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Date: 2/22/98
Location: Fort Lewis, WA
Personnel: Jeff Sharp OL, Rob Lutz, Ed Hrivnak, Jim Andrues, Connie and Larry Crum
Jeff Sharp was contacted by Tom Jensen, WASAR, at 1530 hours. Tom asked if TMRU would find an ELT that was in the vicinity of Gray Field on Fort Lewis. The ELT had been transmitting for approximately 20 hours. Fort Lewis personnel were able to hear the ELT on their radios but were unable to locate the source of the signal. No aircraft were reported overdue or unaccounted for.
Rob Lutz met Jeff at the Cache at 1600 hours. They picked up the direction finders and proceeded to Fort Lewis. Sgt. Sandorf was the contact at base operations, on Gray Field. We contacted the Joint Rescue Coordination Center, Headquarters Air Combat Command at Langley AFB, Virginia for the latest SARSAT fix. The SARSAT location was approximately one mile east of the south end of runway 33
A strong signal was heard at the base of the control tower. There were no reflections and the DF mode indicated the ELT was to the east. The first DF plotted toward the base flying club ramp. A ramp check was performed by Jeff of all of the aircraft. No aircraft on the ramp were transmitting. While Jeff was performing the ramp check, Rob was gathering additional DF data. From the ramp two DFs were noted. One was to the east and another was to the southeast.
A check of the Seattle sectional aeronautical chart showed that Spanaway airport was along the DF plot. Ed Hrivnak was asked to check the Spanaway airport. No aircraft were transmitting at Spanaway.
Jeff and Rob began to isolate the ELT to an area east of the airfield that was made up of barracks and other support facilities. A combination of DF and build/fade techniques were used. They found that the DF mode indicated numerous reflections around the buildings. The build/fade method proved the most efficient method. A pattern of driving around the block in a tighter and tighter pattern isolated the signal to a building occupied by the 54th MAST unit. Jeff spotted a logo through one of the windows as they drove by. They thought this might be a good building to investigate further since it was related to an aircraft unit.
Rob found 4 MAST crew members about to go into the building and told of our quest. They allowed us to search the building. The ELT was located in a supply room. It was activated the previous day accidentally while personnel were working in the room. The ELT was secured at 2000 hours. (Mission report submitted by Jeff Sharp. Editor)
We have a lot of new members join the Unit so I would like to publish the following article on equipment. While we are all climbers and should already know how to pack for a climb/rescue a little memory jogger doesn't hurt.
You're getting ready to pack your backpack for a rescue. What kind of clothing should you put in it? You need to have a basic system that you can change to meet the needs of individual rescues. It should be able to function in any conditions from a nice sunny day to a blowing blizzard.
A wilderness rescuer literally carries his house on his back. This makes a well fitting and comfortable pack, another very important item of equipment. If the pack is too small there is the likelihood of not taking necessary gear. There is also a reluctance to adjust clothing while climbing because of the difficulty of getting it in or out of the bag. Conversely, avoid a huge pack and overloading it.
The following list is offered to assist you in deciding what equipment to bring. Remember to bring the right equipment; having the wrong equipment or not enough can mean spending the day at the search base. A lot of the more experienced members of the Unit bring a duffle bag with all their gear and put their pack together at the rescue base.
Your most important piece of equipment is your boots; light weight trail boots are not adequate; have a good quality, medium or heavy weight hiking and climbing boot. Your clothing should be wool or a synthetic that retains insulative value when wet. Cotton is useless when wet; it has zero insulative value when wet and in the wind. So forget your blue jeans and leave them at home or in your car. One last statement: make sure your equipment fits comfortably.
10,000 feet up on the side of Mt. Rainier is a bad place to find out your boots hurt.
CALL TO ORDER: 19:40 hrs.
BOARD MEMBERS IN ATTENDANCE:
OTHERS IN ATTENDANCE:
TREASURER'S REPORT: Larry Crum
OPERATIONS REPORT: Gus Bush
TRAINING REPORT: Jim Andrues
EQUIPMENT: Ed Hrivnak
COMMUNICATIONS REPORT: Stan Kartes
SAFETY AND EDUCATION: Chris Berryman
MEMBERSHIP REPORT: Chris Berryman
FINANCE REPORT: Bill Weber
AIR OPERATIONS REPORT: Jeff Sharp
OLD BUSINESS:
NEW BUSINESS:
ADJOURN: 21:15 hrs.
Respectfully submitted,
Stan will be sending out test pages every Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. and Saturdays at 2 p.m. If you do not receive the page at
the designated time, contact Stan at 845-5843.
SAR Conference on May 9th and 10th.
Helicopter"Dunker" training will be held on Friday, April 17th from 6-9 p.m. at Lakes High School in Lakewood. Contact Jeff Sharp at 588-0265 if interested.
Mountaineers self-help training at Leavenworth on May 2nd. This is not a Unit training, however it offers some basic self rescue techniques. Contact Chris Berryman at 581-6614.
Several months ago, Ed (The Pres) Hrivnak, asked to me set up the annual TMRU Climb. So, here is the TENTATIVE schedule:
Where: Tahoma Glacier (or other west side route) Mt Rainier
When: May 29 thru 31
What: We will be arranging to have PACK HORSE assistance, to haul in gear (and beverages) as far as legal.
I will have to finalize the quantity of gear we will be hauling prior to May 1st, so we can make sure there are enough horses (so we don't have to carry Ed). If you are interested or have comments about the proposal, please let me know.
On the 6th of June 1958, the Newly formed Washington Mountain Rescue Association(WMRA) participated in the Rescue of a climbing party on Mt. St. Helens. One of the injured members of that climbing party was George Cashman. He had to be carried off the mountain in a litter by WMRA members. After he recovered from his injury he joined the Tacoma Mountain Rescue Unit and was quite active until stricken with Parkinson's Disease in 1974. He wrote an account of that rescue and I would like to quote from the last paragraph of that account.
"I wish to say I have never found a more accommodating and willing group of people, than all those who helped in the rescue. I speak of the original climbing party and the wonderful Mountain Rescue groups and all other peoples and organizations involved. I am sorry to say that I don't know the names of all the groups, and to name only some would be unfair. Whoever reads this account, I wish to say I could never in any words express the joy I felt, to see so many people all working unselfishly together in one common cause.......RESCUE. To my dying day, I will forever be grateful. My hope is that someday, I might be part of such a fine effort."
George Cashman
George passed away on March 3 1998.
The following members attended the kit party on MAR 4, 1998:
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Shorty Williams Bill Weber John Simac Gus Bush Jack Lehman Christine Davies Ken Capron Brian Capron Barbara Bird Bob Renz Fran McFarland Dave Trebor |
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They made 393 Kits. Due to a substantial inventory of finished kits, there will not be any kit party next month.
In March 1996 some members of the Unit participated in the production of a Discovery Channel episode of the Raging Planet series. Above is a picture of your bashful editor.
Tacoma Mountain Rescue |
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