(now Venture Crew 18)
by Nita and Chuck Leierer
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| A Short History of Explorer Post 18
(now Venture Crew 18) by Nita and Chuck Leierer |
First attempts at organizing a youth rescue group in Salem started in 1953, but it took several years to get a viable organization going. Finally, in 1956, Explorer Post 18 took off and since that time has offered youth a program that is both challenging and rewarding. The program stresses service to others in times of need and at the same time, challenges young adults to develop skills - physical, mental and emotional - that will serve them a lifetime.
In the process, it builds character and self esteem.
Search and Rescue Explorer Post 18 was the brainchild of Bill McVay, an ardent scouter and outdoors person. Early in 1953, a search for a family of four people took place in the State forest area known as the Tillamook Burn. About 100 well-intentioned searchers spent three days looking before they found the bodies of the family, all within a quarter mile of their car and within 100 yards of each other.
How Bill McVay became involved with the search is unclear. However, Bill came away with the idea that the relatively new Exploring program of the Boy Scouts of America could be the basis of organizing and training groups of young people to do what were then called "forest searches." His reasoning was that, given proper leadership, teenagers would enjoy the challenge, undergo the necessary training, stay with the program, conduct themselves in a professional manner, and likely had more stamina than their adult counterparts.
In the meantime, the Oregon State Forestry Department had come to the conclusion that there had to be a better way of searching, and had begun to study the "forest search" problem, looking for solutions that would not repeat the problems of the Tillamook Burn search.
McVay, along with others who shared his vision, such as Floyd Witteman, Wendell Ewing, Jack Mischke, Harvey Petersen, Roland Seeger, and Lee Port, Jr. of the State Forestry Department, set the organizing wheels in motion.
| Sponsorship Under Morningside Methodist Church, Salem |
Early records have been lost, so for the first year or so we resort to oral recollections. According to these recollections a Post was organized and chartered sometime in 1953, shortly after the first search and rescue Post in the Northwest was chartered in Washington State. The sponsor was the Morningside Community Methodist Church on South Commercial St. in Salem. Little is known about the problems faced in getting the group from paper to a viable organization, but for whatever reasons, the Post's registration lapsed and it was dropped from the Scout Council’s roster of Explorer Posts.
The first written history dates to 1956, when Explorer Post 18 was rechartered by the Cascade Area Council, Cherry City District, as a "dropped, reregistered" Post. Again the sponsor was the Morningside Community Methodist Church. The Executive Officer was Pastor John Morange. W.J. McVay was Advisor and Floyd B. Witteman was Assistant Advisor. Wendell Ewing, Jack Mischke, Lee C. Port Jr., Harvey Petersen and Roland Seeger comprised the first Post Committee. In that original charter, the Post registered five young men: Richard Davis, Jerry Seeger, Jon Keith Mischke, Jim V. Hoffman, and Edgar E. Martin.
The recharter was dated April 1, 1956.
Training for Post 18 was initially under the direction of the State Forestry Department. Lee Port, District Supervisor, directed the training. Early on it was agreed that the training should include map reading and using a compass, and first aid. It was fairly easy to develop training programs for these subjects. Don Ratliff, a State Forester, was putting together an instruction manual on Map and Compass, and Bjorn Kjellstrom had just published his book "Be Expert with Map and Compass, the 'Orienteering' Handbook". The Red Cross Advanced First Aid course was already available, and the Red Cross along with the National Ski Association and Ski Patrol had developed a "Ski Safety and First Aid" manual as early as 1938.
Training in survival techniques was included since the searchers would be operating in all kinds of weather and in isolated terrain and a team might have to be out overnight under adverse conditions. Survival methods had been the subject of several books. "How to Stay Alive in the Woods" by Bradford Angier was published in 1956. The Boy Scouts had been teaching camping and hiking skills since about 1910. Several mountaineering books contained sections on how to stay alive in the outdoors, and winter survival had been taught by the military to its troops since World War II. Rope techniques and wilderness litter evacuation had been taught in the mountain rescue community for many years.
In developing the training, inspiration came from the mountain climbing community, the military, the Boy Scouts and the Outward Bound program (it is no accident that the present outdoor training would seem familiar to anyone with Outward Bound training: for a number of years the Outward Bound program offered an annual scholarship to a chosen Post member).
But there was no wilderness search technique curriculum which could serve as a guideline for the search component of the training. By the mid '50's the mountain climbing community had developed high angle search and recovery techniques, but there were no training programs for ground search and rescue. For ground searches, or "forest searches", scores of volunteers would assemble and the agency in charge would send them charging off across the landscape. Each person knew, in their own mind, what they would do and where they would go if they got lost, and that was usually where each member of a search group headed. Cohesive and efficient leadership of these volunteers was virtually impossible.
