Remembering Bob Geerts:
All of us here at SoCal K-9 Search & Rescue were very saddened to recently find out that our good friend and volunteer, Bob Geerts, had passed away. He is greatly missed and will never be forgotten, not only by our K-9 Unit but by all those that Bob helped over the years.
We first met Bob when we were living and training in the Eastern Sierra Mountains in Mono, Inyo and surrounding counties. Bob cheerfully and wholeheartedly volunteered to help us and the community we served with emergency calls for roadside assistance and administering first aid on both people and animals. He was a K-9 handler for area search, obedience training, emergency wilderness tracking and trailing. He used his diesel mechanic skills to help work on and maintain our mobile command center, a 2001 E 350 diesel. He was a coordinator for dog training in national parks and forest service. He coordinated and worked with local pet stores to support the unit. He made himself available 24/7 for any needs the K-9 unit had. Bob not only made himself available but his limited funds as well. He would use his own hard earned money to help with dog food, training expenses, vet bills and first aid equipment to name a few. I think it’s worth mentioning that none of these things was Bob asked to do or contribute to. When Bob saw a need, he took the initiative to fill it without being asked.
Bob not only fit in seamlessly because of his consistency, kindness and generosity, his vast and eclectic life experience proved immensely valuable to the K-9 Unit. Bob started in his youth enlisting into the marine corps and heading directly to Vietnam. He would rise to the ranks of sergeant in the two tours that he gave our country. After his career in the marine corps, Bob joined the US Airforce where he was stationed in the Aleutian islands in Alaska. All this experience in our US military gave him vast experience in first aid training which comes in very handy when helping those in trouble through the K-9 Unit. Bob had a wide range of emergency/disaster skills ranging from aiding a team member with a broken arm to handling bullet wounds on site to even delivering a baby to name just a few. Bob spent 33 years working in Alaska and in that time received an outdoor education for 2 years before heading up a climbing expedition on the 6th highest mountain in the US and the third highest volcano, Mount Sanford, at a whopping 16,237 feet.
At around this point in Bob’s life, he got to put his love and compassion for dogs to use by becoming a handler for over 100 competitive dogs that ran the annual 1100 mile iditarod trail sled dog race and also the world’s toughest international dog race, the Yukon Quest sled dog races. After volunteering to handle, train, exercise, feed and assist the mushers and their racing dogs for a little over 6 years, Bob relocated to the lower 48 where he spent his first 4 years volunteering with the fishing and wildlife organization in California as well as the high Sierra trail crew.
These are just a few highlights of Bob’s amazing life before he found us in a parking lot of the Mammoth Post Office. It didn’t take long within our first conversation to see his sincere love for dogs. That combined with his vast knowledge in dog handling and outdoor education seemed like it would be a great asset to our search and rescue team. After a couple more meetings with Bob over some fresh summer fruit at Grant Lake, we made it official and invited Bob to become a volunteer with us. He instantly said yes and so began our journey with Bob Geerts.
We would have many amazing adventures with Bob over the next couple of years as we all traveled the SouthWest of this beautiful country serving the communities we stayed in by finding the lost and helping those in trouble.