Queens County Man Clear on Life's Direction

EMERGENCY MEASURES ORGANIZATION--Queens County Man Clear on Life's Direction

NOTE TO EDITORS: The following feature article profiles a ground search and rescue volunteer in Queen's County.

The words "we have found the subject" are music to Robert DeLong's ears. No, he is not a police officer. He is a volunteer with the Queens County Ground Search and Rescue team.

The team has been providing an extremely valuable service to the area since 1982. Prior to that, ground search and rescue was performed by the community's fire department. Robert became a volunteer searcher in 1987, first with the Waverley team and then joining the Queens County team seven years later.

The high-profile Andy Warburton search in the late 1980s was a motivation for Robert and many other Nova Scotians to join ground search and rescue. The nine-year-old Ontario boy's body was found in Rassley Meadow after an eight-day search. Lessons learned from that tragedy have changed the face of search and rescue in the province and have resulted in Nova Scotia becoming a world leader in this arena. The standards of training in this province are being copied by other provinces and countries.

"Prior to following that search in the media, I didn't know much about ground search and rescue," said Robert. "Because I am a woodsman at heart, I thought joining a team would enable me to combine one of my favourite activities with a worthwhile community service. It has become a very rewarding part of my life."

A native Nova Scotian, Robert trained in electronics with the air force. After living in several cities around the country, he left the military and returned to this province with a company called Canadian Aviation Electronics. He then worked for the Bedford Institute of Oceanography for 27 years before his retirement.

His background made Robert a shoe-in for a communications role with ground search and rescue. The communications set-up is located on the logistics bus at any search site and handles traffic between the overhead team on the bus and searchers in the woods. Each team in the province has trained communications experts and they work in shifts for the duration of the search.

Like every Nova Scotia Ground Search and Rescue Association member in the province, Robert first had to complete basic search training before being allowed to participate in searches. Volunteers can then participate in specialized training if they choose: team leader, search management, media relations.

"Our program is set up so that no members enter the woods on a search without at least basic map and compass skills and basic survival training," said Robert. "We need to know that our searchers can find their away through and out of the woods and can look after themselves if they do get lost or injured."

Robert has also had search management training. Essentially, a manager is assigned for each search and that person liaises with the police agency in charge of the investigation. In addition, the search manager becomes familiar with the terrain to be searched, divides it into sectors and assigns a priority to each sector based on what is known in search and rescue circles as the behaviour of lost persons. This theory, based on statistical evidence, outlines various types of lost persons and the characteristics of how they get lost and how they behave in the woods.

"These characteristics themselves provide certain clues or a direction in which to follow," said Robert. "For example, a younger person may climb a rougher terrain to try to find his way out of the woods while an older person may stick to level ground. If we are searching for a child, we look more carefully under trees and low brush, since they tend to stop for a rest when they get tired."

Alzheimer walkaways have taken over from hunters as the most common type of lost person in Nova Scotia and they provide a particular challenge for searchers.

"It is certainly more difficult to predict the behaviour of Alzheimer patients," said Robert. "Often they go back to their childhood. So, if they still live in the same area, we often check their favourite childhood haunts. These people can be spooked by certain noises as well. For example, the all-terrain vehicles we sometimes use in searches may frighten away the person we are searching for making them more difficult to find. It's more difficult to apply the lost person's behaviour theory to this group than any other."

The Queens County Ground Search and Rescue team has approximately 50 members, two of them women. The number of people who respond to a call out varies depending on the day and time of the search.

This team also has the distinction of being the only ground search and rescue team in Canada with a ladies' auxiliary. Fund- raising is the main priority of this 15-member group. Annual events include an ATV rally, a bass tournament and dart tournaments, as well as a garden party. There is a good community turnout for these events.

One of the biggest challenges search teams face is keeping members interested - especially if the team goes for a long time without a search. The Queens County team has not had any searches in the past two years, but have participated in multi-team searches in other areas.

"It's very important to keep providing a variety of training courses and exercises to keep members interested and prepared," said Robert. "In addition to indoor training sessions, we also deliver outdoor tracking courses and set up mock searches so members can practise their skills."

These days, Robert is offering global positioning system (GPS) courses to several team members. This hand-held electronic device makes navigation through the woods much simpler because it not only takes the searcher where he or she wants to go, it also provides current location, something a compass does not provide.

But, according to Robert, GPS will never take the place of a compass.

"A compass is the most important piece of equipment a searcher owns," he said. "I would never consider entering the woods without it -- regardless of how many times I may have been there. You can always rely on a compass to lead you out."

When he is not in the woods, Robert spends his spare time reading and using his computer. He and his wife, Barbara, live in Mersey Point.

NOTE TO EDITORS: A photograph of ground search and rescue volunteer Robert DeLong is attached to this e-mail. Mr. DeLong is photographed in the Queen's County Ground Search and Rescue office.

kjd November 23, 2000