[philmont] Judgment Day

Judgment Day
   
  I like what Mike Conkey writes on this list. His following words are very important.
   
  “Second, as advisors, we aren't just looking out for ourselves, but for a whole group of young adults. Third, it's not a forced march…”
   
  This fits in well with what I just finished writing.
   
  Here goes.
   
  When Jack Ford, son of President Gerald Ford, and William Randolph Hurst III put together Outside Magazine in 1977, they did a pretty good job of it. I immediately subscribed to and thoroughly enjoyed the articles in the magazine. The pictures wasn't bad either but it was the articles I liked. Sound familiar?
   
  However, possibly ten years later it started leaning more from what it originally was to expensive editorials which from an outdoorsman’s point of view were for the most part useless. And they were a bit tilted from my perspective.
   
  I let my subscription lapse, but occasionally purchased individual issues .
   
  Then a few years ago, an idiot writer by the name of Buttheart or something like that wrote that nasty article “Thrifty, Clean and Brave” slam dunking Philmont, its Scouts, volunteer leaders and Philmont administration and using a troop of Scouts for his own personal Guinea Pig in an absolutely horrible way. I haven’t bought a single copy of Outside magazine since then , nor will I.
   
  The other night at work someone had a copy of the January 2008 issue they had picked up in a barber shop, so I thumbed through it just to see if they had redeemed themselves. They partly have, because on page 72 there is an article entitled “Hell In High Water”. It takes place in January 1969 when six boys hiked into California’s Sespe wilderness for a camping trip accompanied by an adult. None came back alive and three would be rescuers perished in their feeble attempt. It examines the shattered lives of the families almost forty years later.
   
  I want you as Scout leaders to read it. You need to read it and heed the warning.
   
  The point the article makes but doesn’t mention is the fact that as leaders we need to be very cognizant of the responsibility we have for the safety of the youth we are in charge of. Every year, tragedy strikes Boy Scout groups needlessly when well meaning adults clash with mother nature.
   
  In this case the fault lies in the vested authorities who focused too much on the completion of their mission rather than better judgment the well being of the group and paid the ultimate price in the loss of their own lives. Had they only waited out the storm all would be well. Heed those words.
   
  All I ever wanted to be was a Boy Scout. I joined in 1956 after three years of Cub Scouts where we carved letter openers. Pinewood Derby had not been invented.
   
  1959 was a banner year for me. That summer I attended Philmont, a life changing experience and in December received my Eagle award, something I still look on with pride. I am one of the few who achieved that compared to the many who came, they did, they left and went on their way, lives subtly enriched by the Scouting experience.
   
  1960 wasn’t as good a year.
   
  My patrol leader, Bill Fleming, had moved up to Senior Patrol Leader and I had been elected to take his place in the Bob White patrol. I was proud and I worked as hard as Bill had before me at leading well. We had a great patrol and enjoyed many patrol events just like the book talks about but most Scouts never experience.
   
  Bill graduated with honors from Thomas Jefferson High School in Port Arthur, Texas and was slated to attend Texas A & M University on a tennis scholarship.
   
  He never made it to Texas A & M.
   
  The day after graduation he was killed in a water skiing accident.
   
  I along with his family and other friends were devastated. His fiancee’s life was destroyed. She never recovered and died a few miserable years later as did his parents. Back then they did not have grievance counseling like they do today but we certainly needed it.
   
  That event shattered our lives as we knew them. Through the efforts of our Scoutmaster, Einar Hansen, a native of Denmark and a true Scouter if there ever was one and the pastor of the sponsoring church, we held together. We survived, but just barely.
   
  I suffered through several years of misguided misbehavior in school. Although I never got into serious trouble, I teetered at the brink. Finally I got a grip on myself.
   
  When I read the Outside article “Hell In High Water”, I could not help but be carried back to 1960 and my own experience.
   
  I wanted to share these thoughts with you and let you read for yourself so when (not if) you are trapped, backs against the wall you might just happen to think about the ramifications of a not so good judgment call by well meaning people and somehow have the strength and wisdom to do better.
   
  So many times I have seen Scout leaders with the “gung ho, let’s get it done” attitude or mind set make bad decisions. Sometimes nobody gets hurt, sometimes they do but the thing we need to avoid at almost all costs is keeping someone from getting killed.
   
  My experiences as a U S Army combat medic and a police officer let me examine first hand the tragic results of bad judgment.
   
  Several members of this very list have chastised me for “harping on” this very topic.. So be it. They can harp all day long, nothing can bring Bill back, not the boys from the Sespe river in California. I have the responsibility to share the experience and call a spade a spade when I see it whether they can see it or are simply blind.
   
  Some say I run it into the ground.
   
  Not so, it’s the Scouts and Scouters caskets that are run into the ground.
   
  I’ll stay on top of this subject until my dying day and well I should, I’ve been there, done that.
   
  Read the article, it will be good for you and your Scouts. It just might help in judgment day. Lives are at stake. Make a good one.
   
  The last paragraph is really thought provoking.
   
  http://outside.away.com/outside/destinations/200802/california-sespe-wilderness-tragedy-1.html
   
  Sincerely,
  Yours in Scouting
   
  John LeBlanc
   

 between 0000-00-00 and 9999-99-99

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As you gather around this virtual campfire with fellow
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Received on Tue Apr 15 14:17:08 2008