Troop 621

August 2005

Hello Troop 621!

My name is Mike Avery and I am an Eagle Scout (1993) from Troop 621.  I am thirty years old, married to Melissa and have an eight-month-old son named Matthew.  I currently live in Houston, TX where I am the youth minister for the Memorial Church of Christ.  I hope this letter finds you upholding the Scout Law, Scout Oath, Scout Motto, and Scout Slogan. 

I would like to encourage all of you to continue in your pursuit of the Eagle rank.  I can't recall a journey that has taught me as many practical things as the one to Eagle.  Yes, I appreciate the knots, the orienteering, camping, cooking, hiking, and even the teachings on having a correct uniform.  Moreover, I value the life lessons I learned on the campouts and outings.  These lessons are ones that I live by today. 

One valuable lesson I learned when I was a life scout involved the buddy system.  Now I know you boys might think the buddy system is dumb or pointless, but I learned differently and I would like to share that experience with you now.  When I was in troop 621, I had a good friend name Brant.  He and I had been friends for years and in fact were in Indian guides together at age 6 or 7.  It was the summer of 1992 and Brant and I were about to start our senior year of high school and were closing in on the Eagle rank. 

That August, our troop took a high adventure trip across Texas to Big Bend National Park.  This was a trip to remember, full of funny, random, and exciting events.  One event in particular, a 3-mile hike, is where I learned my lesson about the buddy system.  On this particular day, we were taking a short hike on a narrow path up a foothill covered with trees.  We were anticipating reaching the top because there was a spring-fed waterfall there that would surely cool us off.  The temperature was close to 100 degrees if not above that, but we were prepared with plenty of water, and food for the day. 

As we hiked up the trail, we came upon a beehive.  Unknown to us, this was no ordinary beehive.  Instead, it was a swarm of South Texas killer bees.  Fortunately, we were able to go off trail a few yards to avoid disturbing them. 

Just as we were approaching the top, a couple was hiking down, so we let them pass and said hello.  Then we discovered something terrible...the waterfall was really only a few drips on some rocks.  We moaned and sighed, because we were not going to be relieved from the heat anytime soon.  Well, we decided to make the best of the situation, so we climbed up on the rocks for a group picture.  Once we snapped the photo, we were all coming down off the rocks and that's when it happened. 

Brant's dad, Mr. Cunningham slipped on the rocks, breaking his leg and dislocating his ankle.  He was in pain and obviously unable to walk three miles back to the vehicles.  We wasted no time and immediately took action.  Mr. McGregor gave us instructions and we followed them.  Some boys began to splint his leg and ankle with a stick, bandannas and shirts.  Other boys cut down two small trees and covered them with their shirts to make a stretcher. 

Mr. McGregor sent Brant and I back down the trail to catch up with the couple that had just left.  He instructed us to ask them to go to the ranger station and send a rescue team.  He also told us to take a quart of water, don't run, and stay together.  Well, Brant was a little panicked to say the least.  Did I mention he ran on the cross-country team at Hallsville HS?  So, we started heading down the trail at a slow jog, but that only lasted about a minute.  Brant began to worry that we wouldn't catch up to them before they reached the vehicles.  He began to sprint down the trail and I followed as best as I could.  I'm not a runner, but we ran the entire three miles to the bottom.  We were exhausted, but worse, we hadn't seen the couple.  We thought that they had already left, but we weren't sure. 

Brant looked at me in desperation and said, "Give me your water."  When I asked why, he told me he was going to run to the headquarters.  When I reminded him that it was twenty miles away, he said he didn't care and he asked for my water again.  I gave him my water and watched him run off down the dirt road...alone.  (If you are unsure, that was the mistake.) 

As I headed back up the trail to tell the others what had happened, all I could think about was Brant's safety.  Would he make it? Would the heat make him delirious? What if  someone bad picked him up?  Then, as I was hiking, I came across the couple.  I was a little relieved, but still concerned about Brant's safety.  Apparently we had run past them while they were eating lunch just a few feet off the trail.  I told them about Mr. Cunningham's accident and about Brant.  They were concerned as well and agreed to pick Brant up and take him to the ranger's station. 

