Boy Scouts, GPS, Ham Radios and Signal Mirrors, Oh My!

Scout troops in Arizona were on neighboring peaks near Prescott practicing signal mirror techinques with one another. One troop got into some sort of fix. They got stranded or a boy became ill or heat injured and using a ham radio they contacted a citizen who forwarded their GPS coordinates to the local Sheriffs dept. who dispatched a helicopter.

I heard from a radio report that the pilot was able to see the mirror flashes from 5 miles away.

The talk back is pretty heated on if the troop was prepared or if it was a foolish outing.

I'd like to hear details about what actually happened but it's a good reminder about how easily an adventure can go wrong. We took our troop out for a paddle this past weekend as part of a local shoreline clean-up. Before we left I asked "Does everyone have their survival kit?" Only one hand went up. Sure enough, one canoe capsized about an hour upstream. It turned into a great lesson on how quickly things can go wrong, hypothermia and the importance of always being prepared.

Without more details I put myself in the Scoutmaster's position - in the Arizona wilderness, Scout gets sick, can't walk out. Sure, I make that call, and am happy to have a ham radio and a listener on the other end to get help. Slogans don't mean squat, you can be as prepared as you want, you still sometimes have to call for faster assistance than you could manage.

The comments of the anonymous and uniformed crowd that responds to news stories don't often dazzle me with their brilliant introspection...

[quote=Lono]Scout gets sick, can't walk out ... I make that call ... you can be as prepared as you want, you still sometimes have to call for faster assistance than you could manage...[/quote

I totally agree Lono. Safety first! Interesting debate in the comments section. Nowhere in the article does it say what the emergency was that forced them to be flown out, and yet the nay-sayers seem to be claiming that Scouts and Scout Leaders should never have to call for help - no matter what. I'm a scout leader not a surgeon carrying a fully stocked ER in my pack.

What's the problem? They had a sick kid. SAR has responded to more stupid calls than that!

So maybe the kids learned a few things: how to hike up a mountain, how to use a signal mirror, that it's okay to ask for help if you need it, maybe how to use a GPS, how to signal a rescue helicopter, how to ride in a helicopter without throwing up...

Taxpayer dollars have been wasted on far more useless things.

Sue

It's always exhilarating to embark on discussions of a situation without the limitations of any real information on the situation. We can be so much more profound when we are not limited by any facts.

Susan has it exactly right. I am sure most SAR people would rather respond a bit too soon rather than a bit too late.

I am pretty sure there is more to the story then what is in that article. I am checking my information, but I am 90% sure this group became stranded due to unusual conditions that were no fault of their own... As others here have said, this group seems to have been pretty well prepared to enable their rescue this quickly and with an absolute minimum of resources needed.