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Old 12-25-2011, 17:46   #106
f50lrrp
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Cool Boy Scouts

When I was 10 years old my Family moved from Lawrence, Kansas to Mannheim, Germany. My Dad was the XO of the 1st Battle Group, 18th Infantry, 8th ID. The next year we moved to Bad Kreuznach and lived in Government Housing. My Brother Bob and I used to go camping by ourselves on the Couberg. I joined a local BSA Troop and that summer the troop attended Camp Freedom. The 1st morning in Camp, I went to the pool to take my Swimming Merit Badge class. There was ice on the surface. I went in anyway.

The next three summers, I went to Camp Freedom and I got inducted into the Order of The Arrow (Black Eagle Lodge). I ended up with 24 merit badges and stood for the Board of Review for Eagle Scout before my Dad was reassigned to California. I didn’t go back into Scouting until I was an Adult.

When Chris, my son, was 10 years old he joined Troop 285 in Prunedale. His Scoutmaster asked me if I had ever been a Scout? I told him that I had been through a Board of Review for Eagle Scout. He told me that if I could get the documents together that showed that I passed the BOR, He would see that I received my Eagle Scout Award. I went home and dug through a lot of papers that my Mom saved and found the BOR papers. The next Court of Honor that Troop 285 held, I was awarded my Eagle Scout Medal!


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Old 12-25-2011, 22:35   #107
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Originally Posted by f50lrrp View Post
When I was 10 years old my Family moved from Lawrence, Kansas to Mannheim, Germany. My Dad was the XO of the 1st Battle Group, 18th Infantry, 8th ID. The next year we moved to Bad Kreuznach and lived in Government Housing. My Brother Bob and I used to go camping by ourselves on the Couberg. I joined a local BSA Troop and that summer the troop attended Camp Freedom. The 1st morning in Camp, I went to the pool to take my Swimming Merit Badge class. There was ice on the surface. I went in anyway.

The next three summers, I went to Camp Freedom and I got inducted into the Order of The Arrow (Black Eagle Lodge). I ended up with 24 merit badges and stood for the Board of Review for Eagle Scout before my Dad was reassigned to California. I didn’t go back into Scouting until I was an Adult.

When Chris, my son, was 10 years old he joined Troop 285 in Prunedale. His Scoutmaster asked me if I had ever been a Scout? I told him that I had been through a Board of Review for Eagle Scout. He told me that if I could get the documents together that showed that I passed the BOR, He would see that I received my Eagle Scout Award. I went home and dug through a lot of papers that my Mom saved and found the BOR papers. The next Court of Honor that Troop 285 held, I was awarded my Eagle Scout Medal!


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Old 12-26-2011, 06:28   #108
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. The next Court of Honor that Troop 285 held, I was awarded my Eagle Scout Medal!

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That's awesome! I remember Camp Freedom.
Fishing at the pond with the leeches -- we were convinced that if we went into the water we'd come out covered in them. Those bonfires at night down there too.
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Old 07-22-2012, 17:20   #109
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Philmont

We are taking two Crews to Philmont 01-14 August 2012, Itinerary 24; ‎801-01-02, Anasazi, Old Camp, Sealy Canyon, McCrystal Creek, Dan Beard, Ponil, Pueblano, Miranda, Blady, Miranda, Santa Claus, Bear Canyon. SPOT link to google maps to follow.
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Old 07-22-2012, 19:05   #110
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We are taking two Crews to Philmont 01-14 August 2012, Itinerary 24; ‎801-01-02, Anasazi, Old Camp, Sealy Canyon, McCrystal Creek, Dan Beard, Ponil, Pueblano, Miranda, Blady, Miranda, Santa Claus, Bear Canyon. SPOT link to google maps to follow.
Good Luck. Philmont will be a trip they remember Forever.......... That camp is outstanding !!!!!
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Old 07-31-2012, 18:06   #111
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1. Were you ever in the Boy Scouts

Nope.....never had the opportunity...but spent a lot of time as a kid in the woods with my BB gun learning by trial and mostly error.

My two young fellas have started NZ Scouts and have already earned their first 3 badges


2. Did you obtain Eagle or what was your highest rank. (I am sure that there are several other Eagles on the board)

N/A for me

My two young fellas have been in for a couple months now...and we have another Scout meeting tonight.

3. How did your Scout training help you in your military life or your Civilian life.

N/A for me

I hope it helps our fellas.

4. Did your Scout training guide you toward your decision to go SF.

N/A for me

But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't currently conducting "influencing operations" on my fellas to hopefully shape them towards serving their country....preferably in the Army...and hopefully a step or three beyond their old man if that's the path they choose.

