“This was a true-life adventure:” Assistant Boy Scout Scoutmaster details airlift rescue from the Gila National Forest

EL PASO, Texas -- "[The weather report] looked accurate. It showed one to two days of light rain" says Assistant Scoutmaster Christopher George, who was leading his troop on an 8-day, 50-mile hike through the Gila wilderness north of Silver City, New Mexico. He said he had taken this exact trip many times before.

"What we ended up with after being there for a couple days was something different."

"Constant and moderate" rains in the region ended up raising the West Fork of the Gila River at least 1.5 feet according to George, which significantly deepened and widened the river. This gave George and his troop problems, as up to 30 crossings of the river on this hike are required.

George says a few days into the trip, the river had become even deeper, and crossing safely had become impossible, especially for some of the younger scouts.

"At that moment, we decided to call it quits" he said.

"We made that decision to hunker down right where we were at and wait" he added.

Scoutmaster George told us that he had just given the troop a class on wilderness survival two days prior, and one of the points that was made is that help would be on the way if people know where you are.

"You couldn't get better training than that for the kids" he said.

He said a search helicopter came and located the group on the night of October 7th, and the next day around noon, a New Mexico State Police rescue helicopter and a New Mexico National Guard helicopter arrived to airlift them back to the Gila Cliff Dwellings parking lot.

Despite the ordeal he and his troop went through, George said he'd do it all over again. "I would do it again in a heartbeat" he said.

"Even knowing what would happen, I would go right back into it."