ESAR181 Biography

Sooner Stretcher Bearers Also Score Yards Rushing

It is 30 minutes before the kick-off and the crowd is still picking its way into Owen Stadium to see the University of Oklahoma football game. One of the 400 Boy Scout ushers trying to help the 70,000plus people find their stats sees a woman collapse, and runs to notify a nearby Explorer stretcher crew. "We need you up here, a woman just passed out," says the Boy Scout. "Lead the way," 17-year old Mark Andrews replies as seven Explorers grab a stretcher, climb over a railing seperating spectators from the playing field, and make their way quickly up an aisle to the middle of the stands, where the woman has collapsed and a crowd is craning to see what is happening.

"Stand back, please," 17-year-old Tom Harting urges as he and the other young men unfold the stretcher, lift the woman onto it, fasten a seat-belt-like restraining device, and begin carrying her out of the stands. "Where's a doctor?" someone asks. "We're taking her to one," 18-year-old Eric Wassilak replies. The team goes as a fast walk through the crowd, repeatedly urging the multitude of people heading into the statium to "Make way for the stretcher, please."

Within three minutes, the woman is delivered to the Gomer Jones Memorial Cardiac Center beneath the stadium, where a volunteer team of doctors and nurses takes over to diagnose and treat the woman while the Explorers return to their bench on the sidelines. It is one of five such calls five stretcher teams at the game will make during the day. It is one of 29 such emergencies for the Explorers during the first five OU home games this season.

This story and picture appeared in the November 11th issue of the Oklahoma City Times newspaper in 1975. Since the early 1960's ESAR181 and numerous other Explorer Posts have provided services as stretcher teams as Owen Stadium and the fans of OU Football.

ESAR181, which stands for Explorer Search and Rescue Post 181, is the longest continuous running Explorer Post in the state of Oklahoma. Originally formed by a group of older Boy Scouts and Leaders of Boy Scout Troop 181 in 1963, the Post was created as a high adventure post. In 1973 the Post was restructured as an Explorer Search and Rescue Unit. This idea came from Troop 181's participation in the National Scout Jamboree in Farragut, Idaho. Several of the older members of the Troop were given the opportunity to participate in training in first aid, Red Cross Lifesaving, fire scene procedures and crime scene investigation. Training was advanced further with field exercises involving field search techniques, orienteering, evacuation of victims, first aid skills and semaphore flag signaling.

The original form of communications (considered a blessing at the time) the Post acquired Citizen's Band radios. This has evolved into our current communications capabilities including a mobile command post sporting a mobile UHF repeater, base station radios and multiple portable radios. Many of these items were made possible by donations from our sponsoring agency, Integris Baptist Medical Center. The mobile command post is outfitted to provide an operations area for scene operations, as well as a medical treatment area.

Training and education have always played a big part in the expansion of ESAR181. Beginning with basic Red Cross first aid classes, we have now expanded to providing training to our members in American Heart Association CPR, First Responder Training, Ropes Rescue, survival skills and search and rescue techniques. With multiple experienced members and advisors, ranging from First Responder to Doctor, we now provide Boy Scout merit badge classes in first aid, emergency preparedness, as well as teaching CPR to youth and adults alike.

Now sporting a long history of Doctors, Nurses, Paramedics, Emergency Medical Technicians, Burn Center Technicians, First Responders and CPR Instructors, ESAR181 takes pride in the high level of training we have and are able to provide to our members.

Each year ESAR181 trains existing and new members in the fields of Medical First Responder, Search and Rescue, American Heart Association CPR, Communications, Emergency Preparedness and Managing a Search Function. These skills are practiced at numerous annual events such as...

Recently ESAR181 has been able to form training alliances with numerous healthcare agencies including Mercy Emergency Medical Service, and Baptist Burn Center. These alliances, and others forming, allow the members of ESAR181 to practice the skills they have been taught.

With the training and experiences the members of ESAR181 have gained during their tenure with the Post, numerous members have gone on to begin expansive careers in numerous fields, such as:

If you are interested in any emergency medical career field or search and rescue, feel free to contact the members of ESAR181 and be a visitor at our meetings. Contact Info