I recently came upon an interesting situation, and would like some advice. First, some background. In the neighborhood where I have lived for the last 7 years, there is a well-known family, lets call them the Johnsons. The patriarch was one of the original developers of the neighborhood. He had four sons who grew up in the neighborhood, went to college, then moved back. Mr. Johnsons oldest son, Mark, raised his son, Dave (now approx. 25 years old) in the neighborhood. Dave, just like his father and uncles before him, went away for college and some sightseeing, then moved back. Last Halloween, all of the Johnsons were over at our house, when I first met Dave. Dave is a nice young man, and he came over to the house a few times on his own. About three months ago, Dave was at the house, and my son was getting ready for a scout meeting. Seeing my sons troop number, Dave said, Wow! I was in that troop! I got my Eagle in that troop! My son got the warm fuzzies that he knew an adult that had gotten an Eagle from his troop. He mentioned the name of the scoutmaster, whom we had heard of.

 

Fast forward to last week. I was helping somebody add the nameplates for the new Eagles to our Eagle Plaque. Guess what? Daves name was not on the plaque. Now, I have little doubt that Dave was in the troop. He went on and on about the adventures that he had had, the people that he had known (who had also been in the troop at that time).

 

Now, I suppose it could have been an oversight that Daves name isnt on the board. There are no names for about an 18-month span, which is about the time Dave said he got his Eagle. And I do know that there was a period of leadership chaos at that point in time. Which brings me to my need for advice or at least somebody to play devils advocate, so to speak. If Dave really IS an Eagle from the troop, his name, rightly, should be on the board. But if he ISNT, then thats just plain wrong for him to lie about. I dont want to approach Dave and make it seem like I doubt him, but I would like to know the truth, and if he really did get his Eagle, make sure his name gets immortalized in our troop hall of fame. I dont really have access to troop records, or even know what we have that would go back that far (1994-1996). I really do want to believe that he really did get his Eagle. Hes such a nice kid.

 

We see Mark (dad) a lot at social events. Also, my oldest son occasionally works for Daves uncle. So it could be a sticky situation. The whole family will be at our house again this weekend.

 

Comments? Advice? Do you think I should MYOB?

 

BUG

 

If you want to know, and its easy to do, call Irving, tell the receptionist you need to verify an Eagle. You will need to know full name, address when he would have been awarded the Eagle and birthdate, that sort of thing. They can tell you in minutes if he is an Eagle or not.

 

I have a dear friend whose nephew earned Eagle but because of family upheaval never had a Court of Honor and never got the medal. I called Irving, supplied the name, date, address and troop and it was verified, he is an Eagle. At a very reasonable cost they sent a certificate and medal which we presented to him during a family party. It was great!, but I digress. If you want to know for sure, its easy to find out from the definitive source. What you do after you find out? Well, thats another story alltogether

I didn't know that I could just call National. I don't have his birthdate, and not positive of his address, or even the date that he received Eagle. But I do, of course, have troop number, his name (which isn't really Johnson and is not a common name), and approximate age and date that he would have gotten it. I'll let you know if they are able to fill me in.

My council has an "Eagle Log"...a register of all the Eagles ... it is open to anyone who cares to look at it...I found my own name listed. Your council may have something similar. What you do with the information is up to you...I would just file it away in the back of my mind and recognize that the person has some problems. You may want to verify all of the names on the plaque...just to be sure you have everyone.(This message has been edited by scoutldr)(This message has been edited by scoutldr)

 

...I would just file it away in the back of my mind and recognize that the person has some problems.

WOW, how did you come up with this? Did you leave a a sentence out with the word IF in it?

Not sure I understand your question, Dan.

I believe what Dan was trying to say is don't assume that he has problems before you call to verify his Eagle status.

 

JMHO,

Carol

While finding out is easy.

I may be a little too trusting, but going on A Scout is Trustworthy,I would accept his word and leave it at that.

Eamonn

I called national and after getting transferred around four times and put on hold just as many, I never got anywhere near an answer (I finally hung up).

 

Eammon, it isn't *just* about whether he's telling the truth, but if he truly is an Eagle through our troop, his name belongs on our board. There were some extenuating circumstances in his life at that time (his son was born around the same time he would have gotten Eagle - I DO wonder if that could have led to exclusion of his name or if they may have retracted his Eagle or something - but if he earned it, he earned it), along with a period of chaos in adult leadership in the troop at that time. It's possible that something got overlooked/lost in the shuffle. Knowing the guy, I would be surprised if he wasn't telling the truth.

 

And, of course, I maybe should take a cue from my experience in trying to find out from National - perhaps I should just MMOB. But gee, I do so much love a mystery!

 

BUG

Gee Sorry, when I called I must have been on the phone 5 minutes max, and that included getting the presenatation kit ordered. If you need to know, try again

Any old members of the troop around? Ask them, "say, I met old Dave the other day. He was talking about his days in the troop. I was thinking he was an Eagle, but didn't see his name on the plaque. Do you remember?".

I just signed up this morning for this forum, so forgive me if I am overstepping my bounds. Also, this is just my opinion and I don't have a real answer for how to handle this.

 

Unless you know this person very, very well or are in a position to get to know him well, I would not say anything. I know that you are truly concerned about "righting this wrong", but consider what may happen to your relationship with this person if it does turn out to not be the complete truth. As an aside, is there another person you know that could possibly verify that this guy did get his Eagle before you confront him? That might be your best bet if you can't just look it up.

 

People generally lie about things that are important to them. If it's not true, there's some reason why he wants others to believe that he's an Eagle. In most cases, damaging a very casual relationship with someone wouldn't be worth it to me.

 

Again, I apologize for just jumping into such a tough topic!

 

 

 

D. R. Kellogg

Try your council. They might be more agreeable to hunting thru various years of records.

 

(This message has been edited by ScoutNut)(This message has been edited by ScoutNut)

Hey Cereal-guy! No need to apologize here. We all jump in. Just try to keep your eyes open, sometimes the water is rough.

Cereal-guy, eh? I like that... (In fact...that's where I got my name...you don't think I'd use my real one, do you?)