Necessary Detachment
“Wow, I found a recipe book! It has a woman’s name on it. Her name is K….” “NO NO NO NO!!!” I yell from across the field. “DO. NOT. SAY. HER. NAME.” I yell to my teammate. As I look at the chaos around me, some recognizable, but most, not, I say to myself, I cannot know her name. I will never be able to finish this assignment if I know her name. “We had a small aircraft go down in the foothills. There were no survivors. NTSB and the Sheriff’s Office have been on scene, and some remains were recovered, but they’d like it if your dog teams could assist with recovering as much as possible from the site.” Wow. I was excited. My first plane crash! I never in a million years thought I’d ever get to work a plane crash! I gathered my gear, my dog Thumper, and headed out the door to the scene, an hour’s drive away. I felt my excitement grow as I got closer. I imagined the scene, much like many movies I had seen, in my head. I thought; “This will be awesome!”