See you out there.

Boots and Blisters

by Tom Russo

Our Ham exam prep class concluded at the beginning of March, and while I pointed this out at our last meeting it bears repetition: Congratulations to Curtis, KD5GOL, Gene, KD5GOI and James, KD5GOJ on passing the technician class Ham exam.

Since we had to cancel the tracking class at the last minute in March, we put together a quick-and-dirty GPS usage and SAR Communications training instead. Most of the training was classroom stuff, sitting around and going over features of radios and GPS receivers, but we also got to hike out from Chamisoso road and try out our GPS units in a little field exercise. It was a pretty day, and I think we all got a little something out of the training.

For our fourth scheduled training of the year, April's training will be a Mock Search. The date will be Saturday, April 10th, the location and time will be announced via the phone tree system. Please have your gear ready to go, and try to keep yourselves available in the later part of the day (e.g. late afternoon, early evening). I would really like to see as close to 100% participation as we can get. Please make sure your radio batteries are charged! We want to have as many functioning radios available as possible so we can have a radio for each team sent into the field. Expect the callout to occur at a typical time for a weekend search. All members are encouraged to participate, including those who have not yet had orientations: while we will not send you out into the field without having had a gear check, you can certainly learn a lot about searches by observing and helping with base camp duties. Furthermore, it is likely that Incident Command will need people to shuttle teams from base to their assignments, and you can help out that way, too. So if you were hoping to use this training as your third "you bet I'm interested" activity, you are welcome to attend, just don't expect to be assigned to hike up trail without having had a gear check.

I regret to report I had to cancel this month's litter handling evaluation session because an insufficient number of people signed up to come to it, and we wouldn't have been able to hold the eval. It was unfair to those who did sign up to do so, but unfortunately it takes at least six people to run a litter, and we just can't swing it with four. My apologies to those who were unable to get their evaluations out of the way because of this. As a reminder: I have been asking people via the voicemail and an emailed transcript of the voicemail message to please leave a message on the voicemail at least a week in advance of an evaluation if you are planning to attend. Contrary to popular and occasionally expressed opinion, I have a life, too, and will not hold an evaluation time open indefinitely if nobody plans to attend it.

There are only two remaining scheduled chances this year for you to get litter handling evaluations done, so please keep track of what evaluations you still need to get done this year and plan to attend one of the scheduled sessions. My plan is to have a land navigation evaluation on Sun, 9 May, a search techniques evaluation on Sat, 5 June, a litter evaluation on a Sunday in July (we'll have to pick something other than the day that my normal algorithm would select: 4 July), a Land navigation evaluation on Sat, 7 August, a search techniques evaluation on a Sunday in September (again, my algorithm would have selected Labor day for this, so we'll have to come up with a better day), litter evaluation on Sat, 9 Oct, land navigation on Sun, 7 November and finally search techniques on Sat, 4 December . Given how very difficult it was to manage a three-evals-in-one-day session last December, I will definitely not try to do it again this year, so please don't wait until December to realize you need all three evaluations before the end of the year!

As always, if there are enough members who need a particular evaluation, and there is an evaluator willing to take a few hours to set up an evaluation session in addition to mine, then additional sessions can be held.

Oh, yeah, one other thing. I would like to remind you all that you will not get credit for having attended a training if you arrive more than 15 minutes after the announced starting time. An exception was made at this past training because there were really two separate trainings combined into one and the people who showed up late were still early enough to get the whole of the second one, but in the future the sign-in sheet will be taken up after 15 minutes.

A last comment: on occasion certain folks who bother themselves with such things have commented on how we sign in at base camp when attending missions. Where you are asked to fill in what team you belong to, please do not sign in as "CSAR" but rather as "Cibola SAR." Apparently "CSAR" is ambiguous enough to cause confusion, especially in out-of-district missions. So that we all get practice filling out sign-in sheets in this mission-free dry spell, I'll be using copies of official sign in sheets as the sign-ins for meetings and trainings.

To help everyone learn who all the other members are, short member profiles will appear in this section for those who will volunteer the details of their lives. You will all get your turn!

Curtis Crutcher has lived all over the world, but he's actually a real, live native of Albuquerque. Curtis was career-military and wanted to stay that way. The end of the "Cold War," however, brought the end of his job. Curtis speaks Russian and was a special forces expert in jungle and severe cold weather operations. Now he's giving civilian life a try. Having done lots of outdoor operations (New Mexico, Texas, California, North Carolina, Australia, Japan, Germany, Philippines, Thailand, Panama, etc), Curtis wanted to continue to use his training and love of the outdoors, hence, his interest in Cibola SAR. When he's not working at Zangara Dodge, Curtis spends time with his wife, Susan, and three daughters. The girls are ages six, eight, and thirteen.

Nancy E. O'Neill (aka neon) is from all over the planet. Nancy was born in Okinawa and followed the family army assignments around the globe. In a position recently created for her, Nancy works at IBM. (Congratulations on the new position.) Her other job is M.O.M. (Manager of Mayhem) to her three girls. The girls are thirteen, eleven and nine. The remainder of Nancy's immediate circle includes horses, dogs, cats, and one rat. A very nice rat, I'm sure. Ever since the last ice age Nancy has been a "horse person." She's managed horse shows and barns and taught dressage. She got involved in Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department Mounted SAR and was then voted onto the NM Emergency Services Council. Not having enough to keep her busy, Nancy joined Cibola SAR. Next to being outdoors, her favorite thing is chocolate, dark, rich chocolate.

