SEARCH AND RESCUE: SAR Rookie Trap – 3 Easy Ways To Get Yourself a Bad Reputation

IF YOU DO ANY OF THESE, I HOPE SOMEONE HAS THE DECENCY TO BRAIN YOU WITH A 4 CELL

You can read part 1 of this series here: SEARCH AND RESCUE: SAR Rookie Trap – The Gear Monkey on Your Back

When someone first joins a search & rescue team, they have a period of a few months where the rest of the team will decide whether they are squared away or not and whether they will be an asset to the team.

This time of establishing either a positive or negative reputation is important as it is extremely hard to “un-stick” a bad reputation once you have tarred yourself with one.

Carrying on from the previous SAR Rookie Trap article, here I am going to run down 3 of the easiest ways to attach a bad reputation to yourself in the beginning and the easy ways you can avoid them. If you want to be thought of as a reliable professional, just say “no” to the following…

BE A DISORGANIZED SLOB

Let’s start with the first way to get yourself a shitty reputation in your team – being a disorganised slob. When your team trains, don’t walk in 10 minutes late, looking like you’ve recently been exhumed without so much as a “sorry I’m late”.

It is both rude and unprofessional and the more established members of your team will notice (they will also be writing the mental note “I do not want to work with this jackass”).

Easy solution: be punctual, and better yet, be early. You could learn a thing or two hanging around the more experienced searchers before your training starts.

BE A WHINY BITCH

Do not expect the rest of your team, who actually take search & rescue seriously, to indulge any bitching. They will not find it amusing, nor will they agree with you and you will soon be known as someone to be avoided at all costs. A derogatory nickname will probably attach itself to you as well.

Common topics for whiny bitches to complain about:

- Having to get up early for training days (oh your life is just so hard)
- The long hours often required to save someone’s life
- How tiring exercises/deployments are
- Having to be able to walk long distances

Easy solution: stop inhaling Happy Meals, get in half-decent shape and man the hell up.

LET YOUR TEAM DOWN IN FRONT OF OTHERS

And last but not least, this is the mother of all no-no’s. Letting yourself down is bad enough but letting your team down in front of others is something which will really put you on the shit list for a very long time.

It goes without saying that if you act like a whiney bitch or a disorganised slob in front of other teams/law enforcement/etc. then you deserve to have your nuts booted into your abdominal cavity.

Easy solution: take some pride in your team, step up and represent them how you would want them to represent you.

IN CONCLUSION…

Looking at how simple the solutions to these problems are, you’d never believe people could screw up so horrendously. But you always get one or two in every intake, without fail…

Reward for not doing any of the above: enjoy being known as a solid reliable guy who your team mates will want on their team and not want to brain with a 4 cell.

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~Alex S
Contributing S&R Correspondent

Alex S works as a ground searcher on a lowland search & rescue team and is qualified to rescue on land and at sea. He spends his off time waiting for his callout phone to go off, laughing at drop leg admin panels and reuniting other teams with their searchers.

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