It Seems That Lost People Have A Tendency to Travel in Circles

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Training and a Rescue on Mt. San Jacinto

The Cave Team trained in the Mt. San Jacinto area on Saturday, August 15. The plan was a search scenario followed by personal vertical skills practice. Toward the end of the search scenario, we were approached by the San Jacinto State Park rangers to assist in the rescue of a dehydrated hiker on the Cactus to Clouds Trail. After a quick call to Dan Whitten to get the approval (OK, not that quick. I had to hike back up to the tram station), we hit the trail.

Mark Kinsey, Dave Bullock, John Norman, and Robert Hill made their way down the trail toward the patient carrying a bunch of water and 1st aid supplies, while Mark Peterson and I stayed at the top to maintain cell coverage if needed. I also spent the time tracking down Riverside Mountain Rescue Unit to advise them of the situation. The Park said that they had requested them, but I called just to make sure and to coordinate with them should they respond. We were out of county, and I wanted to make sure that all was in order.

The decision was made to hydrate the hiker and hike him out to the top. This trail is very steep, and under normal conditions the hike from his location would take about an hour and a half. In all the mission took about 6 hours to complete. Everybody exited safely and without incident.

The map below shows our search areas for our training as well as various locations of our hiker.

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Director's Dialogue August 2009

If you remember, and I am sure that most of you do, that back in the August 2008 Directors Dialogue, we talked about participation (or lack thereof) of members for call-outs. It turned out that most of our units were in-fact, having problems getting their members to participate on these various missions.

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Mud Run Committee Meeting

The Mud Run Committee Meeting will be on Thursday, August 20, 2009. It will NOT be held on the 19th. This meeting starts at 6 p.m. and will be at the Basic Academy at Glen Helen, Classroom D.

All SAR Commanders and Coordinators who are interested in participating are invited to attend this meeting.

For further information and to sign up for the Mud Run please contact Deputy Marion Browne at: 909-377-0380 or 951-323-9460. Her email address is: mbrowne@sbcsd.org

 Thank You!!!

Basic Mountaineering Course Being Updated

The Basic Mountaineering Course (BMC) is in the process of being updated. Over the past few months twenty SAR members from nine teams (one out of county) and two VF members have had online discussions about the prerequisites to take BMC, requirements to be an instructor and course design. Fourteen of those individuals met at the Sheriff Office and finalized changes. The updates will occur over the next two years.

For the next BMC, all students must be certified in Personal Vertical Skills (PVS). The due date for this is just prior to the field weekend, January 23-24, 2010. Thus individuals can take the lecture portion on November 21-22, 2009 while learning PVS.

For more information please email Sonny Lawrence, Cave and Technical Rescue Team: canyonear AT gmail DOT com.

Wildland Fire Safety Information

These documents have been compiled for us by Bob Gattas of West Valley SAR.

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SAR Course Registration Procedure

Effective immediately we have implemented a standardized procedure for registering for all of the Search & Rescue Courses hosted by Volunteer Forces (BSAR, BMC, PVS, TRBC, etc). The procedure will mirror the process that has been used for years to register students for the Basic Search & Rescue Academy. The student will fill out the SAR Course Registration Form and forward it along with a $50.00 check to Volunteer Forces. The $50.00 check will serve to hold the student's spot in the course. The $50.00 check will be returned when the student completes the course. This standardized process along with posting the dates of the trainings 12-18 months in advance will help Volunteer Forces better plan for training needs and schedule instructors.

The SAR Course Registration on the DOCUMENTS page.The dates of all of these trainings through the end of 2010 are currently posted on the calendar.

NOTE - NEW MEMBERS MAY NOT PARTICIPATE IN ANY TRAINING UNTIL THEY ARE FULLY SWORN-IN (they are not sworn-in until they have received their Orders and Sheriff's Identification Card). Please do not have new members attempt to register for a course before they are fully sworn-in, their paperwork will not be processed.

Please contact me if you have any questions,

Cpl. Dan Whitten

CalMRA Frequency Database Project

At the last Cal MRA meeting, Bob Gattas of West Valley SAR offered to compile a frequency database for the region's teams. A number of teams still need to complete the form. It can be found at CalMRA Frequency Database Entry Form.

San Bernardino County MRA teams need NOT complete this form.

New Mission-Ready Search Dog

The Department now has a new mission-ready Area/Wilderness Search Dog Team. A member of the SBSD Search Dog Team, Kola, a Golden Retriever, and I took and passed our final wilderness dog test to become field certified. The final test covers 160 acres with two "lost" subjects placed somewhere out there, and must be completed within four hours.

From Search Dog

I want to thank my teammates on the Search Dog Team. Without all their training help and expertise, we would never have made it. Kola in no way is replacing my dear Laddie, but now I have a dog to fill Laddie's shoes when he retires. He has taught Kola everything he knows! We look forward to working with everyone on the next call-out!

From Search Dog

Director's Dialogue July 2009

The SAR Council is hosting a Helitac Class on Sunday, July 19^th at Aviation. If you have any members who want to attend this class have them get a hold of me no later than July 10^th. The class will start at 9 a.m. and if you say you are going, then we need to plan on you attending. Please email me at: davenicolet@earthlink.net. It will be on a first come first serve basis. We have room for 25

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