What a picture
What a bunch of moroooons ... as bugs would say.
Perhaps it's time to disband the bsa .... I thought it was just the local units that had become overrun with incompetent panty waists. But it seems the problem runs pretty deep.
When the leaders at a JAMBOREE can't even pitch a tent with out getting people killed, then something is WRONG with the system that let them be in charge.
I know of a troop who abandoned their tents and went to a neighboring farm house to spend the night , because they found "poison ivy" in the area. Then the 2nd night , after moving their tents, they abandoned them again for the "protection" of a leaders basement ...... it almost rained.
The one scout who thought that perhaps the adult leaders were over reacting just a bit was disciplined, ridiculed and cut from the troop.
The bsa is not what it once was.
Thanks for the link, Theupman.
Four Scout leaders killed at jamboree
Officials probe fatal accident
Date published: 7/26/2005
By KRISTIN DAVIS and MELISSA NIX
Four Boy Scout leaders were killed yesterday in the worst tragedy of the National Boy Scout Jamboree’s 68-year history.
An electrical accident apparently occurred when a tent pole came in contact with a power line late in the afternoon of the opening day at Fort A.P. Hill.
The men were adult Scout leaders from the Anchorage, Alaska, area, said Bill Haines, Scout executive and chief executive officer of the Western Alaska Council.
All the young Scouts with the Alaska group are fine, Haines said.
A contractor and another Scout leader were also injured during the accident. One was taken to Mary Washington Hospital; the other was taken to VCU Medical Center in Richmond, said jamboree spokesman Gregg Shields. Their conditions were not immediately available.
The names of the victims were not released last night. Families of the deceased were still being notified, Shields said.
Scout spokesman Bob Dries said last night that there are no plans to cancel the rest of the jamboree. The first day of the quadrennial event began in high spirits, with thousands of Scouts arriving by bus in bright shirts, carrying brand-new camping gear.
But just before 5 p.m., military police, fire and rescue workers rushed down Lee Drive shouting at pedestrians to get out of the way.
Scouts and Scout leaders were headed down Lee Drive, in the eastern part of the Army post, toward their campsites.
A small crowd of curious onlookers gathered near the scene, called Subcamp 7. Some pedestrians continued their trek, barely pausing as smoke rose from a large white tent several hundred feet away.
Meanwhile, men in full protective gear rushed into the smoking tent and returned carrying what appeared to be a covered body.
The scene was cordoned off with yellow tape, and the tent sat drooping and lopsided several hours later. Power was shut down in that area of the post and workers from the Rappa hannock Electric Cooperative arrived on the scene.
News of the tragedy spread slowly across the sprawling Army post, where more than 35,000 Scouts from across the United States have gathered for the 10- day jamboree. Scouts went about their late-afternoon routine, picking up food items and heading back to their posts to prepare dinner.
Most Scouts seemed unaware of the deaths.
Jamboree officials said they did not know the exact circumstances of the accident, nor did they know the voltage of the power lines.
A “thorough investigation is under way,” Shields said.
He said counselors and chaplains were made available to the Scouts affected by the tragedy. Haines said the four victims were longtime Scout leaders with Troop 711, which together with Troop 712 brought 80 Scouts, and eight leaders to the jamboree.
The father of a Scout from the Alaskan contingent said all the Scouts had been removed from the area of the accident.
“It’s now an investigation scene and it’s closed to everyone,” he said in a telephone interview. The Scouts were moved to Army barracks on the post and chaplains and counselors are spending time with them.
The father, who did not want to be identified, said his 17-year-old witnessed the incident. “He’s a very stoic type but this will hit him later,” the father said.
He noted that some of those killed likely were parents of Scouts and others were longtime leaders. “How it will affect them you just never know.”
On Sunday, Boy Scouts volun teer Albert Puff, 57, of Stella, N.C., was taken to a local hospital where he died of an apparent heart attack, said jamboree spokeswoman Renee Fairrer.
There have been two accidental Scout deaths in the jamboree’s 68- year-history. In August 1997, 16- year-old Robert Combes of Fin leyville, Pa., died after the mili tary Humvee he was driving overturned on a winding gravel road near Wilcox Road and A.P. Hill Drive.
Combes, a youth staffer at that year’s jamboree, was crushed beneath the 7,700-pound vehicle, which was used to transport ice and cold drinks between camp sites. He was not trained to operate the truck but convinced another teenager to let him. Three other teens were injured in that accident.
In 1977, a Scout attending the jamboree at a state park in Pennsylvania was struck by light ning and killed.
Gov. Mark Warner issued a statement last night, offering his condolences to all those affected by the tragedy. He said he wished to reassure the parents of the Scouts that they were in good hands.
“All of us hope and pray that the remainder of the 2005 National Jamboree will offer a safe and educational experience for these young men and their adult lead ers,” he said.
Free Lance–Star reporter Edie Gross and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Date published: 7/26/2005