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Remembering a son and brother
(by Megan Burrow - September 02, 2008)
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Photos Courtesy Of Pat Herbert
Pat Herbert, Dave’s mother, and Rob Buschow, Dave’s brother recently visited the area in Utah where he died.
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Two years after Dave Buschow traveled to Utah to learn how to survive in the wild, never to return home, his mother, Pat Herbert and her son Rob retraced his steps through the arid trail, hoping to gain some perspective on Dave’s last moments.
The 29-year-old River Vale native had gone to Utah in July of 2006, enrolled along with 11 other students in the Colorado-based Boulder Outdoor Survival School (BOSS) to learn wilderness survival.
Since graduating from Pascack Valley Regional High School in 1995, Dave had lived his life trying to soak in as many experiences as possible, spending four and a half years in the United States Air Force, serving in such exotic locales as Saudi Arabia and Greenland.
He had worked numerous security jobs with military contractors all over the world. His next destination after brushing up on his survival skills was to be to Antarctica.
On just the second day of the 28-day course, after hours of hiking through 90-plus degree temperatures, with no access to food or water, Buschow collapsed and died of dehydration less than 100 yards from a water source.
The three instructors accompanying the group all had been carrying water for emergencies, but had not given any to Buschow, who had complained of thirst and exhaustion during the all-day hike.
The family and BOSS had reached a settlement in November of last year, requiring all field course participants to carry water and staff members to carry satellite phones and GPS units in case of emergency. It also established an annual Dave Buschow Memorial Scholarship, which enables a student to attend a BOSS 28-day field course.
Herbert said that although she was happy to see the changes implemented, she wishes they would have been in place before and prevented her son’s death. “They were supposed to offer water if you thought someone was in trouble. There was poor judgement and a real lack of communication.”
For months afterward Herbert did not even want to water her plants or waste a drop, knowing that having even just a little bit of water could have saved Dave’s life.
Although Herbert had planned to eventually visit the site of her son’s death, the scholarship provided an impetus to take the trip this summer. The scholarship had been awarded and the school invited the family to come and meet the recipient.
“Some may wonder why we asked for the scholarship at all after what happened,” Herbert said. “We decided our son would have approved of the school and wanted someone else to learn how to survive in the wilderness.”
While there, Herbert and Rob retraced Dave’s steps, making the trip down the canyon on horseback.
“It really made us understand how hard it was for them,” Herbert said. “We rode for six hours straight, while carrying water with the temperature in the low 80s. That day it was in the high 90s, they were walking and had no water.”
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Dave Buschow, 29 died in 2006 while taking a wilderness survival course.
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She described the area as “beautiful, but harsh.” Because the area is in a cannon the air is thin and the sun bouncing of the slick rocks creates a “furnace effect” that contributes to incredibly trying conditions.
The mother and son went to the cave where water was finally discovered, now renamed “Dave’s Cave,” and saw just how close he was when he collapsed.
They also met with the instructors who were with Dave when he died, his “buddy” that day, and the search and rescue team that tried to save him.
“The goal was to try and understand, and make sure Dave’s death wasn’t for nothing,” Rob said of the emotional confrontation with the instructors. “It was hard to restrain myself when talking to them. You don’t know how you’re going to react until you’re looking right at the source of so much pain that could’ve been so easily avoided.”
Herbert said she was proud of Rob’s restraint and that they tried to convey “all the anger, rage, and sadness, all the emotions that followed” so the instructors would understand what the family had been through. “They didn’t say anything, just stared ahead with a blank face, but you could tell they were all very upset and had suffered from it.”
While nothing could ever heal the wounds, the trip helped Herbert and Rob understand what Dave went through that day and remember a son and a brother so missed.
“He was an amazing person with a huge heart,” Rob said. “Even though he was my younger brother he was someone I learned a lot from.”
For more information about Dave Buschow, visit www.rememberdave.net.
Megan Burrow's e-mail address is burrow@northjersey.com.
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