I have been thinking of this concept for several years now and I want to get the "experts" here on CAPTALK to share their opinions.
Why do we not have people at our SAR exercises that work exclusively to act as missing persons/accident victims. In my time somebody from mission base or someone who is not even signed into the mission will set out a practice beacon and it's up to the air and ground crews to locate it and bring it back to mission base. What I am thinking of it people who will be with the practice beacon/crashed aircraft who will play the part of victims. It can be as simple as a 3x5 card attached to the victim with the injuries listed and it's up to the ground team on how to treat and get the victims to the closest EMS. All of the training I received have basically been ELT searches, and when I went on my first redcap I didn't feel I was adequately prepared.
Thanks in advance for your comments on the idea.
It's been done. Some wings get a little more gung-ho than others. Suggest it to some of the IC's in your group/wing, maybe they'll pick it up!
I've been involved in Evals where the trusted agents were selected weeks before and on mission day some of the skills now unavailable were sorely needed.
I think some cadets would love to be the "victims", but we can't set them out unattended (CPPT). I think most ES trained senior members would want to practice their specialites rather than sit out at an airport or in the woods.
We have done that. It just really comes down to prior planning and having enough volunteers to pull it off. It normally doesn't happen when your SAREX planners starts planning it two days before it starts.
We just had a SAREX cancel due to other flying activities. Given that the request for the SAREX mission had never been submitted through WMIRS, it makes you wonder if they just forgot...
This is a great idea and should be used more often.
I have seen in simulated search and rescue operations were an actual person is bandaged up and plays the part of an injured person. I have even seen when the injured peron is first discovered by the first response team that he is told to stay put while they go for help only to not be there when they get back. This makes it more real and teaches the first responder to never leave the injured person alone.
At our evals the AF and SD act as the opposing force but just in the area of giving taskings. We tend to have more folks show at our exercises than we have aircraft for so I think that it would be easy to say that every third exercise people need to play victims before they can fly again.
But anything that helps break the "flying club" mentality and remind our members we are a service organization I'm all for.
The problem is finding someone that is willing to sit around in the woods for hours on end waiting for someone to find them.
The better solution is to leave a note on the ELT or target with instructions to "injure" a team member as directed and treat them. That way you're not wasting anyone's time.
We do that on a fairly common basis. A few years back, we had some members create scent articles and then went off and hid for a few hours. Our friends at People and Paws used the articles to track the scents with hounds and find the targets.
In the absence of warm bodies we have a foam dummy in a red flannel shirt and blue jeans that we put out in the field. The problem with the dummy is that he can't try and signal teams or aircraft and can only play the role of the unconcious target.
I have been a "trusted" agent and while it was trulu boring it was also fairly illuminating. I spent most of the day setting next to my blazer, with a parachute hanging over it, watching CAP aircraft fly by and not discovering me, even when I flashed a signal mirror at them. For aircrew members as boring as it is, it would be good training for them to experience just so that they can personally see how hard it is to attract the attention of a search aircraft.
It is a good idea to not always release the aircrew when you are in the vicinity of the PELT. Instead have them guide the gound team to the target, both teams will have to practive air to ground communications, and in wooded areas that might mean teh ground team using a signal mirror to let the aircraft know where they are.
Quote from: Who_knows? on May 14, 2009, 09:27:12 PM
I have been a "trusted" agent and while it was trulu boring...
BINGO!
I guess there are some people out there, but you couldn't get me to go out there and be the "victime" again. I did it once in the mid 90s when we did some training with K9 SAR Teams and it was the worst experience ever. I went out, sat for hours, got eaten by bugs and couldn't move. I had specific instructions NOT to eat, cook, move or otherwise make myself seen.
"Let the dogs and ground teams find you". Yeah, never again.
It comes down to the instructions given and the scenario. One I particpated in (as base staff) had the 'victims' wander off as crash victims with no or minor injuries have done. We had a dedicated channel and follwed a regular check in protocol so command knew where they were.
The 'victims' had great fun, especially when they found a white van with stickers, unattended with keys in a fender box...
Properly deployed and planned, a full victim scenario can be entertaining for the victims, however, very few are properly done.
here is a repost of one I made back in June of last year:
here is the scenario we did last night, twist on the basic elt search.
Hid the elt 2 miles away from mission base
borrowed "Rescue Randy" from the fire department
The GT was expecting a simple elt search.
When they found the elt 500 yards from the road in heavy brush, low and behold Randy was laying face down on top of it. Taped to Randy's Back was the following note:
"HELLO CIVIL AIR PATROL!!!
I AM UNCONSCIOUS
I HAVE EVIDENCE OF POSSIBLE INTERNAL INJURIES
BECAUSE I MADE AN "OFF AIRPORT" ABRUPT LANDING, I MAY HAVE POSSIBLE SPINAL INJURIES
DUE TO SAFETY CONCERNS (USE YOUR IMAGINATION HERE) I MUST BE MOVED TO A SAFE EXTRACTION POINT
USING YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND TRAINING, MOVE ME TO WHERE YOU PARKED YOUR VEHICLE WITHOUT DOING ANY FURTHER HARM
WE TRAIN LIKE WE RESPOND!!!
The team was VERY surprised and all they had with them was 24 hour packs and were expecting a "typical" ELT search. They had to improvise a litter and transport the 150 pound dummy over 500 yards to the "safe" extraction point.
During the debrief all were excited about the twist and commented on how much they learned from the experience.
Just a thought
I bristle a bit at the term "opposing force," but I certainly understand the gist of what the OP asks.
Having "actors" to play a part can make for much better SAR training. Its difficult to get good help, though. I recommend asking CAP RAP (reserve assistance program) to help. There often is not enough involvement from these folks, and they usually need to learn about SAR more than you do. Its a great way for them to gain some experience.
Quote from: es_g0d on May 15, 2009, 04:36:18 AM
I recommend asking CAP RAP (reserve assistance program) to help. There often is not enough involvement from these folks, and they usually need to learn about SAR more than you do. Its a great way for them to gain some experience.
Just my perspective, but I'd hate it if someone asked me to use my time to sit and do nothing for a bunch of hours while the CAP teams are doing the enjoyable end of the legwork. "Welcome to the party, go sit in the garage and if you're lucky the conga line will come by in a few hours to get you."
I'm actually going to be playing target in an upcoming exercise, but I plan on practicing skills that I would use if I really were lost i.e shelter building, etc just to stay busy. I can sit in the woods near motionless for hours, hunting taught me that, but if I can be productive out there then I will be.
+1 good idea
I have in the past used friends/friends of CAP members as victims. I tell them to bring a book, I-pod etc and a cell phone (we try and make sure that their target location is cell accessable)
Interesting story: had a victim once play the survivor on a downed military aircraft scenario.....full moulage with multiple injuries, plus props-parachute for use as aerial target (and harness for the victim) located in a countypark adjacant to a military base. Dude forgot his cell phone and it was getting dark (there were some delays in getting the teams out in time)
so he decided to gather up all the stuff and start walking back to the truck. He said he got some very strange looks and at least one offer to call for help on the way back out.
mk
About getting people to fulfill the job of injured victims, at a search and rescue academy we had here in February the instructors decided the other ground team we had out that got on scene first were all suddenly crash victims, so when my team got there we had to deal with a bunch of injuries ranging from minor to severe and everyone got some good experience out of it.
The same thing could be applied elsewhere - once a ground team is on scene and has done their job, make them the victims.
Did some other awesome stuff regarding rescues at the academy, but can't spoil the surprise for anyone around my area who goes ;)