Brant has spent most of his life in Iron County. For a short time, he lived in Richfield Utah. During his short time in Sevier County, Brant was familiar with Search and Rescue teams from seeing them participate in Sevier County Parades. Brant didn’t realize that Iron County had a Search and Rescue (SAR) team until he was having a casual conversation with a dispatcher with the Iron County Sheriff’s Office, and he mentioned how he would like to volunteer for a SAR team if there was one. Well as luck would have it, Iron County had a SAR team, and they were more than excited to get Brant onboard! And that’s where the story begins! Brant became a member in May 2006.
Brant Palmer
Brant recalls the very memorable experience he had within his first few years on the team that is cemented in his memory and reaffirmed for him why he wants to be a part of this team. There was a SAR dispatch around midnight-1230am for 2 adult males and 2 children in Hidden Haven. The father, his two kids and a family friend had gone on a hike but had become ledged out. They didn’t have any coats, flashlights or other gear to self-rescue. The team responded and one of the members scaled the rock face and then repelled down to reach the family. The 5-year-old boy was very nervous about being put in harness and hoisted to safety. The SAR team member got him secured and began to hoist him up and then told him he was like Spider-Man. Brant recalls seeing the boy’s face light up and his fear diminished. He became excited swinging in the hoist that he was like Spider-Man and proudly began telling everyone. They got the girl bundled up in their coats and got everyone back home safe that night.
As Brant celebrates 17 years with the Unit, he reflected on the good times and the challenging times. The SAR team has always been active in the community, even to this day, members of the team help to park cars at the County fairgrounds. Brant remembers the good ole days when the volunteers would park cars, which isn’t the best gig, but at the end of the night, they’d all meet at one of their vehicles for a little tailgating. And then you have the moments as a SAR volunteer when you need to prepare yourself for possible worst-case scenarios. There was one winter he recalled one of those events. A husband and wife from Nevada owned a cabin in Hamlin Valley. The husband had come up to check on the cabin and should have returned home to Nevada within a couple days. When the husband didn’t return, the wife called the County to report him missing. The ICSSAR team was dispatched to the location of the cabin to see if they could locate him. The team took their snowmobiles out and came upon his truck buried in the snow. As Brant began to approach the truck, he had to take a deep breath to prepare himself in the event he found the man deceased. Much to his relief, the truck was empty. He looked down and noticed divots in the snow that indicated the man had possibly continued the trek to his cabin by foot. It had snowed recently so there weren’t official footprints, only divots. Brant and the team followed the divots leading them to the cabin. When they got there, they found the man in good condition, eating a can of beans. The man said, “I was wondering when you’d get here”.
And then there are searches that end with tragic news for family and friends. Brant shared his experience on the search for 16-year-old Chris Cowans. Chris had gone missing leaving little evidence or clues for investigators to start their search with. The ICSSAR team was activated to assist with the search. They covered a lot of ground searching a lot of the off roading trails they knew he liked to take his jeep on. He was eventually located off the C road. It appears he may have lost control and went off the side of the cliff.
I asked Brant, after all these years, how does he keep himself motivated to get up in the middle of night for calls, when it’s cold and wet or when he misses time with his family? He replied without hesitation that when the SAR activation has to do with a child, there is never a hesitation to go. He always thinks, “what if it were my child”. When it’s an adult and perhaps they were doing something silly, it’s still tough knowing you’ll be tired for work the next day, but someone still needs our help, so we go.
When I asked Brant to tell me about his walking stick that he uses for man-tracking, he chuckled and said, one day I might upgrade to a nicer version that collapses. Brant has your classic home-made man-tracking stick. He connected a 3-foot ruler to help with measuring the stride of the footprints and through random trial and error he perfected the lighting of the stick. Most folks by default will use LED lights but they can make seeing footprints in the dark nearly impossible. He tried incandescent lights and has never gone back to LED. I remember my first night man-tracking training. I was fortunate to be on Brant’s team and saw firsthand the game changer of those lights. He also has them different colors to help depending on varying weather and soil because different colors work better in different settings.
A lot has changed the past 17 years, but one of the big changes Brant is happy to see is with the specialized teams. We’ve stood up a Ropes Team, Snowmobile Team, K9 Team and Drone Team to name a few. It’s important to utilize the skills of our members and allow them to support in areas they are good at, Brant said.
Throughout these years, Brant has held every Officer seat, leading up to and including the position of Commander. Brant remains a highly active full-time member of the Unit.
Please join us in thanking Brant for his 17+ years of Service to Iron County and for sharing his stories with us.
Photo: Brant with his Man Tracking Stick
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