102 Introduction To
Land Search And Rescue
Course Overview:
This
course was first developed in 1992 to meet a need for basic search and rescue
training for REACT team members who respond to search events. If you
completed the old “Search Teams” course, you will recognize much of
this material. However, in the 25 years since its original publication,
search and rescue has evolved in the United States and Canada into a very
capable emergency service, and this text has been completely reworked to
address the changes,
Normally
our role in REACT is communications, but sometimes the need is not so much for
radio operators as it is for people who can walk across a field or down a road
or around buildings looking for someone who is missing. Because you
are a member of an organized team, you know how to work as a team, follow a
team leader, and carry out a task. Untrained volunteers who simply show
up in response to a public appeal do not have those skills. So, whether
the task is searching for a missing person in a park or forest, or for that
matter in a suburban environment, trying to locate an emergency beacon, or
supporting other teams as communications liaisons, you can be a valuable
resource.
Our Introduction
to Land Search and Rescue covers:
- Search is an emergency
- Activating the Search and Rescue system
- If you are the first on scene
- Basic search theory
- Search tactics
- Interviewing
- The search team in the field
- Runaway and abducted persons
- Direction finding
- Logs
- Developing a search capability in your team
The
course manual is 56 pages in length, and allowing time to study and complete
the suggested exercises should take approximately 4 to 8 hours to
complete. There is a final examination – when you are ready, contact our
training staff at Training@REACTIntl.org to obtain the web
address and password for our online testing system. Continuing education
units are awarded for course completion.
This
course will not make you an expert in how to do land search and rescue.
It is an introduction. Get to know the search and rescue teams in your
area and state, ask how you can help, attend their training, work with them in
exercises, and be a reliable partner in actual responses. If you do, you
will make a real contribution to helping find people who have misplaced
themselves and are in trouble in the urban, rural, or wilderness environment.