Re: A Scout is Trustworthy
Don White (mrinsure@KA.NET)
Mon, 30 Sep 1996 12:44:05 -0400
Mike, I hope you will consider building a Web site and posting this and
other stories of this nature. This kind of information should be shared
with all Scouts at every opportunity. I am going to share it with our Troop.
YiS
Don White
Troop 461
At 06:24 AM 9/30/96 -0500, you wrote:
>Dan Jett asked:
>
>>> I would be curious to hear any other stories about the honesty/scouting
>>> connection made by the non-scouting public.
>
>I have a LOT of those situations, Dan...many of them are in either "Patches
>and Pins" or the new book. However, my favorite time is the following.
>(I started to post here "Please keep in mind three elements...", but as you'll
>read, you really won't need to).
>
> "Blinding Faith"
>
>When I was fresh out of high school, like every teenager with a car, I decided
>that I wanted to go "cruising". Cruising, at least where I grew up in,
>consisted
>of turning your radio up as loud as you could stand it, drive down to a
>major shopping center after it has closed, and drive around yelling at the
>top of your
>lungs to "attractive young ladies" (partly because of the radio and partly
>because you were usually under the influnce of some substance: in my case,
>it was Pepsi in a tall McDonald's cup that made it somehow look like I was
>drinking something else inside it. I didn't start to drink beer until well
>after my first year of college later that
>summer).
>
>So, I drove down to Elizabethtown with two of the guys from my high
>school class. They "got lucky" and ended up with a carload of girls while
>I had to drive my car back home. It was close to 2am, the time in which
>I told my parents I would return home by.
>
>My car, an old green VW "bug", decided that it needed a rest somewhere between
>E-town and the highway leading to Radcliff. I was stranded, and at that
time of
>night (Sunday morning), there was little traffic headed in the direction of
>my home.
>
>So, I locked everything up and started walking. I didn't get very far. A
>police
>car came up behind me not even 200 feet from where I parked. I turned and
>started
>to walk toward the policeman. I froze when he pulled out his weapon and
told me
>to stop.
>
>"What did I do?" was the first thing that came from my mind and later my lips.
>I felt my stomach turn as he came toward me. He flashed a light in my face,
>then
>to my hands and down to my tennis shoes as he talked with me. Instantly, my
>mind raced to images that my mother told me about, how young men get killed
>on the side of the road by "someone", and how I should NEVER be out by
>myself after midnight ANYWHERE.
>
>While I may listen to my mother, I don't always "perform" according to her
>wishes. This was one of those times I'd wished I had. I was scared.
>
>"Where are you coming from?", he asked. I explained that I had broken down and
>he took the license plate number from the "bug" and then told me to come back
>to the car, and sit in the backseat. I did as he told me. He then placed
>his weapon
>back into his holster, then got into his car from the passenger side and
>called in on
>the radio. I overheard the conversation.
>
>"I've got a male black, about 17, walking down here. He says his car's
>broken down.
>Can you run a license check?" The radio crackled and someone on the other end
>finally granted his request and started spouting out some numbers,
>ten-sixty-one,
>followed by "Walton, Robert L.".
>
>I had failed to do what my father told me a month ago....to get the plate
>changed
>to MY name, not his. That listening thing again. In and out that same ear.
>
>"You got some ID on you? Drivers' license?" I fumbled around for a wallet. No
>wallet. Now what? Where's my wallet?? I also forgot, in the "interest of
>attracting
>females", that I chose to place my wallet in my glove compartment and never
took
>it out. I relayed the information to the officer, adding, "I know it's in
>there".
>
>The officer took my keys and went searching for the wallet in the glove
>compartment. There was no wallet to be found, just registration paperwork
in my
>father's name and an old Leave and Earnings' Statement from the Army, also
in my
>dad's name.
>
>"No ID, nothing to tell me who you are. Can we call your....", the officer
>started
>in, using his roughest possible voice.
>
>"NO!" I screamed. "Don't call them please. I'm well past the time I was
>supposed to be back, and I'll surely "get it"!", I pleaded.
