Re: Being an Eagle Scout kicks ass!

**Betterdeadthanred** · 07-24-2008, 12:09 AM

Originally Posted by TurkishDelight

Oh I have

Flying is a great experience, I am glad you enjoyed it!

Did you get to do any steep dives or climbs?

It was pretty much nice and easy, but good enough for me given that it was my first time at the controls. Naples has plenty of wide open paved areas so you're constantly hitting those thermals. It makes for an edge of your seat experience if your a novice.

Originally Posted by CingularDuality

Better than any rollercoaster, isn't it!

Way better!

**ScratchMonkey** · 07-24-2008, 06:58 AM

A friend of mine took me up along the California coast and let me have the controls at 6000 feet. We did an exercise where I close my eyes, he puts the craft at a random attitude, and I have to get it straight again. He was annoyed that I could do it so easily. I just told him it was because of all the video games I play.

**Nexon** · 07-24-2008, 07:01 AM

Good for you!

**Rincewind** · 07-25-2008, 02:32 PM

Congratulations on achieving Eagle Scout rank! I received mine about 12 years ago. I'm glad (but not at all surprised) to see so many other Eagle Scouts on TG.

**randomuser83** · 07-25-2008, 07:19 PM

Welcome to the club man. During your ceremony make sure to have one of your leaders announce it to big name companies and they will send you things as a congratulations. Youll even get some stuff from former presidents if they do it right. Its pretty cool. Congrats again man.

**Bandaid** · 07-26-2008, 12:57 PM

I took flight lessons when I was 13-14. Got about 20 hours in (then school shut down, grew up and money is scarce now...I do plan on finishing though). I was about 1 month away from taking my first solo when it shut down. There is nothing like it in the world. For everyone that's only been in commercial airliners or anyone who's never flown before, go take a ride on a lil Cessna 172. Our new flight school offers a $50 introductory ride and they let u fly it too...can't beat that.

The hardest thing for me is landing in a crosswind, obviously. And coming out of a stall without dipping the nose down too far. Betterdead, fly as often as u can! People who will take u up for free are hard to come by.

**Mech__Warrior** · 07-26-2008, 09:37 PM

I got my Eagle in 2004 as well. It's good to see so many fellow scouts and Eagle scouts in the forums.

**Uranium - 235** · 07-26-2008, 10:58 PM

I was in Boy Scouts for a few years as a kid. I ended up getting kicked out. It didn't make much sense to me at the time since I was only like, 14 or 15, and had bigger things to worry about, but it ultimately turned out that the scout leaders didn't like me and my family because we didn't go to their church. Then they found out we're god-hating atheist commies and gave me the boot. My dad wasn't a scoutmaster, but he was one of the biggest parental planners, organizing a lot of the events. So now, according to the Boy Scouts, since I don't beat a Bible and hang gays from trees, I have no morals or values.

While Eagle Scout means you've achieved a lot, it also means you're getting advantages for being a Christian sponsored by an organization of bigots. To hell with that. Uh.... sorry to rain on the parade.

Congratulations, at any rate :P

**ScratchMonkey** · 07-27-2008, 01:22 AM

I hear you, U-235. It does suck that they exclude anyone outside the gay-fearing Christian sects. That's gotta cut into the potential pool of people willing to lead a group. Is there an alternative to BSA that doesn't enforce this exclusion?

I wasn't an atheist when I was in Scouts, and my biggest problem back then was that the leadership kept evaporating. My mom hosted a pretty big cub scout group, and my dad a Webelo group. (I think I made it to the very first stage of Boy Scout after Webelo before the neighborhood troop finally shut down for good.)

**Ferris Bueller** · 07-27-2008, 01:28 PM

Wow, I'm sorry you had a bad experience, but I think that your one bad run gave you the wrong impression. You just needed to find a different troop.

