Re: (no subject)
MAJ (")
Mon, 20 Dec 1999 01:15:56 -0600
"Hurricane Bob" Warner did write a lot about our shared experiences together
as part of the National Jamboree contingent from Transatlantic Council (TAC)
during 85's Diamond Anniversary Jamboree. He did an incredible job keeping
our joint contingent warm and dry during that 30 hour period of time....
As Bob wrote, not only did the temperture drop but we had a lot of Scouts
with no dry clothing....fires were constructed and there were lots of Scouts
standing around trying to stay warm. There were a few Scouters in the same
boat as well.
I tell anyone not in Scouting that "the best time to really see Scouting in
action is during the aftermath of a disaster or when things go wrong."
Scouts were using skills that they thought were useless or "lame" as they
coped with getting the Jamboree site back up on its feet...and when people
are amazed what a young man can do, as many reporters and photographers
found out in the two days after the Hurricane blew through, there were only
smiles and comments like "Duh! Things like this is why I am IN Boy
Scouts....this is NOTHING!"
"Nothing" if you call rebuilding a "city" of well over 22,000 back together
again within 24 hours AND being able to accept visitors (and lots of news
folk!) almost immediately after the bugle over the loud speakers the next
morning!
I walked around later that morning to find neighboring Troops feeding each
other, sharing tentage and helping the Jamboree staff to fix signage and
re-channel the massive amounts of rainfall which fell on the site within a
four-hour period of time.
There were other Scouts and entire units moving debris from roadways and
standing back up portalets that blown down during the storm.
And there were STILL a LARGE LINE of Scouts at the Apple Computer vans
waiting in line for a prized possession: an Apple Computer bag (which they
used to carry patches in to trade), even in the aftermath of the storm!!
EVERYWHERE you went, there wasn't a single Scout complaining about wanting
to go home....as a matter of fact, most of the Scouts wanted to call back
home to tell their parents they were okay and "By the way, tell the rest of
the Scouts back there that "They should've BEEN HERE...this is the most
AWESOME thing I've ever been in!!"
I'm just glad that the Hurricane wasn't called Mike, and that most
importantly, we didn't have more personal injuries than we did.... it was a
really powerful storm that came through the Jamboree areas, and those really
large gateways constructed quickly became more than kindling wood withing a
very short period of time!
Bob also wrote:
>Now this couldn't be that wet-behind-the-ears, shave-tail, black, 2nd
>lieutenant; pied piper of Scouts, Mike Walton, already then with more square
>knots than I had ever seen in one place and with whom I almost floated in
>tandem off a hillside with at Fort A. P. Hill because of the "tail end" of
>Hurricane Bob?
Yep...it's me *smiling*, except that I was a first lieutenant at the time of
the Jamboree (having been promoted the month before I left for the
Jamboree). Bob and I (along with Shel Dick) were all in the Alpine
District of Transatlantic...a large District which took up the equal of
several small American states (most of southwestern Germany, along with
Austria and Switzerland).
And I heard the day before yesterday from one of my first Assistant
Scoutmasters in Europe, who's now Scoutmaster of a Troop in Berlin! This
guy went through the FOUR SEASONS of July 5th, 1985 with the Troop in
Garmisch, Germany (at Camp Deeds/Bayern High Adventure Base).
Small, very small world indeed!!
Settummanque!
-----
(MAJ) Mike L. Walton (settummanque, the blackeagle)
http://www.mninter.net/~blkeagle
personal inquiries via kyblkeagle@aol.com,
blackeagle@SCOUTER.net or blkeagles@hotmail.com
professional inquiries via waltonmi@usarc-emh2.army.mil
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