"the poster who said the entire rescue mission is being done by volunteers and there is no public cost is wrong."
Go back and read my posts. I said that "mountain rescue" is entirely volunteer. I made the distinction time and time again between "mountain rescue" with boots on the mountain and support teams such as the Hood Sheriff's Office and (in this case) the National Guard (in helicopters and C-130s).
Now, as it turns out there have been some military SAR teams added to this particular effort. But normally Mt. Hood SAR relies on the voluntary efforts of the Crag Rats, Portland Mountain Rescue, and similar 501(c)3 teams.
Please stop mischaracterizing what I've said.
I do not intentionally mischaracterize anybody's words. If I did, you have my apology.
What I read you saying through several posts with another person was that the actual rescue mission was strictly a private, voluntary effor and you made that point by explaining about the rescue teams being privately funded and them also being the only boots on the ground. My point was that public assets are being expended, even though there were no public employee or military boots on the ground (now you say you've learned there are, but that wasn't known then so that's fine). The subject was the cost and whether there should be reimbursement. Somebody else porposed a rather convoluted up-front payment system, but that wasn't I, if you were thinking it was. I don't take the view that without reimbursement there should be no rescue, and I haven't seen anyone else say that, although I haven't read every post by every poster. If the climbers didn't have two nickels to rub together, I would still want them to be rescued. But I do think it was foolish for them to go up there at this time. The fact that at least one is dead seems to prove the accuracy of this view, and it's one shared by many. I simply was pointing out that the rescue undertaking is not without financial cost to the taxpayers, and if some reimbursement can be made, it should.
Conservatives usually know that nothing is free whether the government provides it or not.
And one more time with feeling, the cost of the rescue mission, both private and public, is not and has not been my main concern about this tragedy.