• The state's basic certification of SAR volunteers is rolling right along. Many evaluation sessions are already scheduled throughout the state, in which some of our members will be participating as evaluators. The most convenient sessions for our members to become certified will be in April and July. Our training officer has scheduled training activities at 6:30 pm prior to each business meeting between now and April, as well as our usual one weekend per month, to address topics on the certification exams. Members who attend these training sessions should have no trouble passing the certification exams.

• Based on a phenomenal show of interest from members, we have put together a series of study and review sessions to help people pass the licensing exam to become a Technician Class amateur radio operator. The license is good for ten years, and you will not need to test again (unless you want more frequency privileges) as long as you renew your license before the ten year expiration date. The sessions will consist of a review of technical material, review of the question set for the exam, and a practice test. A total of seven sessions are currently planned, for about two hours each week on a weekday evening. Even if you have no plans to buy a ham radio for a while, this is a great opportunity to learn together with your teammates in a relaxed, fun environment. Then when you are ready for a radio, you can legally operate on amateur radio frequencies! We have seen increasing requests for this type of communication skill over the last couple of years.

• Our new low angle technical gear has arrived, and the equipment committee has logged all our gear and established maintenance schedules. We are also exploring locations for a permanent gear cache in the east mountain area. Once we have completed preparations for the certification exams, we will begin to train with this equipment.

• A SAR education program is being developed to inform the community about our team, and to educate children on how to enjoy the outdoors safely. The concept here is to have presentations ready for use at schools, scout meetings, public events, etc. The first presentation, introducing SAR in New Mexico, is nearly complete. The next will focus on teaching kids how to hike safely, and what to do if they become lost.

1. While Bob adjusts to his Membership Officer role, I'll continue to keep track of Name/Address/Phone information and attendance.
2. I've created two new categories of 'Mission Attendance' this year. One is for those who do official ICS tasks (e.g., FC or Section Chief), and the other is for those who handle the phones. Previously I had just lumped all attendance together, and there was a judgement call on the 'phone' category. This will give us the ability to better quantify the actual field response to a mission, plus will keep records of everyone who does phones and ICS. Also, a person could get multiple credits if they do the phones, perform ICS tasks, and hit the field (on a long mission like the one in the Zunis).
3. I don't feel that reading the entire minutes of the previous meeting is a valid use of time in our business meetings. The minutes are available on the www, and I'll also mail them to anyone who so requests. If anyone thinks it is a worthwhile use of business meeting time to read them in their entirety (instead of the highlights, as I now do), please contact any officer so we can formulate the issue for the team to decide. I estimate it would usually take about 10 minutes to read them. If you don't have access to the www, and want a copy mailed to you, please contact me. If you have any other suggestions or comments on this issue, contact any officer.

1. Always remember to write down the mission numbers
2. Remember to write down the mission date
3. In the section for fuel used, fill in the gallons of fuel used
4. In the cost section, put the price per gallon
5. Fill in the total amount due
6. Sign your name and check the reimburse or donate section
7. Another common problem is not turning the vouchers in on time

Also, whistles and Sandia maps are available for purchase. Let me know if you want any.

Who's Who and New

by Bob Ulibarri

Things in the membership arena are moving right along. The new member orientation package will be complete this month with perspective members being given this package at the meeting and the actual orientation taking place (hopefully) the following week. Also, in discussions with the other officers, it was felt that we needed to come up with a consistent start date for all new members. So, with that stated, the six month evaluation period will now start at orientation. This way our record keeping will be easier and all new members will know exactly when their six month time frame begins. I am also completing a "welcome" letter for people who come to our meeting for the first time. It will basically give them a brief outline of what will go on before they are ready for an orientation. I will have some at the February meeting if anyone would like to see it. And as always if you have any questions on anything that is going on with membership, please give me a call (at home) 286-1002. I would like to remind you that the following people are now active members of Cibola SAR: Andrew Parker, and Mary Girven. Let me be the first to congratulate them. Lastly, please remember that the following people are up for active membership in March: Tom Russo, Ella May Robinson and John Schroeder.

Gearing Up

by Melinda Ricker

At the last Equipment Committee meeting on January 18th we marked and tagged all our team gear, and work is in progress on maintenance and usage logs. If you have questions or are interested in attending the next Equipment Committee meeting, contact me for time and location.

Public Relations

by Chuck Girven

On February 2nd we had our second meeting of the Preventative SAR committee. We finalized our first presentation titled "What is SAR?" which will be available for presentations by team members shortly. If you are interested in giving a presentation or participating, contact Marnie Boren or Chuck Girven. Our next meeting will be on February 24th at 6:30 pm at the IHOP on Central just west of Tramway. The next presentation we will be working on will be Children's SAR.

On the Right Track: Dogs in Search and Rescue

by Mary Berry

Dogs have been used to search for people for hundreds of years. First used in Europe, they were used in wilderness settings (mostly Avalanche work) and to track down escaped prisoners. Later, in America, dogs were mostly used to hunt down prisoners and slaves. The use of dogs evolved into search and rescue work more recently, utilizing both dogs that are trained similar to the avalanche method (airscent) and dogs that mainly follow track (tracking/trailing). Cibola SAR has both types of search dogs.

