Volume 1: Scout to the Pole

 “Liars!   Liars!   They’re all liars!”

• It was 1964. I was one of two Eagle Scouts selected by national competition to accompany U.S. Navy explorers on the FIRST on-foot expedition to the North Pole. The eyes of the whole world were on us: Nanook and Schnook.
• We were promised another “Journey of Discovery” – a Lewis and Clark adventure. Discovery it was. But! NOT the progress and wonder that was promised. What humans were doing there was a nightmare of LIES, corruption and incompetence.
• “In the base commander’s office – NOW!” “Sorry boys, the expedition is CANCELLED! Ice is too soft! You are reassigned to the meteorology station. The station is a disaster. I WANT RESULTS! DISMISSED!”
• Climate change was already underway. Permafrost was melting. Buildings were toppling over.
• The “Admiral” and supervising college Dean were coming to inspect the meteorology station in three weeks.
• The two university students sent up there were report writers. They didn’t even know which way to turn a screw driver! A tower had collapsed. The lake instrument trolley didn’t work. Half the instruments didn’t work. The power didn’t work. They didn’t even have a BOAT to work on the thin ice covered lake! There were no vehicles to even take us out to the station!
• “I WANT RESULTS!”

The internationally acclaimed Eagle Scouts were SCREWED!