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State defense force trains for searches
0818-Missing-person-training
Georgia State Defense Force 1st Lt. Jill Doyle, the 911th’s intelligence officer, inspects the search-and-rescue pack of Cpl. Ian Willoughby, an information technology specialist with the 911th. - photo by Photo provided.
CLAY NATIONAL GUARD CENTER, Marietta — A missing-person call on a police radio demands prompt action, often involving dozens of volunteers combing dense and sometimes dangerous areas. The time and stress accompanying the search is emotionally and physically draining. Many Georgia law enforcement agencies lack the time, personnel or resources to accomplish an intensive search.
Law enforcement is now finding a willing and able partner in search-and-rescue missions through the Georgia State Defense Force, an all-volunteer arm of the Georgia Department of Defense. The force is gaining a statewide reputation for its support of search-and-rescue operations.
The Georgia State Defense Force’s primary mission is to support the Georgia Army and Air Guard, but many of its members — through civilian or military training — qualify in the skills necessary for missing-person/search-and-rescue relief. GSDF members assisted law enforcement in more than a dozen searches for missing people in the past two and a half years.
The institutional skills of search and rescue are becoming mandated for all 800 members of the GSDF. Under the direction of Brig. Gen. Jerry Bradford, State Defense Force commander, the number of SDF personnel qualified in search and rescue skills are increasing together with the number of qualified SAR teams available to local authorities.
GSDF members assisted in the second search for Iraq war veteran Jason Roark by Morgan County authorities in 2008. GSDF personnel were not only brought in for the multi-day search effort, they organized the operation, which involved several dozen GSDF members and many citizens.
“Gen. Bradford plans to change the mindset of civilian agencies to not just calling us [the GSDF] for support, but to call us first when search and rescue is initiated,” said SDF Maj. Sam Pena, who leads Atlanta’s 911th Support Command.
Bradford envisages the State Defense Force personnel being used in three situations. The first would be using the SDF to supplement other agencies that cover many of the operations in which the SDF has participated in the past. The second entails running the search area then reporting to local authorities, similar to SDF operations during the Roark search. A third situation is the SDF running the entire SAR operation.
“Eventually, the SDF hopes to expand its capabilities to assist the Georgia Guard’s Joint Task Force 781 in its search, evacuation and recovery mission during all manmade or natural disasters,” Pena said. Joint Task Force 781 is part of the Georgia National Guard’s Homeland Response Force.
Reaching this stage of readiness requires more people and more training, according to the SDF.
For the last three months, 30 SDF members have taken on the task of becoming SAR qualified at the Georgia Public Safety Training Center in Forsyth.
“Like anything else we do, we do SAR because we want to serve our communities and our state. We want be a part of something larger than ourselves,” said SDF Pvt. Borbi Bropheh, the newest member of Atlanta-based 1st Medical Company.
“But not just anyone can do SAR,” said 2nd Lt. Tim McNeill, the 911th’s personnel officer and a SAR instructor. Three ever-increasing degrees of challenges, physical and mental, which are based upon civilian fire department standards, segregate the capabilities of each SDF volunteer.
Those in training in Forsyth expect to graduate in late September. “They learn what is necessary for staying and surviving in the field for at least three days, search and rescue operations fundamentals and rappelling,” McNeill said.
“Lots to learn,” said Sgt. Thomas Dager, one of the trainees and the NCO-in-charge of the intelligence section for Jackson’s 2nd Battalion, 5th Brigade. Dager also is a former Guardsman who once served with what is now 3rd Squadron, 108th Cavalry.
“It’s a lot of information, but if we’re gonna aid folks in distress or immediate danger, we’ve got to do it right,” he said.
As the Georgia State Defense Force prepares to become the resource local authorities call on first for search and rescue skills and resources, it’ll continue to push SAR operations for its volunteer members.
“It’s just that important, said Pvt. Desire Saltkill, a decontamination specialist with 1st Medical Company.
Georgia’s SDF is an all volunteer force and is looking for additional members.  Anyone interested can view GSDF information at www.gasdf.com/GASDF_recruiting.htm.

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HPD Reports
crime scene

From Hinesville Police Department reports. Editor’s note: Due to computer issues at the city, reports have been unavailable in recent weeks. They are back. Our thanks to the HPD clerks who provide them. We’re catching up as quickly as possible.

Burglary, etc: A man called 911 on Feb. 27 because he was watching his White Circle home getting burglarized. The man said his alarm system had an app that showed live video on his phone, and he was “viewing three males inside his residence,” as he talked to 911.
Police responded, caught two of them inside the house and found the third guy “hiding behind a tree,” the report said.
Detectives are investigating.

