At 1400 on December 10, all Benton County SAR personnel (including CMRU) were placed on Standby in anticipation of a search for a 10 year old girl. Following a "disagreement" with her father, the girl left her home and after not having been seen for several hours was reported missing to Corvallis Police.
Susan tapped out a Standby announcement using the pre-programmed messages in our pagers and had a list of possible CMRU respondents should the mission be activated. A lesson Susan learned: include your pager number in the message -- not your telephone number. (Her three lines were tied up for the next half hour!)
Shortly before 1500, the missing girl returned home and the mission was cancelled.
MISSION REPORT 97-14: Overdue ATV Rider, Marys Peak
On the afternoon of December 28, a 17 year old male took his three-wheeled ATV to Marys Peak expecting to be home by 1700. In the course of riding, the ATV suffered a mechanical failure. The rider attempted to fix it, but was unable to. He then left the ATV and tried to walk out, but had trouble navigating in the dark. Realizing he was "disoriented," the subject decided to wait until daylight.
All Benton County SAR personnel were paged at 0730 and put on Stand-by. The subject's ATV had been found earlier and trackers were in the area; but additional personnel might be needed for containment. Shortly after
sunrise, the subject walked out. The mission was canceled at 0800.
Six CMRU members indicated they would be available if the Unit was activated and two more indicated they might be available depending on their situations at work.
AVALANCHE TRAINING --basic & advanced
The National Ski Patrol's Basic Avalanche Rescue course will be presented for CMRU members on the second weekend of January. The classroom portion of the course will be held at the Black Butte School in Camp Sherman on Saturday, January 10 starting at 0900 and the field portion will be held at Hoodoo Ski Area on Sunday, January 11. Contact Anne Greenwood for more information.
Portland Mountain Rescue has arranged an avalanche training course for SAR personnel to be held with two classroom sessions on Thursday and Friday nights, January 8 & 9 in Portland. The field portion will be held on Mt. Hood on Saturday and Sunday, January 10 & 11. The instructor is Dale Atkins from Colorado, a nationally known and respected authority in the field. Cost for this course is $65 per person and a class limit of 35 has been set. Support and Rescue members may apply for financial assistance from CMRU's Education Assistance Fund to attend this course. See Jon Sears for applications.
A CYBER-TALE -- for the 90's (can you still use two digit dates?) by Don Lacer
The year was 1977. An Oregon State University student, Don Lacer, was at the computer center in the wee hours of the morning, frustrated out of his gourd that his deck of Fortran cards wouldn't properly run the assigned program. He thinks of all the hype he's heard about computers being the wave of the future and is highly skeptical. Across the country at Harvard, another student, Bill Gates, asserts that the future will indeed be ruled by those who can harness the power of technology, and announces he's dropping out of college to pursue his vision. Twenty years have passed. Grudgingly, Don's thinking that, yeah, well, you know, maybe Bill's kinda on to something there. So he went out and bought a computer and figured that just in case they do catch on, he might as well get
e-mail, too. Announcing the arrival of e-mail at Don's house! Reach him at dhl@ptinet.net.
VICE-PRESIDENT - elect -- Don Lacer
At an election held at the December Training Session, Don Lacer was elected to fill out the remainder of Angela's term as Vice-President and Chair of the Training Committee. Don and Angela will work together until she departs later this year.
KEN PARTON -- returns (for awhile)
Ken has returned from school in New York and will be active with CMRU for the next couple of months. He is now a registered nurse and is working in the Corvallis area. Glad to have you back, Ken, and we're looking forward to cutting some T's with you this winter. But at the same time we lose Angela, we'll also lose Ken.
