Late afternoon of June 15, LAAFB gets a call for a far away search in the Gila Mountains, almost 6 hours away!!! A camper in the area had disappeared.
When incidents across the state occur, ordering managers/incident commanders will typically call the closest teams first, and slowly expand outwards trying to get all the resources they need. As a result, sometimes we can get called to go far away. In this particular mission, two brigands (‘Da Mule’ and ‘Not a Thorium Bro’) were ready to respond, but given the long distance we first double-checked with the incident management team that we were truly needed as we would be arriving so late. At that time, we were first held back at home and when it was determined that enough resources were found, we were stood down for the evening.
However, the next morning the camper had still not been found. Resources were called for a second operational period and with local resources used the night before LAAFB was called again with need. Three brigands (‘Not a Thorium Bro’, the Grizzled Wolverine, and Silver Elephant) head out early (around 0500) headed to the Gila Mountains. Fortunately, they only made it about 1 hour down the road when our subject was found, safe and uninjured. Our brigands turned around and came back home, happy the subject was found, and found before they had made it 6 hours down the road.