Archive for the ‘Guest Posts’ category

Improving ALSAR (Part Two)

January 19th, 2010

Those who visit the website frequently will have noticed the flurry of comments again on the Improving ALSAR post. It was suggested that I contact Adrian Edwards, Chair of ALSAR, to ensure he was aware that these comments were being made and ALSAR being discussed again. Here is his response in full…

Rob

I am aware of the comments on your website.

It is a shame that people haven’t grasped the fact that it is they who are ALSAR. They are the ones who must step up to the mark and drive the changes forward. The will to change is one thing, the ability is another.  When Andy Williamson resigned, I produced a document with ideas for change.  That was over 4 years ago and no doubt whilst everyone agreed with it, no one was prepared to drive it forward.

People must realise that to change requires time and commitment not just some comments on a forum.

As some of us know, many people will talk not many will do.  (My experience with the conference springs to mind as does Steve when he put the training document together.)

In my role at present it would be all too easy to take this personally but as someone who has no power or authority (or indeed wants any) I just sit and watch what is written.

In the 18 months that I have been Chairman, every meeting has had an agenda set.  With 2 exceptions all those agenda points have been mine.  No other person has been interested in putting anything forward.

At the conference I made a slightly impassioned speech to group following a conversation that I overheard.  I stand by every word of what I said.

To move forward requires commitment, enthusiasm, time and the ability to look at the broader SAR picture.

Let us hope that people will remember this.

I could ramble on for hours with personal opinions and thoughts but to do so would be churlish.

Suffice to say that I believe that ALSAR must develop in many ways and whilst some teams might not agree with those changes they should remember this.

To embrace change is to progress, to avoid change is to stagnate.

If you wish to reproduce this on your forum please feel free as I stand by every word that I have written.

Regards as always

Adrian

Once again I will add my thoughts at a later date – but will give you all a chance to comment too…

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UK Search and Rescue Response to Haiti Earthquake

January 14th, 2010

Johnnie Walker from Sussex Search and Rescue has yet again kindly written a piece for Re-Search with his views on the UK’s search and rescue response to the events unfolding in Haiti.

Are you going to Haiti?

A number of colleagues have asked me in the last couple of days if SusSAR is heading out to Haiti, to help look for survivors. It seems that people’s understanding of the situation is somewhat naïve. Although we all get a feel good feeling from the thought of UK Fire and Rescue Professionals trekking into the country with the heavy lift kit and SAR dogs, you have to ask if this is an appropriate use of resources. As Search and Rescue professionals we all know that difficult decisions have to be made. We search some areas several times while not searching others because this best serves the misper. Therefore, is the expense, and logistical demands of western search teams really justified, when people who have already been found, and rescued, are lying in hospitals alongside corpses, dying due to a lack of basic medical care?

The people of Haiti need food, clean water, shelter, and basic medical supplies. To believe that they need SAR resources is to completely fail to grasp just how bad their situation is. Diverting local resources and supplies to look after westerner rescuers will lead ultimately to a higher death toll, though it will make good telly.

Therefore, don’t book your flight. Listen to the Sex Pistol’s ‘Holiday in the Sun’ and give every penny you can to the Disaster Emergency Committee. www.dec.org.uk It is hard for pro-active people to sit on our hands, but it is necessary if we are going to put the people in need first.

This view is shared by many others; I have often referred people to a 2003 Guardian piece by Nick Cater – All Search, No Rescue. However, here is your chance to air your view…

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ISIS SAR Search Exercise Evaluation

December 16th, 2009

From the way I write you would think that ALSAR is falling apart; I keep saying “one of the things we do badly is…”.
And guess what? Here is yet another thing that I believe ALSAR doesn’t do well at. Sharing knowledge; especially feedback and learning points from search exercise de-briefs and evaluations. But one of the newest ALSAR Units is going to lead the way on this.

Read on…

Rob asked me to provide a write up of the Isis SAR exercise earlier this month.  I’m sorry it took so long to do – university got in the way…

On Sunday 6th December, Isis SAR’s first full search exercise took place.  The RV was at Chinnor Cement works, Oxfordshire, and searchers attending were from WilSAR, Isis SAR, SEBEV and LSDogs.  We also had three guests from Thames Valley Police Service and one from TASR – Technical and Specialist Rescue, who offer Isis training in water access and ropes.  WilSAR brought their new control vehicle, along with their kayaks and bikes.  Isis SAR brought the inflatable rib they have access to, in order to see if this was an effective manner to search larger areas of deep water, and also brought the new control vehicle, which had been so kindly donated by WilSAR earlier in the week.

