"This earthquake exposed the inadequacy of Taiwan's rescue equipment," said Vice President Wang Tuan-cheng of the Tzu Chi Foundation. "With better equipment, we could have saved more lives."

After careful evaluation, Tzu Chi decided to donate more advanced rescue equipment to the Search and Rescue Association (SAR) of the Republic of China. This was the first time in the foundation's history that it had made this kind of donation.

Two rescue cars, video camera probes, monitors, a thermal imager, saws, hydraulic cutters, rams, line thrower guns, sterling rope... Numerous meetings were held to decide how many and what kind of tools to buy in order to fully utilize the NT$20 million [US$625,000] donation.

"We will make the best use of these rescue tools if necessary, but I hope we never need to use any of them," said Lu Cheng-tsung, chief commander of the SAR.

Supermen

A series of rigorous training programs must be passed before one can qualify as a member of the SAR. Those who register for the training have to pay all expenses themselves. The basic training is harder than a military boot camp. When the training is finished candidates always have bruises, if not broken noses. But the association always attracts more applicants than needed.

After the training, each member pays a yearly membership fee of NT$2,000 [US$62]. Whenever there is an emergency, a member must drop his work or leave his family. He might have to go up to the mountains or down to the sea; he might have to dig through rubble or carry a corpse on his back. Most people go indoors when a typhoon is blowing or when it is pouring, but rescue members rush out instead to rescue total strangers.

Several maxims circulate among them: "Your body must be toughened, your abilities must be challenged, your spirit must be sharpened, and your character must be tortured, devastated and humiliated."

Are they nuts? Are they morons? Are they drugged or out of their minds?

The members of the SAR come from every walk of life. On normal days they are ordinary citizens doing their daily jobs, but once there is an emergency they instantly become supermen and rush to the disaster area to rescue victims.

Eighteen-year history

The Search and Rescue Association of the Republic of China was founded by chief commander Lu Cheng-tsung.

Lu served in the army as a lecturer in the Kukuan Mountain Training Center and the Hohuan Mountain Winter Training Center, where servicemen with special missions are trained. Lu had to be tough to be a coach there. But this "Rambo" is a slender gentleman, not in any sense like a man with special military skills.

While still in the army, Lu often went hiking in the mountains. After his retirement, he organized the Blue Creek Hiking Association with thirteen other retired servicemen. Their goal was to climb a hundred mountains in Taiwan.

On one of their mountain trips, they heard that an accident had just happened nearby. They immediately joined the rescue team and found a couple who had lost their way on Tahsueh Mountain. "This rescue action inspired our wish to help," said Lu.

In addition to Lu's mountain skills, the thirteen other members were specialized in medicine, explosives, electronic communications and scuba diving. They were a super team capable of special missions. As soon as an emergency occurred, they could rescue victims from death in extremely hazardous situations.

In 1981, the Blue Creek Hiking Association was renamed the Mountain Accidents Rescue Association of the Republic of China (MARA). The association was thus transformed from a recreational club to the first private rescue organization in Taiwan.

Since then, they have gone to accidents on mountains, rivers and the sea, to disasters caused by typhoons, landslides and earthquakes, and to shipwrecks and airplane crashes. MARA eventually became the Search and Rescue Association of the Republic of China. One step after another, the SAR has been through every kind of disaster during the past eighteen years.

Women can, too

Although rescue work is hard, Lu has never been alone during these eighteen years. There are now more than three thousand active members. Some of them learned about the organization from their friends, some read about it in the newspaper, and some are relatives of victims.

Li Chun-ta from Taipei said frankly that he first joined the organization ten years ago in order to "play with the wireless phone." But once he had fully entered the association, he took a good look at his motivation and decided to take the rescue work seriously.

Even on his honeymoon, when he was called out on a rescue mission, he left his bride for several days without any phone calls. She was terribly worried and almost divorced him.

In order to be able to carry out his missions at any time, Li quit his job as a mold designer and now owns his own trucking company. When the great earthquake hit Taiwan in September 1999, he was still delivering goods for a customer. "I'll get someone else to do it for you," his wife told him. "Go report to the association immediately!"