Port and McVay began researching and developing ground search techniques from scratch. The same thing was going on in Washington State and there was considerable give and take between Oregon and Washington, especially with Grant "Smitty" Smith in Tacoma. In the past, searching with people in lines had been attempted. Since this appeared to be the best way to cover large areas systematically, the experimenting began.
After a four or five month intensive training period, McVay wrote the Oregon State Board of Forestry, Salem, Oregon, Attention: Mr. Ted Maul. The letter read in part: "We will be on call night or day and at present have available six trained personnel who are a self-contained, self-sufficient squad ready and willing to assist your organization for a continuous period of two days and nights in any way you see fit. We eventually intend to increase our unit to several 6-man squads, but at present one squad is ready to go." In July of 1957 McVay sent letters to all the Sheriffs in the counties within the area described in the 1956 letter to the Oregon State Board of Forestry. That letter read in part:
At first, Post 18 was organized into "squads" of five to eight persons, and three squads were eventually trained and registered with the State Forestry Department and the State Police.
After the Post was reactivated with that original group of five young men from Boy Scout Troop 18 as members, recruiting began in earnest. In 1957 the Post registered 22 young men. In 1958 the number of members rose to 32. The membership of the Post continued at that level for the next 10 to 15 years.
The Post became an Associate Member of the Oregon Mountain Rescue and Safety Council (MORESCO). The Post often assisted the Mountain Rescue groups by helping transport equipment and providing other assistance as needed. The Post would also help with evacuation once the victim was removed from a high angle position. Members of the mountain climbing community helped develop a climbing program which included working with ropes and litters. While the climbers conducted the high angle rescues or recoveries, the Post used the techniques taught them to perform low angle rescues and recoveries. Out of this training, a number of Post members developed an interest in climbing and became proficient climbers.
In the beginning, Post 18 was essentially self-dispatched. Calls for assistance came from State Forestry and the State Police. Some requests for assistance came directly from families. Occasionally, the Post was asked to help find pets (finding a family pet was always monetarily rewarding).
As the Post became better known, it began to be in demand to provide first aid training and other assistance at events and outdoor camps. Under direction of Vance Tribbett of the Salem Chapter of the Red Cross, the Post worked with the Red Cross to provide first aid at the Oregon State Fair for many years. They also provided first aid for most of the horse shows conducted at the fair grounds. They were asked to help with parking at numerous events.
Moving into the decade of the 1960's, the public - and public officials - were becoming more aware of the need for trained and equipped search and rescue resources. The Legislature had passed statues assigning the legal responsibility for search and rescue to the county Sheriff's. The population was growing and more and more people were becoming involved in various types of outdoor recreation. The result was more people getting themselves into situations they were not trained or skilled enough to handle.
Local Sheriffs were faced with statutory duties which, if not performed or not performed well, could result in a lawsuit by an increasingly litigious society. The search and rescue Posts had proven themselves well organized, dependable, dedicated and disciplined.
In 1966 sponsorship of the Post changed from the Church to the Marion County Sheriff’s Reserve. Later the Post would be sponsored directly by the Marion County Sheriff’s Office. The change in sponsors worked to the advantage of both organizations. The Post Committee had two or three Sheriff’s personnel as members. Several Sheriff's office employees volunteered their time to become adult leaders. They took an active part in the Post's activities, accompanying the group on out-of-county searches and participating in training and social activities. Over the years, the Post members and the Sheriff’s personnel came to know each other on a first name basis.
With more adult leaders the Post was able to organize more activities that required adults to be in attendance. For a number of years the Post conducted a coed ski weekend to Bend sometime during the winter. For several summers there was an annual raft trip down the Deschutes River. Officer’s training was a weekend trip to Lincoln City. Coed dances were held in conjunction with a search and rescue post that had been organized at Chemawa Indian School by Loyal Smith, a shop teacher there.
Bill McVay had encouraged and assisted in forming search and rescue Posts in Multnomah, Washington and Lane counties. In addition, McVay worked with the Marion County Sheriff’s office to persuade a Salem-area four-wheel-drive group to become involved in search and rescue. A REACT unit was persuaded to become part of the search and rescue scene. A dive squad was organized. The Army Air National Guard provided helicopter support. The Oregon Mounted Posse undertook training and became part of the search and rescue resources for Marion County.
