Searching for Purpose
and Rescuing Lost Skills
I recently signed up to volunteer with Antigua & Barbuda Search And Rescue. Having lived in Antigua for five years, I was already well aware of ABSAR’s great reputation and track record of saving lives and supporting government emergency services – especially at sea and in the yachting world. Not being a boatie person, I never thought I had a lot to offer as a responder. The most I’d contributed was raising a few thousand dollars in funds through a Calendar Girls style calendar, Antigua Bares All, which I produced back in 2022 with local photographer Axelle de Freitas.
That was until late last year when a local hiker strayed off a trail near Boggy Peak, the island’s tallest mountain. Thankfully, having alerted friends before his phone battery ran out, he haphazardly found his own way back to his car as darkness fell; otherwise, lost and without supplies, he’d have spent a very uncomfortable night out in the bush. One of ABSAR’s directors, who was consulted about organising the search party, has overseas experience in land search and rescue as well as marine. He decided to take this opportunity to pursue a long-held ambition of launching a wilderness SAR team, starting by organising a training session for thirty or so local hikers. I was one of them.
After that session, which spontaneously I was asked to help run due to my past experience in military operations, I was invited to support ABSAR with establishing a Wilderness Search and Rescue Auxiliary. Since leaving the British Army back in 2014, I’ve struggled at times with the loss of identity, purpose and camaraderie that are fundamental to military life. Being invited to contribute some of my underutilised skills and experience to a worthy cause felt like a great privilege, so I immediately accepted.
Over the past few months, we’ve so far held three training sessions for volunteers from local outdoors communities; as well as trained ABSAR medics and marine responders. Initially I shadowed the director, learning from his extensive experience as a responder, and I’ve since begun to design and lead training sessions myself. I’ve also undertaken training in first aid, firefighting and other aspects of ABSAR’s work.
Last weekend, on a Saturday evening, eight trainee responders turned out to conduct a night search scenario I’d concocted. I hid a volunteer and her trusty dog in thick bush far from the beaten track near Shirley Heights, a popular historical monument and hiking spot. I briefed the group that with no torch and a broken phone, a tourist had taken an unfamiliar route back to the beach after a sunset hike, panicked in falling light, followed an old dead-end trail and lost herself in the dark bush. In spite of low ambient light, steep and loose terrain, torrential rain and scant clues, the team worked together to systematically search the area and ultimately locate our ‘lost hiker’. I found the whole exercise deeply satisfying; it took me right back to my infantry officer days, crafting training scenarios, running exercises, and developing emerging leaders.
So why did I tell you this story? Obviously search and rescue isn’t my area of expertise, and my military career ended a decade ago. I currently make a living from mentoring founders and operators, consulting on operations, and a bit of investing on the side – whether or not that will ever be fruitful is another story altogether! The point is, this volunteering opportunity has given me a newfound sense of purpose. Without changing my career, location or anything else, I’ve found an outlet for skills, experiences and attributes that had faded and were arguably going to waste. The team is yet to deploy on a real search, but until then I’ll keep contributing to their training and development alongside my day job and other commitments.
If you find yourself in a similar position, not having the opportunity to use skills and experiences you value and finding that frustrating, I urge you to seek out a relevant opportunity. You may be surprised by what you find, and you never know where it may lead you. I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up, but I could conceivably end up doing something more active and closer to my past life than I’d have imagined.
I think it’s also worth saying, especially given the economic and geopolitical uncertainty of our world, that resilience is a vital attribute in life. Personally, this foray into search and rescue is encouraging me to keep fit through trail running and hiking with weight, refresh my first aid skills and learn more about emergency medicine, brush up on navigation, and develop survival skills that will serve me well in any emergency or disaster – natural, manmade, or brought about by the AI robot hordes. I jest, but I do genuinely think it’s useful to be able to rely on oneself for survival; not only to survive, but to thrive regardless of what’s going on in the world around you. It’s easy to become too immersed in our digitised world of convenience, and neglect the basic skills and knowledge that kept humankind alive through millennia of struggles. It pays to stay humble, learn from those around you, and treat every day as a school day!
As ever, if you could use some advice to find your purpose, don’t hesitate to reach out; and do consider joining the community and participating in our monthly calls.
My next article may well be about another of my ongoing or upcoming projects: training as a humanitarian responder with UK-based disaster response organisation REACT, who are lobbying hard to get into Myanmar and support those affected by the earthquake; building a bunker in the woods; and finally learning to play rock drums. I’ll keep focusing on purpose, while trying to remember to enjoy life’s simple pleasures.