Boy Scout troop adds rescue to hike itinerary

The bird-watching hiking trip that the boys from Boy Scout Troop 44 in Pennington took Nov. 19 to Pennsylvania's Hawk Mountain didn't include plans for a life-and-death rescue mission.

Plans changed when the boys encountered fire-and-rescue personnel scrambling on foot up the mountain with their emergency gear.

The boys of Troop 44 didn't hesitate to lend a hand to the emergency crews after learning they were rushing to a hiker who had been pinned and badly injured by a massive boulder in an area that could not be reached by vehicle.

"We were on the last part of our hike," said Chris Brzezynski, 14, of Hopewell Township.

As the eight Troop 44 scouts on the trip, who range in age from 11 to 15, and their six adult chaperones walked down one of the mountain's trails, they passed emergency crews heading up.

"They said a woman's trapped" but told the scouts and other visitors to keep heading down the trail, away from the area of the accident, Brzezynski said.

"At the bottom, we saw a bunch of firemen and they looked really, really tired," he said. "So we helped them carry up stretchers, winches, flashlights . . . any kind of rescue equipment we could find."

The victim, identified in published reports as Sarae Rinker, 18, of Monroe County, Pa., was pinned by a massive boulder in Berks County's Hawk Mountain bird sanctuary.

Rescuers had to haul their equipment on foot to the site of the hiking accident because it was about a mile from the nearest road, said Dean Kniss, the assistant chief of the Kempton Fire Co., which covers Hawk Mountain.

Kniss said between 50 and 60 rescue personnel responded to the incident, which was reported 2 p.m.

We all came back with a better understanding of Scouting as a movement. I think, for example, that most of us were quite surprised to find out that about 2/3 of all Scouts are in the Asia-Pacific region. Indonesia has more Scouts and Scouters on their rolls than the U.S. does (8 million vs. 6 million), and they themselves estimate that they have at least as many more involved in the Movement that are simply not registered. There are a huge number of Moslem and Buhddist Scouts in the world, probably more combined than there are Christian ones. Many of us are still corresponding with the people we met via e-mail.

We all also came back with a better understanding of the world as a whole. Japan is just so different than America, in so many more ways than England or France or Germany are, that it really makes you look at the United States and our culture much differently.

By the way, this was an unusual trip. There had already been the "standard" SAJ-BSA friendship exchange earlier in the year. But the SAJ contacted the BSA and proposed an additional contingent for their Venture Jamboree and the Asia-Pacific Youth Forum. The BSA picked up about 20 people off of the waiting list from the earlier trip that year and proposed to send them to Japan. But the SAJ said "No, we want either 40 or none." Upon reflection I figure that they wanted to balance the size of the American contingent against the International one and to have a reasonably equivalent representation of Americans and Japanese in the two Venture Jamboree sub-camps that they sent us to. That put Irving in a bind, because due to the travel arrangement deadlines that only gave them 2 weeks to come up with 20 more people. Irving remembered that our Scout Executive had gone on the 2002 contingent to Japan. She had told Irving that they should call her if there was another trip like that, so they took her up on it. She sent out a bunch of e-mails and made some calls and managed to fill out the roster with people from our Council. It cost me $172 to get my passport renewed in a 2 week timeframe (no one could be confirmed on the roster until they faxed a copy of a valid passport to Japan about 8 weeks prior to the trip).

You are correct. I have such high hopes for the Venturing program. The truth is that it has either succeeded beyond one's wildest dreams in a few locations, and failed miserably in many, many others. The program has been changed repeatedly since 1999 or 2000, whenever the new program started.

You need a community with a steady population of 18 to 21-year old men and women who are interested in the outdoors, or else the program has no leadership. In most towns, Venturing programs crumble because youth leave the program when they graduate from high school. Where it has been successful, the young women seem to have taken the strongest roles in Venturing leadership. At least two of the years I was at the National Meeting, it seems that three of the four Regional Presidents for Venturing were young women.