I'm agnostic, always have been. Refused to go to any kind of religious service while I was in boy scouts. I'd help out with projects that the church sponsored, like the pancake breakfast, but I wouldnt attend religious ceremonies. Nobody had a problem with that. That was with the Catholic troop I was with. Before that, I was with a completely nondenominational troop on Naval Air Station Alameda that was sponsored by the base instead of a church. We had jewish kids, muslim kids, hell, one of my buddies was buddhist. None of them were discriminated against or kicked out.

So, sorry your experience sucked uranium, but you're expressing a very narrow viewpoint based on limited experience and apparent unwillingness to find out if it was anomalous.

Getting Eagle is a damn hard thing to do. I got mine at 17. But without it, I probably wouldnt have received my NROTC scholarship either. Half of my interview for it involved talking about Boy Scouts with the Lieutenant.

**ScratchMonkey** · 07-27-2008, 01:43 PM

It's probably a "don't ask don't tell" situation, where if you keep quiet and "pass" then no one makes an issue of it. But it's going to depend on the local leadership looking the other way, and apparently U-235's didn't mind making an issue of it.

**Ferris Bueller** · 07-27-2008, 02:11 PM

It wasnt a "dont as dont tell" policy at all, with either of the troops I was in. Take my actions on the forums as an example, do you think I've ever been afraid to speak my mind? No. My scoutmasters all knew I was agnostic. They didnt care. The scoutmaster for the troop I was in when I lived in Alameda knew all about the preferred religious practices of the scouts in the troop, but he didnt care and was very accepting of their beliefs. You just have to find the right environment. Contrary to popular belief, not everyone basks in a bigot sunshine and shuns you if you dont agree.

**Mech__Warrior** · 07-27-2008, 03:27 PM

My friend got Eagle at 13 and left our troop because he moved to Arizona. The troop there was all Mormons and their kids had Eagle at 13 as well. After hearing this, they thought he was also a Mormon. He, to their dismay, was not. I am sad to hear that there are certain troops that shun you if you are not like them.

**Ferris Bueller** · 07-27-2008, 05:28 PM

I wanna know how he got eagle in one year. You cant even move up from cub scouts until you're 12. From scout to first class generally takes at least three months, considering BSA says troops are only supposed to have a board of review once a month, so that's three months minimum right there. To get star you have to be first class for 4 months. To get life you have to be star for 6 months. To get eagle, you have to be life for 6 months. In addition, IIRC, you have 21 required merit badges and a few non-required ones in addition to all that.

So even if he busted his ass, according to national council regulations that makes a total of 19 months from the time you become a boy scout until you make eagle, which means that even if he started the day he turned 12, he should have been 14 at the earliest before making eagle.

Personally, I didnt make life until I was 15. But by that time I had already got Vigil in OA and had 34 merit badges. Thats about the same time I got appointed JASM for the troop and it still took me another two years before the eagle board passed me.

Sounds to me like someone was either cutting corners or passing out eagle scout like candy, which is just insulting to those of us who actually had to work for it.

**Steeler** · 07-27-2008, 06:08 PM

People need to remember that although the BSA is a national institution, the troops are primarily community-based. The leaders are local, the sponsoring venues are local, the general membership is local. If the local participants want to run an organization that is de facto culturally, politically, or economically "pure," and call it a BSA troop, chances are they can do it without interference.

In keeping with this dynamic, scouts can earn badges at highly accelerated rates if the troop is structured with the express intent of producing badges in high numbers. In MMO terms, power leveling. I've seen how this works, where every scout is placed on a fast-track to meet specific badge requirements, often en masse and with activities that produce overlapping results. For example, attending a two-day safety course could net you your Safety, First Aid, and Emergency Preparedness merit badges, and knock out 2/3rds of Tenderfoot, Second Class, and First class right away. Generally, the scouts don't retain many of the lessons they are supposed to learn in the process, but damn, does that uniform fill up fast!

And Ferris, I think you can start in BSA at 11. I've known a few 13 year old eagles before. Generally they were either genuinely nice guys who just liked doing it, or insufferable brats pushed through by overbearing dads.

This is why, although I value my experiences and accomplishments from scouting, I'll tread very carefully before I or my family get involved with BSA again.

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