>>>when the family members and the news media observes your seachers standing down for 12 hours, they will hang you out to dry.

I can certainly sympathize with that. Otoh, it's a shame that we are sometimes forced to accept a non-optimal solution (read: more likely to get the searchee killed) because of uninformed family or media pressure.

Not having done this for real, I'm hesitant to play armchair quarterback. But in the exercise scenario, I still think I'd put all my searchers out there for the first 7 hours or so (at least enough to search the 1 mile circle closest to the Position Last Seen) and hope that, if we came up empty, we'd be getting reinforcements the next day, rather than cut my chances of an early success in half. But, as I say, I've never been in the position of having to justify my decisions to an anxious parent.

I agree, I'd very much like to impress on them the importance of "doing the math" and coming up with a real plan, rather than just going out and tromping through the woods.

We're going to give it a rest for a couple of weeks - variety being the spice of life and all - and go back to first aid training tomorrow. A week from tomorrow I have my first ARES meeting (Amateur Radio Emergency Service) so you may see me out there on a SAR mission yet. :-)