Doh! There you go again Crab - talking about something you have absolutely no experience with, whatsoever.
I have flown with police officers who are now full time navigators - they read maps very very accurately, they tactically plot numerous moving targets, they initiate various search plans, they co-ordinate up to 4 radios at once, they co-ordinate troop movements on the ground, etc etc. They do all this at a cruise speed of 135+ knots too! Not the dawdling 80-90 kts of the SeaQueen.
I have flown with paramedics who have subsequently transferred their skills across to being police observers, who QED have shown that they in turn are very capable navigators.
No disrespect guys - but being able to operate and/or swing from a winch is no great feat by comparison. These days there isn't even any further need for them being qualified divers as they don't leave the winch behind!
So perleeeeze don't ever suggest paramedics can't do the work of current Mil SAR winchmen, or for that matter rad ops
Considering a significant number of rescues are onshore, who would you prefer to be tending to your needs if you were a casualty - a winchman trained to be a paramedic or a paramedic trained to be a winchman?
The bottom line is you can train most people to be most things....and this is most certainly one of them
