CMSART Winter Drill 2005

CMSART Members,
I would first like to thank all of you that made it to our Annual Winter Training, at Leominster State Forest. I had a great time and hope all the attendees did too! I would also like to extend a special thanks to The Central Massachusetts Public Safety organization for there participation in this exercise and the usage of the mobile radios and the portable repeater. The additional communication hardware came in especially handy when one of the Hasty Teams traveled beyond the range of our Team portables. At that time a Mobile Unit was sent out down the road, communication was established with the Hasty Team. The Mobile Unit instructed the Hasty Team to switch there portable to the Repeater channel and communications were again re-established with Command, via the Repeater mounted in the Mobile Unit.

Also thanks to Team member Dr. Michael Kneeland and Board Member Bob Yeager for the presentation on Cold Weather Medical and Survival. The Team Leader for the carry-out team, Scott Harris did a superb job leading his team to the victims and getting the victims out safely. I must mention during the subject interaction at the discovery site and throughout the carryout, the command post wasn t in the parking lot, we were actually observing the exercise on-site. This allowed us to better critique the exercise AND to "pound" Scott with radio traffic, as he was in the middle of other tasks, since we could watch him first hand. These interruptions were intentional, since typically Command can not see what is going on on-site, it would not necessarily know when is a good time to call. Scott retained his composure during these interruptions and went on with the job at hand. The medical assessments were excellent. The carryout was long, challenging and performed very well. This is all considered, lessons were still learned. No matter how simple or how complicated our training gets, we always learn. That s why we do it.

During the Training, I read some "key" passages from an article in a recent Advanced Rescue Technology magazine, regarding Cold Weather Search and Rescue. I did mention that I contacted the publication for permission to reproduce/use the article. Well, I heard back from them and we are good to go! They even sent me the article in PDF format, so I am attaching it this posting for everyones reading pleasure, enjoy! (See Above)

Mark Supernor, 2005 CMSART Training Coordinator