Scouting Dream Fulfilled for Heroic Nevada Boy

For much of his young life, 13-year-old William Holsclaw longed to be a Boy Scout. But his family’s mobile home in Nevada was too far from an established troop and young Holsclaw could only look at his father’s scouting manual and dream.

But at a colorful ceremony in a Norwalk fire station Sunday, Holsclaw became only the eighth Boy Scout in the organization’s 75-year history to receive a Carnegie Medal of Honor for Life Saving, the highest award any Scout can receive.

Holsclaw is credited with saving the lives of his two younger brothers a year ago Sunday when a fire broke out in the family’s mobile home in Jean, Nev. Although his own clothing was on fire, Holsclaw handed both his brothers out a window to his waiting father before climbing to safety himself.

When former Troop 981 scoutmaster Larry Jones read a newspaper account of Holsclaw’s act of heroism, he decided to ask the boy to become a “lone Scout” member of the Norwalk troop.

“I cried when I read what he had done and I just knew there had to be something we could do to give him recognition,” Jones said. “I had no idea he had wanted to be a Scout. . . . I was told that when he got my letter asking him to join us, he said ‘far out,’ and that was the first really positive reaction he had had to anything after the fire.”

While his brothers, now 4 and 5 years old, suffered only minor injuries, Holsclaw has endured agonizing medical treatments for second- and third-degree burns that covered 40% of his body. He still must wear a special pressurized body suit that protects his skin during the slow, painful healing process.

But Holsclaw’s parents say the most exciting moment for the boy was when he received an invitation to become an honorary member of Boy Scout Troop 981 in Norwalk.

Before the fire, “All I could do was use the scouting manual as reference on camping trips and try to teach William how to be just like a Boy Scout,” said Jimmy Holsclaw, the boy’s father. “He never actually got to be one.”

That has changed. The Holsclaws, who have moved to the town of Good Springs, about 35 miles southwest of Las Vegas, have driven to Los Angeles several times in the last year to participate in troop projects and camping trips. Jimmy Holsclaw volunteers long-distance as an assistant scoutmaster for the group.

At Sunday’s ceremony, the boy seemed overwhelmed by the thundering sound of the Norwalk All-City Youth Marching Band as it heralded his arrival. He nervously admitted that all the attention was making him so scared his heart was “banging like a drum doing Dixieland.”

After the ceremony, the youth told reporters he was “excited” by the award, but that he was “not exactly” a hero.

“Look, what would you have done if there were two screaming kids in there and you were the only one who could get at them?” he asked after several minutes of questioning about the fire. “That’s the only way I can explain it to you.”