Originally Posted By: hikermor
Originally Posted By: Phaedrus
Very sad. And failed SAR operation has to be demoralizing but I bet it's especially so when a young child is the subject.
Not necessarily. If the emergency is legitimate (and this isn't always the case), there are two broad types of operations with respect to outcomes:
1) ops where your group made a difference,
2) those where you did not (an individual sustains a 300 foot fall for example - just remove the remains)

We always analyzed each operation, big or small, in an attempt to answer the questions - What can we learn from this event? What procedures and protocols should we change in order to improve our operations? If your group responded promptly, deployed effectively, and operated efficiently, what more can you do, and what is there to demoralize you?

Operations with bad outcomes definitely do not lift your spirits, but those where you did make a difference, typically saving a life, provide a very noticeable exhilarating high. This definitely compensates for the flat spots.

Searches for young children are often among the most demanding....

I would say that unsuccessful searches for children aren't demoralizing, rather they are very depressing. Seeing parents heartbroken over the death of a child is extremely sad and depressing.

The searchers who will probably be doing the most second guessing are those who were involved in the initial response, during the first 6 to 12 hours. According to the press release, the child is thought to have probably died during the first night. Any chance for a successful search with a happy outcome had to be that first night. It is probably inevitable that those in the initial response will be thinking "what if?". Hopefully a CISD ("Critical Incident Stress Debriefing") was set up for those involved.

For those who haven't been involved in SAR, I should explain that lost person searches typically fall into two distinct phases. The "initial response" is the quick search that is launched as soon as the person is reported missing. In this phase, search resources are usually very limited, consisting of a few Park Rangers, Law Enforcement, Forest Service employees, etc. You only have those few searchers who are immediately on hand. Yet this phase is extremely important and has the best chance of a happy ending. The objective is to quickly gather and evaluate any clues, and to search the most likely areas as fast as possible. Hopefully the subject hasn't wandered far, and has not yet succumbed to the elements.

The larger, organized search takes longer to spool up. Volunteer teams must be summoned and travel to the location. Likewise for search dog teams. Helicopters and other assets need to be requested and arrive. An Incident Management Team needs to be set up to organize all the diverse assets, and to plan the most efficient search. All of this is done as quickly as possible, but it still takes time.
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