Show Band of scouting misfits mi fits attains Eagle rank I t r Patrick Donnelly 18 of Falls Church Va in th the Eagle Scout t ceremony Washington Few Post predicted photo by Marvin that hat anyone anyone any any- Joseph one from the Viking Patrol of Troop would make Eagle Scout Fredrick Kunkle The Washington Post The boys called themselves the Viking Patrol The scoutmasters called them babies As Cub Scouts they were so wild that the e exasperated leaders insisted that their parents attend the meetings to keep things from getting out of hand Their first hike as Boy Scouts became notable for the strike when the boys lay down side by side on an easy trail and refused to go on after having covered about the length of the Mall But something happened to these 11 11 whiny to say quit goofballs from Boy Scout Troop in Falls Church Va It happened somewhere along the way between pinewood derbies and tying knot in the Scout House the log c cabin bin where the group met three times a month under the glassy eyes of a stuffed moose And it happened on 50 mile hikes and canoe trips under the watch of scoutmasters such as the retired lieutenant colonel who spun war stories and taught them ho hoW hoto to set up an shaped L-shaped ambush Ranger Somehow this bunch of undisciplined suburban kids grew into a closely knit crew of slyly ironic decent responsible young men whose proudest achievement was a mile 90 hike in the mountains of New Mexico Now all l 11 l members of the Viking Patrol one of 10 patrols that make up the troop have made mad it to the rank of Eagle Scout a feat that national regional and local Scouting leaders believe is unprecedented Perhaps no one was more surprised than the boys We were kind of the blacksheep black blacksheep blacksheep sheep of the group Sam Dowell 18 of Fairfax said Scouts Continued on Scouts become Eagles Continued from A Al I IOnly Only 5 percent percent of Scouts achieve Eagle rank by age 18 when Scouting ends To have 11 in the same patrol is virtually unheard of said Gregg Shields national spokesman for Boy Scouts of America Scouting has rarely been cool But in a world traveling soccer clubs 24 hour cable television and Boy Scout oaths and three-finger three salutes seem more than a little dated Founded in February 1910 the Boy Scouts of America reached its zenith in 1970 when baby boomers boosted its ranks to 43 million compared with 29 million in 2006 When Scouting makes the news these days its it's usually because of its ban on openly gay leaders a controversy that went all the way to the Supreme Court But studies have shown shown- that Eagle Scouts excel in school and participate in their communities and admissions officers say the achievement can boost their odds of getting into college Scout leaders like to note that some pretty famous y r J 1 people were Eagle Scouts including former president Gerald Ford Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong and two of the other 11 astronauts who walked on the moon baseball Hallof Hall Hallof Hallof of Famer Farner Hank Aaron and movie directors Michael Moore and Steven Spielberg President John F. F Ke Kennedy edy was a Boy Scout by the way but not an Eagle Scout and neither Bill Clinton nor George W. W Bush ventured beyond Cub Scouts Eagle Scouts must earn at least 21 merit badges including 12 required badges in subjects such as first aid citizenship and personal fitness The cornerstone of the program is the community service project One of the huge advantages is its it's an award that has set nationally recognized standards said Andrew Flagel dean of admissions for George Mason Colleges University Colleges undoubtedly know it speaks to the students student's motivation leadership and commitment But the boys in Falls Churchs Church's Viking Patrol were nothing like the straight arrows that adorn some of their sashes They were a bunch of ninnies They were still acting like Cub Scouts and babies said Assistant Scoutmaster Peter Archibald of Falls Church whose son Seann was among the 11 to attain Eagle Scout Their first hike was a three-miler three along the gently climbing Thornton River Trail in th the Blue Ridge Mountains in 2001 They griped from the beginning then quit about two miles from the trail head They lay down on the trail like railroad ties Scoutmaster Kevin Coleman of Falls Church said I said What are you doing They said Were on strike Coleman whose year 17 old son Daniel is one of the 11 Eagle Scouts threatened to leave themI them I thought Lord Almighty Ive I've got a bunch of losers on my hands Coleman said Assistant Scoutmaster Richard Choppa 46 a retired Army officer whose son Nicholas became an Eagle tried a different tactic one generally frowned upon by the code of Scouts Scout's honor He told them there was a Dairy Queen just around the next bend There was not All agree a turning point occurred during a mile 60 canoe trip in the Adirondack Mountains in 2003 After reaching the impassable Raquette River Fa Falls ls the boys had to carry their gear including the canoes about 1 2 1 miles over a mountain Disorganized and weary they took about twice as long as necessary When they finally reached camp that night cranky hungry exhausted and blistered they wanted to tobed tobed tobed bed down without pitching tents digging a latrine or hanging their food to avoid attracting bears Scout leaders insisted that the boys make camp properly and left the details to them After much bickering and complaining the boys organized themselves From then on according to the leaders and the boys the boys took the direction of the patrol into their own hands and also began contributing to the leadership of the entire troop Other experiences piled up They hiked the Laurel Highlands in Pennsylvania and bicycled the length of the CO Canal They saw meteor showers They slept in the snow They heard coyotes call ran into a bear observed elk saw bald eagles They listened to Choppa explain to them the theory of how to survive an foot fall without a parachute They matured and discovered things about themselves that surprised them oJ Dowell who speaks with a stutter became one of their most eloquent spokesmen so i much so that the group named him chaplain Said Dowell I would just speak from my heart And they were a quirky quirk lot Campfire chats turned to the merits of Thai- Thai Vietnamese fusion cuisine and the cinematic techniques of Ingmar Bergman or Hayao For his Eagle Scout project John Goodwin wrote a play and staged it with fellow Scouts in local nursing homes along with Abbott and Costellos Costello's On First skit They didn't mind that some peers wrote them off as A long time ago I got over the people who say its it's not cool said Goodwin 18 a senior at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology who lives in Vienna and andis is headed to Columbia University in the fall Will Vill Douthitt 17 the troops troop's smart aleck said few of the boys thought about reaching Eagle Scout until they were well down the path toward the goal But then they hung on despite punishing schedules Douthitt for example fit Scouting into a high school routine that included fencing student government playing trumpet in jazz band participating in a amodel amodel amodel model United Nations and volunteering for s the Global Community Service Foundation which took him to Vietnam and Myanmar last summer For their Eagle Scout projects which required at least hours of work and enlisting other volunteers most of the boys did traditional trail work or construction projects for local public parks an erosion-control erosion buffer bluebird boxes a horseshoe pit and long foot butterfly bush planters Their crowning achievement was a trip to Philmont Scout Ranch in Cimarron NM when the patrol backpacked more than 90 miles It was a demonstration in the art of setting goals and sticking to them said Choppa of Falls Church The goal in life is to raise these guys to be able to give back to society Its It's breaking the will of the individual to the good of the group because these kids have strong personalities Choppa said For me I did it to be with my son so hes he's not playing video games i |