Name: Kevin Role: Search Technician, First Aider and Tracker Joined SusSAR: Summer 2005

Employment
I work as the Quality Assurance manager for a major travel company based in Crawley. My role makes me responsible for any new software that is used – both internally as well as their website. Basically, it’s down to my team and I to break any applications, before the end users get a chance to do it, but for real.

Background & Outdoor Experiences
Having grown up predominantly in suburbs of London I always enjoyed being outdoors – cubs, scouts, army cadets, camping trips, expeditions to various mountain ranges etc. I left school and served a number of years in the forces. During this time I spent many long cold nights discovering the highlights of such stunning places as Salisbury plain and the Welsh mountains. Once I had done my bit for Queen and country I moved down to Worthing, Sussex and have been here ever since. I recently got married and now have a young family, though this does not really lend itself to expeditions into the mountains

Why I joined SusSAR
I used to be an instructor for an army cadet unit. One of the other instructors (and a SusSAR member) asked if I would mind coming along to one of the training evenings and give a lecture on navigation. Up to this point I really knew nothing about the Unit. The lecture went really well and gave me in insight to what a valuable role the unit fulfils. Having young children myself it dawned on me that I was actually quite selfish to assume that, should the worst happen, someone else would get up and go out and find them, so I decided to join the Unit. The rest, as they say, is history!

Steps to become operational
Once I expressed my interest in joining (bearing in mind that I had already been briefed my by colleague on what the unit does and how they operate) I was invited along to attend the monthly training evenings as a probationary member. After I had attended 3 training evenings, I was invited to attend the Search Technician's training course. The course was a really good induction into the techniques and principals used to locate missing people. Having successfully completed the training and assessment weekend, I became an operational member within the team.

The time commitment and what I've enjoyed
As with most people today life brings commitments – family, work, social events, clubs etc, the list goes on and on. SusSAR meet once a month for a few hours. This gives us a chance to put the theory into practice in a safe and controlled environment as well as to learn new techniques. We often have guest speakers who will give us an insight into the different organisations and how they support the role that SusSAR fulfils. It also gives us a chance to learn from their experience. As with all the team, we all try to go to all the call outs, though everybody realises that this is a voluntary commitment and as such there will be times when you just can’t make it. I think the main driving factor in this is the huge sense of satisfaction knowing that you’ve done everything in your power to assist a missing vulnerable person, whatever the outcome of the search.