Congratulations! My son is an Eagle Scout from the same troop I was in as a kid. I was an ASM and earned my Wood Badge while he was a Scout. We had a great Scout lead troop.
I earned my Eagle Scout rank in 1976. Merit Badges were challenging, but what is the biggest barrier is the Eagle Scout project. Ideally a boy meets all of the requirements through their own initiative. That was how it was for me. The Eagle Scout project requires the boy to become a bit of a community organizer and for a 13 year old boy that was quite a trip. I was able to convince several lumber places to donate wood to several Jr. Highs who then had their students make 100 wood duck houses. These house were transported to Busch’s Wildlife where volunteers hung them on trees. To this day it is something I remember with pride.I had to look, I was the same in 1977, 24.
I remember waiting for last, to earn this trio, they were the most challenging:
Citizenship in the Community
Citizenship in the Nation
Citizenship in the World
Emergency Preparedness was also a lengthy endeavor.
Back then, we had to to go the Civil Defense, to earn that merit badge. I had to google that one, Congress ended that program back in 1994. That one was a lot of fun.
Same here Chasing Embers. Great experience growing up.An Eagle myself, big congratulations!
Recently got back into “scouts” with my son and yes, times have changed.I should add here that the BSA organization that I knew and loved is NOT the one that exists today. Even the name has changed to just scouting although I think the corporation is still bsa.. For those who may not realize it, the scouts are now an extremely "woke" type organization.
What made them work for me as well as other boys was that it provided a clear structure and road to assist boys on their way to becoming ...men.
I do not desire to take away from the accomplishments of the boys who today make Eagle. It is still a highly admirable accomplishment. But for me, in my opinion, today, that mission I referred to above is long forgotten as they include girls, and any and every gender manifestion one can imagine, both as scouts and as scout leaders.
The Girl Scouts are furious with BSA's decision to include girls and reminded the public that the 2.2 billion plus lawsuit brought by 82,000 sexual survivors is both real and vindictive of a real problem. Why would one then want to add girls to the equation.
But so be it. While I do speak highly of my time in scouting, I can assure anyone who has doubts that sexual predators really were in scouting. But most any organization may have had these issues and scouting dealt with them going all the way back to the 30s. My complaint is that by adding girls and allowing men and apparently women who are trying to figure out their own "gender" into leadership, the problems inherent in taking a bunch of boys and now girls to the woods are not going to get better.
I was looking at my Eagle Card today. Yes, signed by Gerald Ford.Life is below Eagle
I made Eagle in 1976, so did my brother, a year later. He found his Eagle card, signed by Gerald Ford. Mine is MIA. I did find my mother's pin group for each of us.
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Jimmy Carter signed mineI was looking at my Eagle Card today. Yes, signed by Gerald Ford.
I wonder if presidents are still honorary residents of the bsa?Jimmy Carter signed mine