Any Doper Eagle Scouts?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
41

onger :dubious: …I would not do anything abov

Hey I was in Scouts in Wellsburg WV, Troop 73, in a small Ohio river town near Steubenville OH…I can’t remember the name oh the camp I went to but it was in Ohio, we were out of the Steubenville counsel.

I made it to life…I was the youngest possible boy scout lifeguard as I got it the DAY I was eligible, age required of 12 I believe.
I was in line for Eagle but our scoutmaster and the local priest was a lecher and a terrorist (YES he terrorized young boys in the name of the “order of the arrow”…my Mom got him removed as both Scoutmaster and parish priest, but not until I was kicked out of scouts for telling the truth…

Disgruntled, not in the least…every good organization has a few bad eggs. I had Loads of fun. I worked at camp every summer for 6 weeks, got paid and had fun. I was a lifeguard and Rowing/Canoeing/first-aid Instructor.

To make a long post longer, I would not support the scouting program other than a lowly perfunctory level until they change their views on Religion and Sexuality…say maybe have a Human Sexuality and Cultural Diversity merit badge I feel that is as relevant as…
AMERICAN LABOR BASKETRY and STAMP COLLECTING not that these are inappropriate badges at all.

Thanks to the OP for the ear and the memories…That’s on of the things I LOVE about this website, the chance to examine almost every aspect of my life on one site…sadly the other Site in my life is FARK :dubious:

Peace, love andGoDogGo

tsfr

42

:o :o dag nabbit :smack: there is not tool like preview, there is no tool like preview, there is no tool like preview…

Trying to figure out myself what this was or ment…stray text tin my otherwise flawless posting… :dubious:

:eek:
tsfr

43

Cub Scout, Webelos, Eagle Scout. No Eagle palms, but I was Also OA, Vigil Member.
I never even saw an Explorer. These were mythical beings, referred to in Boys’ Life and other publications.

44

This is funny!

I was a cub scout for a couple of years, and then a Scout for a couple of years. I’m sorry to say I probably didn’t take it as seriously as I might have, but we had some good times. I never got anywhere near Eagle. To the OP, you must have gone fast through the ranks. How old were you when you first joined? I ask because most guys seem to take up Boy Scouting when they are around 11, and yet several of the guys I lived with in my freshman year of college had their eagle ceremonies that year.

45

Life Scout, OA brotherhood.

Although, the OA was basically setting up platforms at Winterburg.

Buddy of mine was Eagle Scout AND a member of that indian dancing team thing.

46

I’m guessing he was going off of memory because they are slightly misspelled, but I had to look them up. That’s why I just put WWW at the bottom of my post, plus it’s more conspiracy-like.

47

I never did Cub Scouts, was pressured to join Boy Scouts when I was 11 by my parents and was glad they did.

Eagle Scout, 1987
OA, Brotherhood member
APL, ASPL, SPL, and JASM
Camp Counselor for six summers at Camp Rota-Kiwan (Now Rota-Kiwan Scout Reservation) in Kalamazoo, MI, where I was a Counselor in Training in '83, Asst. Rifle Range instructor in '85, Asst. Commissioner '86 and '87 and Area Commissioner in '88 and '89. (Commissioners taught Camping, Cooking, Hiking, Pioneering, Orienteering and Backpacking Merit Badges, plus we taught Totin Chip and were responsible for the camp areas that troops stayed in.)

We had quite an active troop. We had a camping trip scheduled every month during the school year, so it was easy for us to earn our merit badges. I earned my First Aid merit badge before I even earned my “Boy Scout” badge. Our troop was on the decline though and by the time I made Eagle Scout, we had only about 12 kids in the troop.

What I loved best was working on Summer Camp Staff at Rota-Kiwan. If I could still afford to do that I would still be out there every summer. I still remember every trail in the camp including those that were not very well known by the other campers. The camp had it’s 75th anniversery about 6 years ago and they had all sorts of Camp Staff Alumni come back to visit. Current staff members were giving tours of the camp to those that were interested and a friend of mine from back then and I just looked at each other and said, “Uh I think we can find our way around.” then we laughed to ourselves. Og I miss that place.

in '94 after I got married, I was involved for about 2 years with a Scout troop in Grand Rapids as an adult leader. They were thrilled to have somone who was an Eagle Scout there to help with the troop. Then I had to move and haven’t been involved directly with Scouting since.

3 years ago we signed up my oldest son for Tiger Cubs. Maybe it was the fact that I never joined Cub Scouts. Maybe it was that the program had changed over 25 years, but I thought the Tiger Cub program sucked. The leadership was really bad… very disorganised. They would do stuff at presentations that made no sense and the kids never got the type of guidance needed to make their achievement awards. The kicker though was that my son just wasn’t having a good time, so we pulled him out.

48

Good to see so many Scouting Dopers!