I continued up the trail wondering if these people would take care of Brant or do something awful to him.  I felt I had no other choice than to ask them for help.  Then I came upon the bees that were no longer in the hive.  Brant and I had just run right past them and they were now angry.  I hiked off the trail through some thick brush and avoided them.  Finally, I reached the top. 

Everyone had just finished loading Mr. Cunningham onto the stretcher and they were starting down the trail.  When they saw me, they stopped and asked where Brant was.  I knew I was in trouble, but I told Mr. McGregor everything that had happened.  He asked me why we had run and why we didn't stay together and I could only say that it was because we panicked.  They made me grab a side of the stretcher and help carry the load as we began down the trail.  Now I realized even more that Mr. Cunningham would be fine and that Brant's safety was now the number one concern.  What a mess I had gotten us into. 

Well, as you can imagine, while we were hiking down, we eventually reached the bees and they weren't happy to see us.  To make matters worse, there was no way we could go off trail with Mr. Cunningham.  So, we decided that only four people would carry him down the path slowly by the bees while everyone else went by safely several yards off the trail.  Well our plan was weak, because as soon as we came near the bees, they attacked.  We were all getting stung and instinctively, we dropped Mr. Cunningham on the ground and ran.  We got all the bees off of us and heard Mr. Cunningham yelling at us, "Hey Guys!"  So we ran back to get him and we got stung some more.  We made it out of there and discovered that everybody had at least four or five stings.  Most of us got stung on arms or legs, but Dan McGregor got stung in the face and it swelled up.  He wasn't in serious condition and he looked really funny, so we all got a laugh out of that.  Mr. Cunningham was stung only once right on the forehead.  We all seemed to be OK, so we began down the trail again.  

When we reached the bottom, much to our relief, we saw two rangers and Brant standing by a truck with a horse trailer.  The rangers were preparing to evacuate Mr. Cunningham by mule and cart!  There was no place for a helicopter to get to us at the top and the trail was too narrow for vehicles, so they told us the mules were the only option.  However, there was no need for that because we had already brought him down on our own.  The rangers were very impressed and told us that they had never seen anyone pull off a rescue as well as we had.

We informed them of the bees and they told us that our splint was perfect and that there was no need to replace it.  So, we loaded up into the vans and put Mr. Cunningham in the back of his suburban (still on the stretcher).  We then drove 100 miles to the closest hospital which was in Alpine, TX.  There, they had a doctor that only came through once every six weeks.  Thankfully, he was there and was able to set Mr. Cnningham's leg and put a cast on it.  Besides our first-aid, he didn't receive treatment until 24 hours after his injury. 

Looking back we can laugh about all of our mishaps and problems that day, but we also realize some important lessons.  One, you should never panic in an emergency situation.  Two, never leave your buddy - no matter what.  Three, don't mess with killer bees.  When we came back to Longview, they put our names in the paper telling our dramatic rescue story.

So that is my story and I hope all of you saw the dangers and problems that arose when I left my buddy.  I hope you will learn from my mistake and avoid similar troubles.  That being said, I hope you have some great adventures of your own in scouting.  Those are experiences that you will remember forever and learn a great deal from as well.  Happy trails!

Love in Christ,

Mike Avery
Youth Minister
Memorial Church of Christ
900 Echo Lane
Houston, TX 77024
phone: (713) 464-0271
fax: (713) 464-0812
www.mcoc.org

www.memorialyouth.org

 

 

August 2005

Hey guys-
This is Hunter Nunn writing to you from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, Arkansas. I just wanted to let you all know I'm doing great up here and I hope you guys and your families are doing great back in Longview. I wish all of you the best of luck in your pursuit of Eagle Scout, believe me, it's an achievement that will help you the rest of your lives. You all take care of yourselves, stay out of trouble, keep pressing on til you reach the top of the mountain and be good. God bless.
Be Prepared,
Hunter Nunn