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Rank: Fecal Impaction For the Win!
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I have been offered a position with my county Sheriff's search and recovery dive team. It's volunteer, so no monetary incentive is there to motivate me to join up. There are pluses and minuses. On the bright side, I would be serving my community and helping the local families make peace with thier loss. I would also be helping in criminal investigations and also getting to know some members of the Police force personally (which always is a good thing). And to a lesser extent, I would get more search and recovery training and experience for future Diving certifications. On the flipside, there would be a good chance that at some point I am going to have to come to terms with finding the body of a drowned little girl or boy. In a lake your visibility is often less than 2 feet, so its not something you can really prepare yourself for. Things just kinda appear very suddenly and very closely to you. I think that could be stressful. They just had a drowning in the local lake this weekend and had to use the team to find and pull the body. Anyway, I am pretty sure I can handle it only because I would be prepared to enter the water knowing what might be in store for me. I dunno. What do you think? Will it be easier to do that kinda work just knowing the outcome?
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"Who the fuck is Leon Switch and why does he know we have a dog?" - Mrs. Giller
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Rank: Coathanger Abortion
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Bodies get really gross in the water. I think S&R is one of the most noble things a person can do. If I had the time and/or wasn't such a self-indulgent hedonist I'd totally volunteer with one of the local wilderness S&R teams. Doing dive work is probably as extreme as it gets. I don't know what kind of water you've got in your area, but around here it's often dangerous diving conditions. Finding a fucked up waterlogged body of a child is the kind of shit that will give you nightmares forever. If you are willing to accept that then I say go for it. If not, maybe you can serve some kind of support role? Razor wrote:Killing people is good therapy.  
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Giller [GwDR wrote:]I have been offered a position with my county Sheriff's search and recovery dive team. It's volunteer, so no monetary incentive is there to motivate me to join up. There are pluses and minuses.
On the bright side, I would be serving my community and helping the local families make peace with thier loss. I would also be helping in criminal investigations and also getting to know some members of the Police force personally (which always is a good thing). And to a lesser extent, I would get more search and recovery training and experience for future Diving certifications.
On the flipside, there would be a good chance that at some point I am going to have to come to terms with finding the body of a drowned little girl or boy. In a lake your visibility is often less than 2 feet, so its not something you can really prepare yourself for. Things just kinda appear very suddenly and very closely to you. I think that could be stressful. They just had a drowning in the local lake this weekend and had to use the team to find and pull the body.
Anyway, I am pretty sure I can handle it only because I would be prepared to enter the water knowing what might be in store for me.
I dunno. What do you think? Will it be easier to do that kinda work just knowing the outcome? I really don't think that knowing the outcome makes it easier. C'mon, be honest with yourself. A dead body is a dead body. But you'd be providing closure for people who might need it, you know? Of course you do. :P I didn't know you liked to dive! I love SCUBA diving myself. ^^ A fringe benefit is that people will know who to look for (and pay) when then do something stupid. Like get drunk and drive an ATV into a lake. A guy from my dive shop does S&R with some of this other stuff on the side. He had to...uh...rescue this ATV. Made some pretty sweet cash. Of course, its not money. Putting on your resume that you did recovery diving for the Sheriff dept. would look pretty good. I say go for it. Its a unique opportunity. Not many people have the skills to do this, so do it! If you get too creeped out, stop. If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe. - Carl Sagan My Backpack
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Rank: Administration
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Overall, it sounds like a good opportunity. I understand your point about the "flipside", but that's part of the "service to the community," and as heinous as it might be, if you have the stomach for it personally (which I would argue you do), with each nightmare-inducing encounter you have, realize that you've just done it in furtherance of preventing the sadistic scum that did it from doing it to another person. And if it's a drowning... well... you know you're improving your own swimming skills with every kick. (sorry, it's the best I can do) HolyJaw wrote:In the end, everything Endyss said.
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Rank: Fuckstick
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I've known two people that have had these types of occupations. One worked as head of a trauma unit specializing in children, the other a Search and Recover diver. Both were women. From the stories I heard, the person who worked in the trauma unit was the worst. The other became a rescue swimmer. She took the experience of recovering people as motivation to become someone who saved them. Good luck with your decision.
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