March's Search & Rescue Meeting/Training

As being elected to head the great group of Volunteers who take the time to care for our community in Search & Rescue it is good knowing everyone is in it for the greater cause. Each other and our community. The Non-Profit Organization is starting to really take a different direction and starting to really come around with new directions and exposure.

The Southwest Michigan Emergency Response Team backed by Battle Creek Emergency Management and Homeland Security has done a great job as well as coordinating with Calhoun County RACES, and also a BIG help from KCSAR (Kent County Search & Rescue).

The meeting took off to a great start discussing our very first class and test offering Ham in a day, which with the little bit of exposure we got we had eleven take the class and out of those, ten of them passed. That is very great odds, taken into account that one person who failed had severely injured his back only a little while back and his pain medication was wearing off distracting his attention away from studying.

With this success, we are also offering another Ham in a day, also referred to as HIAD. This time offering not only the technician (entry level), but also the general class studying. I am hoping for a great turnout, as we have some pretty good time to advertise the class (April 28th, 2012, visit www.smertsar.blogspot.com for info).

Also with the meeting tonight, we also had some good training as well. Thanks to the Battle Creek Emergency Management and the Battle Creek Police Departments Meth Team, we had two come in and discuss Crime Scene Preservation (Very important for SAR Members) as well as knowing the dangers of meth, how it is produced, and how to identify meth labs, meth contaminants, and left behind components.

And next on the agenda was our upcoming 24-hour field training exercise. Yes, it is about time we get back to field training and this time it's going to be our quarterly 24-hour training session. Complete man-tracking, searches, night searches, land navigation & orienteering, basic survival, and communications. Hope and pray that this weekend, yes March 10th-11th is a good weekend, even though rough weather has never stopped us before. Why? Because when we get called out, we can say no..it's too cold, or it's raining/snowing call us back later. We go out in any weather and we are not limited to just Search & Rescue. We offer Evidence Preservation, Evidence Searches, Missing Persons, Damage Assessment, Public trainings, and whatever else is needed in the confines of our trainings we have received.

Also, a little off note. But as the storms we have seen destroy these towns, please realize that severe weather and other acts of nature can destroy means of communications. That is why RACES (Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Services), ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Services)have been formed for emergency communications. Please also note, in Battle Creek our Emergency Manager has his Ham License as well as most of our SAR Members. Only a few left of SAR to get theirs, but they are working on it, as well as a lot of law enforcement and emergency services (Fire, EMS) and a lot of civilians. Because in the event of a disaster, most cell phone towers may be destroyed or unusable and the only form of communication left will be HAM RADIO.

Hope everyone has a GREAT WEEK.
-Chad Hayes