The NASAR Debrief newsletter is back!

We received a lot of positive feedback about the monthly newsletter we ran for part of 2014. I spent a lot of time speaking with members over the past 24 months, and they wanted a newsletter. We tried it for a while but ran out of funding for it (they are not cheap to...

Standards? You should want them!

In 1988, ASTM International formed the F32.0 committee, a committee whose mission was to develop standards for the Search and Rescue community. Today, this committee consists of approximately 80 members who are involved in three separate sub-committees that continue to...

Certification vs. Training

"Train hard or why train" has been my motto since long before NMG was even an idea scrawled on bar napkins. I will not just do the minimum because I refuse to be the minimum. I am training for a job that could kill me, my partner or our subject. I want to know that I am...

Choosing a helmet for the right environment

Another retread... We all know that safety is priority one. We are taught this in every SAR and emergency service related course. We assess the scene before we respond, we assign a safety officer, we develop hazard analysis and mitigation plans. We proceed with caution,...

Booq introduces new Daypacks for the road warrior

When it comes to backpacks, the folks over at Booq are certainly no strangers at all to the situation. In fact, they are pretty much old hands at this market segment, and this time around they would want you to walk around in a stylish manner with their latest release, the...

Tiny, mighty knife: GEC #25 Small Jack

Traditional knives lack almost all of the features that modern knives have — high-end steels, locks, one-handed deployment. But what they lack in modern touches, they make up for in character and excellent cutting performance. One company doing solid work in the traditional...

What's the best way to keep mosquitoes from biting?

Don't get bitten by mosquitoes. That's the advice offered to the public in virtually every article on the rapidly-spreading, mosquito-borne Zika virus. There's no arguing with the advice. Zika, once considered a relatively mild flu-like illness, has now been linked to a...

Michigan Search and Rescue trains dogs to find missing persons

It’s a group made up solely of volunteers. Tim Burns is the Training Director for the Michigan search and Rescue team. “The more people you have searching, the more possibility, probability of detecting that person and finding...

Search and rescue groups busy as snowpack grows

Since the snow started falling in the higher-elevation areas of Southwest Washington, North Country Emergency Medical Services and its Volcano Rescue Team, which covers the Mount St. Helens area, have been considerably busier, North Country Assistant Chief Tom McDowell said.

Drones: Future tool of outdoors search and rescue?

A new Search and Rescue tool is emerging, bringing eyes to the sky (and the hidden underworld) in the form of unmanned aerial vehicles, known commonly as drones. Found commonly on glaciers, crevasses can plummet hundreds of feet into the ice. They are often covered by thin...

Book review: Trench Rescue Technician Manual

CMC Rescue, Inc.'s new Trench Rescue Technician Manual is a comprehensive 235-page instruction manual with...

NASAR News You Can Use

Engineers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham are working on designing a smart helmet for both victims and rescuers. They are doing a survey to highlight needs for helmets in the area of fire and other emergency response. The information from this survey will help...

Mission Manager seeking field sales representatives

Mission Manager is seeking three experienced field salespeople to drive sales of its cloud-based software platform. The positions will be based in and serve as Mission Manager's business development and sales resource throughout the United States: Southeast (FL, GA, AL,...

From The Desk Of The Executive Director — Chris Boyer

New NASAR website (an actual online community) — When you read this, the new NASAR website, our online SAR community, will be in beta test, getting ready to go live. It has many new features and benefits for members and non-members, and I want to mention a few to you....

10 ingenious charging devices to keep your phone alive anywhere

Are you constantly checking the battery level of your phone? Do you have a tiny panic attack when it dips below 20 percent? You're not alone — many suffer from "nomophobia," an abbreviation of "no mobile phone phobia," which basically...