What a great job I have! As part of my responsibility with Rescue 3 West, I am responsible for the Quality Assurance and updating of all the Instructors in the Rescue 3 West territory. This is to be sure that Rescue 3 classes retain the high level of quality and skill in Instructors that makes Rescue 3 the leader in the Swiftwater Industry. In reality, what that means for me, is that I get to travel around, see how folks are applying Swiftwater Rescue to their Agencies, learn all sorts of new tricks, and spend time with incredible people.
I joined David Wilson, the BORSTAR ( US Border Patrol Search, Trauma and Rescue) Field Operations Supervisor and four of his most active Instructors for three days on the SF American last week. It was a true pleasure, and even included a day off for river boarding on Chili Bar!
BORSTAR uses the Swiftwater Rescue Technician Unit 1 as part of the training for all its BORSTAR graduates coming out of the Academy. Every Search, Trauma and Rescue Agent for the US Border Patrol has a minimum of the SRT Unit 1. BORSTAR also sends many of its agents through the RQ3 Swiftwater Rescue Boat Operator course and they are currently working on a Swiftwater PWC curriculum that we will be able to learn from. It is my job to do Instructor Reviews and Quality Assurance on the program and its Instructors.
I am happy to say after three days with these guys that they are doing an amazing job and I am happy to co-sign off with David Wilson on three of his Instructors, Alan, Steve and Jon to raise their status to the Independent Level. This will allow Agencies in remote areas to be able to join in with their Swiftwater Rescue trainings and share in their knowledge.
I am also happy to congratulate David Wilson on an upgrade to Instructor Trainer status. This will give him the ability to choose and train new Instructors and to have more autonomy on who he trains. The process of becoming an Instructor for BORSTAR includes many days of co-teaching, as well as an Instructor class. I will have the pleasure of doing the skills testing and an independent assessment after David has done all the work of training and choosing the guys. David started with Rescue 3 in 1993 with the guidance of Brian LaBrie with LA Fire.
I am very happy to congratulate David on his upgrade to IT status and look forward to working with him and BORSTAR for years into the future!
