CAP Member Participate in Successful Rescue Mission

[jpizzo127]

I can say, everyone on the mission was beyond fired up when the victim was found alive.

The cadets especially were beaming with excitement.

Being on Long Island, we in CAP have several things working against us.

1) Geography: Theres not alot of places to get lost on Long Island. Walk in any direction for 30 minutes and you hit a 7-11.

2) Competition: There are so many first responders here with deep pockets. (Suffolk County PD, Nassau Cty PD, Sherrifs, State Police, DEC, and all the volunteer fire departments)

FP is correct. According to PD, that was the EC145 sitting on Jericho Turnpike in the video. The helicopter were not involved in the search on the day we were sent out. It was called in when the subject was located and was overhead within 10 minutes.

It was a very cool thing to see.

[RADIOMAN015]

Here's something pretty interesting information on Search Dogs
http://www.sardogstasmania.org.au/Effective%20Use%20of%20Dogs%20in%20Search%20Management.pdf

Notice the number of human searchers the dog can replace.

Search dogs are definitely a force multiplier and in my past life I was a bit skeptical about their abilities, but after personally seeing what these dogs can do, my money is on the dogs being the best ground searchers for missing people, especially those that are incapacitated.
RM 
     

[Flying Pig]

Ive seen dogs that are completely useless and Ive seen dogs who look at you, yawn, sniff the air and say "Hey... your guy is over the next ridge next to a large rock on the north side" and go back to sleep.  Ive seen SARs that have wasted hours following some Jack Russell Terrier for miles only for another team to find the victim 20 miles in the other direction.  So far, Blood Hounds are the only consistent ones that I have actually seen do the job to the point where my jaw drops.  Plus... their bark is rather entertaining.

We were looking for a suicidal subject in the mountains once.  After two day brought out a Blood Hound, put him in the guys car, let him root around.  Took him out and the handler gave some command and that dog was GONE!  Found the guy about a mile away.  Deceased unfortunately, but it was recent.  Almost like he may have killed himself when he saw us arrive. 

Another was on a burglary of a restaurant where the suspect cut himself on a broken window.  Brought out a blood hound.  Sniffed around and then it was all the handler could do just to keep up.   The handler was pulled pulled by the dog for several blocks (while we followed in our cars ) and it took us right to the door where we located the suspect inside.  LOVE IT!

[RADIOMAN015]

I can say, everyone on the mission was beyond fired up when the victim was found alive.


2) Competition: There are so many first responders here with deep pockets. (Suffolk County PD, Nassau Cty PD, Sherrifs, State Police, DEC, and all the volunteer fire departments)

Looking at this as an outsider and only what the media presented and what you posted here, it seems to me that the potential mind set for this search was more of a "recovery" nature rather than a rescue based upon the age of the individual, the time that had passed, in this 543 acres of undeveloped swamp land   .   

Also regarding competition, I have no ideas what the NY (or local county) laws/protocols are on missing person searches, BUT there should be NO competition as to who is going to respond.  The SAR plan should be very specific as to team/agency call outs and the procedures they will utilize, but anyone called out should be properly trained (and ideally have worked together on exercises in the past).  In my state it is normally the State Police that are in charge of search management.  There is a protocol to use volunteers.

BTW did CAP actually train with the agencies involved in a specific missing person search in the past

Again I salute you and your team for enduring those conditions in the swamp. :clap:
RM