Airscent dogs predominantly work by constantly checking the wind for any hint of any human scent. They are usually worked off lead, and are sent away from the dog handler to "go out and check the wind." This results in a dog that is casting about in front of the handler to cover the assigned territory, working from left to right of the handler, according to the handler's search plan and wind direction. The dog returns to the handler periodically to "check in". It is the handler's responsibility to make sure the dog casts about enough to satisfactorily cover the area. When the dog catches the scent of the person, he follows it. When he finds the person, he typically returns to the handler giving a trained "find alert" the handler recognizes. Then the dog takes the handler to the person, performing a "refind".

Tracking/trailing dogs predominantly work by constantly checking the ground for scent of the particular person they are searching for. They are started by being told to smell an article of clothing belonging to that person. Thus, they discriminate this person's scent from others. They are started at the place last seen, where the trail of scent is known to start. These dogs usually are worked in a harness and on a long lead, and the handler goes wherever the dog leads him, ultimately following the direction the person took until they catch up to him.

Notice that the word used to describe where the dog looks for scent is PREDOMINANTLY ground or wind. Both types of dogs actually get the scent from wherever they can, and do not always restrict themselves to just ground or air scent.

There are, of course, some variations in the methods as well. Some airscent dogs are trained to scent discriminate also, such that they will only alert on the subject and not other searchers. The trained "find alert" can also vary tremendously. Trailing dogs are sometimes worked off lead, and sometimes can be assigned to an area to try to find the trail of scent.

There are certain search scenarios that are well suited for dogs. The best use of an airscent dog is for searching a large area. This is because the dog does most of the leg work by ranging away from the handler for good distances. Trailing dogs are handy for determining the correct direction of travel from the place last seen. In all cases, the fresher the scent, the more likely the dog will be useful as a resource. This is why handlers are appreciative if they are called as one of the search's first resources.

Using dogs also has it's pitfalls. Breezy wind conditions can reek havoc on scent, literally blowing it to the next county. Large areas of scent where the subject spent a lot of time, called scent pools, can cause the dog to circle around indefinitely. Hot weather and deep snow can make a dog's usefulness amount to zero. They are certainly not infallible.

Cibola's canine unit has both airscent and trailing dogs. We have been in the process of developing evaluation standards for determining mission-readiness in our dogs. This summer, we hope to have most of our dogs mission ready. In the meantime, our unit's biggest goal is to convey to the rest of the team, and the search community in general, how serious we are about developing a good reputation. We are strict with each other about conducting ourselves and our dogs in a professional manner. We feel strongly about how a search dog should behave at search base and in the field. When a dog is present at search base, everyone there assumes he is a trained, mission-ready dog. We want everyone's assumption to be correct! I believe that these feelings are clear when you read the canine unit guidelines in Appendix E of the new Cibola Member Guide (please take a moment to read them!).

I would like to extend an invitation to everyone to talk to anyone on the canine unit about our goals, trainings, or the guidelines. We are striving to continue to be an interwoven part of Cibola SAR, not a separate entity.

Member Spotlight: Don Gibson

I was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and at age four my family moved to Anaheim, California. I attended elementary school and then in seventh grade moved to Encino, California. I graduated from Encino High School in 1967 and had been active in band for ten years and a member of the Encino Police Explorer Troop. I got my first job at 14 years old and by the time I graduated, I was putting in about 40 hours a week at work along with high school. Upon graduating from high school, it was a given that you would be drafted in the Marines or Army, so I enlisted in the Air Force.

After six months training as a weapons specialist, I volunteered for the Air Commands and completed gunship training along with two survival schools, the last being snake school in the Philippines.

I arrived in Danang, Vietnam at 19 years old and spent the next year flying on fixed winged gunships as an aerial gunner.

Returning to the states, I was assigned to load nuclear weapons on F-106 jets at Hamilton Air Base, San Francisco. In 1971 I went back to Vietnam as a sergeant and instructor gunner flying missions over Laos. It was on this tour that my crew was involved in a shoot-down and I got first hand knowledge of being on the other side of a search and rescue mission.

After my discharge in 1972, I married my high school sweetheart, that lasted fourteen years, and worked many jobs leading up to general manager of an industrial tool company.

In 1978, at the urging of our parents, my two brothers, myself, our three wives and Mom and Dad moved to Los Lunas, New Mexico to start up Accutrak Manufacturing Corporation, building horse and equipment trailers. In 1980 we formed Three G's Properties, investing in real estate.

In 1992 live was good, I had a divorce, both business ventures were successful, and I had more time off. It was then I met Bruce Berry. He was looking for a trailer to carry a snowcat on SAR missions. That perked my interest and shortly thereafter I joined Cibola SAR. Bruce never did buy a trailer from me.

