Crew 18 responded to a total of 10 missions in 2006. Two of them were person searches, six were evidence searches, and two were victim evacuations.

Our biggest mission of 2006 was the night of August first. The Sheriff's office received a call that someone was having a seizure on Park Ridge, which is at the base of Mt. Jefferson, about seven miles from the nearest road (and about 20 miles from the nearest good road). Crew 18, Posse, and the Special Vehicles Unit responded, and a hasty team from Crew 18 reached the victim about 9pm. The original plan was to evacuate him on horseback, but on the way out he had another seizure and the situation became urgent. Eventually he was evacuated by helicopter about 1:15 in the morning. 15 Crew 18 members donated 245 hours on this mission, and all of them received commendations for the rescue, which probably saved his life and was completed without any injuries or accidents in spite of the fact that people, horses and aircraft were moving around in the wilderness area in the dark.

And that rescue wasn't the only callout we had that week. Between August 1 and August 8, Crew 18 responded to 3 evidence searches, the major rescue at Park Ridge, and a 2-day County training exercise. Twenty-seven of our 36 "active" youth and adult members responded to at least one of those callouts; several responded to 3 or 4 of them.

In June, Crew 18 members were called from a water rescue class to help with the recovery of a man who had drowned at 3-Pools recreation area after saving some people who had fallen into the current.

Crew 18 donated a total of 672 hours on searches in 2006, and drove 996 miles getting to those searches.

TRAINING 2006-07

Last September, we started our training season with recruits. Tonight, 13 of them are here to receive their Basic search and rescue certificates.

In the last seven months, these recruits have traveled from the Santiam Pass to the foothills of the Coast Range. They have pounded on CPR dummies, on firewood, and occasionally on each other. They have enjoyed meals of instant oatmeal, fir-needle tea, and the ever-popular Chicken Teryaki ala Wilson. They have taken classes in bloodborne pathogens, fire building, crime scene procedures, radio operations, and map reading. Each recruit spent between 150 and 200 hours in classroom and field training between September and April.

And the recruits weren't the only ones in class. For Crew 18's seniors and adults, training goes on all year.

In the last year, Crew 18 members took classes on the Incident Command System, mass casualty incidents, and meth labs. They trained with the Oregon National Guard, with the other Marion County units, and with Corvallis Mountain Rescue. Members of Crew 18 served as instructors for the Marion County Search and Rescue Academy and for outdoor education at several elementary schools.

In all, Crew 18 youth and adult members completed over 6,300 hours of training in 2006-07.