Search and Rescue
REMEMBER - SEARCH FOR CLUES, NOT THE SUBJECT!!!
Search and rescue consists of teamwork, training, and practice.
All search and rescue activities must be safety and subject oriented. All searchers entering the search area must be prepared to survive on their own, search for the lost subject, navigate over varied terrain, communicate with other searchers, direct assistance to your position, and assist in first aid and extraction of the subject.
Searchers never travel alone. Survival outdoors depends on being prepared, having knowledge of the outdoors, proper equipment, and a positive attitude.
Searching requires skills learned through search and rescue training, practice of these skills, and carrying the recommended gear.
The "able and logical" subject is generally assumed to be injured, suffering from hypothermia, disoriented, exhausted, distraught, hidden, or unable to communicate, and requiring litter evacuation. This assures prior preparation of the Search and Rescue team.
But the person may be OK. One search tactic should assume the subject is able and thinking logically. Ask “If I were lost, where would I go? Where could I find shelter? Civilization? Home? If I was here, which direction would I walk? Can I hear anything special? Is there water to follow?”
