This weekend, two members of the Washington State SAR Planning Unit were recognized at the Kittitas County Search and Rescue Appreciation Dinner.

Lauren Heitmann and Guy Mansfield were presented with Awards of Merit by Kittitas County Sheriff Clay Meyers and Kittitas County SAR Deputy Ellis Nale.

Lauren and Guy served for 11 consecutive days as Operations Section Chief and Plans Section Chief on the search for Jay Schreckengost, a respected Deputy Fire Chief in the Seattle Fire Department, who went missing on a hunting trip in the mountains of eastern Washington.

This search evolved into one of the longest, large-scale search missions in recent history, with hundreds of SAR volunteers responding day after day, to fan out across steep forested terrain in a search area that encompassed over 100 square miles.

Volunteers from all five regional mountain rescue teams were joined by SAR members from multiple Washington State counties, multiple fire departments, and many K9 teams (including Suzanne and Keb) to assist in this search, described in our blog post “A Somber Search in November” https://suzanneelshult.com/a-somber-search-in-november/

On November 14^th, the last Sunday of this search, just as we were planning to demobilize, mountain rescue teams located Jay Schreckengost, deceased at the base of a 700-foot-high escarpment. Deputy Chief Schreckengost was transported down mountain roads to be met by Seattle Fire Department personnel and by his family members.