>
>"So who do we call to verify that you are you?" It only took me three
>seconds to
>answer. "Call Robert Pilette", I replied, giving my Scoutmaster's home
>phone number. "Or you can call Scott Claybaugh", I stated, giving him the
>phone number
>of the District Executive I've been working with during the spring.
>
>The policeman turned, called in the information to the dispatcher, and
>started writing down information on a piece of paper. After a few beeps and
>squawks,
>the dispatcher reported that there was no answer at the Pilette household.
>
>"That's right", I thought..."they are on vacation this week". I sunk even
lower
>in the vinyl seat. After ten more minutes, there was a new message for the
>officer.
>Something about a ten-one saying that if this person matches the description
>follows, to give him whatever help he needs to get home. Then it was followed
>by ten-nine, ten-twenty this location and finally, ten-one-hundred. He
>looked at
>me as the desciption was read. I matched.
>
>It was like someone just electrified this gentleman. He got out of the
>seat, hit the
>bluelight bar with his hat in the process, and then opened the door and
>motioned me
>out.
>
>"Is your father a MP?", he asked. Stunned, I replied "No, he's a drill
>sergeant. What's going on??"
>
>"The Chief of Police is sending my supervisor out here to pick you up and
to see
>if he can get your car running. Who is "Scott Claybaugh"?" We walked back to
>my car, and the officer handed my keys over to me.
>
>"He's the guy I've been working with...he's the manager of the Boy Scouts."
>
>It was like a light was turned on above this guy's head. The supervisor, a
>Sergeant,
>came by in his car, pulled over on the other side of the road and took out a
>toolkit
>and proceeded across the street to where we were standing. The two officers
>exchanged greetings and then the supervisor looked at me and told me what was
>going on. "The Chief got a call from the Boy Scouts. It seems that you
are one
>of their senior boys, like the Eagle Scout or something. As soon as he
>heard your
>father's name, they knew who you were. He wanted to make sure that you're
>alright and to get you home. I understand that you have some rather uptight
>parents," and then he smiled, "that trust you as far as they can throw you".
>
>That was true. It was also true that I would definately "get it", since the
>time
>on the supervisor's watch was now 3:22am.
>
>The car wasn't able to be jumped, so the supervisor placed a "no-tow" tag
>on the car and he drove me the 20 or so miles back to my parent's home. Once
>there, he explained that it was a delay in getting their son back home
>before 2am
>because of a "very busy police force", and asked that they would "go easy on
>me" because I was unable to get to a phone. My mother understood and thanked
>the officer for bringing me back home. I did too.
>
>I didn't "get it" for that episode, but it did make me feel that there were
>other people
>-- other than my parents -- whom had faith in me and blindly helped me when it
>would have been much easier to just call my parents and had them to pick me up.
>That trust --between Scouter and Scout -- is part too of what being a
>Scouter is all about.
>
>I called Scott the following Monday and thanked him for "going out on a
>limb" for
>me. His words still follow me: "Isn't that what Scouters are *supposed* to
do?"
>
>
>Hope this helps, Dan. I'm glad to be back and I'll have more to say about
>that later on this day or perhaps tomorrow....as well as a new assignment
>coming
>for me!!
>
>Settummanque!
>
>
>
>
>
>-----
> (MAJ) Mike L. Walton (Settummanque, the blackeagle)
> http://www.vhm.com/~uscardnl/
> Deputy Public Affairs Officer, 21st Theater Army Area Command
> Kaiserslautern, Federal Republic of Germany
>"everything I say is "on the record"; speaking ONLY for myself unless
indicated"
> personal inquiries via blkeagle@midwest.net or kyblkeagle@aol.com
> professional inquiries via waltonm%po2.hq@taacom.kaiserslautern.army.mil
>
> -----FORWARD in service to youth and the nation-----
>
>
*****************************************************************
I can speak only for myself as no one will let me speak for them.
Don White ASM Boy Scout Troop 461
mrinsure@ka.net http://www.iglou.com/troop461
http://www.ka.net/mrinsure
*****************************************************************
Terry Howerton Sakima Group, Inc. SCOUTER Magazine Kansas City |
