Boy Scout Troop 325
Scoutmaster Minute
Band of Scouting Misfits Attains Eagle Ranking
excerpts from washingtonpost.com Saturday, January 19, 2008
February 19, 2008
Larry Polyak, Scoutmaster

The boys called themselves the Viking Patrol. The scoutmasters called them babies.

As Cub Scouts, they were so wild that the 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.

But something happened to these 11 whiny, quick-to-say-quit goofballs from Boy Scout Troop 681 in Falls Church, Virginia. 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 90-mile hike in the mountains of New Mexico. Now all 11 members of the Viking Patrol, one of 10 patrols that make up the troop, have made 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 black sheep of the group," Sam Dowell, 18, of Fairfax said.

"To have 11 Eagles in the same patrol is virtually unheard of," said Gregg Shields, national spokesman for Boy Scouts of America.

Studies have 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. One of the huge advantages is it's an award that has set nationally recognized standards," said Andrew Flagel, dean of admissions for George Mason University. "Colleges undoubtedly know it speaks to the student's motivation, leadership and commitment."

But the boys in Falls 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. Their first hike was a three-miler along the gently climbing Thornton River Trail in 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 said. "I said, 'What are you doing?' They said, 'We're on strike.' " He threatened to leave them. Assistant Scoutmaster Richard Choppa tried a different tactic, one generally frowned upon by the code of 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 60-mile canoe trip in the Adirondack Mountains in 2003. After reaching the impassable Raquette River Falls, the boys had to carry their gear, including the canoes, about 1 1/2 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 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 and bicycled. They saw meteor showers. They slept in the snow. They heard coyotes call, ran into a bear, observed elk, saw bald eagles. They matured and discovered things about themselves that surprised them.

They were a quirky lot. Campfire chats turned to the merits of Thai-Vietnamese fusion cuisine and the cinematic techniques of Ingmar Bergman or Hayao Miyazaki.

For his Eagle Scout project, John Goodwin wrote a play and staged it with fellow Scouts in local nursing homes, along with Abbott and Costello's "Who's On First?" skit.

They didn't mind that some peers wrote them off as dweebs.

"A long time ago, I got over the people who say it's not cool," said Goodwin, 18, a senior at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, who is headed to Columbia University in the fall.

Will Douthitt, 17, the 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 model United Nations and volunteering for the Global Community Service Foundation, which took him to Vietnam and Burma last summer.

For their Eagle Scout projects, which required at least 100 hours of work and enlisting other volunteers, most of the other boys did traditional trail work or construction projects for local public parks: an erosion-control buffer, bluebird boxes, a horseshoe pit and 30-foot-long butterfly bush planters.

Their crowning achievement was a trip to Philmont Scout Ranch in Cimarron, N.M., when the patrol backpacked more than 90 miles. It was a demonstration in the art of setting goals and sticking to them.

----- Have you made any goals for yourself lately?