Camper Adeline Denton perched with her rifle on top of a Humvee.

By Blair Baumgartner
InkFreeNews

SYRACUSE — Camp H.E.R.O. day three was every bit as fun as the first two days. Officers with the Warsaw Police Department, Warsaw Fire Department, Warsaw Dive Team Search & Rescue and Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department showed campers how they do dive team search and rescue, water safety, firearms safety, breaching a structure and suspect apprehension.

“We do water safety talks and let the kids know not to go into the water to rescue someone, but rather reach with an object or rope — don’t go in, but call for an adult and dial 911,” said Warsaw Dive Team Search & Rescue Commander RJ Nethaway.

“We work together with the Warsaw Fire Department, Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department and Indiana State Police DNR dive team,” he said.

“We actually used to call our water safety course ‘Reach, Throw, and Go,’ but it confused the kids because we do not want them going out into the water to try and rescue someone themselves, so we renamed it ‘Reach, Throw, Don’t Go.’ It’s a water safety program we took from the American Red Cross,” he said.

“We had a bus we restored into a dive bus. We actually asked the Warsaw High School welding class to help us with the tank holders. We also have an underwater remote controlled drone, medal detector and magnet to help us with our rescues,” he said.

“Divers usually need to clear their ears before going under water and they stay under water for a maximum of 10-15 minutes, though it is possible for them to stay under for as long as 30 minutes,” said Warsaw Police Department Corporal and dive team member Curtis Tug.

“The Warsaw Dive Team Search & Rescue unit, made up of Warsaw police and firefighters, has 20 divers. We are on call 24/7, so having 20 divers helps us cover our shift. We work hand-in-hand with the divers from the Kosciusko Sheriff’s Department and Indiana State Police DNR,” said Nethaway.

“We practice how to breach a door. We use a ram and Halligan tool to beat down and/or pry open the door,” said Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department Detective Sergeant James Marshall. “It’s been a great week exposing the kids to emergency services and helping to dispose the myths, while helping to teach them how to stay safe. We have had great demonstrations from different department teams. It’s been great fun. You should have been here yesterday for the water balloon fight,” he said.

“We teach the kids basic firearms training and give them different safety tips. Some kids are not comfortable with it and that’s alright. They don’t have to participate and that’s totally all right,” said SWAT team leader Steve Rulli.