I have always admired and respected the work that our Mountain and Rope Units have done, but never have I had the opportunity to really understand their total dedication to their specialty.
Over the weekend of November 21st and 22nd I got quite an introduction to what is all involved in performing their skills. The classroom portion of the BMC (Basic Mountaineering Course) was fantastic. I can only say this; my admiration to our members of these specialties has grown ten fold. Wow. I am totally blown away with the equipment, personal clothing and skills that are required to a part of this specialty.
Am I going to be one of these alpine or rope guys? I am going to have to think about that here for a few days. Remember, I do ground pounding and MSAR. Do I want to be at 8000 feet in a blizzard, expose myself to altitude sickness, freezing my fanny off and spending hundreds of dollars on equipment and cold weather gear…Not to sure right now!
Heck I am a desert guy, sand dunes are the highest mountains I climb, warm sunshine and nights are pretty nice and I have already spent quite a bundle on my horse, horse trailer, truck, tack and ground pounding gear.
Add this now to the fact that to do the field portion of the BMC class in January, now I have to learn my PVS (Personal Vertical Skills). You have to remember the highest I get is about 6 feet off the ground when mounted on my horse. A narrow three foot wide trail with shale and a fall off of hundreds of feet to one side is just about enough for me. So now besides freezing my bottom off in the snow I now have to go and hang off a rope hundreds of feet or so down the side of some cliff…what are you guys crazy?
Snow caves, snowshoes, snow poles and snow gear? How come that does not make sense to a guy who believes in sand dunes, sand piles, sand pails and yes even sand paper.
I will keep you updated on what my decision is. I would however; in the meantime like to give a big thank you to all of the people who instructed the class, they did an outstanding job. And yes I learned quite a bit about a skill that I was not familiar with. Again my hat is off to all of our volunteers who perform these duties.
I do not mean to dismiss the skills of our other specialty units. No way… I don’t care if you’re a ground pounder, a OHVSAR person, a MSAR type or even a dog handler, I am always in awe of those who spend the time and money to work in the specialty that they like.
Everyone of our SAR members in this county, no matter their field, are totally appreciated and admired by me. I told you three years ago when I took on this position that I still had a lot to learn about this thing called SAR. As I have gotten to interact amongst our members performing their specialty, as of today and in the future, I still am learning a lot.
Over these last three years I have learned that no one specialty is more important than the other. Each specialty has its own tasks to perform. I have learned that no one unit is better than then the other and that all of our members, again no matter their specialty preference they provide, are equally dedicated to the tasks at hand.
All of us have the same mission, we all have the same goals and we all have the same dedication to SAR. No matter another member’s SAR specialty, always respect that person for their dedication and efforts. Remember…. you belong to your individual units…but, we all are a part of this “One Big SAR Team” here in San Bernardino County
And by the way…
Does anyone out there know of any one that can make snowshoes for horses? I will keep looking; ole Chilly carries those 60-pound mountaineer backpacks a whole lot easier than I do!
Now on a serious note…
On behalf of the entire IESARC Board of Directors, Frank Kams, Christine Stuehrmann, Dave Northrop, Mike Ward and myself, we would like to wish all of you a very MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR…and don’t forget to read the attached!
During this holiday season please always remember to…
Be Safe
Dave Nicolet, Director
San Bernardino County Sheriff Department’s
Inland Empire Search and Rescue Council
davenicolet@earthlink.net
H: 760-363-7475
C: 760-831-5743
EVENTS, PAPERWORK, TRAININGS TO REMEMBER
December 12 – Gift of Love
December 19 – Memorial Wall Construction - Headquarters
December 31 – All new Unit Rosters due to Dan Whitten and Dave Nicolet.
January thru November 1, 2010 – Indiviudual SAR Skills Certifications must be conducted by your unit – The Units pick the month they wish to conduct this cert.
January 9 – Directors Breakfast – All Unit Commanders to Attend. Headquarters - 9 a.m.
January 12 – Citizen Volunteer Memorial Dedication – Headquarters -10 a.m.
January 20 – The first SAR Council Meeting of 2010. (18 down 6 to go). Headquarters – 7 p.m.
January 23 and 24 – BMC Field Exercise
January 31 – All HARMS Evaluator Resumes for 2010 are due to Volunteer Forces.
NOTE: I would like to thank all of you for answering the call to rally around the last SAR Council Meeting by attending. It was great to see you showing the County Board of Supervisors our appreciation. I do appreciate your efforts…thank you.