5.... Any other comments about Scouts and the Military.
etc etc etc

I guess what has motivated my wife and I to encourage our children to become involved with NZ Scouts is reading about how Scouting is a frequent common denominator for business leaders, astronauts, SF, high achievers, etc.

So we figured, "let's do that too".

My next comments may not be totally aligned with this thread but I was unable to find any others(hopefully my search skills were up to scratch) on the forum.

We've(meaning "I" with my wife's full support) been trying to take baby steps in turning up the heat on our fellas in hopes of forging them in the appropriate direction in terms of life skills, attitude, and hopefully mindset

I am NOT SF, but I have successfully completed an "SF-like" assessment course that would appear to share some of the same goals and objectives of courses like Ranger School and SFAS...as best I can tell from open source.

I've also been invited back a couple times and am still involved on the instructing side of the house(only as a junior instructor working under some quite experienced SF folks) for the same assessment course.

What has intrigued me the most is the mental/psychological side(having seen it from both sides now) of it......but I'm only at the stage where my eyes have truly been opened, but I'm not a full time SME practitioner...so I could be at the "a little knowledge can be very dangerous" stage.

We have been trying to instill in our children the "don't quit" attitude that can often be tested and experienced in activities such as sport.

We've also been pushing them harder as they grow with trying to develop more self-reliance and to learn how to deal with ambiguity with confidence.

But my fear is that I don't want to turn into "that Dad" like the stories about Todd Marinovich in the NFL.

I guess where I'm personally looking for guidance as a Dad in training to a couple young kids is how to better help them develop the appropriate mindset that seems to differentiate SF from Regular Force personnel and high achievers in civilian life from the less successful.

As stated, I couldn't find a thread on life experiences when young that positively shaped and influenced folks to achieve success in SF and elsewhere. I wonder if some specific life experiences or family upbringing/parental expectations would present "clusters of considerable success" much like Scouts?
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Old 07-31-2012, 19:01   #112
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I got thrown out of Boy Scouts for organizing a raid on another towns troop at the State Jamboree....didn't even have time to sew my patches on.
It taught me to train others to fight as a force multiplier and keep a layer of deniability in place.
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Old 07-31-2012, 19:29   #113
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Philmont

As promissed the link to the SPOT (think blue force tracker) that we will carry in Philmont. As a eighteen year old Private humping through the Q-course, Boy Scouts prepared me for sucess, now as a 51 year old former action guy, its fun and rewarding to give it back.
Feel free to follow us for the next two weeks as we turn Boys to Men.

BSA Troop 973 - Track Crew #2's Progress during our trek at Philmont

Greetings from Boy Scout Troop 973's Philmont Crew#2 802-I-02

All the final preparations are complete and we are scheduled to leave for Philmont tomorrow morning.

You are being invited to track our crews progress at Philmont as we trek through the the rugged
wilderness in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of the Rocky Mountains of northern New Mexico.

You can follow our crews progress, in near real time, through the use of our SPOT GPS communications
device. The link below is a private, password protected web-site, that will allow our crew to post our GPS location
and allow to send pre-configured one-way messages to our friends and family.

There are three (3) message types that you will see on the site.

(1) Check-in/Ok! - Trek #24 proceeding as planned, All is Okay! From BSA Troop 973 Philmont Crew 802-I-02
This message will be periodically posted by our crew and indicates that everyone is okay and our trek is proceeding as planned.

(2) Track Progress
This feature allows us to automatically post our GPS coordinates (every 10 minutes) as we hike through the rugged
wilderness. It allows you to to follow along a nice breadcrumb style trail (via a google map) of the route on Trek #24.

(3) Custom - All ok - Reached camp site, Setting up camp for the day! From BSA Troop 973 Philmont Crew 802-I-02
This message will be posted after our crew has selected the camp site for the day.

Please feel free to share the link and password with friends and family.

Finally, as all of us our aware, any technology has issues, so please do not be alarmed if the messages are not displayed.
No news is good news!

There could me many issues that cause this device to malfunction. battery issues, GPS errors, water issues, etc


The password for the web-site below is "Tr@@p973" (without the double quotes, the password is case sensitive)

http://tinyurl.com/Troop973Crew2

or

https://share.findmespot.com
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Old 07-31-2012, 20:11   #114
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Flagg View Post
<Snip>

I am NOT SF, but I have successfully completed an "SF-like" assessment course that would appear to share some of the same goals and objectives of courses like Ranger School and SFAS...as best I can tell from open source.

I've also been invited back a couple times and am still involved on the instructing side of the house(only as a junior instructor working under some quite experienced SF folks) for the same assessment course.

