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DEM #98-1741 September 2, 1998 |
Mission Report submitted by John Miner
Date: September 2, 1998
0415 Departed the cache. Because of the unusually long drive, all team members were told to plan on two days for this operation.
0850 Arrived at the search base. This was on forest road #54, approximately 30 miles from Chewlatchie. It was difficult to locate, with no markings identifying the road or directional markings to the base of operations.
0855 Operations Leader John Miner gave a brief Warning Order to the group. Jim Andrues and Stan Kartes were appointed as team leaders. Jim was asked to make up teams and get everyone ready to deploy shortly with very light packs and extra water while I met with the Deputy Sheriff in charge.
0915 1 met with Skamania County Chief Criminal Deputy David Brown and Chief Tom McDowell of the North Country EMS. These were the two officials in charge of this operation. I was told that we were searching for a missing berry picker, 81 year old Herbert Rooper. He was last seen on Monday, August 31, 1998 at 1500hrs. I asked for and received copies of maps and fact sheets. I was asked to deploy TMRU teams into a rugged area due east of the search base in order to gather information on the likelihood of our missing subject being in that area. It was also high ground from which to survey the area. There had been a ground search, several dog teams, and an air search before we arrived. Pierce County ESAR arrived at the same time we did, with Grant Smith (Smitty) as their Operations Leader.
0930 1 briefed the teams on the information regarding our mission and the search effort to this point. I instructed the teams to carry extra water, to strip packs down to less than 25lbs. with a 9mm. rope, harnesses, and red webbing in case they had to access some of the rock ledges in the area. Jim Andrues divided the teams up as follows: Team #I Jim Andrues, Dave Treber, and Cheryl Wells. Team #2 was Stan Kartes, Phil Pletcher, Jim Creamer, and Fran McFarland. Bill Weber, our truck driver, remained in base camp.
0949 Both teams in the field. We had two radios per team, conducting our business on TMRU while the main search frequency was State SAR. The teams' initial assignment was to proceed east on the spur road some 75yards from the command post trailer where the subject was last seen, 1/4mile through brushy terrain to the timber line. This jagged line marked the boundary of the Trapper Creek Wilderness Area. Upon reaching the
timber, T- I was to search north while T-2 proceeded south. They were to look for signs that the subject may have reached the timber where the traveling was easier due to lighter underbrush. The weather was very hot and dry, with temperatures reaching 90 degrees in the afternoon.
1014 Both teams reached the tree line.
1020 Radio check, broken. Plans were made to check in at half hour intervals
1127 No contact on a radio check.
1137 Radio contact was made with T- I via the truck radio. Their ETA was one hour to
base camp after having completed their initial mission.
1248 No contact.
1255 Radio contact, teams at the spur road, returning to base.
1317 Both teams at base. Channel 8 had their news helicopter up and assisting in the search effort.
1331 Debriefing of the teams with Chief Deputy Brown. Both teams were told to re
hydrate and take lunch. Food and water were provided for all searchers, courtesy of the
Salvation Army. The food was fresh and very welcome by all of us.
1419 Both teams re-entered the field with a dog handler who told us that two of them had their dogs alert on a patch of berry bushes some fifty yards from where the subject had last been seen. They were to search that area and then proceed down a drainage as far as possible, as two members from the Volcano Rescue Team were coming up that same
drainage from a trail. The Volcano Rescue team reported that this was very difficult, with steep ground and a lot of downed timber. There was water in the gully however. At the upper end where our teams started, the ravine was dry.
1500 Updated information was provided to the teams. They were to search this ravine and then return while searching the open ground in between, eventually joining up with ESAR.
1622 No radio contact with the teams.
1639 Both teams aborted their mission. They stated the ground was too steep and that they were returning to base.
1705 Both teams arrived in base.
1730 Dinner
1835 Group de-briefing and secure for the night. We found a grassy area on a spur road several hundred yards south of base. ESAR and TMRU set up for the night there.
0600 Teams up.
0645 Breakfast at base.
0748 Briefing
0755 The morning briefing was complete. Several more members of the lost subject's family arrived. The plan was to close grid search the area next to the road, on both sides, And then around the area where he was last seen
08 10 All teams in the field. ESAR teams from Multnomah and Kitsap County joined the
operation. Jim Creamer, a timber cruiser in real life, was pressed into action as the "end man," running a string line off of his counter to mark the end boundaries of the close grid search. All search leaders and the members of his family felt we were looking for a "downed" person. Pierce and Kitsap ESAR, several family members, and TMRU formed the group on this grid search.
0850 Teams completed the search on the east-side of the road. They returned to base and refilled water containers.
0855 All teams back in the field, this time searching the west-side of the road. This covered an area roughly 1/4mile long and 220' wide per grid.
0848 1 participated in an interview with the sister of the missing person.
