Wednesday, April 16, 2008

The Beginning

I'll start at point 1. For the last 4 years I've been committed to becoming a Search and Rescue Technician or SAR Tech. It's a military trade in the air force and possibly the best job in the world. SAR Techs are paramedics who skydive, scuba dive, ice/rock/mountain climb and whatever else it takes to get to a remote rescue scene. Not only that but they are also survival experts since they need to take care of the casualties in the case they can’t be extracted. It's a physically demanding outdoorsy job and as such, was difficult initially for me to decide how to proceed since I was and still currently am in the navy. First and foremost priority was to excel at my trade so my supervisors would have no ammo for denying me the things I really wanted. Then it was a ship's team diver course. A demanding 6 week course which I finished with little difficulty aside from some sore ankles, a written off crotch rocket, and some road rash (note: road rash is NOT cool when you wear a wetsuit all day). After that it was lay low and perform at work both in operations and diving, biding my time until I felt comfortable asking for something else. I had some time since you need at least 4 years of service before you can apply for SAR Tech. Next was a Medical First Response course which costs approximately $1300. But there is a stipulation saying that all military divers are to qualified to that level, so that was my in without paying for it. After that I tried to obtain a time waiver to disregard my lack of time served (I only had 3 years at this point), so that I could apply early. It was rejected and I had to go to Halifax for 4 months on a trades course. I was smart enough to obtain a time waiver for THAT however since the navy binds you to 2 years of obligatory service in that trade on completion of that course. While in Halifax I trained like a madman, emailed people getting letters of recommendation, got the necessary medical and fitness testing out of the way, and basically just tried to learn and do as much as possible to get selected for pre-selection. I soon returned to Victoria, did some civilian parachuting, finished compiling my file and had it sent to Ottawa.
After much waiting I found out via email that I was picked to attend the annual SAR Tech pre-selection held in Jarvis Lake, Alta. Pre-selection is no joke. If you're reading this and are considering becoming a SAR Tech, bring your A-game.
This is a good video to give you an idea of what a SAR Tech is and does;

RESCUE

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

while in the navy, what was your job title?

Anonymous said...

Did they provide the training to survive for the single man phase? Or are u expected to just know already?

Anonymous said...

Did they provide the training to survive for the single man phase? Or are u expected to just know already?