<Snip>
Tell us more, please. Enquiring minds want to know...
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Old 07-31-2012, 22:49   #115
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Tell us more, please. Enquiring minds want to know...
It's NOT our NZSAS Selection Course.

It's called the Aumangea Assessment Course, formerly called the Ranger Course.

It was run 3 times as a pilot course in the last 3 calender years. I was on one of them, and I was requested back to help with one of them. It's been picked up as an official course and will be running again shortly and I've been asked to help out on it again with some input on phase activity planning and management.

The course concept received top cover from a senior officer who served in the disbanded NZ Ranger Company.

The course was designed and is managed by a bunch of great fellas with a pretty deep level of experience in NZ SF.

I'm not trying to make it sound more than it is, just trying to put it into words that might roughly translate to the US and a mostly US audience on this forum. I'm NOT trying to compare it favourably to Ranger School or SFAS. If it came across that way, I apologize. I'm just trying to provide some background of my limited direct experience, the perspective I'm coming from, and what I'm hoping to do with my young boys.

From the individual activities I have read about, watched on video, or discussed with graduates of Ranger School and SFAS, it would appear there are a good number of common denominators with many of the activities on this course, as best I can tell, and again coming from my limited experience.

As I previously stated, I learned first hand from both sides of the fence a little bit about the definition of mental toughness and the psychology behind such activities and am keen to learn more to help both sets of "boys".

I'm in this thread to see what I can do for my own two boys to help them develop into good young men who may wish to pursue excellence a couple steps past their dad.

I'm also on this forum to try and learn as much as I can to try to bring something to the table in terms of increasing the size of the phase activity "menu" and make a tangible contribution to the course I have gained so much from and hopefully make it better....and provide value for my other "boys".

So on a couple of levels I'm here to learn.

In long discussions with some of our SF guys including our course manager, our course has been described as offering a "slice" or "taste" of what the foundation of SF is all about, starting with performing the basics of soldiering to the highest possible standard.

It's not a well known course, but I hope to play a part in making it a well respected course moving forward.

I'm happy to share more, but I don't want to upset anyone by taking it so off topic.

Feel free to PM.
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Old 08-01-2012, 06:04   #116
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It's NOT our NZSAS Selection Course.
<Snip>
Thanks!
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Old 08-01-2012, 06:23   #117
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One question I have about US Scouts is:

Was there/is there any patches/badges issued for little more than just showing up?

We've had that happen once so far in NZ Scouts and our comfort level with it would best be described as "low". This is for 5-7 year olds.

Our kids footy team issues a "player of the week" trophy unfortunately based on alphabetical order which we do not wish our children to participate in, preferring awards to be earned rather than issued.

We don't want to be "those parents" but we also don't want our kids to think victory/success is "turn based".

This parenting stuff can get awkward at times.
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Old 08-01-2012, 08:22   #118
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Was there/is there any patches/badges issued for little more than just showing up?
Just the unit insignia, because otherwise the uniform is just a fancy button-down shirt with matching pants... and socks...

Some merit badges only take an hour or two of effort to earn, but nothing should be "given." As a summer camp merit badge counselor, I've seen kids who show up for attendance, and then goof off the rest of the time. The nice thing about attendance is that I can then go chat with their scoutmasters. I've found that sometimes, kids are actually pressured to earn certain merit badges, and didn't want to be there in the first place.

I've also seen kids who did all their work at home, and just needed a counselor to sign off. As long as they had fulfilled all of the badges' requirements to standard, I signed them off. If they did not, they were given instructions for how to improve.
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Old 08-01-2012, 13:31   #119
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Yes -- Cub Scouts, then Boy Scouts, and made Star, then "retired" to work on personal projects, although I was encouraged to go for Eagle. I was made patrol leader, even though I did not ask. The Boy Scout Handbook was good, and I still own the heavy-duty interlocking knife, fork, and spoon !!

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Old 08-01-2012, 15:00   #120
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Just the unit insignia, because otherwise the uniform is just a fancy button-down shirt with matching pants... and socks...

Some merit badges only take an hour or two of effort to earn, but nothing should be "given." As a summer camp merit badge counselor, I've seen kids who show up for attendance, and then goof off the rest of the time. The nice thing about attendance is that I can then go chat with their scoutmasters. I've found that sometimes, kids are actually pressured to earn certain merit badges, and didn't want to be there in the first place.

I've also seen kids who did all their work at home, and just needed a counselor to sign off. As long as they had fulfilled all of the badges' requirements to standard, I signed them off. If they did not, they were given instructions for how to improve.
Cheers.
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