Like any story worth reading; this epic has a girl involved. Actually, a really hot girl, some damn good ice cream, a $50 bottle of port, and my hot tub. Then my fucking pager went off (to which the first words out of my mouth are always "oh shit") and that will be the last we ever hear of that girl.
The page was its usual cryptic self:
"S&R CALLOUT SEARCH OF 10YOF RESPOND TO (GETTO) BRING DIVE EQUIPMENT"
Translation: the kid is dead, he's been in the water for an hour before fire called us to find the body. Never mind that we have an actual fast response rescue team. I guess someone at the station forgot to set the TIVO and they had to head back home to catch House.
I changed into my wetsuit at my house (in front of a very perplexed female, I guess I didn't explain what I do very well) and high tailed it to the scene. By the time I got there it was the normal multiple agency cluster fuck. I was assigned to build the grid- a giant man made strainer down stream- but got pulled into a zodiac for a bank search. Of course, I didn't clear that with my commanding officer and got an ass reaming for it that night.
A lot of people on our team readily assume that every water call out is a body recovery. They're right 98% of the time; but that's not good enough for me. I grabbed (stole...) a jump bag from the ambulance on scene just in case. I can't image how stupid I would feel if I found an *almost* dead patient and didn't have shit on me to help.
Of course, the bank search was uneventful and we went back to probing. A lot of people ask how we find bodies in the water. We pick the most likely spot they could be and see if we can snag anything with a giant metal pole with two or so hooks on the end. That is when most of my friends stop asking what I do... gruesome indeed.
Darkness fell, the rain started, and the fishing continued. We had three people in the zodiac- one running the outboard, one probing, and the other holding onto the bottom of the bridge so we'd stay in one place. We found a lot of shit- blankets, pillows, signs, shopping carts- all of which feel A LOT like a body. Each time we'd get our hopes up, only to have them be killed. It could be worse, we've found bodies in this river in past searches... that weren't the body we were looking for.
Midnight came and command sent us home with the promise that we'd be there the next day bright and early. My dreams were short (as was my sleep) and weird; it wasn't until I got home that I realized EXACTLY what we were looking for:
- someone's daughter
- someone's sister
- someone's niece
- some little kid's best friend
- some little boy's first crush
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