Over the last five years as a Scouter, as I've become more involved in International Scouting and seen that all but two of the 140+ WOS Scouting programs have successfully integrated boys and girls, the more inclined I am to continue to fight the God and gays battle, and to view favorably the possibility of a co-ed Scouting program at all ages.

The problem in the U.S. is that Girl Scouting is so well-developed, and so different than Boy Scouting in many ways, that I can never see the two programs merging. We'd simply have to call our program "Scouting," let the girls in, and let the Girl Scouts fend for themselves.

I know the idea of girls in Scouting is taboo for many older Scouters, but I've seen the successes of the Venturing program, and the successes of International Scouting programs that are co-ed.

BTW, short backgrounder: Cub Scout (Bobcat --> AOL), Boy Scout (Life), Camp staff 2 years, High Adventure at Matagamon Canoe Base, OA; left the program at age 17 when I came back from college with hair down to my the base of my neck and the SM and CC took me aside and told me I looked like a pimp. Adult: CM 4.5 years, SM 7.5 years, did my | >>>------> |, staffed various camporees, staffed various training courses, ran a couple of training courses, got my beads from C-19-96 (Eagles), C-30-02 (Staffer), currently SPL for C-19-06, got DAMmed, CM award, Scouter's Training Award, Scoutmaster's Key. I've run the District Klondike Camporee for the last 5 years, but it's someone else's turn now. When I stepped down after my son got his Eagle and turned 18 from SM to ASM, the district made me District Commissioner. MC of our Pack, ASM of our Troop, AA of the Council's leadership Crew and DC are my current assignments.

Going private with replies to RonF.

I didn't attend the National Meeting this year; had just stepped down as Council Commissioner. One of the most impressive things about the Region luncheon meetings is the part where they present awards of heroism to Scouts. To those who attended: Any truly inspiring stories from this year's meeting? About three years ago, the Southern Region introduced an Eagle Scout who had been a POW in Afghanistan. You would remember him as the POW whose beaten and dirty face was on the cover of Time and Newsweek (both magazines, if I remember). He was a helicopter pilot whose craft was shot down.

He was from Texas, about 24, and had the best Texas accent and was the most polite young man, in full dress uniform.

When asked by the Region Representative, in front of a banquet of a 2000+, to describe his ordeal, he was very humble and self-effacing.

He said that, even without the tracers, he swore you could see the incoming rounds as they were fired at your helicopter. He said that the damage warning system for minimal damage was a heads' up screen that flashed information about damage to the craft in text on a green screen. When there was a major problem, a calm woman's voice would announce the damage, like "main hydraulic system damaged," "rotor damaged."

As his craft approached its target, he took heavy fire. He said he thought things were bad when the heads' up quit showing a line of type reporting damages, and instead just started scrolling text. He began to suspect things were quite bad when the woman began to calmly report one major system after the other as damaged. He said "when she started talking so fast she was stuttering, that's when I knew we were going down, Sir."

At any rate, they let him, in full uniform, present some of the Regional awards for heroism to the Scouts and you could tell that was a big deal for them . . . and for him.

One Scout from Tennessee had been the babysitter for a boy with Downs Syndrome -- and chose to do that because he had a sister with the birth defect. He was on a boat on a river in Tennessee, holding the three year-old boy in his lap, riding with the boys' parents and grandparents, and perhaps some other family members.

The boat exploded, killing the grandfather (at the helm) immediately. The Scout was thrown 100 feet from the boat, but never lost his grip on the young boy in his care, although both of the Scouts' legs were shattered.

He swam back to what remained floating of the houseboat using one arm, his legs useless, his other arm holding his young charge. Once he placed the boy safely on the wreckage, he swam and rescued the remaining members of the family from the water, some of whom were unconscious.

Those of you from the boy's Council in Tennessee can correct the details -- but it just goes to show the type of young man who scares the ACLU.

While you're at it, Tennessee -- I met a Scoutmaster from Troop 1 (Memphis?) who was in his 90's and had been a Scoutmaster for 75 years. When it comes to Scouting, Good on' ya, Tennessee!

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.