Commander’s Corner
May is almost
here and April just flew by. The reason that this month passed so
quickly was that, while it was a month full of events and
activities, many of our members jumped in and made sure that what
needed to be done, got done. It is so rewarding to me as Commander
to have the willing cooperation of so many members. This last
weekend was a testimony to this fact. I witnessed the most
successful and well-run S.A.R. Academy ever. It was attended by 32
students (20 from Tonto Rim). John Boyles took on the
responsibility of organizing the event, securing the venue and the
instructors and making sure that it came off without a hitch! Les
Hulse did a lot of the preparation work, making sure the equipment
and facilities were in place (and cleaned-up afterwards). Ira
Gibel, Bill Daily and Les all participated as instructors and did
outstanding jobs! Volunteer tracking assistants, Charlie Conover,
Jim Mcmillion, Roger Miotto, and Ron Crimmins made that part of
the training a real success. While all this was going on, the
Peters and Conklins and others manned a booth at the big tent to
sell raffle tickets.
Earlier in the
month, 10 of our members participated in 3 days of various
training sessions at the annual AZ SAR Conference in Prescott.
John Avery planned and executed an all-day Quad training,
consisting of navigation skills and search techniques. While we
have had a lot of training recently, it is paying off. A
routine rope training in April turned into a real rescue when one
of our own members, Vynette Sage broke her ankle! While it was not
a happy event, I was extremely pleased at the efficiency and
teamwork the rope team exhibited in getting her stabilized,
packaged and out of the canyon.
Vynette was
not the first to make use of our new titanium litter, however, as
we also used it on a body recovery in the Granite Dells area
just a couple of days earlier. To round out the last weekends
events, in addition to the S.A.R. Academy and the Raffle sales, we
assisted in a carry out of a race participant between Horton
Springs and See Canyon on the Highline Trail Saturday evening.
As I alluded
to at the beginning, Tonto Rim Search and Rescue is not the
organization or the leadership, it is the members. I am
indeed fortunate to be the Commander and feel that that the
membership we have, and the caliber of future members we are
attracting, will make this a squad to be proud of for many years
yet to come!
Jim
Don’t forget; the
meetings this month are May 6th for the Boardand May 8th
for the General Meeting.
Mission pictures can
be viewed by opening the May2003 Digital News exe file.
Sheriff’s Office
No news is good news, so they say.
Real Caring Quote
“My marriage
was important to me, and so I made sure my outside encounters
never became more than one-night-stands.” --Geraldo
Rivera in his autobiography, ‘Exposing Myself’
Certification
We have three
members attending the5-day Rope Certification class in Sedona this
week.
They are
Roger Miotto, Dave Pirtle and Bill
Pitterle. This will supplement the Rope Team leaders we now
have and provide the Squad with more expertise in that field.
A SENIOR MOMENT
Jane
Boyles
INCIDENT COMMAND SYSTEM
For a
layperson, the Incident Command System might raise questions as to
what is going on. Once you understand the organized system, it not
only makes sense but one begins to see why it is so necessary in a
SAR operation.. Tonto Rim was privileged for several years to have
one of the best ICS instructors as part of its team. Not only was
Don Muise a top-notch hiker and tracker, but he had a degree in
forestry and knew the woods. While living in Pine he was assigned
to the Blue Ridge Ranger Station. It was our loss when he accepted
a promotion with the US Forest Service in Mt Washington National
Park in New Hampshire.
The
Incident Command System was created in part after a large highway
disaster in California became chaos when the responding rescue
personnel could not communicate with each other and no one agency
seemed to be in charge. The ICS system is now used in every large
disaster involving multi-agency personnel. It was most obvious to
us in the Rodeo-Chedeski fire last summer and the Pennsylvania
mine disaster shortly thereafter and of course the biggest
disaster of all in New York City. Recognizing the potential of
even the simplest incident turning in to a multi- agency
operation, ICS has begun to appear on even the smallest missions.
While the Search Coordinator may wear several hats at first, he is
now trained to expand the operation in the same organized way.
Therefore, when a mission does go into the second 12 hour period,
he has prepared a plan to transition leadership over to someone
else equally trained, be he from the same department, another
county or another agency. The ICS was apparent recently in
Coconino County during the search for the lost Rich aircraft. You
probably noticed that the Command Operations were not in the field
but miles away where there was room to operate. Often times the
"point last seen" (PLS) is not a suitable area to set up the
command post. Nor is it necessary for everyone to be at that scene
possibly destroying valuable evidence, tracks or scent. Responding
personnel will be assigned to different
search
areas, sometimes transported by a designated vehicle or
helicopter. When the whole Incident Command System is in
operation, there will be a need for separate sleeping, feeding and
resource staging areas, a briefing/debriefing set up and a Command
headquarters where the leaders can work without distraction.
Oftentimes communications will be separated from command to filter
out routine radio
conversations. Team members could be kept out of the Command Post
area to lessen congestion.
Lets us
now discuss the different "departments" in the Incident Command
System. No matter the size of the operation, these departments
will be functioning. If the mission has escalated to have the need
for each separate department, you will see the leaders identified
by some sort of name tag or vest. These groups normally operate in
twelve hour time periods utilizing a plan created by the previous
shift.
1. Incident Commander—(Search Manager)
THE BOSS—His major responsibility is search management. He must
supervise the entire operational period from start to finish and
obtain results. He is responsible for getting the right things
done at the right time with and through the efforts of others. He
will exercise knowledge and core skills which will include his
experiences and training in Leadership, Coordination, Planning,
Decision making, Supervision, Evaluation, Logistics,
Communications, deployment of Resources, Air operations and
applying Strategy and Tactics. Under his direct supervision will
be the Liaison Officer, Safety Officer and the Information
Officer.
