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http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2004/04/30/news/top_stories/23_00_274_29_04.txt
News: Top Stories
Last modified Thursday, April 29, 2004 11:35 PM PDT
Local Boy Scouts in the spotlight after diver's rescue
By: ADRIENNE AQUIRRE and ANDREA MOSS - Staff Writers
SAN DIEGO ---- Some local Boy Scouts knew they were in for an adventure when they headed to sea on a 100-year-old sailing vessel last weekend, but they had no idea the trip would turn them into celebrities.
Members of Rancho Bernardo Boy Scout Troop 681 found themselves in the spotlight after they participated in Sunday's rescue of a scuba diver found floating at least 7 miles off the coast of Newport Beach.
The boys and their parents have spent the days since the incident fielding a bevy of phone calls and interview requests from the media. The story went national Wednesday, and some of the boys and their parents told their tale on such network shows as "Good Morning America" and "NBC Today" the next day.
Many of the scouts say they are enjoying the temporary spotlight brought on by their good deed.
They are surprisingly modest, though, about their role in probably saving diver Dan Carlock's life.
"We're the Boy Scouts," said Scout Dan Carroll, 14. "We're meant to help people."
The boys had little clue what they were in for when 20 representatives of their troop ---- including 15 scouts and five of their parents ---- climbed aboard the tall ship "Argus" Saturday morning for a two-day journey designed to train the boys to sail the vessel and learn teamwork and leadership skills.
The "Argus" was manned by half a dozen older Sea Scouts who played mentor to their younger counterparts as the ship set course for Catalina Island.
The boys spent a busy first day learning to do such things as raise the ship's giant sails and participating in emergency drills ---- including one "man overboard" call.
Their return trip Sunday morning got under way in heavy fog. Visibility was still at about a half-mile when Rancho Bernardo teen Craig Tracy, 17, stood at the helm with Sea Scout Zach Mayberry around noon. Thinking he spotted someone in the water, Mayberry asked Craig to confirm the sighting.
"I heard him scream for help," Craig said Thursday of the diver. "No one believed it was a person, so I got out the binoculars to show them."
The boys responded as they had been taught the day before, working together to keep their eyes on the bobbing man's location and helping to launch a rubber dinghy that plucked the man out of the water.
When Carlock, who lives in Santa Monica, was pulled aboard the "Argus," he told the group he had been floating for about five hours after being left behind in the water by a dive boat that had moved on to a second dive site several miles away.
The boat's dive master eventually realized he was missing a participant and radioed the Coast Guard, which launched a search for the missing man.
Rancho Bernardo Scout Tim Carroll, 17, warmed Carlock with towels once he was aboard the "Argus."
"He looked pretty overjoyed that we came to his rescue," Tim said. "And he looked pretty cold .... But he was in very good spirits despite his condition."
Other scouts said the diver, who noted he was once a Boy Scout, thanked them over and over for rescuing him.
Attempts to reach Carlock on Thursday were unsuccessful. Coast Guard spokesman Louie Hererg said the diver was fine and needed no hospitalization after his ordeal.
The Coast Guard is conducting an investigation into why Carlock's dive boat left him behind.
The Los Angeles District Attorney's office has decided not to prosecute anyone in connection with the incident, making it a civil matter, Hererg said.
Members of Boy Scout Troop 681 said they have had no contact with Carlock since he was transferred from the "Argus" to a Coast Guard vessel.
Troop member Kris Sewell, whose Navy corpsman father Kelly checked the diver out after he was first pulled from the water, said the scouts didn't really realize the significance of what they had done until word of the rescue got out and the media began calling.
"I think it was maybe a little shock or something," said Kris, 16. "But when you think about it, we saved the guy's life because he could have drifted away."
Fellow Scout Philip Beckman, who at 13 was the youngest aboard the "Argus" during the rescue, said it taught him a valuable lesson.
"I learned that you have to be prepared for anything and everything that could happen," said the Bernardo Heights Middle School student. "And no matter what, you can't expect everything that's going to happen, and you have to be ready to put your skills to the test."
Troop member Dan Carroll, 14, said he looked at himself differently after the incident.
"I was proud of myself," he said. "I felt like I accomplished something. It's not every day that you get to rescue someone."
