Georgia State Defense Force Pfc. Tom Biondolillo, a certified rescue specialist from Dallas, searches a heavily wooded area near Interstate 20 Exit 101 in Morgan County for signs that Army veteran Jason Roark may have been there. (Georgia National Guard photo by Sgt. 1st Class Roy Henry)

GSDF leads second search for missing Iraq war veteran

 MORGAN COUNTY – More than two years after an initial search by local authorities for a missing  two-time Iraq War veteran turned up nothing, members of the Georgia State Defense Force lead a second effort, Sept. 20 and 21, in an attempt to determine Jason Roark’s fate.

Sergeant Robert Neasmith with the sheriff’s office investigations division said this second search was conducted at the request of the Dallas resident’s parents. It was also at their request that the State Defense Force became involved.

 “Contact with the SDF was made by our office through someone in that organization that the family knows, and that lead to the operation that occurred,” Neasmith said.

 It’s the first time any emergency response agency in Morgan County has asked the GSDF for help.

 Roark, who would now be 27, disappeared Nov. 9, 2006. He was last seen at a Lilburn hotel, previous news reports show. His 2001 Honda Accord was found a month later, abandoned, at an Interstate 20 rest stop east of Madison by an Atlanta private investigator, Neasmith said.

 According to Chuck Jarrell, chief of Morgan County’s Fire Station No. 4, the initial search was a hasty one, just within the immediate area of the rest stop.

 This time more than 200 GSDF members, along with search dog teams and Morgan County firefighters, scoured the heavily wooded area along Interstate 20 just West of Exit No.101. Teams searched  in and around the unmanned rest stop where Roark’s abandoned vehicle was found about a mile east of the exit and a mile or more beyond that.

“We just don’t have the people to conduct as intense a search as was done this time around,” Jarrell said. “Having the State Defense Force is a great asset that improves our efforts to provide Jason’s family with some kind of closure.”

 During the two-day investigation, searchers closed to travelers while teams of six to 12 SDF members, along with county fire and rescue personnel spent the days walking a 13,000 feet long and 2,500 feet deep area that extended just west of Exit 101 to just east of the rest stop.

 At times, it was slow going as the teams encountered thick underbrush and heavily wooded areas said Command Sgt. Maj. Randy Garrett, State Defense Force command sergeant major. Coupled  with steep gullies, creeks and ponds, the terrain made it difficult for anyone to find anything.

 “Yet, our folks left no stone unturned, no path not walked,” Garrett said. “This, among many other missions, is what they train for, each and every time they come together for drill.

 The GSDF has, because of that training, been involved in such operations before. In March, more than 60 personnel helped Union and Lumpkin authorities search for missing hiker Meredith Emerson.

 “And we all are unpaid volunteers, and we certainly don’t do it for the prestige,” he added. “We all, do it because it’s our way of serving our communities and our state, and for the pride of knowing we’re doing some good in this world.”

 When the search finally ended, Roark’s whereabouts still remained a mystery. Yet, that didn’t keep Neasmith, and others, from singing the GSDF’s praises.

 “We’re one hundred percent satisfied that everything was done to determine whether Jason was still here,” he said. “After what I and our sheriff Robert Markley experienced in our first contact with the Georgia State Defense Force, this won’t be the last time we call on that organization for its expertise.”

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