The Search for a "Missing" Equestrian

The evening of Saturday, July 13, I received the call to assist in the search for a missing woman riding a horse in the Deep Creek area of Apple Valley/Victorville. Wrightwood SAR was working the search through the night, and they needed relief for managing the search the following day. We arrived Sunday morning to find the night shift in an organized command post, tired, a bit frustrated, and ready for a break. Also, we found a stack of plans written, and waiting for personnel assignments. HOORAY! All of you search managers out there take note. If your event is planned for an additional operational period, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE write plans for the next OP. Don't leave this to the relief management team. If plans are not written ahead of time, it delays getting teams into the field. Begin planning the next OP sooner rather than later. Once teams are deployed, it is time to begin assessing your deficiencies and thinking about the next OP.

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In our initial briefing, the source of much of the previous shift's frustration became quite apparent. They had a few "confirmed" sightings of the missing person in wildly different locations. This required them to devote limited resources all over the place. Compound this with the fact that the missing person was riding a horse, conflicting, and delayed, information from the reporting parties, and you have a search area half the size of Orange County.

During operational period 1, search managers were confident in their containment of the area north of the initial planning point with the exception of a couple of areas, so for operational period 2, our goals were to contain the PCT east and west from that location, search the remaining areas north of the IPP, and cover additional areas with sufficient POA. At our disposal were OHV, ground, technical, mounted, canine, and air resources

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