Friend Ships’ Spirit with the MV Integrity in the background.

Half of Unit 42’s ERT recently deployed to assist Friend Ships in their preparation to transport relief supplies to Haiti. Friend Ships is a Christian ministry which specializes in the overseas transport of  supplies for disaster relief and humanitarian aid.  www.friendships.org

Much of the men’s time was spent palletizing, waterproofing, and shrinkwrapping donated food and relief supplies for shipment to Haiti. Here the men are packing soy grits.

Waterproofing pieces of the emergency radio station for shipment.

Shrink wrapping a pallet of food.

Most of the ship was loaded by forklift but the men eagerly jumped in as needed to load items by hand.

Friend Ships will be setting up a base camp in Haiti to provide ongoing medical relief as well as relief distribution. Here the men move supplies to be packed for use in the base camp.

The ALERT team with a few of the pallets they packed in the background. These men distinguished themselves by their eagerness to work and servant’s hearts doing whatever was asked of them to prepare the ship to sail.  In four days they were able to pack 200+ pallets of food, medical supplies which will be used to demonstrate Christ’s love to the people of Haiti.

ALERT was informed that a young man rode his motorcycle off the road into the swift moving water of the swollen Little Cypress Creek and drowned. The Marion County Dive Team had been called but the area was large and they requested help. Steve Dankers suggested the help of Longview Fire Department Dive Team and they also responded.

Marion County Dive Team located the motorcycle before ALERT and Longview F.D. arrived. Due to the cold water and dangerous conditions divers were limited in the amount of time they could search. ALERT and Longview Divers arrived on the scene at 6:50 pm and began the five hour task of locating the victim among all the debris clogging the river bottom. Despite the cold and hazardous conditions, diver’s covered approximately 15,000 square feet in low visibility water with a 0.7-knot current.

ALERT responded to the call from Harrison County Game Warden Javier Quintez and his partner Darren Peeples. They heard about ALERT from Upshur County Game Warden David Pellizzari. The International ALERT Academy appreciates the opportunity to serve their community with emergency service skills.

Click here to view the CBS19 News Report

ALERT dive team members who responded to this incident: Steve Dankers, Joel Talley, Cliff Patrick, Jedediah Backus, Gabriel Flores, Micah Justice, and Trevor Thiel.

Every week the recruits get closer and closer to passing as they learn to thoroughly clean even the most mundane objects.  Here, Recruit Barr polishes the brass threshold of the barracks.

No areas are left unchecked as recruits even work with flashlights to reveal dust.

Recruit Derbyshire gives a final check to a bed, tightening the blankets and ensuring that all the folds are correct.

After the preparation time, the unit forms up on the flag field for a thorough uniform inspection by their drill instructors, senior drill sergeant or officers.

Moving inside, Senior Drill Sergeant Archibald examines a drawer for cleanliness, proper folding and order of layout.

Recruit Engell stands at attention while Drill Instructor Price inspects his bed.

Any area not clean, spots of dirt, or other problems result in a “gig” for the unit.

Drill Instructor Moody checks a week of journal pages to make sure that the recruit has filled them out.

Each week that the unit does not pass, inspection is followed by an intense PT session to provide motivation for future improvement.  Hard work at last pays off when the unit finally does pass inspection.

If a group of men on a wilderness rescue mission or out hiking need to cross a river without a boat usually they would have to swim across, getting wet and taking unnecessary risks.  If they are carrying a rope a river crossing system can be set up.  Using this method only one man swims across and the rest stay dry.  Unit 42 learned the river crossing system a couple of weeks ago.  Today they will compete to discover which squad is the fastest.

Two squads compete against each other, working for a good time so they can advance to the next round.  In this picture they are holding their gear over their heads waiting for “Go!” from the Senior Drill Sergeant.

The swimmer takes one end of the squad’s rope across the river.  While they are swimming the rest of the squad starts tying their Swiss seats.

The swimmer ties a tensionless hitch to a tree on his side.  Pictured here is recruit Creedon.

On the other side the squad sets up a 3:1 haul system to tighten the line.  Here Recruits Kalich and Carnley tie prussiks.

The squad pulls, tensioning the rope system.  Pictured here is Alpha 3^rd.

Then a truckers hitch is tied.  A trucker’s hitch allows the squad to pull the free end of the rope, “pop” the truckers hitch, and pull the whole rope system across the river behind them. Pictured here are Recruits Gomez and McKenzie

Next the squad rapidly moves across the river.  The recruits are clipped to the rope using their Swiss seat and a carabineer.

The last man brings the end of the rope across with him.

It is pulled allowing the system to be drawn across the river.  Here Specialist Downing helps Recruits Larsen and Dieckmann pop the system.

