In this case I do not think there was much choice, since there were only 3 adults. Leaving 8 scouts with 1 adult may have created more serious issues if those remaining had an on-site emergency.

From what has been reported, (in my humble opinion) the scouts and the leaders did an outstanding job. They stopped, regrouped (mentally), made a plan, executed the plan and made adjustments when and where necessary. The leaders kept their heads and provided the support required for the situation they encountered.

Pete

Hi aarwolfe,

There have been plenty of well documented occassions for survival methods and techniques to be employed whilst knowing exactly where you are and knowing where you need to be. Not knowing where you are and not knowing where you should be heading is perhaps one of the most important hurdles to overcome in the psychology of survival because being lost creates mental barriers to firstly formulating and the secondly implementing a plan of action even if that plan of action is just to sit down and wait to be rescued. Being slightly lost in many circumstances leads to be being completely lost because of the inability to understand and accept that navigational mistakes have been made and the requirement to correct those navigation errors promptly. Being completely lost now has the ability to turn a jaunt in the woods into a serious survival situation. Even from the story published in USAToday the adult leader instructor has still not accepted any responsibility for his mistakes.


A tell tale sign of panicked adult instructors was the fact that the scout group had been hiking for half an hour in the dark.


For someone who is lost, night time navigation is not a good idea in the dark as people tend to get even more lost, especially for those whose daytime navigational skills are suspect together with the added problems of tripping up in the dark, falling over cliffs etc. The scout leaders were indeed panicking. If they weren't they would have set up camp much earlier and not in a grassy bog after dark.


The boys weren't lost, they were following the adult instructors. It was the adult instructor who were lost.

I'm glad that they were all found save and well.


By not being lost your chances of a successful survival outcome have just been improved exponentially.

IMO the scouts learned much more from this experience than if the weekend had gone off perfectly. Now they've had the experience of getting lost, maintaining a cool perspective and getting themselves out. They actually practiced STOP in the real world and not in the classroom. Priceless.

I agree completely...uh, which may not really bolster your arguement.

As for the scouts, I've learned not make judgements based on news reports. I'd love to know more about how the leaders made their decisions and what exactly the situation was like (terrain, weather, skill levels, past experiences, etc...). Does the Boy Scout "main office" launch an investgation to find out what went wrong when something like this happens or do they just ignore it?

-Blast

But was it a 12 year old with wet feet standing a grassy bog, tired and exhausted, in the dark, who shouted STOP or one of the adult instructors.

The leader probably should have stayed but I don't consider it a serious error since he was following a road and could easily return. And, we don't know the qualifications of the two adults that stayed with the kids. But yeah, leaders need to lead - stay with the kids and send another adult down the road.

It is neither difficult nor unusual to get lost on such hikes. You can't develop plans or preparations so elaborate that it won't happen: even GPS & maps can lead you astray (maps are wrong sometimes, even aerial photos out-of-date and deceptive...)

You always have to have Plan A, Plan B and Plan C, and invest in each based on the consequence of having to fall back to the next plan and the likelihood that all predecessor plans fail. You put effort into "don't get lost" as Plan A, but not to the point of neglecting Plan B (extra rations, etc) and Plan C.

Overall it's a good lesson in contingency planning for the kids. It would be interesting to know what Plan C(?) was since they were likely nearly out of food at that point.

It doesn't matter, they've been through the process, excellent training.

That's very true. The possibility of the unexpected happening is one of the reasons to go into the woods in the first place. At least it was when I was a kid.

Interesting article that. How to make a melodrama out of a crisis. Personally I don't think that they were in any real danger.


As others have noted, movement across country at night is a Bad Idea.

I disagree with the idea that the Leader going for help is poor leadership. Period. If you are leading the group and an incident occurs someone may have to go for help. It's your job to decide who, and how many.

In making that decision you have to consider skill levels, level of risk etc. Are you the best person to go for help? Will your absence put the group at risk?

One of the cardinal rules of group leadership is that you do not ask anyone to do anything that you are not prepared to do yourself. And be seen to do it. You also have to retain the respect of the group. Under some circumstances remaining with the group can result in accusations of cowardice. Even when remaining is vital to the groups survival. As in "It was very risky so he sent someone else, the cowardly P.O.S."

If you do send other people you need to be very clear about the reasons why they are being sent. So that every one knows, and understands.

i would say it's the other way around--make a crisis out
of a melodrama..calling out the dogs for a big group of
overdue scouts is a bit much...