I'm a Search and Rescue Officer for the US Forest Service, I have some stories to tell

I wasn't sure where else to post these stories, so I figured I'd share them here. I've been an SAR officer for a decade and I've got some tales that would be perfect for campfire storytelling or a midnight horror anthology. *There's a lot of different kinds of calls we get. Rescue, recoveries (we all hope those are the same but sometimes they aren't), lost children and adults. I've seen a lot of things in the line of duty that I don't think I can ever explain, or would want to. Here are a few of them.* *** **1.** *The man who got stuck in the tree.* When someone is seriously injured and can't be taken out on a litter, we call in a helicopter to take them out. Usually, this involves a Climbing Rescue Specialist (CRS) hooking up the casualty and flying them out. It's a last resort, as it's incredibly risky and expensive. Once, on a call I wasn't present for, a man had a heart attack while out with his dog. His wife, trying to beiat the heat, sat in the shade of a tree and made this idiot decision: She had the CRS, who was there to help her husband and had his hands full doing so, throw the dog's leash over a branch in the tree. The dog wasn't leashed when they arrived, and the wife was afraid it would run off. So instead of finding a way to tie the dog to a stable objected or having one of the (multiple) EMTs there do it, the wife insisted the CRS who was trying to help her dying husband tie the dog to a branch. It was a small dog, but it was enough to knock the CRS out of the chopper when it bucked in pain. It didn't survive. The husband did not make it. And the wife got bitched out by everybody there at the scene. I wasn't there, and even if I had been I don't know if I would have said anything, but almost every single one of us has been there when we wanted to tell some idiot who was making everything worse with their poor decisions that they were an idiot. This story was just to lead into the next one. *** **2.** *The man who got stuck in a tree part 2.* We got a report of a man stuck in a tree about three miles from the parking lot. We figured the best course of action was to call in a chopper and CRS as, if the guy was actually stuck, we couldn't risk breaking the chopper out for nothing. When we got there, it was obvious that the guy had tried to hook himself to the harness and go for a ride. He died shortly after we got there, but not before he kept repeating "Why did you leave me? We both knew it was a bad idea!" Strawberry streusel and fresh strawberries. The smell was so intense, even in the 90F heat, that it was overwhelming. The guy had no ID on him and we never found out who he was. *** **3.** *The man who went home* I was only involved in the planning of this, not the actual operation, but it sticks with me. An older gentleman went hiking with his wife and got hurt and injured in a place we couldn't get a chopper in. He was in agony, but more upset that he had left the stove on at home. He was barely responsive, but whenever someone tried to talk to him, he kept talking about the stove and how he couldn't wait to go home and turn it off. It was raining that night, and the operation was turned over to another team when our shift ended. The next morning, we got word that the guy had come around and was asking for his wife. When told she wasn't there and wouldn't be, as she was taken home the night before, he started screaming. He kept asking about the stove, and what would happen now that it was still on and his wife wasn't there. He was taken to a psych ward and the team never heard what happened to him or his wife. *** **4.** *Where have you guys come from, and where are you going?* Sometimes we don't get calls from people who need help, but those who are looking for someone who does. Parents looking for a lost child, wives looking for a lost Husband, etc. One of these calls came in from a girl who said her mom hadn't come home from a two day hike she went on. She said she hadn't taken enough food, it was getting cold, and her mom hadn't taken her phone with her. We went to look for her mom, and after a day of searching we found her. She was sitting on a rock formation, staring up at the stars. She wouldn't say where she'd been, only that she had gotten lost, and was grateful we'd found her. Otherwise, she was totally inoffensive. It was only when we were getting her into the chopper that I heard her talking to the pilot. She was crying, and when I got close enough, I could hear her asking "Where have you guys come from, and where are you guys taking me?" *** **5.** *What did she mean?* We got a call from a young couple who were going on a hike. The husband had been hiking for years, the wife hadn't. He wanted to show her one of his favorite places. When we showed up, we found the husband had fallen down an embankment and broken his leg. His wife was saying something strange. The RSA said she kept talking about hearing someone say "Do it now, while you still have the chance." I don't know if it was related, but the only bag they had was the one on the woman. Everything in it belonged to her. A water bottle, some snacks, a gun. The husband died on the way out. The wife wouldn't talk to anybody but the female EMT, who said she just kept talking about hearing voices in the forest. *** **6.** *What's up there?* Sometimes we'll get calls from people just curious about something in the forest. I was still pretty new to the team when I got one of these calls. A man on the phone said he'd been walking along a stream when he found a bag caught in a tree. There was something about it he found strange. When we got there, we found the bag. It was a small backpack with some snacks and water. Possibly someone who'd been using drugs had left it, and then realized they couldn't get to it. But strange things about it stuck with me. Why would someone bring a backpack to a stream? Where did they go from there? It was a dead end, and there was no sign of a trail. *** **7.** *Who was Jack?" A lot of calls we get, especially from out-of-towners and beginners, is parents who lose their kids. Most of the time, the kid hasn't gone far. Sometimes, we're just a couple of minutes late and the kid has wandered back while we're on the way. One call was different. A family was up on a trail that had some pull outs, little areas you could park your car and look out at the view. Kids and adults were both there, and one of the kids was missing. She was 4. She was scared of being outside, so she had stayed inside the car while the others looked at the view. When they came back, she was gone. The dad was pissed that the mom had left her alone and the mom was saying there was no reason to worry, kids wander off sometimes and always come back. We searched the area, called out for the girl. We eventually found her about 3 miles from the pull out, sitting in some rocks. When we asked her what she'd been doing, she said "Waiting for Jack to come back." We asked who Jack was, and she said it was the bear who had taken her. Bears don't act like that, they just don't. *** **8.** *I think I've really fucked up.* We take turns manning the phone, and I get there around 7am on most days. Most of the time, there's a note left from whoever was there the night before. Sometimes, these notes are about calls that didn't get resolved. One night, one of the guys got a call from a kid who was lost in the woods. He'd been out with some friends and they'd all had a few and decided to take a short walk in the woods. The kid had wandered off the trail to take a shit and when he came back his friends were gone. He'd been walking for hours, and was starting to get really scared. When the guy who'd taken the call went to write down the coordinates he'd been given, the kid was gone. The guy was really shaken up about it, and he left a note about it for whoever was there the next morning. When I came in, the note was on the desk. There was also a call on hold, which was weird because we don't usually get calls that early. I answered it, and it was the kid from the note. He'd seen a light and thought it might be his friends, but when he got to it he realized it was a house. There was

I'm a Search and Rescue Officer for the US Forest Service, I have some stories to tell

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