When I joined CSAR we had a dozen members and on one of my first training hikes uphill (I've never gone downhill in SAR), Mary Berry nicknamed me "Wheezer", she didn't like me spitting up pieces of my lungs on her pack. After three years in the field, I decided to find a better route for my lungs so I went to field coordinator school and I'm now a Type II Incident Commander in District 5.

I've watched CSAR grow from a dozen to four dozen active members, and just as important, the state of New Mexico re-structure it's search methods to allow us to be more effective on a SAR mission.

At present I serve on three Board of Directors and I am secretary of the Vietnam Veterans of America, Chapter 318 in Albuquerque.

The only hobbies I have are SAR and sailing (I've got a good buy on a 15 foot West Wright Potter, Jib and Main Sails, and a 3 H.P. motor).

What I enjoy most about SAR are the people, not the missions. We've got an outstanding team within the state and it's the members that make it that way. I've been and done some interesting things in my life, but I don't believe I've ever had more enjoyment than working with this group of people in the wee morning hours, and of course, breakfast.

Web News

by Mary Girven

The web server for our development site at Sandia changed last month to a bigger, faster machine. If you have a bookmark that looks like "http://bali.ms.sandia.gov/csar", it should be changed to "http://www.ctbt.rnd.doe.gov/csar" (call me if you don't know how to modify a bookmark). CSAR members should still see their name at the top of the page. Call me if you have problems accessing the web site -- I'll be happy to help.

NMESC Notes

by John Mindock

This year's ESCAPE is again at Bonita Park, near Ruidoso (May 10-11). The next NMESC newsletter will have the Registration forms for the ESCAPE. I'll make copies of the newsletter which will be distributed at the March meeting. In addition, the newsletter will have brief descriptions of this year's course offerings.

Remember that the team reimburses registration fees. The fee schedule will be in the newsletter.

The team will not handle registration, etc. - you are responsible for that. The team does not reimburse for any 'late fees' - just for the basic registration amount.

Winter Mission in the Pecos Wilderness	by John Mindock
The callout came at about 2200 Friday night. Two lost snow-shoers on the Windsor trail in the Pecos wilderness near Santa Fe. By about 2300, St. John's team 1 was headed up the trail. The temperature was in the teens with below-zero wind chills, and a snowstorm was predicted for Saturday night. Early Saturday morning, team 1 found tracks that likely belonged to the subjects. They followed the tracks over the hill and into the drainage. The snow was waist-deep and occasionally neck-deep.
At 0800 they got a response, and found the subjects at 0830. The boy was hypothermic, unable to walk, and the woman was shivering. Both had wet clothing and nothing for backup. The team gave them sleeping bags and dry clothes, and got them into a sunny spot on the snow. The team was quite tired from the trek, the cold, and the lack of sleep. There was too much snow to make a fire, but there was sunshine for some warmth. Sunset would be about 1700.
The standard evacuation option for this area is to struggle back up the drainage and down the Windsor trail. However, they needed an akja for the boy. If they took this option, with the wait for the akja to be dragged up to them, they estimated it would be past midnight Saturday before they got out. Another option was to get up to a landing zone (LZ) which was one kilometer from them, 500 feet elevation gain (to about 10000 ft.). They didn't think they could do the evacuation with only three of them, trying to limp along with the boy and the woman.
The decision was made to use a National Guard chopper to drop off another team and an akja at the LZ. Unfortunately, that team got onto the wrong drainage, and did not meet up with Team 1 until about 1330. Their progress back to the LZ was hampered by deep snow, and ended up being a series of exhausting 50 yard segments. They finally completed the kilometer to the LZ at 1600, hard work for more than 2 hours on what is a 15 minute trip in summer. The subjects were evacuated first, and the team got to Incident Base about 1700.
Team 1 was in bitter cold and deep snow, with alternate periods of exhausting work and waiting around at high elevation, for a total of 18 hours. This scenario is not uncommon for missions in the Pecos area. Consider your own level of physical fitness, as well as the clothing, gear, food, and water you carry in your winter search pack. Make sure you have the conditioning and equipment needed to avoid hypothermia and frostbite before you go into the field on a Pecos mission in winter.	Wind Speed Estimation Guide (MPH) 25-31 Large branches moving. Whistling heard in overhead wires. 32-38 Whole trees moving. Inconvenience in walking against wind. 39-46 Small branches break (twigs). Impedes walking. 47-54 Slight structural damage. Larger branches and weak limbs may break. 55-63 Moderate structural and tree damage. 65+ Heavy to severe structural and tree damage.

Classified Ads

(20 words maximum, no services)

Randall Wahlert has received his dealer license at the auto auction. If anyone is looking for a vehicle give him a call.

Special Notes

Congratulations to Larry and Vangie Mervine who were married on January 17th!!!!

Disclaimer

the Editors

The information in this newsletter was gathered from many sources and presents facts as we believe them to be true. This newsletter is not meant to be an official document, but a means to disseminate team information.