The Real ResQ Podcast

In this episode of The Real ResQ Podcast, host Jason Quinn sits down with retired U.S. Navy Command Master Chief Keith “Flip” Griffin—a Navy Search and Rescue Medical Technician whose remarkable 23-year career took him from Puerto Rico and the mountains of Washington State to Iraq, Kuwait, Japan, Australia, and beyond.
Flip’s path into search and rescue began in an unexpected place: the United States Navy Ceremonial Guard in Washington, D.C. After an injury introduced him to the medical field, he became a Navy corpsman and eventually discovered the world of aviation search and rescue.
His early missions included responding to a military Humvee rollover involving multiple injured service members and rescuing a diver who had been stranded for more than 24 hours along the rocky coast of Puerto Rico. But when Flip transferred to NAS Whidbey Island, the job changed dramatically. Suddenly, he was operating in the mountains, responding to serious injuries in remote terrain, and learning to work alongside civilian ground-search teams.
Later, while deployed to Australia, Flip and his crew received the call every rescue team trains for: 39 people were aboard a boat taking on water in a crocodile-filled river, deep in the Australian outback. The crew launched into total darkness, flying under night-vision goggles while developing a plan to evacuate everyone from the sinking vessel.
They were less than a mile away when everything changed.
The rescue never happened—and that may have been the best possible outcome.
Flip also shares how Navy SAR corpsmen fought to grow their community, improve equipment and training, and prove their value across military aviation. He discusses teaching at Aviation Rescue Swimmer School, conducting medevac missions during overseas deployments, and eventually using his position in senior leadership to advocate for the next generation of rescuers.
Throughout the conversation, Flip offers lessons earned over decades of operational experience:
Respect the environment, because the water, mountains, and wilderness can kill as quickly as any weapon.
Test your equipment before the moment you need it.
Carry gear that can serve more than one purpose.
Understand that the helicopter may be the most important piece of medical equipment available.
Never assume different rescue organizations see the same problem from the same perspective.
Today, Flip continues serving others through Firehouse Freedom, where he helps fire departments strengthen leadership, accountability, communication, recruiting, retention, and life inside the firehouse. He is also a contributor to Firehouse Magazine and the co-owner of Backcountry Medical.
This episode is filled with incredible rescue stories, hard-earned leadership lessons, plenty of interservice humor, and one unforgettable training mistake that gave Flip his original call sign: “Tumo.”
And before the episode ends, Flip issues a challenge to every rescuer listening: open your gear bags, identify three things you may not actually need, and begin thinking differently about what you carry into the field.
Enjoy!
To connect with Flip Griffin:
Website: FirehouseFreedom.com
 Email: flip@firehousefreedom.com
 LinkedIn: Search for Keith “Flip” Griffin
 Firehouse Magazine: The Flip Side of the Firehouse
Thank you for sponsoring this episode of The Real ResQ: 
READYBAR https://getreadybar.com/. 
We also have some amazing companies supporting The Real ResQ. These brands offer you exclusive discounts when you use our code, and when you do, you’re helping to support the show. To check out the full list of these supportive brands and the deals they offer, head over to TheRealResQ.com.
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In this episode of The Real ResQ Podcast, returning guest Josie McKee shares her journey from once needing to be rescued herself to joining Yosemite Search and Rescue—and ultimately using that experience to help save the life of her climbing partner.
McKee’s first encounter with search and rescue came at 17, when she and a friend became lost after skiing out of bounds. With darkness approaching and heavy snow erasing their tracks, they dug a snow cave and waited until ski patrol found them around midnight.
Years later, McKee found herself on the other side of the rescue.
As a member of Yosemite Search and Rescue, she became part of a team responsible for incredibly complex operations on the towering cliffs above Yosemite Valley. She takes us inside rescues involving helicopter insertions, thousands of feet of rope, and teams suspended high on the face of El Capitan.
McKee also shares the night she went from rescuer to victim. While camping in Baja, Mexico, she awakened inside her truck to find a masked man demanding her keys. The violent carjacking left her with a broken clavicle, a stolen vehicle, and the realization that she had narrowly escaped being kidnapped.
The accumulated weight of rescues, recoveries, dangerous climbing incidents, and the attack in Baja eventually began affecting her sleep, climbing, and willingness to respond when her pager sounded. She was experiencing a significant stress injury—even though she did not yet have the words to describe it.
After stepping away from Yosemite Search and Rescue and working with a sports psychologist, McKee slowly found her way back to climbing.
Then, on October 11, 2017, everything changed.
McKee and accomplished climber Quinn Brett were attempting a one-day ascent of The Nose on El Capitan when Brett fell more than 100 feet. McKee watched her friend fall past her and come to rest critically injured and initially unresponsive.
Hundreds of feet above the ground, McKee had to control her emotions, carefully rig a rappel system, reach Brett, establish her airway, stop the bleeding, and coordinate a rescue—all while daylight faded and the afternoon winds continued to build.
What followed became a race against time and weather, with Brett’s life hanging in the balance.
McKee also reveals what happened after the helicopter departed and how the care provided by her former teammates helped her begin processing what she had just witnessed. She explains the principles of psychological first aid and why caring for a responder after a traumatic rescue can be just as important as caring for the patient.
Today, McKee has returned to search and rescue in Wyoming’s Wind River Mountains and helps rescuers and other high-risk professionals better understand stress injuries, resilience, and recovery.
This episode is about technical rescue, calculated risk, accumulated trauma, and the moment a climbing partner had to become the rescuer.
Enjoy!
Thank you for sponsoring this episode of The Real ResQ: 
READYBAR https://getreadybar.com/. 
We also have some amazing companies supporting The Real ResQ. These brands offer you exclusive discounts when you use our code, and when you do, you’re helping to support the show. To check out the full list of these supportive brands and the deals they offer, head over to TheRealResQ.com.
Follow The Real ResQ for all updates on Facebook, Instagram or visit TheRealResQ.com