0930 At my request, I had the sister take myself and Smitty to the point last seen. It was some thirty yards off of the spur road. She told us that she had left him there, that she was to return in one hour, which would have been 1600hrs., on Monday. There were two women camped at the end of this spur, only yards from where Herbert was picking berries. He had no gear or water with him, only a large can attached to his belt for picking berries. She told us that when she returned, he was no where to be seen. She honked the car horn and began yelling, all to no avail. The two women said that they had seen him only a short distance away and went immediately there to locate him, all again to no avail. The sister then returned to the forest service station in Chewlatchie to summon help. The two women camped there all night. A search, albeit limited, was conducted that evening. The roads were searched as well. She told us that Herbert was not experienced in the woods, that he had a bad knee and would not walk very far. He had an angioplasty two years ago and some minor mouth surgery recently, but other than medication for high cholesterol, he did not take any thing else. We thanked her for her assistance and returned for the short walk to base.
1013 Radio check, both teams nearing the end of their sweep.
1021 All teams finished this sweep.
1034 Starting return sweep. The plan here was to do four sweeps, covering a swath between the road and the timber line. The ground was varying in grade, generally sloping uphill north to south.
1109 Status check, teams reported sweeping through the point last seen.
1155 End of sweep. We took water to the teams and had the arriving van with the food meet the teams on the road rather than marching them back to base, for efficiency.
1313 All teams started the next sweep. Kitsap ESAR was taken out of the line and redeployed. One of their team suffered a minor sprained ankle and three were having difficulty with the heat. Bee stings were also a problem.
1346 A status check was made with our teams. They reported they were half way on this sweep and the ground was very steep. This was again near the head of the dry drainage they had been in earlier.
1415 The teams finished their search.
1422 Teams back in base.
1515 Group de-briefing. Everyone was very discouraged. Family members, several who
had been inserted in the search lines were understandably discouraged and distraught.
They were very cordial and appreciative of everyone's efforts. A Huey from Ft. Lewis
was searching with a Skamania County Deputy while we were debriefing. We were all convinced that our subject was not in the search area, the question was where did he go? Kitsap, ESAR teams were still in the field conducting road edge searches. Vehicles were deployed to search farther away. Due to the long drive and work commitments, Pierce
ESAR and TMRU had to leave. Chief Brown said they would call if they wanted an additional call out over the week-end, that they would continue the search, but he was not sure what configuration that would be. 1530 TMRU secured from the search. 1545 We left search base. 2153 We arrived at the cache and cleared.
As a general comment on the operation, all team members performed well and it was a good mission. There were no gear issues. We went very light, which worked well for this operation. This was more of a grid search environment for us, but a good experience. Chief Deputy Brown and Chief McDowell were very pleasant to work with and valued the input from all of the unit operations leaders. As a postscript: the subject was found
ALIVE the day after we left, in a drainage. Smitty is checking for details, which we will report in a follow-up later. From what little we know, his boys stayed with him (we do not know who found him) and a helicopter lifted him out. Virtually everyone felt the subject was deceased, but once again we see a subject not doing what is most likely and surviving against the odds.
Chief Criminal Deputy Dave Brown called me at work today (9-8-98) to relate the following information. He was scheduled to interview the person, Herbert Rooper, this afternoon. His son-in-law and a couple of other relatives decided to search further into the steep drainage that TMRU had started down and that the Volcano Rescue team had started up. The likely areas had been searched, and this was on "the list" of areas that had not been totally covered yet. They worked their way far down this ever steepening drainage, water finally appearing in the bottom. One member of this search party, while they were conversing on the unlikely possibility of Herbert being in this area, spotted a small piece of blue clothing, a patch, far down the ravine.
They went to it and found foot prints. They called back to the search base and checked with a relative, probably his sister, and found that this was a patch Herbert had on his clothing. They searched further and found nothing. They were ready to turn around, totally discouraged, when Herbert stood up out of the brush only ten feet away. He was weak, hungry and somewhat dehydrated. A helicopter came in and got him out on a jungle penetrator. No further details on this yet. According to the information from the rescue party, Herbert fell during that one hour period when he turned up missing, hitting his head. He started walking downhill. When he regained his senses, he looked up at this huge hill and realized that he could never climb out, so he kept going down, following this deepening and curving drainage, taking him into the Trapper Creek Wilderness. He stumbled and fell on his journey, spending the first night out in the drainage. He moved further downhill the next day and finally his strength gave out. He sat down and told himself that this was where he would die. He ate the last of his berries. He was now in the timber and no more berries to pick, though he did have water. He then, of course, was found. He was 1500' to 2000' down into this drainage and nearly a mile out of the search area, from what is known at this point. He was in between the TMRU and Volcano Rescue teams.
There will undoubtedly be more details when Deputy Brown interviews Herbert, and there is a critique that I will try to attend near the end of the month. I called Smitty and left a message. I will fill him on the details thus far. Herbert spent one night in the hospital in Portland and was released. He hurt his knee, but nothing serious. The news is at the same time elating and frustrating. Certainly there is elation that this gentleman was found alive, but frustrating that we did not find him sooner. This is a good one to remember. Our search plan was sound, and I want to thank all of the TMRU members who participated in this operation. We represented TMRU well. I'll see you on the next one.
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