This September, we're focussing not only on the Battle of Britain, but on the work of our military SAR machine. Winston Churchill once said of allied airmen during the Battle of Britain that, “never was so much owed by so many to so few”. This easily applies to the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) search and rescue (SAR) community.
In the following article, Major (now Lieutenant-Colonel) Kevin Grieve, SAR advisor to the commander of Canada Joint Operations Command (CJOC) when the article was originally written, explains how the CAF SAR community is an astoundingly complex, small and dedicated machine.
From air and ground crews involved in endless operations and maintenance of SAR aircraft, to the SAR technicians who often imperil their own lives to save others, the CAF SAR is an astoundingly complex and dedicated machine, executing its daily mission with such quiet professionalism that these heroes walk amongst us largely unnoticed and uncelebrated.
Yet the typical search and rescue mission that we have grown familiar with through the occasional news clip is a far cry from the reality facing those personnel in the SAR community.
“SAR is an incredibly multifaceted activity involving numerous federal, provincial/territorial, municipal and volunteer agencies,” notes Major Grieve. “The public thinks only of yellow helicopters and orange jump suits but there's so much more to it than this.”
As a veteran of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) for more than 30…
Continue Reading This Article At The Canadian Armed Forces Website