2. Operations Chief—This leader will be
in charge of the Branch Directors of air, ground and water
resources, the unit leaders, the teams and squads. He is
responsible for transforming search objectives into on-scene
actions.
3. Planning Chief—He is in charge of the
briefings, debriefings, interviewing, investigating, situation
status, resource coordination, and resource status.
4. Logistics Chief—He is in charge of
all Service and Support, communications, food facilities,
supplies. Doing what ever is necessary to support operations,
providing supplies and equipment to carry out the mission.
5. Finance and Administration—Money—It
is necessary to establish all costs/expenses, all resource costs,
man hours, documentation and logs. It needs to be ongoing during a
search as well as the final tally post operations.
The key
initial management steps are establishing command, situation
analysis, establishing a command post, establishing communications
with dispatch/EOC, resource inventory/analysis, developing a basic
verbal incident attack/plan, appointment of the chiefs of each
division as the need escalates, surveying for safety, security,
and deployment of initial available resources. This is often all
accomplished by the first official arriving on scene. So if
assigned to cover a task, it is essential to have the basic
knowledge of the operation. This all comes about by training and
observation. The end critique session is where both
accomplishments and errors are discussed and learned from
to make a better operation for the next call out. Remember
everyone is out there working for the victim. May every search
have a good ending. You are there "THAT OTHERS MAY LIVE.
Training Schedule
May 3rd,
Saturday 0900 hrs. Line
Search training—FS 67 ¼ mile N. of Doll Baby Ranch Rd,
Les Hulse in charge
May 15th,
Thurs. 0800 hrs. ATV Trail Ride
(Over-nighter) Sierra Anchas, bring food for 5 meals, overnight
gear and survival gear, John Avery in charge.
May 17th
, Sat. 0900 hrs. Rope
Training, Box Canyon, Terry Murray in charge.
May 15th,
Thurs. 1800 hrs. CPR Training, Ira
Gibel’s house.
Jun 13th,
Friday, 0800 hrs. ATV Trail Ride,
Pine Mtn. John Avery in charge. More TBA
Jun 19th,
Thurs. 1800 hrs. First Responder
class, Ira Gibel’s house
Planned
Tracking practice—all
levels—Les Hulse in charge
Planned
Radio Communications class in
June, Bill Daily in charge
Planned
Clue Preservation, Jerry DuBois
in charge
The Basic SAR Academy was an especially
good training for our newer members. This is a big thank you to
all of the people who attended. All of the GCSO Roosevelt and
Globe Posse members that attended deserve a big congratulations
for having made the journey up from the South. Payson Posse was
represented as well. One new member from Maricopa County made the
trip up from the valley to join in the training. I wish to thank
all of the presenters, James Langston, Lt. Adam Shepard,
Dispatcher Bill Daily, Sgt. Terry Hudgens, Ira Gibel, Les Hulse,
and TRSAR Tracking instructors. Without the dedication of these
individuals, Tonto Rim could not possibly put this academy
together. Once again, during an Academy, we had a realty
check and had a call out to perform a mission at the end of our
first day. What better training could we have then to go help
someone in need. This is what it is all about and why we
train and volunteer our time. Thanks again everyone for a
job well done.
John Boyles 510
TRAINING COORDINATOR.
Pictures are available in the Digital News
exe file.
Member Profile
Scott Davidson
Scott was born Dec 3rd 1974 in
Tempe Arizona. Scott grew up in Tempe and went to school
there except for Kindergarten when he was in Australia and 8th
grade when he was in Zurich. He graduated from NAU in the
year 2000. Scott majored in Elementary Education and
Physical Science. Not only did Scott graduate from NAU in
2000, but also got married to Michele on June 17th of
the same year.
Scott is currently teaching 8th
grade math. He also runs an Outdoor Adventure Club for the
middle school students. They do hiking , rock climbing,
backpacking, caving and canoeing.
He also sings in the Praise Band at the
Methodist church as well as recently becoming involved with the
Big Brother program.
If that wasn’t enough, he is involved with
Tai Kwan Do and Judo. Somehow he fits Search and Rescue into
that busy schedule. He learned his Rope skills from his Dad
who was a mountain climber. Scott admits Rope Rescue is a
lot different from Rock-Climbing. Scott is a strong young
man with many skills.
Tonto Rim Search and Rescue is fortunate to
have him on our team.
FOR SALE
1995 Ford Explorer* XLT, 89,000 miles 4x4, V6, excellent
condition.
Fully loaded: leather interior, power seats,
power door locks, power windows, power steering, ABS, airbags, A/C
front and rear, AM/FM cassette front and rear, tilt wheel, cruise
control, privacy glass, towing, roof rack, rear cargo tray,
premium wheels.
*Rated by Consumer Reports among 12 most
reliable used cars in the $8,000—$10,000 range.
*Kelly Blue Book value is over $8000.
Picture may be seen in the Digital News exe
file.
PRICE $7450.Call Rick Heffernon
476-3710.
Note: Rick will be out of town between April
30 and May 7.
ALSO
Former member Don Bell has some SAR clothing for sale, including a top
quality jacket and some shirts.
If you are interested in any of these, contact Don at 474-4303.
YES and SAFE
Counselors from Troop
30, Grand Canyon Council gave their full attention to the S.A.F.E.
program being presented by Ira Gibel on April 13th.
A Y.E.S. program was presented at the same time to the Boy Scouts
by Les Hulse and Ron Crimmins. Both programs were well received.
Pictures are in the
Digital News exe file.
We have another SAFE
presentation scheduled for June 4th at Camp Shadow Rim
for Girl Scout Counselors. Won’t you join us for the fun?
Thanks to all who
contributed to this issue of the newsletter.
Please continue to
share for the enlightenment of all.