After Fan Chih-chi from Miaoli joined the SAR, he brought his wife's brother in too. Later his wife, Tu Jui-chiao, also joined. Last year, she sent their oldest son, Fan Wei-ping, who had just turned seventeen, to the association for training.

To assist in providing training for the SAR, Jui-chiao closed her small hardware store. She has been a volunteer for five years and is now the captain of Miaoli Squad 31. Her husband, brother and son all have to obey her orders!

The SAR currently has divisions and subdivisions throughout Taiwan. There are more than seventy squads and emergency radio stations. It is the largest private rescue organization in Taiwan.

Purely volunteer

It takes a strong body, patience and stamina to be a rescuer. Four programs of basic training for new members are held in Changchenghsi, Sanhsia Township, including skills in rock climbing, rappelling, CPR, satellite navigation, wilderness survival, etc. There are also four regular advanced training programs and irregular in-job training, as well as specialized training for veteran members in such areas as diving, rowing and retrieving corpses from water.

More importantly, members have to know that since they volunteer to help, they must bear their own expenses. They cannot accept any money even if families of victims sincerely want to reward them.

Although the SAR is only a private organization, their discipline is stricter than that in the army. Good performances are awarded with citations or merits. Three merits can win a medal.

"The most serious punishment is dismissal," said a member. "It is such a humiliation for a volunteer to be dismissed that no one dares to commit any violations."

"Our traditional codes are trust and honor," said Lu Cheng-tsung. "Our purpose is very simple: to save lives. If the family of a victim wants to give us a red envelope of money [a traditional gesture of gratitude], we only take the envelope and return the money. The envelope is then torn apart and given to each member as a souvenir or a lucky charm. Actually I think even the red envelope is unnecessary. Two years ago, taking the envelope was not allowed."

In 1994, thirteen students and teachers from Kaohsiung Medical College went to pick herbs in the mountains and lost their way. SAR members found and saved all of them. The college intended to donate NT$100,000 [US$3,200] to them, but they donated four satellite GPS units instead in order to respect the tradition of the association. "We hope that advanced equipment can save more people."

Human lives are too precious to be priced. The SAR's "family tradition" on not accepting any payments has built a good public image.

Red uniforms

In the beginning the SRA uniforms were sky blue, like those worn in the air force. After one rescue in Ilan, SAR members were caught in a sudden shower which left them soaked. Policemen there found some used uniforms for them to change into. "After that the Department of Police Administration gave us a lot of used police uniforms," laughed Lu, "so many people thought we were a government organization."

Around 1996 the SAR designed new red uniforms and replaced the old ones year by year. "Because the members have to pay for their own uniforms, we cannot force them," said Lu. "We didn't even have any helmets until three years ago, when Tzu Chi gave us a hundred of them."

Rescue work is a life-and-death job, but they are covered for only NT$500,000 [US$15,700] by group insurance from the Shin-kong Insurance Company. The insurance premium is covered by membership fees. "No company will sell us insurance, because this job is too risky."

Once a member was hurt and had to receive more than a hundred stitches. When he asked if he would receive any insurance payments, Lu told him: "Congratulations, the answer is no, because you were hurt but not disabled."

The basic principle of "help yourself before you help others" plus solid professional training have given the association an excellent safety record. During the eighteen years of the association's history, except for an accident during an exercise in which female lecturer Li Yu-shou lost her life, nobody has died from saving people's lives, so no one has ever applied for insurance compensation.

Addicted to saving lives

Rescues are often carried out in bad weather or in thick forests. Their rule is to "find the person if alive or the corpse if dead." If the victim is alive, rescuers happily escort the survivor down. If the victim died from low temperatures or from falling down a cliff, even if the body has already begun to decay or is full of bugs, the rescuers have to make it neat and wrap it with a blanket or sleeping bag. They then carry the body down to the police or the bereaved family.

Lu remembered that their first water accident occurred in Fuhsing County. SAR members went as soon as they were called. Four members of a family had capsized their boat and fallen into the river. A professional corpse-fisher told the surviving ten-year-old boy and his uncle that he would retrieve the bodies for NT$100,000 [US$3,200] each!

