Off-Duty Deputy/Scoutmaster and his Scouts rescue family from flipped van

[RememberSchiff]

Troop 26 scouts were returning on Georgia I-75 from a week-long camping trip when the van in front of them blew its back tires and flip... They rescued a family of four.

Good story of scouts with video

https://www.wjcl.com/article/georgia-boy-scout-crash-rescue/40271959

Well done. Scout salute.

Edited June 13, 2022 by RememberSchiff

[SiouxRanger]

Over 50 years ago I saved a life. No doubt.

 

Was on family vacation when I was about 14-16.  At a lake in Wisconsin.  The resort had a sloped wooden platform ramp into the lake onto which one could run up the boat to land it. Partially in the lake and partially dry.  The ramp held about 6 boats.

The ramp was at the base of a "cliff" of about 60', heavily wooded and shielded from view from everyone in the cabins above.

I had landed my boat after fishing, got out, slipped on the algae growing on the portion of the ramp in the water, noted it was wickedly slick and dangerous.

I went out onto the dock to clean off ??? (that I don't remember).

And down the 60' set of steps to the ramp area came a group of 3 or 4 year olds.  Chattering, laughing.  I looked at them and then scanned the area and saw no adults supervising them. No adults. Strange, I thought.

The group made it to the flat area by the ramp and dock.  They were very noisy-chattering and giggling-maybe 5 or 6 children.  They could not speak.  So they were young.

I went about my business out on the dock, until I noticed a marked increase in the chatter from the group of children.  I looked at them, nothing seemed amiss, but they were looking at the lake, pointing, and clearly agitated.

I asked the group (something???) but they were too young to respond.

I remember looking around to detect if anything was amiss.  The lake surface was smooth. Nothing.

I looked again at the group of children, and they were looking toward an area off the end of the boat ramp.

The same ramp I had slipped on a few minutes before, nearly making my way into the lake by accident.

The water was opaque due to silt and an algae bloom.

I recall making a couple of quick surveys of the entire situation-maybe in nanoseconds, and full well knowing the idiocy (Eagle Scout or nearly so) of jumping into water where one does not know of the obstacles in the water (like steel fence posts which can impale you) I jumped into the lake.

I thrashed about searching.  (For what? Was there even a problem? Maybe I am a fool.)

And my left hand grasped a child's forearm and my instant thought was to get the child's head above water so the child could breathe.

And I helped the boy onto the boat dock.

All the children ran off as if nothing had happened. Never saw them again.

And a mom had her son returned to her and never knew that she had lost him.

My dad wondered then why I was so wet, and apparently my explanation was not sufficient, as many years later, he finally grasped the significance of the event. "You saved a life?" Yes.

Being a minor at the time of the event, and the oldest and only witness capable of talking about the event, I do not qualify for any BSA lifesaving award.

Yet, to this day, my memory holds firm the sensation of my left hand grasping the forearm of the boy I drew from the lake and placed on the boat dock to run off and continue as if nothing happened.

And so it is.

We be Scouts.

[qwazse]

@SiouxRanger without belaboring the details, me too. I was the next to last person to leave the water and did that last once-over scan that lifesaving instructors pound into your head, saw my friend struggling in the deep about to slip quietly away, reached out a hand, and forestalled death.

It’s what we do. No fanfare required.

Edited June 13, 2022 by qwazse

[SiouxRanger]

2 hours ago, qwazse said:

@SiouxRanger without belaboring the details, me too. I was the next to last person to leave the water and did that last once-over scan that lifesaving instructors pound into your head, saw my friend struggling in the deep about to slip quietly away, reached out a hand, and forestalled death.

It’s what we do. No fanfare required.

Absolutely.

I cannot recall WHY I jumped into the lake.  I only recall that SOMETHING was wrong. And I got it right.

It is why Scouting matters.

[SSScout]

A boy named sioux ranger::::

You were in the right place at the right time with the right training and attitude ....

There is no such thing as coincidence.....

AND... what were you doing out on a lake in a boat at age 14 without (two deep) adult supervision ? 😉

[Oldscout448]

As a cub the first thing I read in Boys Life was always the Scouts in Action strip.  To get a gold medal would be the absolute height of coolness. So during my boyscouting years I took every first aid and lifesaving class I could find.  But people simply would not cooperate and have  some sort of emergency right in front of me so  I could rescue them and get my medal.

Then in my  late 20s on a lonely country road, a convertible flipped over pinning the driver.  I did all the right things and he survived, but  I wasn't in Scouting  anymore.   There was another time when to save a friend I had to do something crazy enough it just might have warranted crossed palms. I was a Den Leader but no witnesses.  So ....