In Episode 277 of The Real ResQ Podcast, host Jason Quinn speaks with David Cicotello, who shares an extraordinary story of survival, loss, faith, and recovery.
In March 2011, Cicotello and his older brother, Louis, entered the North Fork of No Man’s Canyon in Utah for what was supposed to be a six-hour canyoneering trip.
During their final rappel, Louis called out that the rope was short. Seconds later, the rope ripped through the rappel ring and disappeared over the edge.
Unable to reach his brother, descend the canyon, or climb back the way they had entered, Cicotello was trapped. With only the contents of a day pack, a small amount of food and water, and no way to call for help, he turned his attention to one goal: survive until rescuers could find him.
Cicotello takes us through the 144 hours he spent alone in the canyon—rationing supplies, enduring freezing nights, creating a HELP sign, and relying on routines, determination, and faith to keep going.
A map Cicotello left with his loved ones eventually led search-and-rescue teams to the brothers’ location. Utah DPS pilot Luke Bowman, Trooper Aaron Beasley, Commander Rustin Grundy, and members of Wayne County Search and Rescue reached Cicotello and pulled him from the canyon.
Cicotello also speaks openly about losing his brother and the difficult recovery that followed. As he explains, surviving the canyon was only the first stage. Learning to live with what happened required another community of people to help rescue him all over again.
This episode shares the survivor’s perspective of a rescue previously discussed by Luke Bowman in Episode 249—and serves as a powerful reminder to prepare carefully, leave a detailed route plan, and never underestimate the people who will come looking when you need them most.
Enjoy!
Thank you for sponsoring this episode of The Real ResQ: 
READYBAR https://getreadybar.com/. 
We also have some amazing companies supporting The Real ResQ. These brands offer you exclusive discounts when you use our code, and when you do, you’re helping to support the show. To check out the full list of these supportive brands and the deals they offer, head over to TheRealResQ.com.
Follow The Real ResQ for all updates on Facebook, Instagram or visit TheRealResQ.com

In this episode of The Real ResQ Podcast, host Jason Quinn sits down with Dr. Steve Glassey, a public safety “pracademic” and CEO of the International Public Safety Qualifications Authority (IPSQA).

Glassey’s nearly 30-year career has taken him through the Royal New Zealand Navy, emergency medical services, firefighting, urban search and rescue, swiftwater rescue, animal welfare, humanitarian disaster response, and academia. His work has brought him to major disasters around the world, including Typhoon Ketsana in Laos, the Samoan tsunami, the Christchurch earthquake, and the devastating Australian bushfires.

The conversation begins with Glassey’s early years in rescue and the creation of the Wellington SPCA Animal Rescue Unit—the first technical animal rescue team of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere. He recalls one of the team's earliest missions involving Ace, a German shepherd trapped on a cliff, an improvised harness, and a hard lesson in never taking an owner's word that their dog won't bite.

Glassey also shares the story of his first cardiac-arrest patient and explains how those early experiences shaped his approach to emergency response, leadership, and decision-making.

The conversation then moves into major disaster operations and lessons from the 2011 Christchurch earthquake. Glassey discusses the importance of clearly established command structures and introduces his ABCs of emergency response:

“Assume nothing. Believe no one. Confirm everything.”

Glassey and Quinn examine the dangers of swiftwater and flood rescue, including the frequency of vehicle-related flood deaths and the growing “glass coffin” problem created by laminated vehicle windows. Glassey explains why traditional window-breaking tools may no longer work on newer vehicles and why rescuers must begin adapting their tactics and equipment.

