Commander’s Corner

I’m Back !  It sure is good to be home once again. We had a good trip and got to visit our Mothers, our Son and Daughter and especially our four Grandchildren. The only regrets we have about Rim Country is that it has got 2000 miles between us and our family. The weather could have been better ( high temp. of 54 and rain the day we arrived) as we had a lot of rain and only 3 or 4 days above 72 degrees.

 I haven’t been fully updated on all the Squad activities and plans that transpired while I was gone, but I have been told by everyone that I have had contact with so far, that Dave Pirtle did an excellent job in my absence. Thanks, Dave!!! and also thanks to all who helped him out in my absence. The best part of being your Commander is the knowledge that there are so many capable members in Tonto Rim that are willing to pitch in and fill any void that occurs.

 While this is a short column this month due to my absence, I want to take this opportunity to remind all of you that elections are a mere 5 months away at which time we will be electing a new Commander (as well as electing or re-electing half our other officers).  All of you should be thinking about who you want in the leadership positions…maybe it’s you! 

 See you on the trail,

 Jim

 Don’t forget; the meetings this month are July 8^th for the Board and July 10^th for the General Meeting.

 

Activities

With the Fire Season in full swing, the missions are few due to forest closures but we again have been pressed into road guard duty for the Picture Fire. There may be more of this before we get rain, so please be willing to help out when called. Thanks to all those who have helped already.

Website

 

Check out our site at www.trsar.org

Thanks to Bill Pitterle for doing this.

 

Then also check out David Beckstead’s new site at http://davidbeckstead.com/

Makes you want to get married again just to have him take the pictures.

 

LOCAL WEATHER

Courtesy of Bill Pitterle 566

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

 

FOR SALE

18’ Cheetah Runabout fiberglass tri-hull ski-boat. 351 CI Ford V-8 MerCruiser I/O

30 gallon fuel tank, excellent shape throughout. Repainted and reupholstered recently. Everything works except speedo. Ready to ski, fish or just cruise. Asking only $2500.00

Contact Mike at 476-4947

 Member Profile

Jack (J.J.) Logan, 559

J.J. was born in Southeastern Iowa in 1936.  He moved to California when he was 5 years old.  Most of his schooling was in San Bernardino.  J.J. graduated from Brown Military Academy.  Shortly after graduation he joined the Air Force for four years.  It was while he was in the Air Force that he married his wife Arleen. 

While in the Air Force J.J. learned radio and radar maintenance, and it was this training that landed him a job with G.E. at Edwards Air Force base from which he retired thirty-four years later. He and his family lived in Lancaster, California the entire time.

J.J. and Arleen have two daughters, one son, four grandchildren and three great grandchildren. J.J. and Arleen are very proud of their family.  While living in Lancaster the family enjoyed water sports of all kinds on the Colorado River.  J.J. also was an avid Motorcycle racer, racing for 19 years and achieving the number “7” spot in the “Expert” class. 

In 1998 he gave up racing to move to Payson.  He had visited his daughter and granddaughter here and loved the place.  J.J. enjoys fly-fishing but doesn’t do this as often as he’d like.  He also loves four wheeling both with a Jeep and a Quad.  

J.J. learned about Tonto Rim from his daughter who happens to live across the street from Jim Martin.  J.J. has jumped right into the Squad activities and has found a 2nd home.

 We are very happy to have J.J. on the team. 

 

Changes

 We have ONE new member this month!

Tom Sander of Strawberry
 

A Senior Moment

Jane Boyles

DECISIONS AND JUDGMENT CALLS

 

     As we grow older, we tend to question others judgment and decision making strategies.

Sometimes from an individual perspective, there seems to be no good logic for the decision made.  Other times one might think, gee, I wish I had thought of that.  So let’s apply this logic to Search and Rescue tactics. 