I  found I didn't really care.  They got to go home to their families and that's all that really matters.

Cub or Scouter, unregistered or active, we be Scouts.

Always.

 

 

Edited June 14, 2022 by Oldscout448

[SiouxRanger]

3 hours ago, SSScout said:

A boy named sioux ranger::::

You were in the right place at the right time with the right training and attitude ....

There is no such thing as coincidence.....

AND... what were you doing out on a lake in a boat at age 14 without (two deep) adult supervision ? 😉

About 1966.  Just me in the boat. All so long ago.

And the lake was large enough that I could be out of eyesight for many hours. My parents trusted me.  Not quite sure I would let my children wander off so as my parents let me do so.

The whole incident happened in about 2 minutes.  Being so young, I did not realize the significance of what I did for about 40 years.  "Kid falls in lake, pull him out, start the grill, move on."

Only many decades later, parent of 3, did it occur to me that what happened sent a child home to his family which may have had a much more tragic outcome.

In the scheme of being a "hero" just not so much.

But in the life of that boy and family, HUGE.  And none of them know that they dodged a bullet.

To them, it never happened.

Training creates reflex.

Things just didn't seem "right."

I recall processing whether jumping in the lake made any sense considering (and looking like a sopping wet idiot fool) that there was no visible disturbance in the lake as opposed to the outcome if I was just totally wrong. And I jumped.

I had never jumped in a lake before, and not in the 56 years after.

Just once, but the right once.

Scouting teaches skills, all which get checked off when completed. 

What is NOT measured is the value of learning those skills toward the development of JUDGMENT, by the process of trial and error of failed attempts and partial successes, all leading to achieve those skills checked off.

WHY I jumped into the lake, I just do not know. But it was the right call, and for that, I do not know even know.

I am certain that had I not a sense of "Helpful" I would have hesitated, and that would have led to disaster.

It all so happened in seconds.

Yet a child lived.

 

 

 

 

Edited June 14, 2022 by SiouxRanger

[qwazse]

21 hours ago, SiouxRanger said:

… WHY I jumped into the lake, I just do not know. But it was the right call, and for that, I do not know even know. …

As I explain to our post-docs: there’s differential diagnosis, and then there’s the hair rising on the back of your neck.

[SiouxRanger]

"Hair rising on back of neck."

Probably the best explanation of it all.

Not to prolong this discussion, but I DISTINCTLY recall that when I drew the boy from the lake, he was not gasping or choking.

He could not have been underwater for more than some seconds, otherwise he would have been in some sort of distress. He was not. Under water long enough for the surface to settle but before he started gasping.  I suspect he slipped off the boat ramp like I almost did a few minutes ago, and slipped into the lake nearly silently creating minimal surface distortion.

Had I not experienced a near slip into the lake just minutes before, having then realized just how unexpectedly slippery it was, I doubt I would have jumped into the lake, and that boy would have died.

After I jumped into the lake, I distinctly remember thrashing around in the lake with my left arm, my right arm stabilizing my jump into the lake-it all happened so quickly, and my panic that I had not found anything and then an instant later grasping a little arm.

By such slender threads are lives held in safety.

This is not a story about me.

It is a lesson on how to give insight to others on just how such strange and sudden circumstances can happen, and the importance of quick reactions.  All to get folks to think outside the box.  Frankly, that that boy's life was saved was just a miracle.  Multitudes of subtle things came together and the result was great.

I am an inveterate educator.  I puzzle through things, learn truths, and want to pass them on.  My thought is that I need to pass on my observations and knowledge to folks who will likely need it but are not making any attempts to learn it. They can listen not, if they so desire, but some listen.  And they can advance from there.  And maybe I am wrong. And that is OK also.

And so I post this.

My personal motto is, "Not that I did it, but that it was done."  I am result oriented not credit oriented. I do not seek credit for anything.  I just want to spread sound knowledge. And to learn from those who correct me.

One of the most important things I ever did was not witnessed by anyone (well some unspeaking children).

And that is OK.

But I know that I did my Scouting duty.

 

[SSScout]

We no longer have "big" miracles, only small ones to remind us of how/why/what. 

In the "right place" , at the "right time", with the "right skills" , with the "right attitude".....

Aw, it's just a co-incidence....   

I don't think so.

Otherwise, howcum the detective always finds a parking space RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE SCENE OF THE CRIME ? 

When wife and I go someplace, and we find our parking space RIGHT THERE.... I know we are supposed to be here.