By the late 1960's, the Post began to see the need for a vehicle to transport equipment to search scenes. Up until that time, gear had been stored at Bill McVay's house, and when it was needed for a search or training it was tossed into whatever combination of pickups, station wagons and sedans might be available. In 1968, Marion County Search and Rescue, Incorporated was formed, and registered with the Internal Revenue Service and the State of Oregon as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit. Funds were raised, and a local Chevrolet dealer sold the corporation a 1969 Chevrolet Step-van at dealer cost. For over 20 years "The Search Van" transported an ever-increasing cache of equipment, food, radios, and even searchers all over the State of Oregon.
In the spring of 1971 Bill McVay, Post 18's founder, passed away. The Oregon State search and rescue training conference that fall was dedicated to Bill, as was every statewide conference until the most recent one in 1986. Bill's contribution to the "art and science" of search and rescue - locally, regionally and even nationally - is probably still not fully recognized outside of those few who were involved with Post 18 in its early days.
Chuck Leierer was selected to replace McVay as Post advisor. Leierer, having had previous experience in Scouting, became involved with Post 18 when his sons joined, and stayed as an associate advisor. He continued to improve and enhance the program, and still remains active as a member of the Board of Marion County Search and Rescue, Inc. - and as one of the authors of this history!
More first and and wilderness rescue equipment began to be commercially available, reducing the need for home-made or modified equipment -- but also increasing the corporation's costs of operation. Radio communications also improved. The Sheriff's office loaned a mobile VHF radio and some portable radios were donated, allowing the collection of Citizens Band radios to gradually be relegated to the storage cabinet.
Post 18 had frequently assisted the dive squad by helping get equipment to the search site and managing tag lines for the underwater searchers. They were there to provide assistance should any of the members in the water need emergency assistance. They were instructed in the necessary equipment and how to recognize if a diver was in trouble. Since Post 18 performed stream searches a water rescue course was developed aimed at self-rescue, boat handling and the handling of rescue lines.
Girls in the Post?? The all-male world of Post 18 was shattered by a practical reality: recruiting problems. The Scouts' Exploring program was co-educational by the 1980's, and difficulties with recruiting enough boys lead to the obvious question: "If we can't find enough boys, why not start recruiting girls too?" In September of 1981, Sandy Morgan (now Sandy Mathews) became the first female recruit. Anybody who worried about whether having female members would "change" Post 18 swiftly had their worries erased, and Post/Crew 18 has been successfully coed ever since.
In 1986 Chuck Leierer resigned as advisor, and was replaced by Rick Ries, who had been involved with the group since the late 1970's after working with the Post at Oregon State Fair first aid stations.
In the late 1990's, the Exploring program was divided by the Boy Scouts of America into the Exploring Program and the Venturing Program. Venturing includes groups engaged in outdoor activities, and in 1998 "Explorer Post" 18 was re-christened "Venturing Crew" 18.
This history of Post/Crew 18 is a "work in progress". If you have any information or reminisces to contribute:"As you probably know, Scout Explorer Post #18 during the past few months has had several training sessions under the supervision of Mr. Lee C. Port, Jr. regarding search and rescue of lost persons.
"Also we have had several practice searches and camp-outs where we set up our group organization and standardized our gear and mess, so we feel we are ready to supplement your organization in actual searches for lost persons.
"Mr. Port suggested that we notify you when we are ready to accept calls and this we are now doing.
"We wish to limit our territory as follows:
NORTH: Columbia River.
EAST: Ridge of Cascades with the exception of the mountains above timberline.
SOUTH: Southern boundaries of Lincoln, Benton and Linn Counties.
WEST: Pacific Ocean."Please be advised that Explorer Post 18 of Salem has a roster of ten young men and four adult leaders, trained and equipped to assist your organization in lost person search and rescue operations in the forest areas of your county.
"Our units are fully equipped and self-contained and are anxious to volunteer their assistance whenever they are needed. Our training for the past year and a half has been supervised and directed by Mr. Lee C. Port, Jr. of the Oregon Board of Forestry and has consisted of practical instruction in map reading, compass work, use of the forestry radio equipment and the latest methods of forestry search and rescue technique. We also have been instructed by Mr. Norman Wilson in the use of his trained bloodhounds and have participated in practice searches with him and his dogs.
"Our units are on call night or day and in any kind of weather and for two consecutive days and nights to render assistance in all lost person searches in your area. We feel that our training and experience would be helpful as we are a self-contained, mobile outfit equipped and ready to move in when called."
Sponsorship Under the Marion County Sheriff's Office
Moving On