August West, the '85 Jamboree was indeed at Fort A.P. Hill (named after a Confederate general who suffered from syphillis, IIRC, although I didn’t know that at the time). I was an asst. scoutmaster with a troop from Columbiana Council, East Central Region, IIRC. A chaplain I knew dragooned me into singing at several nondenominational worship services, which probably put hundreds of impressionable young men off religion forever. That was the jamboree at which the President didn’t appear (as is ordinarily the case), because he was recovering from colon surgery. So we got Nancy instead. :rolleyes: Nice fireworks, though. I still remember those.

ThisSpaceforRent, my first troop was in East Liverpool, Ohio, about 45 minutes’ drive up the river from Steubenville. I was a counselor at Camp McKinley, near Lisbon, Ohio, in the summers of 1980-84. Is that the camp you were thinking of?

Spectre, my parents signed me up on my 11th birthday. I was never in Cubs or Webelos (although I did help as a Cub den chief for a year). I earned my Eagle just before I turned 17. I don’t remember feeling like I was racing through the ranks, particularly, and I had just a few more than the minimum number of merit badges by the time I turned 18. Never earned an Eagle palm, and didn’t care to.

I completely understand and sympathize with those who’ll have nothing to do with Scouting nowadays, given its discriminatory and homophobic policies. One of my summer-camp buddies was an Eagle Scout who was later asked to leave when he came out. It was a terrible loss, to him and to Scouting - he’s just the kind of bright, committed, skilled, gung-ho guy that the BSA needs. Hell, they should clone him. But now he won’t let his adopted boys get involved in Scouting, and I can’t say I blame him.

Still, I strongly agree with Bobotheoptimist that the BSA will never change except from within. There are plenty of local Scouting councils, troops, packs and dens that ignore the national organization’s gay-bashing policy (largely Mormon-driven, according to a Time magazine article I read at the time, FWIW). Our Cub Scout pack doesn’t lift a finger to enforce the anti-gay policy; all are welcome. Scouting’s too good a program to shun, IMHO.

Be Prepared!

49

Yah tah hey si kiss my ass!

50

Sorry to say First Class is as far as I made it. Same reason friend Rick stated. Troop 48, Orlando, circa 1971.
I agree with the “change from within” sentiment stated above. It is far too good of a program to give up on.

Okay, I’ll start:

A Scout is Trustworthy…

51

Too late for you now, but I’ve never seen a good Tiger program. Generally (around here) the first person to sign up gets drafted as a den leader and they have no experience or any idea what’s going on. By the second year things go better.

The organization is made up of parents, so a bad leader is some kids dad or mom, not a trained representative of BSA. BSA has all these books and programs and classes, but try to force a parent to give up another couple of nights a week for training, plus den meetings and pack meetings and the hikes and campouts… they’d die out even faster.

Loyal*

52

Wow, far more Eagle Scouts than I expected…

Eagle Scout, class of '89.
OA Vigil Honor Member - Class of '90
OA Advisor - ('91-'93)
Unit Commissioner - '01-'04

Returned to every OA Conclave my chapter has had for literally 20 years. Not bad, considering I’m only 35. The next one is next week…

Pretty inactive now; mostly waiting for my son to get old enough to join.

Friendly

53

Not just Nancy - we also got Lee Greenwood sing “Proud to be an American.” After 9/11, hearing that song always gave me flashbacks to the Jamboree.

(we seem to have skipped helpful)

54

:smack:

I had Helpful in my head, and then continued typing…

55

let’s now try:

Friendly

56

I’m an Eagle Scout, as is my father, and as was my grandfather.

It was a very proud moment for me and my family.

And now I am ashamed of it all, and will rarely even admit any involvement. At the time, I recognized the religious pressure to some degree, but didn’t realize how horrible it was as I still hadn’t formed my own thoughts and philosophy on religion. The discrimination toward homosexuals, I don’t recall hearing much about until after I was out, but it is just another aspect I am ashamed to have ever, even inadvertanely, suppported.

I enjoyed my time, and met many great people. The concept of scouts is a good one, but its close minded prejudice destroys any kind of good that can come of it.

57

I disagree. But still I will be

Courteous.

58

You disagree with what I said?

Mind if I ask why?

(And, I’ll also be Kind)

59

Quoth Klondike Geoff:

You do know that you can substitute Emergency Preparedness for Lifesaving? For that matter, you can also substitute Sports or Personal Fitness for Swimming, though Swimming is a prerequesite for a lot of non-required water-related badges.

I was caught up on a swimming requirement, too, but a different one. It took me forever to be able to do the 100 yards required for First Class rank, and by the time I did, the time requirements were too much for me to have a chance at Eagle. I did make it to Life, though, and Brotherhood level in the OA.

A Scout is Obedient.

And when we’re done with that, who can recite the Outdoor Code the fastest? :wink:

60

Cheerful, he said, with a glum face.