CHRISTINA EICHELKRAUT / PVT Pahrump’Äôs SAR team is ready to help when someone needs to be found or rescued. Advertisement

If you went hiking in southern Nye County and accidentally found yourself lost, or even worse, injured as well, someone would be out to find you, right?

What if your child was lost? What if it was over a 100 degrees and you didn't have water, or it was cold? "They" would have to send someone out, right?

As a matter of fact, yes.

If needed -- and they often are -- members of the Pahrump Search and Rescue (SAR) team the Nye County Sheriff's Office would be dispatched on the mission. And they would all be volunteers who wouldn't be getting paid a dime for their efforts. In fact, the members of Pahrump's Search and Rescue team often have to pay for much of their equipment out of their own, individual pockets.

SAR members pay for their own radios, uniforms, and search and rescue kits, which contain items like space blankets, matches, CPR kits and various other equipment. Since SAR has only one vehicle, a truck, members mostly use their own vehicles to get to and from missions and are recompensed for gas only when they travel long distances.

Much of this is due to the fact that, technically, the Pahrump SAR is a nonprofit, private corporation, although the Sheriff's Office dispatches them to missions and new members must be sworn in by the sheriff.

The majority of the group's funding comes from its corn roast stand at the Fall Festival, although some private vendors make contributions and the power for their meeting station (a building behind the fire station) is paid for by the county.

To become a member of Pahrump's SAR team, two applications need to be filled out. One is for the Sheriff's Office, and the other is for the SAR team itself. The Sheriff's Office then does a complete background check on the applicant.

Potential members have a six-month probationary period during which they attend training sessions and meetings. They are also given the list of items they need for their SAR kits, which meet the standards of the National Search and Rescue Committee.

The material for the SAR kits are paid for by the members themselves. After the probationary period, the current members vote in the pledges, and if accepted, they are sworn in by the Sheriff. The new members can go out on missions with the rest of the team.

You do not have to have CPR or first aid certification to apply to join SAR; if you are not already certified, you will receive the training after applying. All members are also certified in defibrillator use.

But the training for a SAR member never stops. They are constantly learning new techniques, taking classes, and generally making sure that they are prepared for any and every situation they might be called upon to help with.

And they do a lot. Although SAR often calls to mind dramatic, made-for-TV-movie type rescues (the wayward hiker, lost and alone, shivering on a barren cliff side), SAR performs many other duties that are vital to the community as well.

They help with evidence searches if the Sheriff's Office asks them for assistance, and although they no longer have enough personnel to do a mine search, they can secure the site until a mine search team arrives. When there is a fire, they may direct traffic or secure what could be a potential crime scene until the fire marshal arrives.

SAR meets twice a month, on the first and third Thursday. SAR has had guest speakers and training sessions on subjects such as Alzheimer's disease, man tracking, GPS training, and just about anything else that could help them to perform their missions.

They are preparing for a future visit by United States Air Force para-rescue personnel (whose missions include searching for downed airmen) to learn some of their rescue techniques.

As SAR's secretary, Judy Pufky said, "We just try to keep on our toes and be ready for whatever, evacuating, control; we'll do anything that the Sheriff's Office asks us to do."

Most SAR members also attend "SAR City" at Barstow (Calif.) Community College (paid for from SAR's budget), a rigorous three-day training session where just about anything and everything concerned with SAR techniques and technology is covered.

Past SAR City training courses have included hazmat training, desert survival courses, bone identification, drug lab identification, and urban search and rescue techniques.

And since most of Pahrump's SAR members make it a point to attend SAR City, they literally are prepared for a number of challenges.

The constant training and preparation have served SAR members well. In the past few years, they have had a role in several important missions. Last year around Father's Day, they rescued an autistic boy who was lost in the desert and later found barefoot. They have also helped the Sheriff's Office perform evidence searches, looking for objects ranging from baseball bats to shell casings.

More recently, SAR members rescued two girls from Hafen Elementary School who had wandered into the desert in hopes of running away to Las Vegas.

Many of the members are also certified mantrackers, which has helped them to successfully complete missions.

LeRoy Beadle, a member of Pahrump's SAR team for 13 years and a mantracker himself, recalled one time when SAR members tracked a man with Alzheimer's who had wandered off into the desert. By following his footprints, SAR found him about two miles from home two hours later.

Beadle also recalled a time in February about four years ago that a woman who rolled her vehicle near Mesquite Road then left the scene. It was about 12 degrees out, and when the Sheriff's Office could not find her, it dispatched SAR around midnight. Beadle, using a million-candlelight power light, tracked the woman to a gully near a trail.

"She was shaking so bad, she was hypothermic," recalled Beadle. "She was about to shut down." SAR life-flighted her to the hospital and the woman recovered. "We saved her life for sure," said Beadle.

All of SAR's members enjoy a deep commitment to the team and what they do. As Pat Clow said, "It's about being able to get in the community and help people."

SAR Commander Wayne Whitehead, who has a long history of search and rescue work in the military, said that SAR work is "something I've done my entire life. It seems one must be committed to what one does."

But despite their astounding level of commitment, both in time and their own money, the lack of funding can thwart SAR from performing their duties, no matter how qualified and well-trained members are.

For example, when called to a mission up north last winter, despite several of the members having four-wheel drive vehicles and snow chains on their vehicles, they were unable to reach the area that needed to be searched.

Fortunately, the persons being searched for turned out not be in the area; but winter still comes every year.

And of course, there is always the need for more members, who are welcome to attend any meeting, even if it's just to learn more about the group.

And, for those members of the community who are not interested in becoming SAR members, they could always help the team sell roast corn at the Fall Festival.