Iowa Wing Searches for ISU Student

[cyclone]

Iowa Wing was requested to support the search for a missing Iowa State University Student.  19 Year old, Abel Bolanos,  an ISU student from Rolling Hills, IL, was last seen leaving a party off campus early Saturday morning.   Iowa CAP was requested to provide trained ground searchers, aircrews, communications personnel, and mission managers.   

Iowa CAP flew low-level searches over the search area on Monday to try to identify if Abel was in some of the remote fields and forests that surround the Iowa State University Campus.   

Trained CAP ground search teams canvassed fields, woods, and urban areas Monday along with the local STAR1 Search and Rescue team's trained searchers to locate signs of Abel's whereabouts.   Monday afternoon CAP officers lead teams of student volunteers on a door-to-door search to canvas the area with flyers and ask residents to check the buildings on their property for him.   On Tuesday the decision was made by search managers to enlist the help of the public to help search.  Teams of spontaneous volunteers were sent out to search areas in detail along with trained CAP search team leaders and leaders from other trained search teams.

CAP personnel worked in the command post in the planning section and communications section to help plan and coordinate the search with other authorities.   They were able to integrate seamlessly into the incident command system and help make the search as productive as possible.

"CAP worked closely with local authorities to help augment their search efforts and work together to try and locate Mr. Bolanos as quickly as possible," said Major Doug Jansen, Iowa Wing Director of Public Affairs.   "Iowa Wing was activated under the Iowa Mandatory Leave of Absence Bill granting our officers and cadets the ability to leave work without prejudice."

The Mandatory Leave of Absence Law allows CAP Officers and Cadets to leave their jobs when called to duty for actual responses without fear of losing their job or having their vacation time reduced.   The law was passed last year by the Iowa Legislature to help make it easier for CAP personnel to deploy for real-world emergencies when needed.

Iowa CAP responded to a similar mission this fall in Grinnell, Iowa for a missing student there, exercising the Leave of Absence Law for the first time.  CAP searched alongside local officials for several days until the search was called off.  The subject of that search has not been found.

[RogueLeader]

During the close of Teusday night,3 April 2007, there were numerous LE that made numerous comments about how well we fit in, and expressed their thanks for making the operation run much more smoothly because of our cooperation and experise.

[DNall]

Sounds great, also sounds like one hell of a hangover (bad taste, sorry).

[RogueLeader]

especially when combined with lake water

[Fifinella]

http://www.iastate.edu/~nscentral/news/2007/apr/b/bolanos.shtml

[isuhawkeye]

Thanks to everyone who worked so hard to recover this young man.


CAP accounted for 1/2 of the planning section, and served as the ground branch directors through out the search.

CAP ground teams accounted for half of the trained searchers working on this mission.

early news footage had several shots of CAP aircraft and ground teams working hard


http://www.kcci.com/video/11521878/index.html?source=

http://www.kcci.com/news/11510391/detail.html?rss=des&psp=news
http://cbs2chicago.com/seenon/local_story_093173532.html

[isuhawkeye]

This article was taken from the Ames tribune. 

Dave Kraemer: Feeling like we've lost one of our own
04/04/2007
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This started out to be a column about hope. It was going to be written by Jeff Raasch, a reporter here at the Tribune. Raasch had volunteered - along with more than 200 people - to help search for Abel Bolanos, an Iowa State University student missing since early Saturday morning. He had expected to write something from the experience.
 
Raasch volunteered as a reporter, but also, and more so, to help. He's that kind of a guy. As a journalist, he participates, because that makes a better story. But as a participant, you can't just be a journalist. You've got to be a person. Raasch is that kind of guy.

His story was to be about hope. He talked with other volunteers. He picked up a few nice anecdotes. But after hours of searching, wind, cold, debriefing and then the tragic end of the story when they found Bolanos in Lake LaVerne, the story line kind of left him.

We talked about it on the phone Tuesday night. I asked him to e-mail me some notes. I had helped Tuesday, too, searching Squaw Creek with four others. Maybe I could pull something together. Here's what he sent.


Showed up about 1:10, signed in and waited for nearly an hour before leaving with my search team.

About 60 people showed up at the Armory for the 1-4 p.m. search shift. Most were students and about 70 percent were female.

Of the half-dozen people I talked to, no one actually knew Abel. They were just there to help.

Cmdr. Roger Elliot, with the Civil Air Patrol, told us that some would be going door-to-door asking questions and others would be searching specific areas.

"He mentioned that Abel's favorite smokes were Camels, so we should look for that. Black-rimmed glasses, brown shoes, anything.

"Realistically, we don't know what we're looking for," Elliot told the group. "So be aware of everything."

"He could be comatose, he could have expired or he could be just hiding because he's embarrassed by the publicity."

I sat next to Heshan Mudannayake, a 20-year-old engineering student from Sri Lanka. I asked if he had ever been on a search like this and he said he spent a couple days looking for his best friend' brother, back in his home country. They found the boy safe and sound, hiding out. His mother was strict and had scolded him for something, so he ran away.

The guy is a doctor now," Mudannayake said. "We talk about it and have a good laugh about it now."

"Something is bound to come up sometime," Mudannayake said. "You've just got to look for it."

He was visibly anxious - tapping his feet and shuffling his fingers - "I just want to get in the thing and go," he said.

Our search group was four guys and four girls. We searched the intramural fields, the Haunted Forest area, along Worle Creek and along Squaw Creek, as well as part of Coldwater Golf Course.

Instead of searching for a needle in a haystack, we were searching for Camel smokes in grass, brush and branches. It felt just about as challenging.

James Boyle, a sophomore at ISU and a Department of Public Safety student officer since September, led our group. We spent about 1 1/2 hours out there.

James found an empty pack of Camels and called it in. We saw a sandal near Worle Creek and that pair of shoes along Squaw Creek.

At our de-briefing, I showed the Civil Air Patrolman who talked with us the pictures of the shoes. He asked me to print them off and bring them back to the ISU police office. I was headed back to the Armory with the pictures when (Tribune reporter) Danielle (Duggan) called me and told me the news.

I don't know about you, Dave, but searching kind of consumed me. I don't know how else to put it. After last night, I have often thought about this kid and his family, even this morning. I didn't expect it to really impact me, because I didn't know him at all, but you can't help but be impacted.


I know what he means. Tragedy is difficult to report. More so when you invest part of your self in it.

I wish we could have told Mudannayake's story. I wish that any one of Elliot's scenarios would have played out, except for the one that did. I wish that Abel's family would be exhausted today, but relieved. I wish Raasch would have written this column.

None of that happened. The hope, if there is any, is that so many people invested of themselves to help find Abel this week. People who didn't know him, or maybe did. People who, like Raasch, gave up a day for themselves to be part of something else. People who felt, as ISU Police Capt. Gene Deisinger said Monday, that we've lost one of our own.