Purpose 

Provide trained resources to assist during any incident where a coordinated ground search is required. The group only conducts searches defined as Ground, aka Wildland Inland Wilderness searches. The group members are not trained for nor do they operate in Mountain, Urban, Combat, Cave, Water, or Maritime searches. 

Situations 

Search and Rescue (SAR) is the search for persons who are lost/missing or in distress on land, by SAR forces operating on the ground. People may go missing for a variety of reasons. Some may disappear voluntarily, or for involuntary reasons such as mental illness, getting lost, an accident, death in a location where they cannot be found or, less commonly due to abduction. 

SAR also participates in physical evidence searches for items relating to: 

  • Missing persons 
  • Lost, deliberately placed, hidden, and/or discarded items of legal context such as litigation; criminal or civil cases 
  • Missing items of a non-legal context 

Specialized Skills / Training / Certification / Licensing Requirements 

Members deployed as a Strike Team during a SAR incident are required to have completed the 16 hour Basic Wildland Search and Rescue (GSAR) training as provided by the Illinois Search and Rescue Council (ISARC) and to maintain this certification every 3 (three) years per ISARC qualification guidelines. 

ISARC requires completion of their Basic Navigation (BNAV) training as a pre-requisite to the above GSAR training. 

Additional training/certifications are available through ISARC and the McHenry EMA SAR team and may change from time to time. 

Team members acting as management of a SAR incident are required to have completed the 16 hour Search and Rescue Management (SARM) training provided by ISARC.  Members supporting during a SAR incident as non-Strike team members should have a basic knowledge of SAR operations as provided by the 3 hour Search and Rescue Initial Operations (SARIO) training provided by ISARC.