Grissom Services Airmen complete search, recovery exercise

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Mark R. W. Orders-Woempner
  • 434th ARW Public Affairs
GRISSOM AIR RESERVE BASE, Ind. --  Airmen of the 434th Services Flight participated in a search and recovery training during the October unit training assembly.

A search and recovery team is responsible for recovering personal affects or remains after a fatal event, which means Services Airmen could be called to perform this duty in either war or peace time, said Master Sgt. Tim Wood, 434th Services Flight services specialist.

Consisting of 26 people, a SAR team will be dispatched after an incident has occurred and all emergency responders and investigators have finished with their duties, which could be days later.
A team will typically form up in a line and sweep a designated area, identifying anything that could be a personal affect or remain and marking its location on a map.

"The training we had went really well," said Sergeant Wood. "We learned how to go along at a slow pace and stay in line, which can be the difference in finding something really small as every inch matters."

After item has been located and identified, the team is then tasked to go recover them. They are then processed and often returned to the family of the deceased.

"I pray we never have to do it, but what we are training to do is very important," said Sergeant Wood. "We could find letters or jewelry; it all means so much to a person's family."

The 434th SVF is one of the squadrons assigned to the 434th Air Refueling Wing, an Air Force Reseve Command unit based at Grissom ARB.