In Tucson, we don't mess around. "Failure to do right" will land you in the pokey.

Seriously, in one case, two gentlemen were fleeing deputies when they drove into the middle of a flooding wash and required rescue. We responded, extricated them from the stream, and the deputies took it from there.

In the second case, two men driving down a dirt road with their lights off at night, drove straight into a 100 foot deep vertical mine shaft.

Why were they driving at night with their lights out? They had just burglarized an adjacent mine building, a teaching facility of the School of Mines, University of Arizona.

They were in the shaft for three days and finally attracted attention by burning their tires. Our unit was summoned and I happened to be the first to rappel into the pit. My buddy, coming down later, had been told by a deputy that there was likely a criminal angle to the situation. Down in the pit we were so busy with patient care and avoiding the copious rock fall that we never had the opportunity to compare notes.

The one thing that saved us all from serious further injury was the vertical posture of their station wagon. We were able to shelter behind the very dented tail gate. Fortunately, their injuries were fairly minor and, in fact, had self stabilized over the three days since their fall; mostly they were dehydrated.

Our team on top quickly devised a rig that kept the haul rope clear of the sides of the pit, reducing the falling rock hazard significantly.

As I was hoisted out with one of the victims, he confided that he had a pistol in his boot. Well, this is Arizona. I thanked him for the info, thinking that I, too, might well attempt to save a treasured firearm if I were down in a mine.

When we arrived topside, our victims were interviewed by the deputies, mirandized, cuffed, and taken away. I am sure Pima County Jail never had more grateful inmates.

The point is that in a rapidly developing SAR operation, you rarely have all the facts available for analysis and informed decision making during the early stages, if ever. You just Go, and sort it out later.

I am [trained}, therefore I rescue.