Susan Corban has lived in New Mexico since 1977, but was originally from Connecticut. She's worked at UNM for 20 years. She's a publications designer and editor and advises students. She has 14 kids and is expecting about 28 more before the end of May. You may have seen their moms at the dairy barn at the State Fairgrounds. Anyone who wants to bring their children, grandchildren, friends and neighbors to visit the goats, mule, horses, dogs, (no rats, but mice included, free) just give a call. She likes to paint and draw, ski, run, hike, backpack, chase after wildflowers, and just about anything else outdoors. While sitting at the East Mountain Rendezvous for the NM Mountain Club, Susan spotted the Cibola display and decided Cibola would be a great way to volunteer.

Mini Lesson: Insect Bites

by Joyce Rumschlag

It's getting to be that time of year again when all the dormant insects come out to do the things that they do and to be annoying to the rest of us. If you've ever been bitten, you already know whether or not and to what extent you are allergic to these bites. Some people are allergic and do not know it because they have never been bitten. Commonly seen signs and symptoms include pain, irritation, swelling, heat, redness and itching. Hives or welts may occur. These are the least severe of the allergic reactions that commonly occur from insect bites and stings. They are usually dangerous only if they affect the air passages (mouth, throat, nose, etc.), which could interfere with breathing. You may want to check that open can of coke before you slam down the last swallow. Bees love the sugar. The bites and stings of bees, wasps, ants, mosquitoes, fleas and ticks are usually not serious and normally produce mild and localize symptoms. Keep in mind, flea and tick bites are how we become introduced to lyme disease, hantavirus and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.

Emergency allergic or hypersensitive reactions sometimes result from the stings of bees, wasps and ants. Many people are allergic to the venom of these particular insects. Bites or stings from these insects may produce more serious reactions, to include generalized itching and hives, weakness, anxiety, headache, breathing difficulties, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Very serious allergic reactions (called anaphylactic shock) can lead to complete collapse, shock and even death.

First Aid
If there is a stinger present, remove it by scraping the skin's surface with a fingernail or knife. Do not squeeze the sac attached to the stinger because it may inject more venom.

Wash the area of the bite or sting with soap and water.

Remove jewelry from bitten extremities because swelling is common.

In most cases of insect bites the reaction will be mild and localized; use ice or cold compresses on the side of the bite or sting. This will help reduce swelling, ease the pain, and slow the absorption of venom. Meat tenderizer or calamine lotion may be applied locally. I have tried both and neither had any significant effect on itching or swelling. I have also found that a decrease in activity and elevation of the affected area reduces "down time."

If the reaction or symptoms appear serious, seek medical aid immediately. Swelling can be dangerous when it begins to restrict circulation.

Prevention
Apply insect repellent, reapply every 2 hours or after stream crossings. Be on the watch for insects swarming around. Never swat at or try to fan away insects. This seems to have a reverse effect on them.

Wear long pants especially when sitting directly on the ground. Long sleeved shirts can save on insect bites as well as provide protection from the sun.

Avoid wilderness critters and their nesting or bedding areas!

References
Virtual Naval Hospital

[Disclaimer: The editors remind you that written descriptions of first aid are not a substitute for proper first aid training, and that Cibola SAR's policy is that medical decisions are properly deferred to trained medical personnel!]

Coming Attractions

by Tom Russo

Susan Corban tells me that she will be getting our new members to write something about themselves in future issues of Who's Who and New. We're still looking for people to write some of the articles we talked about last October. Still to be written are articles about clothing choices, altitude effects, weather, gear reviews, "wild food for wilderness survival," and anything else our members care to share with us.

Public Relations

by David Dixon

Later this month Susan C. and I will be giving a short Recruitment Presentation with Albuquerque Mountain Rescue at the April Mountain Club Meeting. (It will be nice to work together with AMRC on some PR). We would include some slides of Cibola in action but have none in the PR boxes. If you have any we could use let us know ASAP. We have gotten quite a few new people from the Mt. Club ranks so hopefully this will rouse a few more.

On May 5 Susan, Larry, Don G. and I will be giving a 2 hour presentation on Outdoor Preparedness as an REI Workshop. We have been working on this for awhile and it?s something we could give to other groups.

We continue to see new faces at every meeting so we have to be doing something right. Keep up the good work, everyone. (Now we just need some missions).

Web News

by Tom Russo

As many of you know, I have been maintaining a mechanism for mail sent to the team mailbox, csar@swcp.com, to be redistributed to team members automatically using a primitive address expander that I wrote. The method I chose many months ago has proven to be unwieldy for me, so I have gotten hold of some good mailing list management software and I am going to turn the old clumsiness off. I have been sending instructions how to subscribe to the ne mailing list to team members for about a week now, and if you don't check your email often, you might want to look and see what I sent out. I will be shutting off the old members email list within a few weeks, so please subscribe to the new one soon. To reiterate: if you want to be on the mailing list, send email to [an address that has been deleted from this newsletter due to SPAM email harvesting. Eat death, evil email spammers] like this:

 To: the.correct.address.can.be.had@by.asking.the.membership.officer

 subscribe
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