Lu really felt for them and asked his members to search with all their might. They found three bodies, while that of a little girl was still missing. They searched downriver, and on the eighth day they found the body in the Amu River near Shimen Reservoir.

"Some of the members took time off from their jobs for eight straight days to look for that body," sighed Lu. "During all these years, some members were dismissed by their bosses because they took too much leave."

"One can get addicted to saving lives," said Kao Wen-hsiang, the Hsichih Squad captain. Kao used to be an electrician. His boss supported his wish to be a rescuer: "Go ahead when you are called, your salary will be the same." After this had happened many times, Kao was embarrassed and insisted on quitting the job. He then became a taxi driver.

"In one incident, a group of kindergarten children were on an outing at a beach in Keelung. A huge rock unexpectedly rolled down a hill, and some were killed, some injured..." After the injured were sent to the hospital, Kao and his partners picked up livers, intestines and other internal organs of the dead from the ground with chopsticks and put them into plastic bags. When they finished their job, the wife of the squad captain fixed a meal for them. "There was a dish of fried pork intestines on the table. Nobody touched it. The memories were too terrible!"

More than ten years have passed, and Kao is still a self-employed taxi driver. The rescue work is his chosen profession, a path of no return. "It's not that we're great-we just enjoy poking our noses around."

Real men cry too

With so many years of experience in rescue work and having witnessed so much misery, does Lu become emotionally involved? How does he adjust?

Lu admitted he would be heartless and cold if he were not at all touched by it, but on the other hand he would not be "professional" enough if he were moved by everything he sees. As a leader, Lu has to keep calm, because frequently he has to make correct decisions within seconds. But there were many times when he too could not keep from shedding tears.

In 1994, a young man was missing in the Wulai mountains. The SAR sent more than eighty members to join police and firefighters in search of him. When he was found, he had been dead for a long time. He had fallen from a cliff down into a pool of water, with a large rock on his back.

When the mother of the young man saw him, she howled with grief. Lu counseled her: "If you continue to cry your son in the next world will be beaten, because others there will think he failed to fulfill his filial duty by hurting you so much." The old lady stopped crying, but she fell backward and fainted. "The saddest thing in life is when old parents have to say goodbye to their young children. To cherish your life and watch your health is the best way to fulfill your filial duty."

The most unforgettable experience came in 1989, when a China Airlines passenger jet crashed into Chialiwan Mountain in Hualien. More than a hundred rescue team members were called to the disaster area. The airplane had exploded into the mountain, and bodies were scattered all over the area. Some were hanging from trees.

Rescuers spent several days searching for and transporting bodies. Then the corpses started to rot. "We couldn't complain about the weight, the filth, or above all about the smell. We had to treat the dead as if they were our own family." Team members carried bodies down with their backs drenched with blood and fluid. Nevertheless, nobody so much as frowned at this.

"After that," Lu remembered, "each of us contracted a skin disease, what we call the 'corpse toxin.' The skin was extremely itchy but painful when you scratched it. No medical treatment could cure it. After three months it cured itself."

Despite this, nobody complained or flinched. Instead, they realized on a higher level the value of life. They still rush to help whenever the need arises.

Worried about safety

When team members are on duty, Lu worries about their safety. "When they dive to search underwater, they might drift away. If they ascend too fast afterwards, the body can't adjust to the pressure-the lungs could burst and the eyeballs might pop out. Wouldn't you worry about them if they were carrying out a helicopter rescue on a mountain at three thousand meters [9,900 ft]? What if they run out of food? What if the weather turns bad?"

When the members are out rescuing, Lu always stays up and keeps in contact with them to direct their actions. He doesn't rest until the mission is finished and everyone returns safely.

In 1997, the Lincoln Mansion apartment complex in Hsichih, a suburb of Taipei, collapsed during a typhoon, killing twenty-nine people. More than a hundred rescuers went to help victims.

