Re: MB skills and Eagle BoR - Double Feature
(no name) ((no email))
Mon, 29 Jan 1996 09:36:07 -0700
From: "J. Hugh Sullivan" <sullivan@NETAM.NET>
>>The Lifesaving Merit Badge is another that deals with life or death
>>issues. However, unlike the Wilderness Survival MB, the Scout has to
>>PROVE he has the ability to safe a life with a minimum level of skill.
>At our summer camps in the 40s, a Red Cross Examiner came to test us on Life
>Saving skills. As the biggest, I was tested first; when he (225 lbs.)
>unexpectedly exploded out of the water and grabbed me in a choke hold, I
>forgot everything I knew. I panicked and kneed him in the stomach and, as a
>result, had to rescue a breathless man. Needlesss to say I passed and he
>watched the rest of the tests. Passing a rigid final was SOP; is that still
>true at summer camps? I hold rigid testing in high regard.
This type of testing is most DEFINATELY OUT! (forgive the caps, but I am
shouting). It could earn you a lawsuit. OSHA has found that more people
were injured in training than ever needed the type of training you
describe. Anyone doing lifeguarding should have proper equipment and
training. If you have not been trained in the last year, you are obsolete!
(At least as far as the Red Cross is concerned. Any lifeguarding card
which does not have R95 on it is no longer valid.)
What was found is that the above does not describe a realistc senario.
In real situations this almost never happens. A rational person trying to
act irrational, it does not work.
The Red Cross has droped contact training (releases and holds, cross chest
carry) because a trained lifeguard should never need to use these in a work
environment. Although Lifesaving merit badge was updated in 1993, I expect
another update before 1997 becuase of the ditates made by OSHA.
Chris Haggerty
District Advancement Chairman, Cochise District, Catalina council,
Sierra Vista Arizona
Instructor Trainer for Water Safety, American Red Cross Fort Huachuca
Station.
Terry Howerton Sakima Group, Inc. SCOUTER Magazine Kansas City | 
