Rescuer

iTrader: (9)

So this morning my pager goes off around 630a for a mutual-aid callout in Aptos to look for a 71 year old male. As I was getting ready to head out to the Sheriff's office (Dublin), we got updated that the guy was found at his next door neighbors backyard asleep. callout cancelled.

I start watching the beginning of the inaguration coverage, and at 730a~ the pager goes off again to search for a despondent male off calaveras road. Then 15 minutes later as I'm stepping out the door, that callout got cancelled since one of the dog teams found the guy. (not alive). His blue truck has been on the side of the road off calaveras close to the Sunol Regional Wilderness entrance for a couple days.

Anybody drive on calaveras the last couple days and see a blue truck barely off the road?

Shortly after that search got cancelled for our team, I got a call from our leaders saying that the Sheriff deputies need our help in recovering the body. So I headed over to our barn behind the santa rita jail, hopped in one of our big blue trucks, and a few of us headed out there.

It only took a little over an hour to get him up after the coroner put him in a bag. We used a stokes basket and wheel, tied off ropes to the hitch on a vehicle and pulled it up the mountain.



What a lovely day

there were several sheriff vehicles, coroner van, our SAR truck all along side the road. Alot of bikers kept going by.

THEN some ***hat in a red ford probe comes flying up the road! we all heard him coming since he was hauling ***! then we see him and several deputies just stood there in the road and stopped him what a dumb***! I bet he wasn't expecting a bunch of sheriff standing there as he was going on his nice little afternoon drive

sigma pi

iTrader: (6)

hahahhahhaa

Rescuer

iTrader: (9)

now i'm checking myself for ticks

R-Dub

iTrader: (2)

Thank you for your service. It's good to know there are people who have the bootstraps to do the dirty/hard work.

SolSurferX

iTrader: (2)

I had one a few years ago, 15 y/o drove off of a 600 foot cliff...No fun.

Irrational X

iTrader: (1)

rescuer:
do your guys do the high sierra challenge? my dads old unit unit runs medical for it, that **** is crazy to watch. he was 129th pararescue / novato county fire, now: undisclosed.

Rescuer

iTrader: (9)

Thanks

There are a few people here that recently PM'd me about joining ALCO SAR. If they do sign up, then I might be helping to train them this April-July

short plug:
if anybody is interested in ALCO Search and Rescue, please PM me the email on the website has to be updated with the new trainers.
it's non-paid professional service. Basic training only takes a couple months, then you go to training things whenever you want. To maintain membership, you have to at least be active in the department (training, meetings, callouts) at least 9 hours a month. http://alcosar.com/alcosar/Welcome.html
here is last years schedule so you can see what basic training does http://alcosar.com/alcosar/Schedule.html

the application process is only once a year and starts soon! http://alcosar.com/alcosar/Application.html


Basically you go through the training, go through background checks, and become a member. Then you get to carry around a pager which can go off 24/7. Since you are a volunteer, you can choose to go to trainings and callouts however you please. Then there is a general meeting the first tuesday of every month. There are training things almost every week. For instance this thursday night we are doing rope training.

SolSurferX

iTrader: (2)

SAR is most definitely a great place to start if you're looking for a career in law/fire/ems. Great exposure and you learn some interagency cooperation. I did SAR for Santa Cruz County for about 5 years before I started in fire.

Rescuer

iTrader: (9)

actually, we just started to get a group together for "type 1 searching," which are the elite people that go up to high altitudes for search and rescue. there are already a few people in ALCO SAR who are type 1 searchers, but now we are trying to get more people involved so we can form a team of people for those kind of callouts.
I want to become a type 1 searcher, but it's going to take me several years to reach that level


we do medical standby for the new recruits doing their physical abilities test for the sheriff's office in dublin

Rescuer

iTrader: (9)

yep a lot of people join SAR so they can put it on their resume. but the ony thing we don't like are the people who use our time for us to train them, then as soon as they become a member you never see them again!

3 guys from last years class did this and after graduation their background checks were cancelled since they basically disappeared.

Irrational X

iTrader: (1)

Look into the high sierra challenge
http://www.alamedacountysheriff.org/...swat/class.htm

they are always after medical peeps to run the checkpoints and its a good place to meet guys from the 129th based out of moffet.

another place that, at least in the past, took volunteers was Auburn ski club. its run by ex-10th mountain guys and they have checkpoints on their endurance ski races

SolSurferX

iTrader: (2)

That is pretty lame. A waste of the teams time and more than likely a waste of theirs as well. I had some fairly specific questions in interviews pertaining to how many and what kind of searches I had been a part of. I wouldn't have had an answer if I had only stuck around for the training lol.

Rescuer

iTrader: (9)

That's pretty cool

we also do medical stand-by for Urban Shield, which is a yearly event where a whole bunch of departments come together for a huge training/competition thing http://www.urbanshield.org/urban_shi...ticipants.html

Irrational X

iTrader: (1)

looks like urban shield may have replaced the sierra challenge as i cant find anything about it for years 2007 on /shrug

there's allot of crazy SAR/CSAR orgs in California. the swift water rescue guys from north bay counties get called to just about every floor or hurricane there is.

Rescuer

iTrader: (9)

yeah, it's a huge waste of time. Since everybody in ALCO SAR is a non-paid professional, the trainers donate their time to train a small group of people every year. if those people quit right after graduation, i think it would feel like you were stabbed in the back

we want people to stay on our teams for a long time. there are about 80~ people in ALCO SAR, and many of them have been there for a very long time. i plan on staying with them as long as i can