Organisation
Uniform Orders of Dress | Helmets and Ranks Insignia
Mission Statement
The mission statement of the Rescue Corps is:
“To provide a uniformed voluntary corps of organised and fully trained adults, able to carry out rescue operations and first aid efficiently whenever required”.
Hierarchy and Discipline
The Corps is based at Fort Madalena, a late nineteenth century British Fort loaned by the Government of Malta. The Corps is an organisation run on the lines of a Maltese paramilitary unit and is divided into a number of Divisions.
A certain amount of discipline is inevitable, but a strong spirit of comradeship and teamwork prevails amongst this group of men and women who share the same ideals of service towards mankind.
The Corps Commander is led by a commissioner.
Headquarters Unit
The Corps has a central Headquarters Unit, which is composed of Staff Officers who advise and assist the Corps Commander.
The Divisions
Apart from a central Head Quarters Unit, the Corps is composed of active and reserve volunteers who form part of a number of rescue divisions.
At present, the Corps is made up of four active divisions: the Alpha Division, the Bravo Division, the Charlie Division and Delta Division.
Each rescue division consists of a maximum of fifty-two members headed by a Divisional Superintendent, one or two Divisional Officers and a Staff Sergeant. A Division is composed of six Rescue Sections with eight volunteers in each section, led by a Sergeant and a Corporal as his Deputy.
Membership
There is no regular paid support for the Rescue Corps. It is entirely composed of highly dedicated, unpaid, part-time volunteers. The organisation is made up of regular volunteers and a few reservists. Officers, Non-commissioned Officers and volunteers all mess together and wear the same uniform apart from rank and insignia, in the tradition of a corps of gentlemen volunteers.
Rescue Vehicles and Equipment
The Rescue Corps is not funded or supported by any entity or organisation. Whilst it has managed to secure a number of donations over the years, it does not receive regular funds from any particular source.
The Corps is largely supported through the donations of its own volunteers, who apart from giving up a large number of hours in their own personal free time, contribute significantly towards the purchase of their own equipment, purchase their own rescue vehicles and fund the maintenance and running costs of the vehicles.
In addition, large amounts of personal and private funds are disbursed on overhead costs in order to sustain training and operations of the individual divisions.
Training
Divisions individually conduct intensive training sessions, both for new recruits and on a regular basis for the active volunteers.
Each recruit must be over eighteen years of age, physically fit for the rigours of rescue work and must undergo a program of basic training which includes basic first aid, light rescue and some foot drill, which is also part of the initial training. Cadet volunteers may join at the age of 16.
After this, a fully trained and certified Rescue Volunteer Class I is required to undertake a minimum of training every month. Many of the volunteers take further advanced courses during weekends in the more specialised and demanding fields of heavy rescue, cliff (high-angle) rescue, fire fighting, first aid and rescue diving.
The Corps also offers its volunteers other training options such as map reading, watermanship, climbing, abseiling and physical training, the aim being to inspire more confidence and to maintain physical fitness.
Most of the officers of the Corps as well as some of the senior leaders, qualified in Special Rescue Training at the Katastrophenschutzshule des Bundes – the Federal German Civil Defence Staff Training School in Ahrweiler, Germany.
The Rescue Corps has taken part in numerous exercises together with the Department of Civil Protection in Malta, the Malta Police Force and the Armed Forces of Malta.
Rescue Operations
The St John Rescue Corps was tried and came out with flying colours in its first major national call to duty, when the Libyan tanker Um El-Faroud exploded in the Malta Drydocks, tragically claiming the lives of nine workers. Toward a later stage, members of the Rescue Corps were requested to relieve the exhausted Special Assignment Group rescue police by the superintendent in command, Mr Charles Cassar, who went down with them in a tangle of acetylene cylinders and loose live electrical cables to remove the last remains.
Members of the Corps involved in the rescue operation were highly commended for their bravery.
The Corps is called upon from time to time to assist in rescue and recovery operations.
Community Work
For a number of years, the Corps – initially at the volunteers’ own expense and later with Government funding – has maintained beach patrols on an annual basis at Malta’s most popular sandy beach on summer weekends and public holidays.
The members of the Corps have attended to hundreds of incidents at Mellieha Bay.
In addition, the Corps is regularly involved in initiatives aimed at preserving Malta’s national heritage. Volunteers of the Corps are regularly requested to undertake clean-up operations of the massive network of Malta’s city fortifications and bastion.
This is a very challenging task involving excellent training in high-angle rescue skills, mastery of abseiling and “cliff-hanging” operations.