I noticed that there’s at least 1 other eagle scout on the boards besides myself (boyscout), and I was wondering how many others here were scouts or eagle scouts, and if so if you’re still involved. I’m currently an assistant scoutmaster and a den leader for our local troop/den.
I almost made it to eagle, then stopped caring…got to life and realized it just didn’t matter to me. Everyone who was in scouts always said they’d regretted not making it…I certainly haven’t and very much doubt that I will.
It was fun though. I worked at a boy scout camp for a couple summers when I was 14 and 15. Those were good times overall, I learned a ton, and I love camping.
Yeah Eagle Scout!
You mentioned me already, but I’ll post anyway.
I am no longer involved. Mostly because school gets busy very quick. That said, I’m going to try to be a bit more active during grad school, but we’ll have to see how that pans out this year.
I had a lot of fun doing scouting, and got to do some cool shit. White water rafting, hiking and biking in the Rockies was one trip. I also went to the boundary waters in Northern Minnesota with the scouts and had a great time.
If I have kids ever, I’ll probably have them try out the scouting thing.
I’m also an Eagle scout. I just finished it the march before last. I pushed it right to the deadline with my project. Glad its over though, and glad I got it done. I really didn’t stay involved as much as I should have but it was mostly because there got to be to many mothers in the troop. Too much estrogen lead to lots of lost interest. Too many rules, no risk, and all safety.
When I first joined the troop, on my first camp out I got to experience what I thought it would all be about. We got to our campsite at around 9:00PM, it was a camporee. It was pissing rain and it was exceptionally dark. I had never set up a tent before and I was with a bunch of other kids who were in the same boat. We went around asking leaders and older guys for help, they all put themselves first and told us to man up and do it outselves. After a while we figured it out, changed and passed out. The next day was filled with all the usual boyscout stuff but when the night fell it was time for some fun.
This is when I was first introduced to Coleman’s White Gas. A couple of older guys lashed an X-Frame together and poured a ton of gas on it. One pulled out a match and lit it on fire. After a minute or two they taught us how to play frisby with a fireball without getting burnt to hell.
Flash forward a couple years later, where I’m now one of the older guys. Some other kid pulls a knife on one of our scouts and one of the new kids runs to get me. I come walking out with a 15 inch bowie knife strapped to my side (you know, utility reason). I walk right up to the kid, and I tell him he has two option, he can walk away and go tell his leader what happened here or he can make a very bad decision. The kid ended up walking. Flash forward a couple more years, now I’m getting my award and the once young guys are becoming older guys. A few of them request to speak and share our stories. I was really worried about it because I knew the mom’s would freak out and it wouldn’t look very good that I liked to walk around with an oversized knife in one hand and a ball of flame in the other. But I figured what the hell why not? At the end of the ceremony, most people loved the stories they heard and said at that age they would of done much the same regardless, others said it was my bad decisions.
But alas, Moms run the troop now and these children can barely even preform first aid. I do what I can to reinstill some more TC type values in them when I’m around but this usually has to be done on the side otherwise the mothers don’t like my advice for risk of their child scraping a knee.
Eagle scout. It put me several steps ahead of the JROTC kids when I got in the infantry.
mike
I am an Eagle Scout.
I am no longer active in scouting. I moved to another city to go to college and got caught up in life.
Truth to tell… I got my Eagle at age 14, and took a couple of years off. I just got burnt out. Then I felt the need to do some service in my life and found that when I went back, I had a lot to offer the next generation of scouts. I stayed with them until I left for college. Working with youth is a thoroughly worthwhile endeavor.
I see some of the guys when I go back to Houston. They’re all grown up now (okay, not really. They’re 16-17), and I feel as though I missed an powerful opportunity to be a positive male role model in these kids lives. They seemed to have turned out okay though, so mostly it’s probably my own aggrandized sense of self-importance. Itd’ve been neat.
But whatever. College chicks are WAY more important than scouting.
I’m also an Eagle Scout and it was a super hassle for me. We moved right after I did my Eagle project so we’d have to drive 3 hours one way to go to the special counsel appointments to receive my Eagle rank.
I got shortly after I turned 16 but we held off the ceremony till the summer. That summer I went with my old troop to Packard (middle of Colorado) and we had a small ceremony up there after white water rafting, hiking and climbing for a week. Cool thing was it was short and other troops were in attendance.
Even though it was such a pain because my family moved I’m really glad I finished. I loved the scouts and it is almost always brought up in interviews in a very positive way. I haven’t done anything with scouting since that summer and don’t plan on it unless I have children that want to be in it. “Hey so which scout is yours?” “uhhh…none of them”. That’s not a convo I want to be having.
Seriously though I haven’t met an Eagle Scout that wasn’t an expert in pyrotechnics, iron skillets, and pocket knives.
I’m another Eagle Scout. I think I was a life scout by 13 then took the next 5 years to get Eagle. In my troop guys would get Eagle then dissapear. I was having way too much fun to let that happen. I pretty much led my troop for three years 15-18. Then my little brother led the troop for the next 3 years. I have no idea what happened to the troop after that.
Did a supertrek (80+ miles) across Philmont. Started a the furthest south camp and worked to northernmost camp. Mount Baldy. Axe throwing. Blackpowder. Branding our boots. Good Times.
In the mid '90s when it got so hard to get into Philmont we started our own troop thing. One major trip each year, each trip earned a 50miler badge. One year was a 14 day canoe trip in Minnesota. Another was a canoe/backpacking trip along the Buffalo River in Arkansas. Two weeks in Yellowstone. That was one of the major things my brother led after I left the troop for college.
