Searching in the rain

It's been a funny sort of day here.  The best bit was the evening.  The working day was a little frustrating: I'd planned a range of things for the morning and afternoon, but by 5pm I'd only got through the morning's work.  On the other hand, the work had been done well and won't have to be redone, so it's probably for the best.

The evening took me to SES for a multi-unit land search exercise.  Northcote teamed up with SES Units from Broadmeadows, Footscray and Essendon on a large-scale search exercise in parkland in Darebin.  A staging area was set up powered by generators, and the Regional Support Unit brought over the Forward Operations Vehicle (a van equipped with all sorts of communications gear - essentially a command point on wheels).

I found myself tasked with leading a three-crew search group.  Fair enough.  I was relieved to find I managed OK, and the crews involved performed very well.  It began to rain as we returned, had some food and began to pack up.  We were back at LHQ by 2230 and I was home by 2320.

It's been an invigorating evening: doing something well reminds you what you're capable of.  I kind of needed that just now.