Jim,
I'm sorry that you had such a negative experience with your friend's troop. As with any organization (BSA in this example), there are members who "don't get it". I'm sure if you compared a sample from this board to your average camper/backpacker you would find that most here are more aware of and practice common camping courtesy and LNT.

I am an Eagle Scout (1979) and was an assistant Scoutmaster for a large troop (75-95 Scouts) in the Dallas area for 4 years. We were fortunate to have 10 Assistant Scoutmasters (ASM) in addition to several other adult leaders. All of the ASM's and several of the adult leaders have attended adult leader training. All of the ASM's had attended basic outdoor skills training (2 sessions - 2 days each). Several of our ASM's have extensive camping experience. We took 3 crews to Philmont this past summer and 70% of the attendees were certified in CPR/AED. All Scouts were required to have earned First Aid merit badge. About half of the attendees were also certified in Wilderness First Aid.
We have two adults leaders that are certified in rifle and shotgun shooting, and another who is trained in climbing.
We also have some special needs Scouts and several ASM's are trained to deal with those Scouts.
Is this typical to have this much training? Probably not, but I would say that for our area it is not that unusual. We are fortunate to live in an area where training is readily available and have adults who take their responsibilities seriously.

We camp in all types of weather. (I, mean no disrespect to Bulrush). I can recall only one camp out that was canceled due to weather. It was forecasted to have ice on Sunday when we would have been coming home and it would have made the roads very hazardous. (Dryer can attest that people in Dallas have no idea how to drive on ice!) We typically have to deal more with heat than with cold and with violent weather (ie tornados).
In north Texas, we don't experience the prolonged winter weather that many on this board do. It typically comes in sudden bursts. We have left on Friday evenings with temp's in the mid 60's and by 11pm it is 35F with freezing rain and the temp still dropping. Of course, we listen to the forecast so we know what is coming. We spend 2-3 weekly meetings talking about winter camping and showing the Scouts what to bring (our troop is boy lead so it is older Scouts teaching younger Scouts - with a healthy dose of adult input based on experience). So, do they listen? Usually not the first time. It takes one really cold campout where they freeze their buttocks before they really get it. (We make sure they are in no real danger).
We have 2-3 campouts each winter where the weather gets nasty. The boys are taught to watch for signs of hypothermia. We had an incident last winter where one of our patrol leaders got chilled and had early symptoms of hypothermia. The other Scouts in his patrol got him into his bag and started getting warm liquids into him and came and got an ASM. We started getting calories into him then. Another time, one of our special needs Scouts became mildly hypothermic, frustrated and agitated (not related to the hypothermia) and his patrol members came and got adults to deal with the situation (as they had been taught to do).
So, I guess some of it does get through.

I can guarantee that if you went camping with our troop, you would find that we leave the place cleaner than we found it, otherwise we don't leave until it is. We emphasize LNT and we also teach to have the right gear for the situation.
Do the Scouts always listen? NO!, but as I said, some of it does seem to get through. We have a parent's meeting once a month (same time as the Scout meeting) so they know what is coming up and we share information with them about what type gear their son needs. We also use a group broadcast email to share information. Do they get? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. It's not from a lack of trying on the part of the leadership. Most of our new dads pick up very quickly what is expected and none of us "old goats" have a problem with telling them (privately) if they are not putting forth a good example.

My family and I have relocated to deep east Texas so we are looking for a new troop and hope to find one as outstanding as the one we left.

I hope you (and others on this board) have better experiences with Scouting in the future.

Tango61