Once the rope is coiled and their Swiss seats are removed the squad yells, “Done Sir!”  Picture here is Specialist Boulden with Bravo Second.

Alpha 1st won the competition with a time of 4:57.

Recruit Block places the final touches on a deadfall trap sized to catch a small animal.

The week started out wet and rainy.  The men found that their shelters actually shed rain. Charlie Third tries to warm up around their fire.

Lashing – the art of tying poles together with cord – was also taught.  This skill is useful when building structures in a wilderness situation.

The men also learned and practiced alternative methods of fire starting.

Here ­­­Charlie 2^nd demonstrates how to correctly package a patient into a Stokes basket.

In this simulated rescue the object is to move the patient across a river.  Here Charlie 2^nd carries the patient to the river crossing site.

They set up the rope system for patient ferrying.

Part of this exercise includes the rescue team crossing the river on the rope “commando style”.

The patient moves safely across.

At the beginning of survival week the men build shelters in which they will live for the rest of the week.  Here Charlie Third poses in their shelter.

After a class on different types of shelters and construction techniques, the men commence building.

First a framework of poles is built which is then covered with leafy branches and forest litter.  Here Recruit McKenzie shovels forest litter onto the shelter.

Recruit Staller gathers materials.

Recruit Kalich finds it difficult to start a fire with wet materials.

After construction is finished the shelters are graded by the cadre.  Here Drill Instructor Falkenstien tests the stability of Bravo 2nds shelter.

Charlie Second fails the water test.

The prizewinning shelter – built by Bravo 3rd.

For the first part of Basic Training all sweets and other p.o.g.i.e. (Personally Owned Gear I Eat) has been banned in order to teach the recruits discipline in the area of food consumption.  Tonight they are about to gain that privilege back.

Third platoon ends their evening rather normally with a devotional on wisdom by Drill Instructor Price.

Sometime later the recruits are awakened.

They are not quite sure what the evening will hold.

The whole unit formed up on the flag field.

The results are worth it. Recruit Engell.

Recruit Hand.

Recruit Savino.

During the six hour hike the Sabine river was crossed twice.  The men placed their packs inside trash bags and floated them across the river.  Pictured here is recruit Winkler.

Captain Pendergast and Senior Drill Sergeant Archibald lead the unit.

The men enjoyed taking a lunch break during the hike

The recruits usually hike in two columns with the squad leaders to their left.

Recruit Harding uses a break as a chance to rest his feet.

The recruits are taught the importance of caring for their feet by keeping them dry and changing socks.  Here Recruit  Kalich applies foot powder.   Proper foot care reduces blisters and prevents foot diseases.

Chaplain Burch tries to meet the unit at breaks to encourage the men.  Here he talks with Recruit Marr.

Recruits Reckner and Lapp hiking.

The Unit ended the hike by doing three pushups for motivation.  They then camped out for the night.

On October 17, 2009, Joel Talley and members of the ALERT dive team recovered a wheelchair for a fisherman at Lake Fork, TX.  The dive team responded to a call on October 16 from Wood County Game Warden Kurt Kelly for a fisherman who lost his wheelchair while in a fishing tournament.  Mr. Talley and his divers arrived on scene at 4:15 p.m.  They searched for several hours in the area the fisherman found the wheelchair’s cushion floating. The team planned to return the next day to expand the search area.

They recovered the wheelchair on October 17 at 6:08 p.m. in 34 feet of water with little to no visibility after 2 hours of searching.  The bottom of the lake was relatively clear of debris allowing the option of the Circle Search method. The divers used GPS and buoys to grid off nearly 80,000 square feet.  After debriefing and packing up their gear, the ALERT divers were able to return the wheelchair to friends of the fisherman that evening.

Half of Bravo 2^nd started at the end of each log.  Here they are trying to pass each other at the logs’ junction.

Recruit Derbyshire walks across the swinging log.

Charlie 1^st cross across a gap using only tire swings.

The men also had their second PT test.

Recruit Bergeron

Early one morning Unit 42 ran down to the lake for a water PT.

The whole unit runs back

During basic training various squads work to become the Honor  Squad. This squad has been consistently demonstrating excellence in teamwork, skills, and character.  They hike at the front of the unit on hikes and receive certain other privileges.  One of the recruits from this squad is selected to represent the unit as guidon bearer. Because the guidon is a physical representation of the unit and bears the unit number and streamers for each preceding unit is both a great honor and a responsibility to be chosen as guidon bearer.

Pictured here is Unit 42’s first Honor Squad was Alpha 1^st with the guidon bearer being Recruit Jesse Dolan.