By Brenda Sexton, The Courier-Herald
Don Maks and Denny Coughlin are joining thousands of other volunteers to methodically search Texas inch by inch and foot by foot, looking for materials from the fallen Columbia Space Shuttle.
The Plateau men are part of The Pacific Northwest National Incident Management Team 2 from Oregon, Washington and northern California. Maks and Coughlin are on loan from the U.S. Forest Service's Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie Enumclaw office for an approximate four-week period. Maks is a permanent team member, working a three-year shift, while Coughlin is a "stringer," going when needed.
According to information specialist Mike Heilman, the two are part of a Type 1 team, one of 16 nationwide. Typically they are part of an elite fire management team, but due to the infrastructure of organizing fire camps and other on-the-spot outposts, the teams are used for nationwide emergencies. A similar team from the area was used after the World Trade Center 9-11 tragedy in New York. The teams are not necessarily there to search, but more likely to organize.
On this mission, it's a little of both.
"I've known most of these guys for a number of years and they're professionals," Heilman said. He said Forest Service teams are trained and conditioned with a "can do" attitude. They are also prepared for working outdoors in adverse conditions, can read maps and have survival skills.
More than 1,408 personnel are at the Corsicana command post with Coughlin and Maks, including 32 Forest Service crews, 10 groups from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, four teams from the Bureau of Land Management and four state crews. All are working side-by-side with the Environmental Protection Agency and NASA.
"They are part of the NASA team helping to put together the puzzle," Heilman said.
Groups are divided into 50, 20-person search crews which recovered more than 3,400 pieces of shuttle material east of Corsicana during eight days of searching. The statistics change daily.
Corsicana search crews will scour more than 100,000 acres for material, breaking it down into four-square-mile grids while systematically working their way through the Texas countryside. Land that covers a varied terrain - pasture, forest and bogs.
Heilman said crews are finding between 200 to 300 pieces a day varying in size from a silver dollar to large pieces.
Making those discoveries is a mixed bag of emotions.
"You're happy to find things, but then the reality of why that thing is there sets in," Coughlin said from Texas during a phone interview.
"Crews come from all over the country," Coughlin said. Indeed, crews are there representing at least 38 states. "It's great to work with them, I haven't heard any complaining."
There's plenty they could complain about - 12- to 14-hour days and temperamental weather from unheard of record-setting snows to heat in the 80s.
Brenda Sexton can be reached at bsexton@courierherald.com
