At 07:47 PM 10/2/2000 -0700, Peter A. Chopelas wrote: >remember this >issue coming up in the climbing/mountaineering community due to the large >increase in participants in the 70's. The SAR and Parks organizations were >trying to grapple with the increased demand for rescues. Peter is correct. We flew air rescue and Search and Rescue in Washington at a time when the local authorities did not have access to the resources available to the US Military. Thus after Vietnam, MAST was born: Military Assistance to Safety and Traffic. It was seen as a way to provide live training to the troops and assistance to the civilian population that wasn't available through any other means. There were extreme risks taken by all: the victims and the rescue parties, but the job was done and done well by volunteers and professionals in the Park Service, Law Enforcement, EMS and the US Army and Air Force. Mountain rescues were growing at an alarming rate in the Pacific Northwest at that time. The cost to launch a full scale medical evacuation or search and rescue operation was far beyond $ 2,000 then and now. The operating cost of one helicopter alone was above $ 750 dollars per hour not including the crew, which had millions of dollars worth of training invested by the tax payer. Tacoma Mountain Rescue (I believe the first and oldest in the US), Seattle Mountain Rescue, Everett, Yakima Search and Rescue, etc. are made up of volunteers that are far more professional than one would ever expect from a all volunteer organization. Many lives have been saved by these fine organizations and ones like them both with the use of tax payers dollars and without. Can we really put a price on a rescue or ever determine the value returned by those lives plucked off the mountain side. I think not. I do find it interesting, however, that in areas with a lot of paddlers there isn't a similar organization of volunteers for sea kayaking or sailing, fishermen and boaters in general. Funded by donations and staffed by volunteers. The use of existing resources from the Coast Guard combined with private boats staffed by volunteers could be a dent in the cost to the tax payer and hopefully create a means to emphasize the need for proper training and preparation prior to embarking on a risky trip. Don't the British have something similar for their Life Boats, kind of like Volunteer Firemen? An Auxiliary Coast Guard on Steroids. Fred T. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Tue Oct 03 2000 - 20:06:19 PDT
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