Larry Hiller -- June 1993 Liahona
Search and Rescue
“Most of the time you won’t be on the ‘find’ team,” he says. After all, there are usually many teams on the job, searching various assigned areas. “On most of the jobs, you search an area and can say, ‘Now we know where the victim isn’t.’ It may seem like a boring job, but it has to be done.”
So, if there is little chance of getting a warm feeling from actually finding the lost child or the injured hiker, what keeps Tad and his team going? “It’s the thought of the victims,” he answers. “You can’t sleep if they’re out there.” It doesn’t matter if another team gets the thrill of finding the victims. “Just knowing that they’ve been found is a really great feeling.”
Tad and others like him still drop everything to come to the rescue.
As a team leader, Tad must constantly be aware of his team’s mental and physical condition. A team that is weak from exhaustion or hunger can make serious mistakes despite training. “My first responsibility is to my team—to keep them safe,” he says. “You can’t afford to have more than one victim.” It’s a duty Tad takes seriously.
Parallels -
seeking the lost
training
wearing a pager -- in tune with the Holy Ghost
For Tad Jessop, it’s pretty routine now to get called out any time of the day or night. Often the work is boring, like watching a mountain road in case a lost hiker appears. Sometimes the outcome of a search is tragic. Almost always the work is hard. What never becomes routine is the feeling of responsibility for his team and for the people they are trying to help.
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