Search & Rescue (SAR)
The patrol conducts SAR missions for Hitchcock and provides hard to find SAR training.
Mission:
The Loess Hills provides SAR services to the Nature Center. Most have been a simple search to find a member of a group or rescuing someone with a minor injury or exhaustion. Occasionally there are more serious events which require significant effort of everyone involved. One such event led to three Patrollers receiving NSP service awards for a life-saving winter rescue.
SAR Training:
Training is ongoing for winter and summer rescues and evacuation with SKED and Stokes litters, operating with helicopters’ raising and lowering systems, communications, incident command centers, and team dynamics.
Incident Command:
The patrol has practiced establishing a fully operational Incident Command Post (ICP) with communication management, personnel and resource tracking, planning, and operations. The patrol now can set up an ICP and run a multi-day incident, and it does it at least once annually.
Operation: Hercules
While the patrol has treated and evacuated a number of injured people over the years, suffering broken legs, head injuries, and hypothermia, there is one rescue that is still talked about often:
- Operation Hercules -
Like many Americans, we will call him Hercules, he was overweight and out of shape. Ultimately Hercules just needed just a little assistance back to the parking lot before making a full recovery.