The area was flooded. They entered by boat, and after a briefing each team member was assigned his task. They stooped to get into the tilted building to look for possible survivors. The ground was still sliding, and the building might collapse further at any moment. They put an empty plastic bottle on a beam. If the bottle moved, the monitor would alert all members to back out immediately.

As commander, Lu was on the scene for three days checking the situation and looking after the safety of the rescuers. He did not sleep at all during that time, and he ate every meal there. "If all the children are inside and exposed to danger, how can a mother stay outside?" There is a close intimacy among the members which has developed after many years of going through fire and water together.

"The only accident, and our greatest regret, happened in 1996..." A female lecturer from Nantou, Li Yu-shou, fell while practicing high-altitude rappelling because of unfastened ropes. Before she died, she told her daughter, "It was my own fault-no one is to blame."

Lu could hardly accept that. He felt dazed and had to adjust for quite a long time before he could cope with his grief and face the real world again. The association commissioned a bronze statue of "Grandma Lecturer" in her memory. With her long hair and kindly smile, the loving "Grandma Lecturer" always lives in their hearts.

The painful quake

The earthquake of September 21, 1999, was the most terrible disaster the association had ever encountered, and a lasting pain that Lu still has not been able to get over.

The day after it struck, Lu stayed in the information center to give directions. On the second day, he couldn't take it anymore, and he took a relief car southward to "tramp" for fifteen days. "I was like a tramp because I didn't know where my next meal would come from or where I would sleep that night. I took a shower only once during those fifteen days."

Association members who lived in Taichung and Nantou were all safe, even though some lost their houses. When they left home to rescue others, their families could not help complaining: "Now that we've lost our house, we need to get help ourselves, so why are you still going out?"

But some members had the support of their families: "We're able to help others because we're still alive!"

Tseng Chiu-ping from Kaohsiung arrived at Taichung the first day after the quake. She took a helicopter from Chinchuankang airport to Puli to engage in relief work. That night her only son had a car accident in Kaohsiung and lay close to death in a hospital.

She learned about it the next day, but she still kept on working to rescue quake victims. After being urged by her family and other relatives, she hurried home that night. The physician told her that even if her son could be saved, he would be a vegetable for the rest of his life.

The whole family started to eat only vegetarian meals [a traditional Chinese method of cultivating merits for someone who is ill or in trouble] and pray for blessings for the child. She also swore that whether her son recovered or not, she would continue to save lives.

"The boy went through twelve operations and stayed in the intensive care unit for four months," said Chiu-ping, who runs a used furniture and household appliances store. "Now he's awake and is doing rehabilitation exercises."

"Life is priceless," said Lu. "In the nearly twenty years of my rescue career, the gravest disaster was the big quake of last year. The disaster area was so huge, the casualties were so heavy. We seemed so weak and inadequate even though we made more than 10,000 trips to help.

International rescue work

Year after year, Lu has faced disaster and death. He has witnessed the transience of life and cultivated a respect for life.

In the last eighteen years, the association has rescued victims in more than a thousand incidents. Their famous lecturers have been invited by private organizations on countless occasions. They hold training programs even for military and police agencies.

Six years ago, the SAR started to interact with international rescue organizations. The Canadian federal government even invited Lu to be their national advisor.

In 1996, the SAR and the American Rescue Team in San Francisco signed a joint announcement which professed that rescue actions are based on human rights and should be carried out internationally without being restricted for political or racial reasons.

In the age of a "global village" where communication is so convenient, people are related to each other no matter how far away they are geographically separated. After the earthquake last year, the warm efforts of international rescue teams were appreciated and imprinted in the hearts of the local people. The SAR affirmed that if time and chance allow, they will also participate in international rescue operations.

After the quake, the "Angels in Red" from the SAR were as eye-catching as the "Angels in Blue" from the Tzu Chi Foundation. "We are grateful for the encouragement and donations that Tzu Chi gave us," said Lu.

"Of course, even if we have the best equipment, we hope we'll never have to use any of it," said Chen Hsin-hung, newly elected captain of the international division.

The SAR has already met Tzu Chi. There is the same love of the bodhisattvas and the same belief in human brotherhood. We look forward to future cooperation in international rescue work.