Director's Dialogue July 2010

It was a very busy month during June for just about all of our SAR units.  Countywide callouts, mutual aid callouts and local station callouts! My-gosh it has been slow, then like always everything hits at once.

I know that the Cave Team, Rim SAR, San Bernardino Mt. SAR, San G SAR, West Valley SAR, Morongo SAR and the Morongo Mounted SAR, and Valley of the Falls SAR have had their hands full.  Not only with their local calls, but also assisting with the countywide and mutual aid callouts as well. I would like to thank Dep Larry Falce and the entire SB Mountain SAR unit for the turn out they had at the Foster search in Landers last month.  Their unit showed up with 23 searchers on Sunday. Excellent turn out and thanks to all for your efforts. Commander Robert Scott did an excellent job with this as well.

We even got the Aero Squadron involved this past month with a four aircraft search in the Landers area for a lost motorcyclist. The Morongo units have been looking for this gentleman now for the last couple of months.

Also, our SBDO Dog Team has still been busy with several more trips to our local dumps like last month. Talk about hard work!  But, they have braved it while looking for a subject who has been supposedly dumped in one of them.

The heartbreak of the month though was the huge search we had up in the Joshua Tree National Park. This was a seven day operation ran by the Park and the Riverside County Sheriffs Department with a mutual aid assist from our county for four of those days.

We braved the heat, the darn ugly boulders, the wind and the desert environment just to come up empty handed.  It was a huge disappointment, but every time that we go into that park we know we have some tough work ahead of us.  And work everyone did, all of our personnel poured their hearts and souls into this search, unfortunately without any results.  Riverside had to make the determination to call it.  There were no clues, no signs, no anything to continue this operation; the good news is that the Park and their SAR folks will continue to keep an eye out for our subject…we wish them all of the luck in the world!  All of use would like to see this gentleman reunited with his loved ones real soon.

On a happier note, our SAR units did find and assist a lot of folks this month. 40 King did an excellent job in finding, assisting, hoisting subjects and even directing some of your search teams to safer routes while traveling out in the field.

This month was a total team effort by all of our personnel.  Most of our search teams were mixed with several members from different units and the members worked well with each other.  There were a number of units that assisted each other and they all worked well with each other’s units.  And, our own CP personnel did an excellent job on team assignments, logistics and the speed of deployment.   It was a great effort by all involved.

We have always said that, “You belong to our individual units, but we belong to one big SAR Team”. This last month our SAR members proved how true this is. My hat is off to each and every one of you for making that the truth.

A big thanks also goes out to Bear Valley SAR, Apple Valley Posse, Barstow Desert Rescue, Wightwood SAR, West Valley Posse and the East Valley Posse for all of their assistance during these operations.  It was one heck of a team effort this past month!

What’s new on the Volunteer Forces side of things?………..A lot!  Both Lt. Paterson and Sgt. Joling have jumped in with both feet.  They are meeting with members of the SAR Council, members of our committees, unit members and department personnel to get our input on some of the wants and needs of our SAR folks. They are open and delighted to get our in-put and they are trying everything that they can do to make our lives a lot easier.  

We can honestly say some good things are coming down the pike for all of us.  It is going to take some work, time and a commitment to work with VF to get a lot of things done, but it is going to be worth it in the long run.

Walt Peterson and Gary Card are going to be added to the CV Memorial, we are working on a ICS Response Team again, a standardized callout system is being looked at, deployment methods are being discussed, a new standardized roster and team member tracking systems are being analyzed.  And, last-but-least, the new BSAR Patch has been approved!  This is just a few of the items that are being looked at!

What has been really nice is that you have seen both the Lt. and the Sergeant out on a number of our searches.  They have been there not only to lend a hand, but more importantly, to get to know the members of our various SAR units. We appreciate their efforts and their support.

Volunteer Forces is also in the process of building a new volunteer display in the main lobby at Headquarters.  They have asked the SAR Council to ask each unit if they would put together a CD-ROM with digital photographs of the unit in action at both callouts and trainings.  They would like you to have these to VF by no later than August the 16th ……….Of this year!………lol.  Please label this CD-ROM with your unit’s name.  Thanks!

The SAR Council Meeting will be held this month on Wednesday, July 21st.  Same place and at the same time…7 p.m.  Volunteer Forces has a piece of equipment that they have given to us, so that we can give it to each unit at this meeting.  We hope that you can attend.  Remember this meeting is for all of your SAR personnel not just the Unit Reps. Also, Volunteer Forces will be making some announcements and the Aero Squadron will be in attendance to highlight the four-airplane search they did out in the Morongo Basin.  We believe this is a resource that we can use more often.

If you are a member of Facebook, go to “search” on your home page and type in  “Inland Empire Search and Rescue Council”.  This is a new site where you can go in, it’s for SAR personnel only, to discuss some SAR topics and view some great pictures that are up on the site.  Hope you can join us.

Last month it was mentioned that the SAR Council was trying to set up some dates to host two Helitac Courses; unfortunately we have run into a snag.  We are working with Aviation to get this matter resolved and hopefully by the end of this month we will be able to post some dates that will be available for you.  We will keep you posted on this.

It is the goal of the SAR Council; hopefully, to have the new BSAR patches available at the SAR Council Meeting for all the units who have had members graduate from BSAR during the last year and a half.  All efforts are being made to make this happen…keep your fingers crossed!

Well as you can see the Units, the SAR Council and Volunteer Forces have really been busy……….all for the best.  I hope to see all of you at the next SAR Council Meeting and until then…. may you, your families and your friends...

Be Safe
Dave Nicolet, Director
Inland Empire Search and Rescue Council
dnicolet@sbsar.org