Under Sunday’s bright afternoon sun, a group of people, flanked by horses and their riders, made their way across an island field, eyes cast down, searching the waist-high grass for a missing person, a role played by a 3-foot stuffed mouse.

The scene was an exercise for CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) volunteers, one of many sessions that active CERT volunteers attend throughout the year. Some 45 people attended, though notably absent were the two people who headed CERT for more than a decade: Catherine and Michael Cochrane.

Indeed, there has been a changing of the guard at CERT, and Jan Milligan, the new CERT manager, was one of those in charge on Sunday. She stepped into the volunteer manager role completely on May 1, after a long transition period with the Cochranes, who asked if she would take over the program.

“I was pretty intrigued,” Milligan said in a recent interview. “I knew it was a good fit for my skills, but I had to think hard about all the pieces and time involved. I knew it would take a team of people to replace what  Catherine and Michael had done.”

Over the 11 years that the Cochranes headed CERT, more than 250 islanders went through the FEMA-based course to prepare to volunteer in the case of a disaster. The 40-hour course, offered for free, teaches a host of skills, including search and rescue, first aid and basic fire suppression. Ongoing training sessions, for those who are interested, help people improve and expand their skill set to respond to a large disaster or to an emergency at home or work, serving as first responders until professional responders arrive. CERT also provides a team of people for Vashon Island Fire & Rescue (VIFR) to draw from when it needs assistance, whether it be a small-scale emergency, such as a missing person, or a large disaster, such as an earthquake.

The program the Cochranes created — which includes twice the initial training the FEMA course calls for — is highly regarded in many quarters.

“They have been recognized all over the state for running a first-class operation,” Milligan said.

Many know Milligan as the former director at Camp Sealth, a position she held for 15 years and left in 2008. While she was the director there, she began volunteering with the Emergency Operations Center (EOC), an information gathering and planning support team for VIFR when it needs help beyond its staff. She first became involved, she said, because she wanted Camp Sealth, located in a far-flung region of the island, to be on the radar of first responders in case of disaster. She completed a CERT class many years ago, and for the last several years, she has served as the volunteer coordinator for the EOC and has been on its logistics team.

This past spring, as part of the transition to new leadership, Milligan and the Cochranes put together the most recent CERT course, with the assistance of a half dozen trainers. Twenty-six students participated, she said, and about half are showing interest in staying active and being on call if they are needed.

While she holds the Cochranes in high regard, Milligan has goals of her own for the program. One of those is to delegate, and she is putting together a leadership team to help carry CERT forward.

“I expect I will have 10 to 12 people in charge of different elements of CERT,” she said.

She also hopes to strengthen the program’s capacity to deal with logistics in a major disaster, such as its ability to stage, move and distribute supplies and equipment, as well as create a volunteer registration center, which could screen people and place them appropriately if their skills are needed.

VIFR, which sponsors CERT, covers much of the cost of running trainings and provides classroom space and staff support. Assistant Chief George Brown had high praise for Milligan stepping into the role the Cochranes have long held.

“Jan is a  perfect replacement,” he said.  “She wants to continue that same level of professionalism. … We are lucky to have her.”

By all accounts, the role the Cochranes played is a big one to fill.

VIFR recently held its annual awards banquet, and honored the Cochranes for their work. The evening also included a tribute to them from King County’s Timothy Doyle, a manager at the Office of Emergency Management, who has worked with the pair extensively.

Reached after the ceremony, Doyle praised the Cochranes for their skills.

“Working with Michael was like working with the captain of a ship,” he said. “He knows his destination and his bearings.”

Furthering the metaphor, he likened Catherine to an engineer on the ship, who noted when course corrections needed to be made.

While FEMA developed the course in 1994, it was not offered on Vashon until a decade later, and like many elements of disaster preparedness on the island, can be traced back to Joe Ulatoski, often referred to as the grandfather of preparedness on Vashon.

It was Ulatoski who asked Michael Cochrane to head up the course. Both men have a military background, and Michael said that influenced his response.

“I am a retired special forces master sergeant,” he said. “When a general asks me to do something, the answer is yes.”

Michael had considerable experience in training people in the field, he said, and his wife Catherine excels at the policy and process work needed to keep the program running smoothly. Michael was quick to point out that he and Catherine had plenty of assistance, including support from Ulatoski, King County’s Doyle and Bob Larsen, the VIFR liaison to CERT.

Despite the fact they did not run CERT alone, the Cochranes volunteered hundreds of hours each year for more than a decade, and it grew to be time for a change. Michael and Catherine then identified people who would be good to step in.

“The mark of a successful program is that you can pass it on,” Michael said, adding they have complete faith in Milligan.

“We are very, very, very fortunate to find Jan,” he said.

Following Sunday’s field exercise, CERT’s new leadership weighed in with their assessments.

Jim Lilje, who is the director of training and operations in the new leadership team, said he was pleased with how it went. CERT has been activated three times to search for missing people on Vashon, and he said the intensity of the session was similar to some of those experiences. There were several new people participating, he noted, as well as CERT equestrians.

“There were a lot of moving parts, and they seemed to work together pretty well,” he said.

Milligan said she also thought the event went well, noting the group learned some lessons about radio communications, also run by volunteers, with the communications center located in a converted camper onsite.

“We have a really great start for a solid model for the future,” she said.

While CERT members and horses were combing the long grass in search of their  missing person on Sunday, the Cochranes were home and had recently returned from a short trip. Travel was something they’ve had little time for, Michael said, adding he would like to see more of Washington and plans to take a trip to the rain forest, where he has never been. Catherine said she will miss all the adventure involved with CERT, but she has other plans, too.

“I think I will take up knitting,” she said.