In Memory of Scott Johnston and Phil Calvert

On July 17, 2004 five members of the San Gorgonio Search and Rescue Team were enroute to assist in a search in Joshua Tree National Park when a horrific traffic accident occurred on State Route 62. Please visit San Gorgonio SAR's website to read a fitting memorial for Scott and Phil.

Search in the Mojave Preserve (7/7/2010)

On July 7, 2010 at about 3:30am, the Barstow Desert Rescue Squad got a call for a 26 year old male who had gotten his Toyota Yaris stuck somewhere in the Mojave National Preserve. He has no idea where he is. He has abandoned his vehicle and is walking North with no water and no food.

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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.

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Rescue Near San Antonio Falls (7/5-6/2010)

The call for a missing hiker on Baldy came in on the evening of July 5. Derek Rice, Greg Umberg, Eric Spaeth, and Dan Carlson, all of West Valley SAR were the first to respond. More resources were required, so the call went to other teams for assistance. Members of Rim SAR and the Cave Team responded. With Derek Rice running operations, Donna Newlin (Rim SAR) and Robert Misiuk (WV SAR) drew a strenuous assignment and made their way up Goode Canyon and over the ridge to the Sierra Hut Trail. Eric Spaeth and Dan Carlson descended San Antonio Canyon while Greg used a searchlight focused up the canyon. Faint cries for help could be heard in the San Antonio Falls area, but the team descending the canyon halted their descent because of the rock fall hazard, and the unknown location of the subject. 40-King was called to fly the area, but they were also unsuccessful at locating the hiker. Another airship was ordered for "first light" and arrived on scene at 0630 hours the following morning.

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In the morning light, the airship was able to spot the hiker above the fourth set of falls in San Antonio Canyon. 40-King tried, unsuccessfully, to find a one skid LZ, but they were able to contact the subject on the PA to find that he was OK except for an injured leg. Not long after, the 4 Cave Team members arrived at the command post, and were given the most urgent assignment to get into San Antonio Canyon and make contact with the victim.

Our Air Rescue ship was grounded due to fog, so we called LA Air Rescue 5 to see if they could hoist. They were also delayed by the fog, and in the meantime, the Cave team got to within visual and voice distance to the victim just as Air Rescue 5 came on scene to hoist the hiker. The Cave guys made one heck of a try to get to the victim and would have succeeded given another 15min.

After interviewing the subject's wife; a hiker who heard a voice across San Antonio Canyon at 2100 hrs; and another woman who had spoken to three hikers who had actually spoken with subject at the PLS we found that the subject and his wife hiked to the Hut at 1030 hrs and arrived approx. 1230 hrs. The subject wanted to go to Baldy Peakk, but his wife tried to talk him out of it. They had no previous experience. Three hikers told the subject where the trail was and he took off. At approximately 1530 hrs, the three hikers spoke with the subject on the Sierra Hut Trail above the switchbacks as the subject was descending. He didn't know where the trail was and asked them for assistance. Since they were ascending, they told him to wait for other hikers who were descending, and they could help him find his way.

The Search for William Ewasko

 Teams from San Bernardino County, Riverside County, and Los Angeles County searched for Mr. Ewasko from June 25 to July 2 in the Quail Mountain area of Joshua Tree National Park. Mr. Ewasko was not found.

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Links to other stories:

More Photos
JTNP StatementTribute
The Desert Independent
National Parks Traveller
The Desert Trail

Pancake Breakfast in Valley of the Falls

Valley of the Falls SAR is hosting a pancake breakfast fund raiser on July 3. Read the flyer for details.

Newlin and ISU Participate in Smiley Park Portly Pot Purge

Donna Newlin of Rim SAR and the Incident Support Unit (ISU) assisted the department's Marijuana Eradication Team with the removal of nearly 5000 plants in Smiley Park. Along with the plants, two suspects in the "garden" were arrested.

A Busy Weekend for Rim SAR

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Mission #1

 Called at 0030 hours for 2 missing hikers in Green Valley Lake area. The detective answering the phone said they were near Tent Peg Campground. Three RimSAR members responded to the CHP office in Running Springs and received orders from our coordinator to follow him to the Crab Flats area. Radio traffic suggested that 2 hikers had been picked up by 40 King but they were not sure if there were still others in the field. By the time we were within a mile of Crab Flats it was confirmed that all missing hikers were accounted for and the mission was 1022’d. Members present Newlin, Fry and Palmer. (Pincus responded but just missed the departure time).

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The Search for Donald Foster

Day One

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A Missing Person report was taken for Mr. Foster on 9 June 2010.  A SAR Hasty Team was deployed from the Joshua Tree station at noon Friday 11 June.  Six members of the Morongo Basin SAR team were deployed to the location of Mr. Foster’s vehicle.  Mr. Foster’s family, who had previously located his vehicle, had completely obliterated any of Mr. Foster’s potential footprints around the vehicle.  Dep. Mary Lee Brown located one partial print on the inside bottom of the driver’s door.  The team used that partial print in the attempt to find Mr. Foster’s track.  The wind had been blowing steadily for several days prior to the callout.  The team performed an expanding perimeter search around the vehicle, attempting to locate Mr. Foster’s track.   A set of prints was found, corresponding to the information the family provided as to the type of shoe Mr. Foster was wearing, heading away from the vehicle in a south easterly direction.   The tracking was extremely difficult, due to track age, weather conditions and the sun was directly overhead.  It took the team over three hours to track approximately 400’, when the track was lost.  Later this track proved to belong to a family member.  The decision was made for a County Wide Callout.

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Director's Dialogue June 2010

Sheriff Hoops won his election yesterday, defeating two others who had chosen to run against him for the position of Sheriff in San Bernardino County. All of us are ecstatic that he won with nearly 67 percent of the votes cast. All of us are once again looking forward to working for and with him. Congratulations!

The SAR Council has been approached by Volunteer Forces to ask all of our SAR personnel a couple of favors. First, VF is now in the process of putting together a new handbook for all of our Coordinators and Unit Commanders. In this handbook they want to have a section called “Frequently Asked Questions”. These questions will be asked and answered in this new book. They are asking that you send in a list of questions that you might think would or should be asked. Send those to me at dnicolet@sbsar.org and I will make sure that VF receives them.

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