Remember the ICS strategy and the Incident Commander?   Well, while he will listen to the suggestions of others, his decision is the final one. He bears the responsibility.  Let us explore how Command decisions are made.  Command makes the calls after consulting with the field leaders.  Compiling this information, asking pertinent questions and using past experiences, allows for a very knowledgeable decision making process.  Not everyone involved in a search or rescue mission is privileged to all of the facts surrounding these decisions.  Remember too, all of these decisions are documented for the necessary reports.

     Who is the Incident Commander?  He is the Sheriff’s SENIOR OFFICER on scene.  Often it is the Deputy first arriving and making the initial assessment of need.  If he is not a Search coordinator, this leadership roll will transition to the SAR coordinator responding.  The volunteer SAR group responding will provide a senior officer to assist the IC. This person will be someone the SAR IC is comfortable with and they will work closely together to best utilize the resources immediately available.  This roll might be to just form his initial teams and assign squad members. His instructions will come from the Incident Commander. It is not necessary for this person to remain at base camp as it is not always necessary for the Command Post to be stationary.  Many effective searches have been conducted from a rolling command.  

     Participation in the training exercises is so very important.  The first responding volunteers will be the first assigned.  Teams will be chosen according to their knowledge, experience and leadership. This is the time to ask yourself, are you capable of tracking a human?  Are you prepared to lift a litter and carry an injured subject?  If you are not trained to be a line searcher, then how can you knowingly accept an assignment to do a critical line search and expect to be proficient.   Judgment calls have to be made by your leaders.  Can they count on you? Once the initial assignments are completed and the personnel dispatched, the leadership rolls of the volunteers may change.  Many decisions are made by the IC after consulting with his field advisors as conditions and tactics require changes and re-evaluation.  Therefore, this is not a time when an individual volunteer decides he should make his own changes on how to handle the operation.  If you cannot perform as expected, or if you do not feel competent, it is perfectly ok to tell your team leader how you feel.  But the tactical decision making is done at and by the Command.  If you and your team decide that the assignment cannot be completed according to plan, your leader will radio for a change to be made.  The Incident Commander’ decision changes are documented for future reference.  Always remember the subject’s welfare is most important.  Is it going to be compromised in any way by your actions? 

Knowledge and experience and training; THAT OTHERS MAY LIVE.    

           

Fundraiser

Thanks to all who have been busy selling tickets for the Jeep Raffle. This 4^th of July weekend will be our last stand for public sales. Any tickets you may have whether sold or not must be turned in by the meeting next week. Our drawing will be held around the 15^th on KMOG radio. So far we are just under 400 for total tickets sold.

Starting in August, we will be doing a mass mailing of our solicitation letter and those who did not participate in ticket sales will be expected to work on this.  More on this to follow.

 

Mission Archives

It’s hard to imagine a blinding snowstorm with the weather we have been having but I recall a long winter night we spent out in the Colcord area. We were looking for a hunter who had not been able to find his camp the day before due to a heavy snowfall with high wind.

He had left his hunting partner to hunt an area west of camp in the morning and a strong, blinding storm moved in right after noon. He had planned to only be gone a few hours so had no extra supplies or food. The partner called in the report that evening after dark and we were activated about 2100 as I recall. The highways were solid ice packed and very slick and traffic was light and slow. By some miracle, none of our members had any incidents due to road conditions and about 12 showed up before midnight.

Sgt Hudgens had requested ATVs as well as foot searchers and we were sent in virtually every direction as there was no real idea of where he might be. We searched all night and by dawn the skies had cleared and we still had no idea where he might be.

Shortly after daylight, one of our ATV members came upon a hunter walking toward base camp from the highway. Questioning him, he was determined to be our subject. He had missed the camp the day before and gone south and east of it. Once he had daylight, he was able to get his bearings, walk to the highway and flag down a ride back to the camp area. He was OK except for being bitterly cold and told us he had tried unsuccessfully to build a fire by burning the only paper he had with him; folding currency. That night cost him a bundle. We were glad to shut this one down and return to our warm homes.

 

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

Please continue to share for the enlightenment of all.

Mike