Floods, bombings and disasters call her K9s
Wilma Melville and Murphy, her black lab, had time after Wilma’s retirement in 1988 to train together as a team and become one of only 15 Advanced Certified disaster search dog/handler teams in the United States. She never imagined that on April 19, 1995 she and Murphy would be deployed to the Oklahoma City bombing site to search for people buried alive in the rubble. What stuck in Wilma’s mind was the lack of highly trained dog teams. There are now over 250.
Once standing on the edge of the realization that she could make a giant-sized contribution, Wilma and her dog trainer had the idea of rescuing shelter dogs to use for search dogs. They defined characteristics that included high energy, something people do not usually want in their pets but are necessary to make them excellent search dogs. They also decided that firefighters would make the best handlers, as they are already highly trained first responders. With donations and grants, this could be done at no cost to their departments, budgets or taxpayers.
Wilma never looked back. Her bold thinking was that since she had worked as a Physical Education teacher, training many to do a variety of physical skills, surely she could write a curriculum and train firefighters to become Canine Search Specialists. With a couple of smaller deployments behind her and the Oklahoma City bombings current in her memory, she moved into the unknown world of creating the non-profit National Disaster Search Dog Foundation.
Over the years the foundation has grown to over 75 active handlers training approximately 145 teams of dog and handlers throughout the US and Mexico, all ready for deployment at any given time. These teams have been deployed to the Hurricane Katrina devastation in New Orleans, the destruction of the World Trade Center, Haiti, a major tsunami in Japan, a large earthquake in Nepal and many disasters in between—always with one goal in mind, saving lives.
A pilot and member of the Ventura County Chapter Ninety-Nines, 82-years-young Wilma lives on Santa Paula Airport in her hangar with her own dogs and an RV7 emblazoned with a large painted paw print on the tail. On July 9, 2016 at the Ninety-Nines annual meeting, this year in Ottawa, Canada, Wilma will be honored with the organization’s Award of Achievement for Humanitarian Efforts. For devoting the past 20 years of her life to building the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation, we believe Wilma embodies the true meaning of a world humanitarian.
The Ninety-Nines, Inc. is the International Organization of Women Pilots a non-profit organization founded in 1929 by Amelia Earhart and 98 other women pilots. Currently spanning the globe with some 5000 active female pilot members, its goals are to advance aviation through scholarships, education and mutual support while honoring the unique history of women in aviation. The organization owns and operates two museums; the Museum of Women Pilots at its Oklahoma City headquarters and the Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum in Atchison, Kansas. www.ninety-nines.org.
The Ventura County Chapter of The Ninety-Nines, one of 144 chapters, has over 100 members and boasts the current International President, Martha Phillips. www.vc99s.com and www.facebook.com/venturacounty99s for more information.