Scouting History
Share and celebrate the history of the world's largest youth Movement
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LATEST POSTS
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Thanks for noting "free" is not a good word here. Nothing is ever free, but often it can be less expensive. -
By InquisitiveScouter · Posted
Having worked in various joint commands in plans (J5), exercise (J7), and operations shops (J3), I have to tell you these things are FAR from free. Military exercises, deployments, employments, redeployment, and reconstitution (after the fact) are quite expensive, in fact. Literally hundreds of millions of your tax dollars are spent on these each year to maintain unit readiness. Difficult to stage? yes... Scarcity of opportunity? no. Quite the opposite. Military commands at all levels routinely have to cut exercises and practices from their schedules to support various "hobby horses" or "pet projects" the military is tasked to support based on political pressure. The National Jamboree is a good example of such a "pet project." Do the units supporting these get good training? Absolutely. Could the resources spent on the Jamboree be better used supporting other valid military training objectives? Absolutely. Do I support the use of military resources to enable the Jamboree? Absolutely 😜 (Sometimes the troops would rather support something at home like this, rather than flying to a third world country to practice their "wartime" skills there.) -
We have myriad examples of poor end results when the first notice of overreach and ignornce appeared and we ignored it. Bringing it to the fore just makes it less of a total surprise when one of the ego meisters in charge gets such poor ideas. What the nay sayers never note in regard to the Jambo involvments is the almost free training and practice the Military gets in those events. Dealing with large groups in events and emergencies is difficult to stage, so the Jambo offers one way for that to happen. In 85 when "Bob" came to visit, the Army made themselves proud in their response and support. The speed and turn around of drying out thousands of sleeping bags and restoring order in flattened areas was beyond expectations. And, if our old friend Joe Price's story to me as to how he became a collector is partly true, the Military drew on early Scouting manuals and training to kick start and support the huge training needs. He was tasked in his position in a part of the support groups in finding as many of those Scouting resources for training support that he could, and so it became a long time hobby after the War. He told me once that the original Field Book by Hillcourt wa one of the standard resources, as were the early Sea Scout manuals. And the continued service to honor Vets on the various National Days is almost expected in many communities. The service to the Civil War reunion in the thirties or the flag postings in cemeteries we see regularly. Many instances of horable Flag retirements at Scout camps, and the Eagle projects that focus on respect for the military and its members. IF this actually is proposed, I suspect it will NOT be well received by Congress, even in this confused period of our history.
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I have to believe the vast majority of units probably follow school schedules to a greater or lesser degree for simply pragmatic reasons. And most units can still manage to keep scouts engaged and active without a formal meeting every single week. People have posted examples here. There is generally plenty to engage scouts over a summer break, from camp to high adventure or volunteering. When units are failing, it's because of a hundred other problems that currently exist in scouting. -
By InquisitiveScouter · Posted
We are potentially making much ado about nothing here. As outlined in another post, this is a leaked draft memo that could amount to a whole lot of nothing. When SECWAR or POTUS comment on it, or you see a memo with a signature on it, then it will mean something.
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