RUTH LIAO
Statesman Journal
December 3, 2007
It can begin as a simple hike in the woods, but a wrong turn or a misstep easily can create a mission for searchers and law enforcement.
That's where Jerry Martin and his youth-based volunteers come in.
Martin, 50, is operations division leader of Marion County Search and Rescue Crew 18. Since January, the team has responded to seven search-and-rescue missions, including a two-day search in July for a missing 21-year-old Linfield College student who eventually hiked out of the woods on her own near Breitenbush.
Martin, a lifelong Keizer resident, joined Crew 18 when it was known as Search and Rescue Explorer Post 18. Now under the aegis of Marion County Sheriff's Office, the volunteer organization is one of seven search-and-rescue teams in the county.
Question: Can you explain what Crew 18 does?
Answer: Search and Rescue Crew 18 was founded in 1955. It is among the first youth-based wilderness search and rescue teams in the United States. They were formed by Bill McVey and others after a family died in the Tillamook State Forest. Today's Crew 18 still performs wilderness search and rescue. We're available to Marion County Sheriff's Office in Salem. Between agreements between the sheriff's office and other agencies we can go anywhere in Oregon. I've been as far away as La Grande, and all over the nooks and crannies of Marion County.
Q: Who participates in Crew 18?
A: We have membership between 25 and 40 (youths). You have to be at least 14 years old to apply.
Q: How did you first get involved?
A: I joined in 1970. I was a Whiteaker (Middle School) student, and then-Corporal Bob Thomas of the Marion County Sheriff's Office was active in the Keizer community, where I still live. He said, "You ought to join search and rescue." To this day, it still scares my mom to death.
Q: What were some of the early searches you went on?
A: My first search was for a man by the last name of Stokley in August of '71. He was part of a climbing/hiking group of friends up at Mount Jefferson. He disappeared high up on the mountain. Our team was one of many that searched the Mount Jefferson area for about a week and his body was never recovered.
Q: What did you remember from that experience?
A: I remember -- vividly, to this day -- the incredible amount of hard work it took to get from the Whitewater trail head back into the Jefferson park area on the north flank of Mount Jefferson. That's several miles, and we had lots of equipment to carry. It was August, it was warm, until we got to snow. I just remember the amazing effort it took to get us there, and back into those woods and then back out. It's a memory that's stayed with me forever.
Q: How do you train?
A: You start square one with wilderness navigation. We teach them how to use a map and compass, or Global Positioning System to help them find their way out of the woods ... usually at Silver Falls State Park. Then (we teach) winter survival skills, searching for emergency locator transmitters from downed aircraft, rope rescue skills. And then in March, we'll be in the Oregon Cascades ... for four days and three nights of survival skills, living off the land. It's used as a confidence builder to reinforce the fact that you can use all the skills we've been working on.
Q: What kind of tips would you give for people who may be doing winter driving or hiking?
A: In western Oregon, we are in such a great climate that people forget how fast the weather changes this time of year. So be prepared for the worst -- warm clothing, a little bit of extra food, drinking water in the trunk of your car. Even though it's easy to get into some of these locations at the start of the day, heavy rainfall, snowfall, downed trees or high wind can really change your travel plans.
Choose carefully some of the back-country routes you choose to hike or choose to drive on.
Q: What should someone do if they're lost?
A: I like the old thing called the STOP rule. It's S for Stop, T for Think, O for Observe and P for Plan ... As soon as that little voice inside says you've taken a wrong turn or you're not quite sure where you are, that's the time to stop. To approach forward blindly and to work yourself into a panic almost certainly is a recipe for a search, and perhaps much worse.
Q: The story of the Kim family that went missing in 2006 in southern Oregon became known nationally. How did that incident change the outlook of search-and-rescue missions?
A: We looked at the lessons learned in the Kim search and in other searches and focus on our job: we are searching for a missing person and we are in the business of finding clues. A missing person -- or in the case of the Kim family, a missing family -- will leave more clues than there are actual missing persons. Footprints, tire prints, vehicles parked in the middle of the road, clues. We just emphasize that the search is for the missing person, but you are looking for clues, and don't discount the clues.
Q: What was it like to work on successful searches where people are found safe?
A: It's awesome. The response of family members is just incredible because searches have a level of stress for everyone involved. The searchers want to make the find, and they have this beat-the-clock sort of thing, and the family members are just hugely concerned with the welfare of their loved ones. So the expressions of relief and the whole emotional culmination of the search is just awesome.
Q: What was one of the toughest moments in a search? And where were you?
A: I was at the Whitewater Road in the Detroit ranger district on the Willamette National Forest. (Now retired) Marion County Sheriff's Lt. Larry Allen and then-Chaplain Fred Bassett were there, and we were going to have to explain to the family why we felt it unwise to continue searching for their son because of an avalanche hazard. We explained the situation to the family, and they agreed there was too much risk there, and felt it would endanger the searchers.
Q: Why was that your toughest moment?
A: Well, you're admitting defeat. It's a pretty tough pill to swallow. You've got all of these resources and the environmental factors -- the avalanche hazards -- prohibit you from making an attempt to search an area where you think the person might have been.
Q: How has technology changed in search-and-rescue operations?
A: When I first joined search and rescue as a 14-year-old, we communicated with citizens' band radio walkie-talkies. You could talk about three miles or four miles on a good day. We had search teams within the team. Their job was to go out as far as they could talking back to base camp by radio and then stop there, and then you'd push the search out in front of them. Then they'd be the radio relay and you'd repeat everything back.
GPS didn't come around until the 1980s, and wasn't really available at the consumer level until the late '80s, early '90s -- and then for a small ransom. Now you can buy a reasonable GPS unit for less than $100.
Q: What do you think draws people to join search and rescue teams?
A: I think it is initially a combination of curiosity and adventure. In a lot of ways, this is kind of the ultimate extreme sport without the extreme. We work in a challenging environment, but there are clear boundaries. The extreme part is that search-and-rescue folk across all the disciplines are going someplace forward where one thing is known for certain: a person is already in trouble. We're going to dive into that and play this ultimate game of hide-and-seek and bring them back from that. That's the extreme challenge part -- to do all of that, and do it reasonably safely and come back out of the field with the missing person and with as many searchers that went in.