The search was pre-planned, based on a scenario of a typical male despondent.  Adrian Smith (WilSAR) and Jennie Webster (Isis SAR) drew up and roughly prioritised the sectors the day before to ensure that the exercise did not involve too much waiting around for searchers while all the planning took place.  Although this did significantly cut down on the waiting around, there was still a delay while waiting for people to get there, as confirmation from a few more people had been received.  This was a main learning point for control, not to wait next time and to brief those who were there at the RV time.

Thirty five searchers took part in the exercise, with three in control.  Two “directors” were present to answer any questions from the police as to what ALSAR teams do.  Ten teams were sent out to sectors.  These comprised of a bike team, a kayak team, two dog teams, six foot teams and a boat team.

Eleven sectors were searched, four of which covered the 300m radius surrounding the place last seen, and so were covered by two different teams each.  The kayak team and second dog team were both redeployed to second sectors, and control were in the process of redeploying further foot teams when reports came in that the misper had been located.  The teams covered a large area in a small amount of time, demonstrating a high level of skill and current search knowledge in all the teams that were present.

The search area covered the 300m radius surrounding the PLS, significant reflectors within the 50% radius (where 50% of the misper category would have been found) and main routes and paths within this area.  Feedback from teams was encouraging, and no one reported that the sectors were inappropriate.  The qualified search controllers attending were happy with the pre-planned search areas and gave lots of constructive feedback on how to improve the exercise next time, e.g. getting teams out searching faster and being more assertive in control.

On a personal note, I really enjoyed the day and it was a really useful experience to be in control for the first time, especially working alongside such experienced search controllers.  I hope to improve next time I get to run control on an exercise – with more of an idea of what happens it should all go better the second time.  I felt it was good to have an exercise area where lots of different kinds of resources could go out on the ground and it was very good to be able to work with members of LSDogs and find out more about their capabilities.

I hope that everyone who attended had a good time and felt that it was a useful exercise and worth the long drives that quite a lot of people made.  We’d like to thank everyone who came for supporting us, and especially the WilSAR members who helped us organise and run it.

If anyone is reading this who attended, I’d love to hear any comments on how the exercise was set up and run, any feedback, whether negative or positive, would be really useful.

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Johnnie Walker’s Missing Person Search Analogy

December 3rd, 2009

I’m pleased today to be able to offer you a special guest post to the Re-Search website. Johnnie Walker from Sussex Search and Rescue sent me an e-mail today offering the following;

I have found myself using the following analogy quite a bit.  Is there a place for it on your website?

I know that to you it is stating the obvious.  However, a saying I use quite a lot in SAR is ‘we always state the obvious.  That way, everyone knows the same obvious.’


A lot of Mispers die while search teams ‘patchwork’ sectors across the landscape, rather than producing a scenario based plan, and targeting specific areas by Misper type and specific intelligence.  This is a search tactic that has grown out of Police forensic searching, and is actually very counter intuitive.

Imagine you are at the park with a child.  They are on the swings.  You take your eye of them for a moment, and when you look back, they have vanished.  Where do you search?

  • You search the play park; purposefully wandering to check under the slide and in the climbing frame.  This is your hub.
  • You run to the pond, because you know they like to see the ducks, and the field at the edge of the park where the donkey lives.  These are your reflectors.
  • You run their route home, you check the home address, and then you go back to the park and check the route to their friend’s house. These are your spokes.

What you would never even consider doing is getting a map of the park and surrounding area, and searching each grid square one at a time.  You might do that the next day, if they were still missing, but you would know in your heart that ‘search is an emergency’. You need to find them quickly, and to do this you need to search in very specific places; places you identify from what you know about them.

I obviously think there is a place for such wisdom on this website. I particularly like the “same obvious” quote!

So a big thank you to Johnnie for taking the time to think about sharing this with everyone on this website and for putting pen to paper.

If you have something to share, please e-mail me. I’m happy to put useful content on here from anyone! [Saves me writing stuff every day!]

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