Search and Rescue

Last night, Nov 16, was our regular "Third Thursday" training session.

The days are ending early now, and who knows who can get lost in the woods, innocently wandering about and then caught unawares by the setting sun?

Stalwart Lisa was our search and rescue target, and (bless her heart) stayed out in the woods in mid-40s temps with only her cell phone for warmth and comfort for at least an hour and half while we cycled through six pairs of search and rescue teams. Cell phones are, at least, useful for *something*, but Ed had told her not to use it. Poor Lisa was getting colder by the minute.

We were aided in our task by the thermal imaging camera (although I found her once with a regular flashlight). This is an utterly cool device, with a neat panel that shows the field of view and all warm objects lit up like ghosts. Pan it through the woods, and Lisa shows up like a tiny snowman, though paling every time, someone said, a hundred feet away. Look up at the sky and the slightly warmer clouds actually glow a bit against the colder black sky. Look at Deputy Chris's running prowler, and it looks like it just dropped in from "Repo Man".

We did finally find Lisa, twelve times, and in the meantime the rest of us enjoyed chatting in the considerably warmer firehouse. Finally someone asked, shouldn't we go out and bring Lisa back in? Not all training sessions have to be grueling sweaty work.

--Wayne