Band of Scouting Misfits Attains Eagle Ranking
Achievement of 11 Teens Is Called Unprecedented
By Fredrick Kunkle
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, January 19, 2008; A01

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 after having covered about the length of the Mall.

But something happened to these 11 whiny, quick-to-say-quit goofballs from Boy Scout Troop 681 in Falls Church. It happened somewhere along the way between pinewood derbies and knot-tying in the Scout House, the log cabin 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 how to set up an L-shaped ambush, Ranger-style.

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.

Only 5 percent of Scouts achieve Eagle rank by age 18, when Scouting ends.

Read more at The Washington Post.

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