Stafford Search, Dive Teams Train to Save Lives

By URIAH KISER

STAFFORD COUNTY, Va. — Joe Smith and Bob Jackson were best friends who liked to fish along the lakeshore. They were also known for having a few too many to drink, and when they didn’t come home to their families a call was placed to 911.

Joe and Bob aren’t real people, but were the focus of a special search and rescue training exercise on a chilly morning in March, at Stafford County’s Curtis Lake Park.

Details like “Joe left the house at 5 a.m. in his blue Ford F-150 pick-up truck…the truck was found near the lake at the end of Jessie Curtis Lane,” make these ordinary training scenarios seem so real. It’s aimed to heighten the awareness of the 60 or so volunteers who give of their time to the Stafford County Sheriff’s Office to search for those who have been lost.

The volunteers provide most, if not all, of their own gear — from gloves, compasses, non-perishable food, goggles, and flagging tape to mark items found in the woods. This day’s training also included divers from the sheriff’s office, who would eventually find a mannequin that represents Joe at the bottom of Curtis Lake.

The search team was called out about seven times in 2011, mostly to find hunters who had lost their way. But, sometimes, not every search has a happy ending and it’s up to those who search to deliver the news no family wants to hear.

“It’s never a happy moment, but it’s what we train for. And in some way it really feels good to find someone and then, if the case may be, to return that person home so they can have a final resting place,” said Stafford Sheriff’s 1st Sgt. C.W. Reed.

In the water, searchers use electronic sonar to locate the missing hunter in the lake. After the body – a plastic mannequin in two parts — is located, divers to go into the murky water and feel their way around in search of the body, and ultimately pulled it out of the water.