They also discuss the Swiftwater Recovery Specialist program developed by Glassey and New Zealand Police Senior Sergeant Jeff Bray. The program received a Higgins & Langley Memorial Award for its evidence-based and compassionate approach to recovering deceased victims from moving water. Glassey explains why a technically successful recovery can still become a failure when the dignity of the victim and the needs of the family are overlooked.

One of the episode’s most intense stories involves a horse trapped beneath a cliff along the rising Otaki River. The rescue required rope technicians, swiftwater personnel, veterinarians, and a helicopter crew to work together. Once the horse was sedated, the team had only seconds to connect the sling and lift it clear before its head disappeared beneath the rising water.

Glassey also recounts deploying with Animal Evac New Zealand during the catastrophic 2019–2020 Australian bushfires, where his team searched burned areas for surviving wildlife and relocated animals left without food or water.

The episode then turns to Glassey’s work as CEO of IPSQA. He explains how fraudulent, unverified, and poorly assessed qualifications can place rescuers, patients, and entire organizations at risk. IPSQA separates training from independent certification, creating a global assessment system intended to verify that public safety professionals can actually perform the skills listed on their credentials.

Finally, Glassey introduces a next-generation water rescue breathing apparatus developed for swiftwater rescuers, boat crews, tactical operators, and other water-rescue professionals. The system automatically transitions from ambient air to compressed air when submerged while also providing integrated team and patient communications. He believes the technology could eventually change water rescue in much the same way breathing apparatus changed structural firefighting.

The episode closes with a hilarious story involving highly trained U.S. Air Force Pararescuemen, a nighttime swiftwater exercise, and a completely fabricated warning about giant killer eels in New Zealand.

This episode delivers powerful rescue stories, hard-earned lessons, innovative ideas, and plenty of humor—all from a man working at the intersection of frontline experience, research, education, and public safety.

Enjoy!
Thank you for sponsoring this episode of The Real ResQ: 
READYBAR https://getreadybar.com/
IPSQA https://ipsqa.com/. (To learn more about IPSQA, visit IPSQA.com or connect with Dr. Steve Glassey on LinkedIn.)
We also have some amazing companies supporting The Real ResQ. These brands offer you exclusive discounts when you use our code, and when you do, you’re helping to support the show. To check out the full list of these supportive brands and the deals they offer, head over to TheRealResQ.com.
Follow The Real ResQ for all updates on Facebook, Instagram or visit TheRealResQ.com

In this episode of The Real ResQ Podcast, host Jason Quinn sits down with Canadian Armed Forces Search and Rescue Technicians Matthew Sebo and Connor Twomey.
Both Sebo and Twomey came to the SARTech community after already serving in the Canadian Armed Forces. Matt spent 11 years in the Armoured Corps—including a deployment alongside his brother—before deciding he wanted to move away from fighting and toward a career focused on helping people. Connor began as a reservist medic before discovering the SARTech trade and realizing it combined the medicine, challenge, and specialized rescue work he was looking for.
The centerpiece of the episode is a September 2025 plane crash in remote northern Manitoba. Five people were believed to be aboard, the crash site was deep in the wilderness, and reaching it by conventional means wasn't an option. Four SARTechs loaded their equipment aboard a Hercules and headed north.
Arriving in complete darkness, the team parachuted into a nearby lake carrying roughly 100 pounds of equipment in addition to their parachutes, then pushed through thick muskeg and boreal forest toward the burning wreckage.
When they reached the crash site, they discovered one survivor—a badly injured 20-year-old pilot. With hypothermia setting in, the SARTechs began advanced medical treatment while simultaneously developing a plan to get him out.
What follows is an extraordinary chain of rescue: treating the survivor in the wilderness, carrying him through difficult terrain, moving into deep water to reach a hovering helicopter, transferring him back to the Hercules, and ultimately getting him to definitive medical care.
Connor also shares another operational parachute rescue involving a helicopter crash in the Canadian wilderness—another mission where a pilot survived against incredible odds.
Throughout the episode, Sebo and Twomey talk about preparation, teamwork, lessons learned, the realities of operational parachuting, and what it means to be a SARTech when the only way to reach someone in trouble is to jump out of an airplane and go get them.
Enjoy!
Thank you for sponsoring this episode of The Real ResQ: 
Switlik https://switlik.com/
We also have some amazing companies supporting The Real ResQ. These brands offer you exclusive discounts when you use our code, and when you do, you’re helping to support the show. To check out the full list of these supportive brands and the deals they offer, head over to TheRealResQ.com.
Follow The Real ResQ for all updates on Facebook, Instagram or visit TheRealResQ.com