Alot of fun memories from those years. When I was 17 we were at a camporee. Of the six guys in my patrol only one other showed up. The two of us owned that whole weekend. We won all but two events and won the overall top patrol award. I could hear the other troops were getting pissed as we kept getting all the ribbons and shit.
And of course there’s all the stupid shit that a group of unsupervised teenagers will do to get in trouble. The practical jokes. Inter-Troop wars at summer camp. etc…
Eagle Scout
I got life when I was 14 and waited till after my 18th bday to do my Eagle B.O.R.
I procrastinated, but I am very happy I finished. I didnt think it would matter when I was 14, but now I am really proud of what I did.
When I was 14 I also went to work for a local Cub Scout camp for the summer. Worked there for 4 summers straight, I dropped out of my troop but stayed active on the District and Council level. Was active in OA for a while, but not my bag (esp since they dissed me on Vigil, but thats another story)
But working at that camp and in Scouting I have made some true life long friends. I stay in touch weekly with ppl that I worked at camp with and last summer they really needed help so I quit and went back to work for them.
Currently, I am overseas in Europe and so my activity is limited. I call to help market camping to leaders back at home. I just like volunteering and goin to work an activities weekend once or twice a year now.
Truely one of the best decisions of my life was to stay in Scouting
Okay, what did everyone do for their projects?
Also, someone mentioned OA, thoughts? Did you participate?
I rebuilt a garden at my church for my project. It was fun, and I did not have to raise money (church just paid for it) which was awesome.
I was in OA, and served on the lodge board. After I got my eagle, it sort of fell out. I just wasn’t into all the work a chair position required. I liked it better just to show up for a fellowship weekend and do some work.
I built seating for an outdoor childrens theather in a nearby parking and build trash can storage unit so all the raccoons couldnt cause a mess…
OA…if worked they way it was meant to…would prob be a good organization…my lodge was BS thou…too much politics over stupid things… all the people at the top (council level) were corrupt and all the bottome ppl were too young and annoying. I headed a lodge committee for two years but fell out after I got sick of the constant fighting over lodge positions and loyalty
Being involved with the BSA to so much extent made me see how good (and bad) the organization really is…
but I still hold it dear to me
I put in a wheelchair path down to a lake. Turned out pretty well, but it took like 200+ man hours to get done. I was OA, but never really got involved. They moved from a paper system to a computer records system right after I joined, so I ended up being left of the mailing list. By the time I realized what had happend, I was already getting ready to leave for college, so it wasn’t worth it to try to get everything straightened out.
Bujo, awesome for getting into Philmont, we tried for years but never got in.
[quote]ninjaboy wrote:
Bujo, awesome for getting into Philmont, we tried for years but never got in.[/quote]
It’s not too late!
OA does service crews in philmont, I believe. Work for a few weeks, hike for a few weeks. There’s also summer positions.
http://www.scouting.org/HighAdventure/Philmont/WorkingatPhilmont.aspx
I’ve never done it, but it looks interesting.
I was offered a job at Philmont, but passed because it was not a Ranger position
I built a handicap access ramp and garden for my church. Lots of fund raisers as well.
A nearby elementary school was given a large stone Eagle (teir mascot) sculpture. My Eagle project was to build a pedestul for it, and re-landscaped the garden the eagle statue would be placed in. It all made for grand entry to the school. Sadly, vandals took a baseball bat to the statue a month after I completed the project. I really hate vandalizing-punk-ass-bitch-mother-fuckers.
As for OA I was involved for a few years. I think I made Vigil in the group but hard to remember, that was 10 years ago. I used to do the ceremonies. Always showed up a day early with the other 3 guys and worked on getting everything set while reciting lines. Heh, OA made me a LARPer.
I never realy got into the political side or even showed up to the elections. I just liked the hard work and playing in the woods.
[quote]Bujo wrote:
I never realy got into the political side or even showed up to the elections. I just liked the hard work and playing in the woods.[/quote]
Thats the better aspect of it…the rest is BS
[quote]boyscout wrote:
ninjaboy wrote:
Bujo, awesome for getting into Philmont, we tried for years but never got in.
It’s not too late!
OA does service crews in philmont, I believe. Work for a few weeks, hike for a few weeks. There’s also summer positions.
http://www.scouting.org/HighAdventure/Philmont/WorkingatPhilmont.aspx
I’ve never done it, but it looks interesting.[/quote]
I was offered a slot on a work crew. It was 28 days of work and the you were rewarded with a full trek 10-14 days. I would have taken it, but ended up taking a job as wrangler working cattle on a ranch that actually butted up against the Philmont property.
Did anybody participate in Explorer Scouts? It was Co-Ed, 16-21 year olds only, usually set to pursue one particular interest (career or special interest related). Mine was focused on “high adventure”, mostly serious backpacking, but we did other things like water skiing weekends, and trail rides in the Davis Mountains of west Texas.
[quote]Bujo wrote:
Did anybody participate in Explorer Scouts? It was Co-Ed, 16-21 year olds only, usually set to pursue one particular interest (career or special interest related). Mine was focused on “high adventure”, mostly serious backpacking, but we did other things like water skiing weekends, and trail rides in the Davis Mountains of west Texas.[/quote]
Its called venturing now and it is more or less the same thing. Has green uniforms.
Did it for like 6 months then thought it was dumb. Crew wasnt serious. Kept the uniform thou
[quote]tg2hbk4488 wrote:
Bujo wrote:
I never realy got into the political side or even showed up to the elections. I just liked the hard work and playing in the woods.
Thats the better aspect of it…the rest is BS
[/quote]
Good. Then I didn’t miss much. Funny how all the guys that jockeyed for council positions never seemed to get their hands dirty. I could always find them by the lodge or the cafeteria, never saw them in the woods.