The search-and-rescue scenario that played out in the King’s Fork area on Feb. 24 had a tragic ending, but it least it was all made up.

Multiple first-responding agencies, search-and-rescue specialty groups and search dog groups converged on King’s Fork High School that day to search for three people. The scenario was created especially for the occasion. A man who suffers from Alzheimer’s had gone missing. His daughter and son-in-law had gone out looking for him and gotten lost themselves.

Clues came in from all over, and about 80 to 100 humans as well as teams of dogs went searching. They eventually found the man and woman, volunteer actors, as well as the older gentleman, a mannequin that had been made to look like a suicide victim to teach the search teams about preserving evidence.

As teams gathered slowly, checked in, organized themselves, got assigned a task, followed up on clues and went searching, all just as they would have in a real search for a missing person, evaluators were watching every move in order to let the teams know what they did well and what they need to work on in the future.

Thanks to training and evaluation exercises like this one, multiple agencies from throughout the region won’t need to spend time during a real search making connections, solving miscommunications and troubleshooting the problems, technical and otherwise, that inevitably come with so many people working together who don’t ordinarily work together. They also will know what they need to improve for the next training they do.

The hope is that the process will be perfected by the time it’s really needed and, in the case somebody does go missing, they will be found quickly using the multiple regional resources at everyone’s disposal.

We thank Suffolk Fire & Rescue Lt. Mason Copeland for coordinating this effort, as well as the agencies that participated, which included Tidewater Search and Rescue, Piedmont Search and Rescue, Gates County Search and Rescue, TriSar, Civil Air Patrol, K9 Alert, Greater Atlantic Rescue Dogs and Dogs East.

And, while we truly hope their services are never needed for real, we rest easily knowing that they have trained well.