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 few years now, and along the way I've seen some things that I think you guys will be inetersted in. <br><br>* I have a pretty good track record for finding missing people. Most of the time they just wander off the path, or slip down a small cliff, and they can't find their way back. The majority of them have heard the old 'stay where you are' thing, and they don't wander far. But I've had two cases where that didn't happen. Both bother me a lot, and I use them as motivation to search even harder on the missing persons cases I get called on. <br>The first was a little boy who was out berry-picking with his parents. He and his sister were together, and both of them went missing around the same time. Their parents lost sightannered and we were called. I was teamed up with a veteran SAR officer, and we went out looking for them. We found the sister pretty quickly, and when we asked where her brother was, she told us that he'd been taken away by 'the bear man.' She said he gave her berries and told her to stay quiet, that he wanted to play with her brother for a while. We asked her to show us where this had happened, and she took us to a spot not too far from where we'd found her. We found some signs of a struggle, and some blood on a tree, but nothing else. We called in a report that the brother was likely deceased, and that we believed an animal had taken him. We searched the area, but we never found a body, or any signs of an animal that could have done it. After a few days, we gave up, and the boy was declared missing/dead. I never saw the little girl again, but I heard she gets cavity searches at airport security, because she has a pacemaker put in because she was stabbed. I don't know how true that is, but I think it could be true. I hope it isn't anyway. <br><br>The other was a young woman who was out hiking with her mom and grandfather. The grandfather got tired and decided to head back, but the mom and daughter decided to go on a bit further before turning around. The grandfather lost sight of them, and he went back to the car to wait, but when they hadn't showed up after a few hours, he called for help. When we arrived, we spoke to the grandfather, then started searching the trail. We found the mother pretty quickly, and she was in full panic mode. She wouldn't say anything besides, 'He took her,' and wouldn't come with us. When we insisted that she had to come back with us, she started to fight us, kicking and biting. She broke one of our cameras and her nails were fleeing with blood when we finally got her under control. We had to sedate her, and when she woke up, she wouldn't talk to anyone. She was taken to a psychward, and we never heard anything from her again. We never found the daughter.<br><br>* One particularly sad case involved the recovery of a body. A climber had gone out with his friend, but when he didn't come back, his friend went looking for him. The friend came running back down the mountain, and called for help. When we got there, we went out looking for the missing climber, and we found him at the base of a cliff. He'd apparently fallen, and his body had been torn up by the fall. There was no chance of survival, and we had to call in a chopper to get him out. I was taking some photos for the report, (I was with a veteran SAR officer again. He was taking the report) when I saw something. The guy was twisted up pretty bad, but it looked like his head was twisted behind him. We moved his body a little, and we realized that there was enough broken bones that his head could get into that position. But his face was twisted in an extreme grimace, and I can't help but think that he was in a lot of pain when he died.<br><br>* I had to stop an attempted suicide once. We were looking for a woman who was, according to her boyfriend, going to kill herself because he'd broken up with her. She was climbing a cliff, and we were told that she had a rifle with her. We could see her from where we were, and she did indeed have a gun. We spoke to her over the intercom, asking her not to hurt herself, and telling her that help was on the way. She didn't seem to register our words, and she put the gun to her head. We shower her name, and she snapped back into reality. She looked around and saw us, and she started crying. We told her that we were coming up to get her, and a Climbing and Rescue team was sent out. I never saw the ending of that case, but I heard she went to a psychward.<br><br>* We found a survivor of a plane crash. A couple and their daughter were flying a private plane through the forest when it went down. None of the three were in the wreckage when we found it, and we assumed that they'd all died. When we went out searching the surrounding area, we found the father. He was sunburned and dirty, but he looked like he was going to survive. He told us that he'd been looking for his family for days, and that he'd given up hope. He broke down when we told him we were there to help, and we brought him back to civilization.<br><br>* A man was out walking his dog when he slipped and fell. The cliff he fell off wasn't too tall, but he landed on a rock outcropping. It smashed his legs, and he couldn't get out on his own. His dog was barking, and someone nearby heard the dog and went looking. When they found the man, they called for help, and we came out. We had to call in a helicopter again, but we got the man out. His dog had stayed with him the whole time, and it rode with him in the chopper. The man had broken both of his legs, but he was going to be okay.<br><br>* There was an attempted kidnapping. I was teamed up with the same veteran who was with me on my first case, and we were out looking for a little boy who'd wandered off. He hadn't gone far, and we found him in a cove near a river, playing with some rocks. As we were coming back, we heard a man and a woman talking. We couldn't see them from where we were, but it sounded odd. We went to investigate, and we found a couple holding a little girl. They were quiet when they saw us, and the girl said she wanted to go home. We asked the couple who they were, and they told us that the girl was their daughter. We told them that we were looking for a missing boy, and we asked if they'd seen him. They said they hadn't seen him. Then we asked if the little girl had seen him. The girl told us that she'd been out picking flowers, and a man had tried to take her away. She said that the couple had found her, and were trying to get her back to her parents. We radioed in, and asked if there were any reports of a missing girl in the area. There weren't, and we figured that they'd just been trying to scare her. We asked the couple if they'd show us where they'd found her, and they took us to a outcropping of rock. We searched the area, but we didn't find anything. We told them we were going to take the girl back to her parents, and that they could go back to their day. The girl said she wanted to stay with us, because the couple were mean to her, and she didn't like them. We told her it was okay, and we took her back. Her parents were grateful, and they thank us for finding her. I don't know how the couple didn't know where the parents were, but we didn't end up finding anything about them.<br><br>These are my stories, and I hope you enjoyed them. I'm going to go study now.<br><br>Edit: As the front page is where people tend to find these things, I'm going to add a few things here.<br><br>* I am an MRA, or a mountain rescue associate. I'm not officially a SAR officer, but the training is the same, and once I turn 18 I'll go through the training again and become an official SAR officer. I didn't want to pretend to be something I'm not, and I felt the need to state that here.<br><br>* All reports are logged with photographs. I'm basically an apprentice, and taking photos is one of my jobs. I'm also there to learn and watch, and to give my opinions when I see something.<br><br>* There is usually more than one SAR team in an area. We all take what areas we can, and we work together to find a missing person. It's possible that there was another team out searching in the areas I've mentioned, although I don't know for sure. <br><br>* If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I know that I didn't include everything, and so if there's anything you're curious about, ask and I'll do my best to answer.<br><br>* I'm surprised that this blew up so quickly. I didn't expect so many people would be interested in this, so thank you to everyone who's taken the time to read it.