NEWS RELEASE

CONTACT: Kathy Messick, Larimer County [Colorado] Sheriff's Office, (970) 498-5189

DATE: July 24, 2008

SUBJECT: Lost Camper Located by Search Team

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

At approximately 1:00 P.M. today, a Civil Air Patrol airplane crew reported that they had spotted a person believed to be the camper reported yesterday as lost in Hell's Canyon near Estes Park. Following this sighting, a Colorado Air National Guard helicopter flew in to take a closer look and observed a subject waving his arms and wearing clothes matching those of the missing camper. The helicopter could not land due to the rocky terrain and the crew was unable to drop a rescue hoist.

A two man rescue crew hiked down the canyon to the man and confirmed that he was Patrick Higgins. Patrick was found to be tired, dehydrated and hungry. The rescue crew provided Patrick food and water and evaluated his condition before hiking with him to a suitable helicopter landing area. Patrick will be flown to the Command Center for a medical evaluation by a Search and Rescue physician.

Patrick Higgins is a member of the Mena's Leadership Alliance of Boulder and was attending a two week training seminar in the area. As part of the training, each member goes on a short solo hike. The steep cliffs of Hell's Canyon are known to be very disorienting making it easy for hikers to lose their bearing. Patrick was equipped for the hike and had a map, compass, rain gear, whistle, matches and some food and water. Patrick survived two nights alone in the wilderness prior to being found. Being well prepared for the elements contributed to his successful rescue.

Agencies participating in the search included Larimer County Sheriff's Office Emergency Services, Larimer County Search and Rescue, Larimer County Sheriff's Deputies, Civil Air Patrol, Rocky Mountain Rescue Group out of Boulder and the Colorado Air National Guard out of Buckley.

###### END ######

CAP aircrews and ground teams were used on the search.

Mike

Good for them!

It is sad that lost person searches, which are the most promising area of mission growth available to CAP, can't get AFAM status and we have to start every conversation with the locals with "Can you pay for our gas?  No?  See you later."

why wouldn't you get AFAM status?

I worked several missing person missions as A1

Great job guys.  An excellent example of CAP properly used on a mission

Two years ago I said the same thing here, but lately we have not been able to do lost person searches as AFAMs, but only as corporate missions based on state reimbursement. 

Your guess is as good as mine as to what criteria are being used to grant AFAM status on these missions. 

Quote from: RiverAux on July 26, 2008, 04:30:24 PM
Two years ago I said the same thing here, but lately we have not been able to do lost person searches as AFAMs, but only as corporate missions based on state reimbursement. 

Your guess is as good as mine as to what criteria are being used to grant AFAM status on these missions. 

That would not happen so much if you ahve a good relation with the local governments before hand.  That is where a good PAO and Liaison Officer comes in.  Simply put, you have to lay the tracks before you can run the trains.  If the local governments know this in advance, the situation of which you spake is much less of an issue.

Quote from: RiverAux on July 26, 2008, 04:30:24 PMYour guess is as good as mine as to what criteria are being used to grant AFAM status on these missions.

I think the biggest is that state and local resources have to be used up first.

Quote from: Major Carrales on July 26, 2008, 04:46:49 PM

Quote from: RiverAux on July 26, 2008, 04:30:24 PM
Two years ago I said the same thing here, but lately we have not been able to do lost person searches as AFAMs, but only as corporate missions based on state reimbursement. 

Your guess is as good as mine as to what criteria are being used to grant AFAM status on these missions. 

That would not happen so much if you ahve a good relation with the local governments before hand.  That is where a good PAO and Liaison Officer comes in.  Simply put, you have to lay the tracks before you can run the trains.  If the local governments know this in advance, the situation of which you spake is much less of an issue.

Uh, no.  We get the calls already because they know we can help and then its the Air Force that says they won't grant AFAM status for it.  The locals have no say in the matter.  There doesn't seem to be any logic as to when lost person searches get AFAM status and when they don't as far as I can tell. 

^ You need to be a billionaire adventurer and the AF will then grant AFAM.  At the very least I hope any CAP search that has been conducted for a missing CAP member was granted AFAM.  I think 2 years ago the search in Maryland and Pennsylvania for a missing former CAP member did not even receive AFAM. 

If you do a quick google search, or even check this forum for the following names

Evelyn Miller
Paul Shuman Moore
Abel Bolanos

None of these people are millionaire adventurers, and all of them received mission support.  The Evelyn miller case lasted five days, drew CAP teams from three different states, and was most defiantly a funded AFAM.

The key to AFAM support is making sure the requesting authority knows and understands the questions. 

1.  Have you expended all available resources?
                 The answer to this question needs to be yes.  A yes answer to this question doesn not mean that you have put all of your officers on overtime, or pulled mutual aid from across the state.  The simple fact is that in my stat very few sheriff's offices have SAR resources, or aviation resources.  THat means that they have expended their resources.   (Per AFRCC controllers @ AFRCCSMC course)


But ive been told that since I'm not a member my experience is not of value here.  I'll shut up now

Good info isuhawkeye!!!

I have rejoined CAP after a20 + year hiatus and read this forum

I think whether you are a former member or current, folks in CAP tend to have a myopic idea at times they know all SAR.  They have bee around for approx 60 years, I know that.  But in in this day in age when DHS is a remake of the old OCD / FEMA and ICS all of sudden appears on scene, it is amazing how CAP really has to get up to speed in this arena.  The old addage CAP is not a response organization still somewhat holds true.  CAP is great at UDF and ELT work, but it has a long way to go in acreditation and it requires more than the current form of SQTR's..

Again whether or not you are still in CAP or not......  readers might be well advised to be open to other EM/ES professional points of view.  One of us (CAP or not) could be your next IC or be working with you on a mission near you!!!!

QuoteThat would not happen so much if you have a good relation with the local governments before hand.  That is where a good PAO and Liaison Officer comes in.  Simply put, you have to lay the tracks before you can run the trains. 

That is extremely true.  I was one of the Ground Team Leaders that went out on this mission.  Probably one of the only reasons we got this call is that we've been slowly building a relationship with Larimer County Search and Rescue over the last few years.  We helped them out with a 4 day search last year for a couple that were lost in the mountains, but they requested aircrew only (the couple was found by the aircrew on one of our first sorties out).  This is the first time I've gone out on a joint mission with them as part of a ground team. 

They requested our help on Wednesday night, we showed up with 4 separate ground teams (~20 personnel total) to assist their teams in the field and cover the large area of pretty rough terrain.  What wasn't mentioned in the press release was that two of our ground teams were also with Patrick as he was escorted out of the woods. 

Unfortunately, my team was not with Patrick, but I had the distinct pleasure to be assigned the task of going and telling his group that he was with that he had been found alive and well, and that the rescue teams were walking him out (Men's Leadership Alliance, there was a group of 15-20 up there for a week, Patrick was lost on one of his solo hikes).  That experience will always remain one of the highlights of my time in CAP.

This kind of positive response will only go to strengthen the existing relationship, and will hopefully lead to more mission time for us.  Everyone worked extremely well together throughout the entire mission, even when the stress and chaos was running at its highest.  I definitely look forward to working with LCSAR again, this is worth the 4 AM wakeup and a hot, sweaty, exhausting day!

(and yes, this had a AF assigned mission number)