This is one of the more common questions we receive. We’re sorry, our patches are never made available to non-members. They are given upon earning full member status on the team.

SAR missions are conducted by a variety of agencies and teams around the state. Volunteer search and rescue teams operate under the authority of the New Mexico State Police. The SAR Act and SAR Plan are the two governing documents for SAR activities in the state. 

All missions are run using the incident command system. Specially trained volunteers, known as field coordinators, directly manage the mission on site.

Specially-trained State Police officers decide if the circumstances are appropriate for a SAR mission. If so, trained volunteers (labeled Field Coordinators) are called to manage the mission. They choose the management and field resources for the mission, and ensure that Planning, Logistics, and Operations are performed as required.

In about 110 missions during the period from January 1994 to June 1997, we’ve been called to provide the following skills (some missions requested multiple skills):

• Ground Search: 85% of the missions.
• Litter Evacuations (including recovering deceased persons): 35% of the missions
• Canine Search: 10% of the missions.
• 4-WD Search: 10% of the missions.

The numbers vary from year to year and month to month. The team typically responds to between 30 and 50 SAR missions per year. Sometimes summer is busy. Sometimes winter is busy. There can be multiple missions in a week, and then none for a month. They can also occur on any day of the week or time of day, although weekends can be more common.

The team can be called for SAR missions anywhere in the state. The majority of our responses are around the Albuquerque metro area

The appropriate mission management person calls our team page number. Two team members volunteer to carry the pagers for a month. One of these pager-holders contacts the caller and updates our hotline with the mission information. Then certain team members, who are branch leaders on our phone tree, call the people assigned to their branch. Members who can deploy leave a message on the hotline, and a few minutes later the pager-holder reviews the messages and provides a headcount to the mission management. Generally, the callout is completed within 1/2 hour of the page.

Sadly, while we are frequently asked this question, we have not yet learned a way to quit our day jobs. There is one full time, paid search and rescue position in New Mexico. The SAR Resource Officer is an employee of the New Mexico State Police who is responsible for the state’s SAR program, management, and certifying of resources. Other SAR functions in the state are handled by unpaid volunteers.

Some fire departments have specialized mountain/technical rescue teams, and several National Parks maintain full time SAR personnel.

We are all volunteers, and nobody receives a paycheck for participating in SAR missions. Members are eligible to be reimbursed by the state for the cost of fuel used to travel to/from SAR missions and for certain designated state-level trainings. 

SAR field personnel are expected to be able to be self-sufficient for 24 hours, but usually you’re in the field less than 8 hours at a time. The time can lengthen considerably if the subject is found injured deep in the forest, or for certain assignments that can’t be completed more quickly.

The State provides coverage for travel to/from the missions. It also provides liability and accident insurance for mission activities. No other type of insurance coverage is provided.

Cibola SAR primarily specializes in ground-based searching and incident base communications support. Other teams in the Albuquerque area specialize in technical rescue, horse-based searching, and canine searching. Many volunteers are members of multiple teams. Information about other NM SAR teams can be found HERE.

No but many SAR personnel do obtain their amateur radio (ham) operator’s license at the technician level or higher. The team occasionally offers a class to help members prepare for the licensing exam.

Experience suggests that most dogs are not suitable for search and rescue, but a well-trained SAR dog can be a valuable resource. If you are interested in this aspect of search and rescue, there is a local team, Sandia Search Dogs that specializes in SAR dogs, and there are other similar teams around the state. While Cibola SAR does not have a “K9 Unit”, we do have some individuals who train SAR dogs; all of these members are also members of Sandia Search Dogs. Dog handlers train quite often: a quick peek at Sandia Search Dogs’ training schedule shows scheduled training events twice to three times per week.

Unfortunately, sometimes people die before we find them. We treat them with dignity and retrieve their remains for the benefit of their loved ones. Individuals who are sensitive to this aspect of SAR need to evaluate whether they can deal with such a situation. Of course, any mission can turn out to be a body recovery, and participation may be unavoidable once you’re in the field on an assignment.