LIHUE — Michael St. John, a search-and-rescue volunteer and unit leader from Marin, Calif., just wrapped up teaching a 36-hour training course on a search-management and planning GIS (geographic information system) software called SARTopo.
That stands for search-and-rescue topography, and is used in California for mapping backcountry areas.
Members of the Kauai Police Department, Kauai Search &Rescue, Oahu Search &Rescue and Search Tech Advisory Team participated in the program.
They were the first in the nation to take the revamped and updated National Association for Search and Rescue Managing the Lost Person Incident course, said KSAR representative Noelle Hamilton-Cambeilh.
St. John retired from being a firefighter after serving for 33 years, and decided to share his knowledge and experiences of his successful search-and-rescue missions with agencies around the country.
His story starts in 1979, where he began his search-and-rescue calling as a high school youth.
“In 1988, I took over the leadership of our search-and-rescue unit and served as the unit leader. We have over 100 search-and-rescue volunteers, and what is unique about our team is that out of 100, 30 are high school members, ” he said.
He said KFD is the muscle of Kauai search-and-rescue missions, and that he would like to see volunteers like KSAR work with them.
He believes that when volunteers get a higher level of search-and-rescue education they can coordinate and manage future rescue missions together successfully with law-enforcement agencies and fire departments.
“My goal and vision for Kauai’s KSAR and every search-and-rescue team in the nation is to have volunteers work closely with law enforcement and fire departments,” he said.
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Stephanie Shinno, staff writer, can be reached at 245-0424 or sshinno@thegardenisland.com.
