A night in the life of a Search and Rescue Officer for the US Forest Service

I wasn’t always a Search and Rescue (SAR) officer. After college I decided to join the military. I was enlisted for three years before I got out. It was boring, and when I did get deployed, I threw up and wanted to go home. <br><br>I joined the SAR in tempsford, Montana. I was born out west. I couldn’t imagine living on the east coast, despite my parents moving there when I was 10. I didn’t miss the busy streets, or the shity weather. <br><br>I prefer wide open spaces, and I love the outdoors. The SAR team is pretty tight knit, and I’ve been working with them for almost a year now. They call me Trigger because in my old unit I was one of the first to see action. I didn’t let anyone in my unit die during my time overseas, and I only killed once. <br><br>I didn’t really feel much about it at the time, but my captain said I was in shock, so I won’t count that. I think about him from time to time though. Young kid, couldn’t have been older than 22. I’ll never know for sure because we left him where we found him. <br><br>We didn’t have time to feel sorry for people like that out there, and besides, he was trying to kill us. <br><br>I started working SAR after I got out of the military because I wanted to be in a career where I got to be outside. I like the outdoors and I like the feeling of saving people who otherwise might not make it through traumatic situations like what I had to endure in Afghanistan.<br><br>I was on duty with my partner Ken one night when we got a call. An elderly woman had been out collecting firewood for the winter. She was 75 years old, and it was very cold in the mountains of Montana in the winter. <br><br>She had been missing for twelve hours when we got the call, and we were told she didn’t have a cell phone. <br><br>I looked at Ken. “Ready to get to work?”<br><br>He nodded and we got in our truck to head to the location where her family had last seen her. <br><br>It was 9:30pm on a December night. Tempsford, Montana gets very cold in the winter. We weren’t sure if this lady would have made it this long. We headed out anyway, and when we got there we met her grandkids. <br><br>“How did you let her go out there alone, oh my god is she okay?” I asked one of them. <br><br>Other than the father and the mother, there were two children in the car, and their facial expressions turned from worried to guilty. <br><br>“She’s not our grandmother! She’s our mothers mother and she was visiting for the holidays. She wanted to go out into the woods and collect some firewood. We said we’d go with her, but she said she had been doing it since before we were born. She went out this afternoon and hasn’t come back yet.” Their mother said, looking like she was on the verge of tears. <br><br>“Is she driving?” I asked. <br><br>“Yes. She’s had a little to drink and said she could drive. We couldn’t stop her” The mother replied, before breaking down and crying. <br><br>We headed to the location, and about a mile down the road we found her car. It was crashed into a tree, and there was blood on the steering wheel. <br><br>“Shit, see if you can find her Ken. She probably went into hypothermia.” I said. <br><br>Ken and I walked down the road, and then into the woods. It was so cold, and we had been walking for an hour. <br><br>“Hello? Is anyone there?” I yelled. <br><br>“Over here. I found her.” Ken said, about 300 feet from the road. <br><br>We walked over and found her on the ground. Dead. <br><br>I took some pictures and we talked about getting her back to the car, but it was pitch black out. Neither of us wanted to drag her down a busy street. <br><br>“What do you think happened?” Ken asked. <br><br>“She probably got lost.” I said. <br><br>I looked down at the woman and felt a pang in my stomach. I had failed this lady, and I wanted to know what made her this way. <br><br>We moved her into some thick, green coverage out of the way of other pedestrians. That’s when we heard the noise. <br><br>You see, the dead don’t talk. So when I heard a whisper saying “Why did you leave me? Why did you leave me to die?” I assumed it was just the wind. <br><br>“Hey Ken, did you hear that?” <br><br>But he was in the road, walking back to the car, and I don’t think he heard me. As I was watching him, I heard the noise again. <br><br>“Why did you leave me? Why did you leave me to die?”<br><br>It was a lady’s voice, but I didn’t recognize it. It wasn’t the voice of the dead lady we had found, it was a younger voice. I turned to see where it was coming from and saw a young girl covered in snow and blood. <br><br>“Who are you?” I asked. <br><br>“My name is Rachel, and I’ve been out here for over 24 hours.” She said, shivering violently. <br><br>“I didn’t leave you to die, I didn’t even know you were out here. You shouldn’t be out here alone.” I said, walking over to her. <br><br>“I came out looking for firewood. I got lost for hours and I can’t find my way back. Where is my grandmother? She was with me.” She said, before she collapsed. <br><br>I ran over to her and she was passed out. I didn’t know what to do, I had never been trained on what to do if I couldn’t save someone. The training was always about saving people, not about when you can’t. <br><br>I didn’t want her to die, I didn’t even know her. I looked back at the road and realized Ken had walked all the way back to the car. I had no idea what to do, so I just stood there with Rachel until I heard Ken walk up behind me. <br><br>“What the fuck?” He said, and then he saw the lady on the ground and he gasped. <br><br>“She was with her grandmother. They came out looking for wood. They’re both dead, and this little girl is going to be the third if we don’t do something.” I said. <br><br>Ken and I talked for over an hour about what to do with Rachel. Eventually we decided to leave both the lady and Rachel in the woods and come back in the morning. <br><br>We walked back to the car, and when we got there we told the family that their mother and grandmother had been killed in a car crash. <br><br>We told them we looked for her, but the weather was bad and she was to drunk to drive. We suggested they stay in a hotel overnight and come back in the morning. <br><br>They said they were going to stay in their rental house, and thanked us for trying. <br><br>The next morning Ken and I went back out to the location. The first thing I thought of when we got back to the bodies was if there had been animals. <br><br>I didn’t see any bite marks, but in the cold it was hard to tell. <br><br>We lifted Rachel up and put her in a body bag. The lady must have been Rachel’s mom. <br><br>I thought about the training again. We grab the bodies, and then we move on with our lives. <br><br>We took Rachel and her mom back to the rental house they were staying in, and I told the family what happened. <br><br>The father and mother cried. We gave them the bodies and got back in the truck. <br><br>“Thanks for helping me back there Ken.” I said. <br><br>“No problem, we’re partners.” He replied. <br><br>“Yeah, we are.” I said. <br><br>I looked in the rear view and saw Rachel in the back of the truck. <br><br>I looked away. <br><br>I couldn’t save everyone.