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Fall of the Leader (part II)

A good training program can stick with you for a long time. With three years of university training Wiley had once managed a year of teaching in the ethnic, inner city neighborhoods of South Central LA. With six weeks of Scout Leadership training, he has improved. Wiley stays with his Troop33 program for 10 years and over time helps 25 kids (including both his sons) advance to the rank of Eagle Scout. Eddie and Russ don’t do so good.

Two years past the Hawk Patrol classes, Eddie makes the local county news, arrested for multiple armed robberies in the affluent homes of suburban Maryland. He gets fifteen years in the penitentiary for his crimes. The last time Wiley and Russ run into each other they are both riding the DC metro. Russ is escorting some inner city kids to a Redskins football game. He remembers Wiley and gives him a football poster for his kids. A couple of years later Russ appears in the local county news. On an ‘off-duty’ motorcycle trip in West Virginia, Russ is killed by a car, jumping the median and crashing into the bike.

By now, Mr. C has left Troop33, replaced as Scoutmaster by Sailor Man, another community parent who like Wiley, has gone through the scout training program with Russ. Together they tie the knots, sing the songs, and give first aid, master camping skills, and leadership training. Stuff like that. Wiley and Sailor Man attend the memorial service for Russ, an evening of tribute and mourning,. To pay homage to a respected member of this community, a dozen police cars blink their patrol car lights outside the funeral home. Inside, hundreds of people queue up for the casket viewing and memorial service. A squad of county policeman perform close-order drill in tribute to their fallen colleague. Sailor Man and Wiley pay their last respects.

As the song goes, ‘this cast of Hawks never lets you down’. They carry on Russ’s leadership training, working together with Troop33 for the next severalyears. They tie the knots, give first aid, and teach the camping skills, passing on the lessons handed down from their Hawk Patrol. Stuff like that. Wiley still writes the songs.