Wrightwood-Phelan SAR Passes MRA Search & Tracking Certification

For the Wrightwood/Phelan Search and Rescue Team, November 18, 2012 was one of those very important days that you can’t wait for, and at the same time, you are dreading. This was the day the team had been training for over the past year and a half. They were going for a national certification with the Mountain Rescue Association.

As a team, the Wrightwood/Phelan SAR team felt pretty good about running searches. It really wasn’t something that we did very often, but when there was a search, we had been very successful. However, the process of going for the Search and Tracking certification with the MRA gave us an entirely new perspective on search management. There are three official parts to the certification, and they all require time to become proficient.  

The first is the search scenario, which requires the team to track a missing person, starting from their last known location. Once the subject is located, the team has to provide the proper first aid and then transport the subject via litter to a location that is accessible by an ambulance. All the while, the team has to operate a command post that both directs and tracks the movements of the search teams. Command and control are very important to the scenario, and this includes good communication, map skills, and a lot of paperwork.  Everything has to be tracked and prepared for. An incident action plan (IAP) as to be written and emergencies have to be planned for, as well as planning for the next operational period. Our team members are great at tracking a subject, but we had a lot to learn about the command and control aspects of running a search.

The second part is an emergency locator transmitter (ELT) search.  In this scenario the team has to locate the transmitter of a downed aircraft. This required the acquisition of at least two ELT receivers and a transmitter to practice with. The transmitter could be anywhere within five miles of the command post, and if you don’t pick up the signal right away, then you have to go find it. This scenario also requires good command post skills, as the teams are moving both on foot and in vehicles. The terrain can hide the signal or create false images. It is up to the command post to decipher the information and direct the field teams to the transmitter. This required the team to learn the quirks of their two receivers.  One with greater range, and the other with more accuracy when you are less than a quarter mile from the transmitter.  The command post had to learn to recognize reflections from direct signals and develop plans that could help determine one signal from another.

Part three is a grid search. Nothing special was required for this scenario. The team had to complete a grid search over a specific area within a limited amount of time, and locate as many clues as possible.

So how did we do?  We passed! Here are the details. During the “search and tracking” scenario the team began by securing the point last seen, while at the same time set up a command post which included a radio, computer and printer, maps, and a three member command post team. One team located and photographed tracks of the subjects where they established a direction of travel and began tracking.  The second team took a copy of the tracks, verified the information and the tracks, and then moved out into the field to look for track traps and cut for sign. The command post quickly developed search plans, and printed maps, and instructions for the field teams. The subjects were located within two and a half hours of arriving on the scene. One subject was in good condition, while the second subject was determined to have a broken left leg. The leg was splinted by the search team, and the subject was secured into a litter and carried him to a road where he could be transported via vehicle to a hospital. Part one:  passed.

The ELT Search was the part that gave the team the most trouble. The transmitter was placed in a location that proved to be tricky for the command post to isolate. As a result, the team took an extra forty-five minutes to locate the transmitter. Still, the mission was completed within the time limit. Part two:  passed.

The “grid search” was in an area approximately 100 by 200 feet and filled with very tall, very thick brush. We had a mere fifteen minutes to cover the entire area and recover any clues that might have been left behind.The brush was so thick that the team had to have someone holding up a marker on one side of the search area to help keep them on track.Fourteen and a half minutes later, the search area had been fully searched.  We predicted that the probability of detection was 80%, but the actual result was 100% detection with all clues collected.  Part three:  passed.

The Wrightwood/Phelan SAR team is one of three teams in San Bernardino County to obtain search and tracking certification (West Valley SAR and the Cave Team being the other two). The Wrightwood/Phelan team would like to encourage other teams in our county to become MRA members and become certified.  Even if a team has no desire to be a technical rope team, or to search in the winter, there is a definite benefit to learning the ins and outs of properly running a search operation. For the Wrightwood/Phelan SAR team, this is just the first of three certifications that the team is working to obtain from the MRA. The next two are Technical Rock and Snow and Ice (Winter Alpine).  Wish us luck!

Comments

[Christine Stuehrmann]

Congratulations to all of you! You are a great group of folks to work with and I am proud to see how well you did in obtaining this certification! Keep up the good work!

Christine Stuehrmann (formerly with San Bernardino Mountain S&R nand the Search Dog Team)
I miss working with you!!!