Public indecency: An officer was sent to Lowes around 4:30 p.m. March 12 in reference to a disturbance involving a man and a woman.
The woman, a Lowe’s employee, said she had just got back from her lunch break when she saw the man “looking around at items on a shelf.”
The woman said she asked him if he needed help finding anything and he held up something, then said “I have found everything I need,” the report said. “(he) then placed his arms around (the employee) to hug her and then kissed (her) neck. (She) then moved away from (him) and told him to have a nice day and attempted to walk away from (the man). (He) then began to follow (her), stating ‘I would lick you up and down’ and ‘you better hide in an office.’ (She) then spoke with manager and called 911.’”
The man told police he thought he recognized the woman “and stated to me that he had previously had a relationship with her approximately two years ago. (He) was unable to recall (her) name while on scene.”
The woman told police “she has never seen, nor spoken to (the man) before today.”
The woman was given a case number and told what to do. The man was allowed to leave.

Indecent exposure: A Berkshire Terrace man reported he went outside his house around 6:40 a.m. and “observed a man who appeared to be intoxicated, peeing on his truck and trailer.”
The complainant said the man “fully exposed his penis while he was peeing. When (complainant) asked him to stop the man told him to ‘shut the (bleep) up.’ (Complainant) advised the man he would call police. (Complainant) advised his young son was standing outside during the incident. He said the man got into a 1996 black Buick and drove away, almost hitting cars that were parked in the driveway.”
The complainant said he did not want to press charges, “he said he wanted to report the incident because the man did not stop peeing when he asked him too.”
The complainant said he’d seen the man before “come and go” from a nearby apartment. The officer met with the resident of that apartment, who said the man was a cousin and did not pee on the complainant’s trailer.

Identity theft: A man went to HPD on March 21 to report that when he went to get a driver’s history for a commercial driver’s license, he found several citations on the history that weren’t his. “(He) stated he noticed someone was issued four citations in Arkansas and one citation in Jacksonville, Florida,” and during the time the Arkansas tickets were written he was in locked up in Georgia.
“(He) advised that he was not incarcerated when the citation in Jacksonville, Florida was issued but he was not in Florida at the time. (He) was unable to leave the state of Georgia due to being on felony probation.”
It gets worse.
“(He) told me that he attempted to file his income taxes for the first time ever and he was rejected due to owing the IRS money, $20,000. (He) stated he spoke to a representative for the IRS and he was informed that taxes were filed in his name in 2014 and the return was $1,3000. (He) advised he did not file taxes in 2013 and he was still incarcerated at the time.”
The man then told the officer he thinks his brother “got the citations and filed income taxes using his information. (He) believed his brother obtained his Social Security number and other demographics when he was incarcerated.”
The man said he talked to his brother, who said he paid all the tickets. “(His) brother also told him on a different occasion that he knew his date of birth and (SSN). (He) advised he told his brother that it was not OK to use his name due to him getting his life together and attempting to drive commercial vehicles.”
The guy said he didn’t have his brother’s address. He chose to fill out an identity theft packet.

Simple battery, theft by taking: An officer was sent around 2 a.m. March 20 to the Baymont Inn regarding a disturbance. There, a woman said she was being “grabbed and pulled” by a man when she told him to leave her motel room. She said they began arguing when he accused her of stealing $100.
The man claimed he met the woman on a dating website and when they “started having sex she informed him that it would cost $100.” He told her he wasn’t going to pay her, “got dressed and realized the five $20s in his pants pocket were missing. He accused (her) of stealing his money.”
The officer asked the woman if she stole the man’s money and she replied, “No, I work hard for my money.”
Both were given a case number and told how to get a warrant.

Robbery: A woman called HPD March 15 to report she was home when her estranged husband came to her apartment “and asked her to come outside to talk to him,” a report said.
“She stated that she stepped outside thinking that he was going to be civil, though she recently filed for divorce from him. As she stepped outside, he grabbed her necklace off her neck and then ran down the stairwell and out to the parking lot.”
The woman said he stood by his vehicle a minute, then drove off as police arrived. Officers checked the area but had no luck finding the man.

Burglary: Police were sent to a Malibu Drive address on March 13 regarding missing firearms and ransacked rooms. The homeowners were at work and got home to find handguns and rifles missing, as well as video games.
It appeared the home may have been broken into through the attic. Police found footprints and other evidence, and the case is under investigation.

Recovered stolen trailer: A U-Haul employee was inventorying equipment on March 14 when she discovered a trailer that had been reported stolen in Florida on Dec. 26. “She stated someone had backed the trailer into a parking stall along with the other trailers sometime during the night.”

Theft: In February, the maintenance man at Cypress Bend Mobile Home Park reported that “22 air conditioning unit disconnect boxes were stolen from various lots… He stated he began receiving calls from people that their air conditioning units were not working.”
The boxes contain small pieces of copper. He didn’t know who swiped them, but valued the total at about $341.

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