Search and Rescue Team
The tragic events at Mittry Lake this week, have brought back some not so fond memories, of another tragic event that happened in my youth. While the event didn't affect me on a personal level, it affected me on an emotional level.
When I was young, my father, uncle, and a few of their friends were volunteers with the Yuma County Search and Rescue Team. When the Yuma County Sheriff Department received word of lost or missing persons in the desert or river, they would activate the volunteers, to go and search. Each person had a unit number. They kept in communication with each other with via CB radio, and 4 wheel drive, or all terrain vehicles as they searched. The team trained on weekends, in desert survival, navigation, map reading, tracking, advanced first aid, mountain and mine rescue, and team discipline dynamics. There were quite a few military members, and former military members. At that time is was a tight knit team, that was well trained, and very motivated. Along with the military people we had lawyers, business people and citizens wishing to give back to the community. As a young pre-teen I learned a lot, from the men who were training us. It was a fun adventure, too.
A call came out for a missing man from El Cajon Ca, who was last seen swimming directly in front of Laguna Dam. The call was received on Memorial Day 1977, I believe. So the van was taken out to the Dam and parked, and used as a command post, as it had been done on all other call outs. About 7 people including my uncle, father, and his lawyer. were dispatched. They all decided that it was best to drag the river for the body. They gave me their watches, wallets, keys and other personal pocket items for safe keeping, and took a rope and got into the water and from one side to the other,with one in the middle, they drug the river. They started at the bottom of the spillway, and went up stream. At that time the river was high and fast, especially right there in front of the dam. They gave me a makeshift backpack with a battery operated radio on it, and I was to follow from the shore, as the men dragged the river. I was their communication from the dragging operation, to the command post. I relayed information and instructions back and forth. We started about 9 am, before it got too hot. We dragged upriver for about a thousand feet and back because at the time that was the swifist part of the river. Other units were checking further upriver for a body, where it would have come to the top unobstructed. At about 1330 the body was dislodged by the rope from some toolies on the west shore about 500 feet or so upriver from where we started. they pulled him up tp my position, near the van, and I grabbed him and pulled him out of the water. At 12 years old this was my first time this close to, and touching a dead body. I had seen death before, but not this up close and touchy feely. I remember him being a shade of pale blue was wrinkly, and had a big chest. Others on the team brought a Stokes litter down, covered the body, placed him in the litter and took him away. I washed my hands for a week, afraid that death was contagious. Turns out it wasn't.
The man was Epileptic, and had a seizure in the water, and drowned. It was all very tragic, and sad. I remember feeling sad, and shedding tears for the man and his family. For years after that I would go to the river to swim and fish in that same place, and I would remember the man's face, and dragging the river, and hoisting him on to the shore. It wouldn't haunt me, but I would remember, and once again I would shed a tear. I never knew the man's name. All I knew was that he was someone that help, and and that was all that mattered.
I learned quite a bit, when I worked as a team with those men and women. Their influence and character rubbed off on me, for the rest of my life, and still does to this day. I learned advanced first aid, I learned how to track and cut sign, I learned how to rappel, mine rescue with a breathing apparatus, I learned fire suppression, team work, and respect. I am grateful for having been allowed to participate. It has made a better man.
When I was young, my father, uncle, and a few of their friends were volunteers with the Yuma County Search and Rescue Team. When the Yuma County Sheriff Department received word of lost or missing persons in the desert or river, they would activate the volunteers, to go and search. Each person had a unit number. They kept in communication with each other with via CB radio, and 4 wheel drive, or all terrain vehicles as they searched. The team trained on weekends, in desert survival, navigation, map reading, tracking, advanced first aid, mountain and mine rescue, and team discipline dynamics. There were quite a few military members, and former military members. At that time is was a tight knit team, that was well trained, and very motivated. Along with the military people we had lawyers, business people and citizens wishing to give back to the community. As a young pre-teen I learned a lot, from the men who were training us. It was a fun adventure, too.
A call came out for a missing man from El Cajon Ca, who was last seen swimming directly in front of Laguna Dam. The call was received on Memorial Day 1977, I believe. So the van was taken out to the Dam and parked, and used as a command post, as it had been done on all other call outs. About 7 people including my uncle, father, and his lawyer. were dispatched. They all decided that it was best to drag the river for the body. They gave me their watches, wallets, keys and other personal pocket items for safe keeping, and took a rope and got into the water and from one side to the other,with one in the middle, they drug the river. They started at the bottom of the spillway, and went up stream. At that time the river was high and fast, especially right there in front of the dam. They gave me a makeshift backpack with a battery operated radio on it, and I was to follow from the shore, as the men dragged the river. I was their communication from the dragging operation, to the command post. I relayed information and instructions back and forth. We started about 9 am, before it got too hot. We dragged upriver for about a thousand feet and back because at the time that was the swifist part of the river. Other units were checking further upriver for a body, where it would have come to the top unobstructed. At about 1330 the body was dislodged by the rope from some toolies on the west shore about 500 feet or so upriver from where we started. they pulled him up tp my position, near the van, and I grabbed him and pulled him out of the water. At 12 years old this was my first time this close to, and touching a dead body. I had seen death before, but not this up close and touchy feely. I remember him being a shade of pale blue was wrinkly, and had a big chest. Others on the team brought a Stokes litter down, covered the body, placed him in the litter and took him away. I washed my hands for a week, afraid that death was contagious. Turns out it wasn't.
The man was Epileptic, and had a seizure in the water, and drowned. It was all very tragic, and sad. I remember feeling sad, and shedding tears for the man and his family. For years after that I would go to the river to swim and fish in that same place, and I would remember the man's face, and dragging the river, and hoisting him on to the shore. It wouldn't haunt me, but I would remember, and once again I would shed a tear. I never knew the man's name. All I knew was that he was someone that help, and and that was all that mattered.
I learned quite a bit, when I worked as a team with those men and women. Their influence and character rubbed off on me, for the rest of my life, and still does to this day. I learned advanced first aid, I learned how to track and cut sign, I learned how to rappel, mine rescue with a breathing apparatus, I learned fire suppression, team work, and respect. I am grateful for having been allowed to participate. It has made a better man.
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