Hey Crab
Couldn't agree more. I've been striving to emphasise at every opportunity that there can be very few teams as tightly knit and as mutually respectful as a SAR crew.
Ref length (but you know what they say about length!) it was an all-too-brief 4 years from '76 to '80. Brief but intense ... probably the most satisfying job an aviator can do.
I'd be interested in your input to the question I was asked yesterday; What have been the most significant changes between then and now? Apart from the obvious civilian handover I named GPS and colour IR. Got any good additions to that?