Excerpt:
By now it was beginning to get dark. Since we could see where they were located we set a compass course towards that location and started walking. Walking cross-country in the rugged, rolling desert foothills at night is interesting. There is a beauty to it mixed with a concern about the night creatures (e. g. rattlesnakes) that are out there. We bushwhacked through brush, over rocks, under trees, up hill and down, all by the light of our headlamps. It was reassuring, when following our compass course, that when we radioed in our positions using Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates we were assured by base camp that we were ?right on line? for our destination. After three hours of bushwhacking we were there. Again, I was impressed by how difficult it is to find people and places in the desert wilderness. Sounds are attenuated by the flora, and light is blocked by rocks and rolling countryside. I have often heard people with no search experience comment on how inept searchers must be because they missed something in the woods. From experience I can say, ? It ain?t so easy.?

Synopsis
An incredibly fascinating and detailed account of the author's own experiences as a Search and Rescue (SAR) volunteer in the state of New Mexico, USA.
After retiring from an engineering career he joined the Albuquerque Mountain Rescue Council (AMRC) in late 1997 and has been a volunteer field worker ever since. That involvement has provided him with some of the most satisfying and rewarding times of his life.
The author has endeavored to make this narrative as non-controversial and positive as possible while still being factually accurate in his descriptions of the SAR missions discussed. The missions range from trivial to important, humorous to tragic, and from saving lives to recovering the dead. Throughout all those events his colleagues in the AMRC and the other SAR teams he has worked with have gained his greatest admiration and respect.
"We have all worked together to insure that the SAR motto, That Others May Live, is more than just words."