have some time to relax a bit now. What occurs now are updates to all those involved, Under Sheriff, Chief Deputy, Sheriff, Lt’s, Sgt’s and media when we have information that is relative. The news media is constantly calling for updates and if they can come to the scene and where is it. Many TV helicopters have our radio frequencies and they are calling when they get to the location for updates.

 Now comes the coordination of assets. DPS usually has arrived or is getting close enough to be in radio contact.  We have made two or three calls to DPS to give them good coordinates to locate the scene.  We give them location by Latitude and Longitude, a general description by landmark and a description of the subject or subjects. The helicopter uses Lat/Lon as opposed to UTM as we use. 

 The coordination of assets, on the most part by this time, is released from us to the SAR Coordinator or the Deputy at the scene. Our job now becomes a bit easier with all the personnel in place.

During the search there can be many things that come up that we do. Directing personnel to the area if they are not familiar with it, coordinating food, water and equipment needed for the troops, calling out and coordinating more people if needed, making necessary phone calls to relatives or friends updating them on what’s going on, just to name a few. Then we update all personnel again as to what is now being done or has been done and the current situation of the search. Updates are given out as soon as anything of importance comes to light.  Now we have to decide what is classified as “important.” We also give updates even if we have heard nothing of consequence. 

 Are we having fun yet?

 Now the subject has been found, but has been injured. Your job as SAR just became more difficult. You now have to get them out to a loading zone for Helicopter or Ambulance. All we have to do is call out medical. As soon as you are within the medical response time, they’re called. You may have to pack the subject some distance to a landing zone for the helicopter or pickup location for the ambulance.

 After all is well, the subject is brought to the landing zone or to the ambulance and is on the way home or to the hospital depending on injuries. The dispatcher now notifies all related personnel of the completion of the search and/or rescue. 

We make the original calls again giving the Chain-of-Command the information. We call DPS to tell them their helicopter is done and will be on the way home shortly. We do another supervisor page notifying them of the outcome and pertinent information. We then do a news release to the media again bringing them up on what has occurred. Then the news media starts calling again. They have been calling all along during the search but want more detailed information. Who the lost people were, where they were found, what condition they were in, are they going to survive, what hospital they went to, etc. Many have sent their helicopter and news crews to the scene during the search.

 So ends the search and rescue. Golly, I forgot something.  During all this searching and rescuing you folks have been doing, the dispatcher has been entering all this information in the computer.  Yes, right from the start.  Anything that was said over the radio, any phone calls that came in or went out about it, anything and everything is logged in the computer under the call.  This can mean many pages of entries by time, who you talked to, what they said, what you said to them, who you called, who told you what, what you told them, what equipment was called out, what further assistance was called for, you name it, it all goes in the computer in chronological order by time.

 Finally the search is really done, the subject is found, everybody has gone home and are sleeping soundly in their warm beds at 0200 hours. Guess what, that poor dispatcher still has four more hours to work on their shift…….

 And while all this is going on, they still have to do the routine work they do every day, day in, day out. The burglaries, domestics, answer the questions on the phone, tell the other deputies that are on duty what’s going on with the search, talking to the people that come to the door, running checks on drivers and vehicles, making entries in the computer on all the other calls they are working, entering warrants and order of protections, running checks on people that have been booked, answering the 911 calls about the quads running the neighborhood, loud music, barking dogs, and all the other neat-o stuff we do.

 I hope this has given you an idea as to what is happening on the other end of your pager, cell phone, and radio. We are a team, TRSAR, the Dispatcher, the Coordinator, the Deputy and any other person associated with the search.  Without each other, none of us could do their jobs in a professional manner.  We dispatchers thank you for all you do and we hope in our hearts you appreciate what we do.  I hope this gives you a bit of in-site as to what we do on our end.  I personally know what you do and I try to get our dispatchers aware of what you do.  Maybe we can arrange it so the dispatchers could come out during a search and view what happens in the field.  Keep up the good work Tonto Rim Search and Rescue……the best in the west!!!!!!

 

 

Election

The Nominating Committee has completed its assignment. The ballots were mailed to all Active members. Now it is your turn.

Please follow the directions regarding voting and submitting of the ballot.

This is a serious matter that no member should take lightly. The future of our Squad is in the hands of you, the member and the candidate you select. Although you may only be one vote, yours is the most important one because only you have control of it. No one else can break a tie with your vote.

We have a great list of qualified candidates, every one of which would be excellent in office. Your assignment is to pick the absolute BEST from the list.

GO! TEAM! GO!

 

WEBSITES

Check out our site at:

 www.trsar.org

Thanks to Bill Pitterle for doing this.

 LOCAL WEATHER

Courtesy of Bill Pitterle 541

 

http://wjpitterle.mystarband.net/weather/wx.htm

 

For Sale

 

1996 Honda ATV 4x4 400 Foreman.

(See email picture attachment)

New tires, 1,873 miles, one owner. Excellent condition. $3,995

Dick Snell, dksnell22@earthlink.net

 

TRAINING SCHEDULE

Scheduled Training Sessions (current)

11-Dec-(Thu)   Rope Training –Time & Location: After the Gen. Meeting -Subject: Personal Gear- (in charge Rope Team Instructors) interested people invited to attend

17-Dec-(Wed)  ATV Exercise-ATV Rodeo & Pancake Breakfast- Squad Grounds everyone welcome (in charge-                                John Avery)    

06-Dec-(Sat)        Man Tracking Certification–TBA Les Hulse in charge

Dec-(Sat)         Man Tracking- Classroom- time TBA- Squad Bldg.-(in charge Les Hulse)

Planned Training Sessions (after next general meeting)

Planned                        Navigation Training – TBA – (in charge: Jim Olerich)

* Dates will be determined.

Requested Training Sessions

…                If you would like to volunteer to run a training session, or if you have a training session request,

Contact Les Hulse or John Boyles

 

Thanks to those who contributed to this issue of the newsletter.

Mike