Scouting, Volume 63, Number 1, January-February 1975 Page: 61
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held that evening in the city auditori-
um. (You can bet the council received
lots of free help with their new summer
camp in that area the next year.)
Not all of the high adventure over-
seas was reserved for the boys.
Volunteer and professional Scouters
came in for their fair share, too. Like
the time some friends and I tried to en-
ter Hungary at a little-used border
crossing with a tourist passport, a set
of military orders and a khaki uniform
they had never seen before. When the
soldiers looked up the word "Scout"
in their Hungarian-English dictionary it
almost got me a one way ticket to Si-
beria. It read: "SCOUT — One sent out
to reconnoiter; to spy out."
Good thing I didn't hand them the
dogeared old business card in my wal-
let. The way things were going, "Scout
executive" would probably translate
into "a leader of the spies."
Hungarians have little understand-
ing of the free world's Scout program,
since the Communist Party replaced
the last Hungarian troop with a Pioneer
link in 1945. Pioneers wear uniforms
with red neckerchiefs, go to camp,
elect their own junior leaders and do
many of the same things Scouts do ex-
cept they march to a radically differ-
ent tune.
Fortunately, I had some knowledge
of the Pioneer program and began
pawing through my luggage until I
found the tattered red neckerchief that
had managed to survive hundreds of
head scarf demonstrations at den
mother workshops.
The Hungarian officer in charge was
still rummaging through my suitcases,
uncovering what appeared to be divi-
sional numbers and regimental
patches on one of my other khaki
shirts. None of the soldiers under-
stood English, so we weren't com-
municating too well. This called for
one of my campfire stunts before
somebody decided to blow taps or
give us a home in their local jail.
I politely took my khaki shirt from
the young officer, clutched it tightly to
my chest, threw the red neckerchief
around my neck and began to march
briskly around the squad of soldiers
loudly proclaiming the virtues of the
Pioneer comrades. The message got
through loud and clear! The soldiers
began to smile for the first time, maybe
because they thought I really was a
Pioneer.
I'll never know how much they un-
derstood, but we shook hands and
joined the other soldiers in all the
back-slapping and shouting that fol-
lowed. Then they really rolled out the
red carpet. Within minutes they'd
stamped our passports, issued visas,
exchanged some forints for our
Deutsche marks and waved us on our
way toward Budapest. That was the
last time we took the advice of well-
meaning friends who just happened to
know a shortcut.
Heavy rotation and constant turn-
over of den mothers, unit leaders
and committeemen necessitated
around-the-clock training, both formal
and informal. Council courses had to
be exceptional to get people to at-
tend. The Scouters in Turkey, for ex-
ample, had a 5,000-mile round trip.
That's why training conferences at
Garmisch and Berchtesgaden were
combined with ice shows, tours, Okto-
berfests in Munich, and featured such
speakers as Astronaut John Glenn,
Chief Scout Executive Alden Barber
and many others.
We also ran three-day courses and
tours at Izmir, Turkey, and Athens
when we were building the Crusader
District. It was refreshing for all of us
to go into virgin territory and organize
a district without any hang-ups. Oh,
we managed to get a lot of unsolicited
advice about district committees,
other ways to run training and all that
from new arrivals who had not been
baptized yet, but the commissioner
staff didn't let it stop them from doing
the job. Any time the subject came up,
we pointed out that there would be
some difficulty selecting a central
meeting place between Athens and
Addis Ababa, a stretch of over 2,000
miles. Besides, by the time the district
committeemen got there on their cam-
els the present crop of boys would
have rotated home with their parents
after the 1 8-month tour.
It is not unusual for military Scout-
ers to return to the Transatlantic
Council — and sometimes even to
their old district or unit — after serving
r
W/V
* Yty/**
"Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch ..."
a tour of duty at some other place. It is
always a thrill to any Scouter to return
to his old stomping grounds. The first
Scoutmaster in Weisbaden, Germany,
buried a time capsule and returned
many years later to help dig it up as
Scoutmaster of the same troop.
One of the thrills I had was to revisit
the area in Italy where I served in the
ski troops, and spent some time after
the Axis surrender helping reorganize
Scouting while I was on temporary
duty with the allied military govern-
ment.
High adventure to those little Italian
boys was a camping trip in a pair of
cut-down U.S. Army suntans with any
color neckerchief except red, a badge
and, most of all, the opportunity to be a
Scout instead of a Fascist Youth.
We could all rest better tonight if
every one of the millions of boys and
girls in Russia, China and the rest of
the Communist world were allowed to
subscribe to the Scout Oath and Law.
I'm sure that Scouters from the Far
East Council could also tell some
unusual and exciting Scouting stories
like those I've told you about in the
Transatlantic Council. But folks over-
seas don't have a corner on high ad-
venture, nor does it happen there un-
less career and volunteer Scouters
make it happen.
There are just as many opportunities
for adventure — maybe even more —
right here in the United States, and you
can help make it happen. It usually
starts with a desire to do something
different, a need, a special interest, a
challenge, or a little "brainstorming"
session. One of the great adventures
in the whole BSA was started by a
simple phone call.
In 1952 the Oregon Trail Council at
Eugene, Oreg., was looking for an In-
dian dance act to plus up their Scout
circus at the University of Oregon. Six
months before the show we phoned
Irving Shepard, Superintendent of
Schools at the Warm Springs Indian
Reservation, to invite its troop to per-
form. He told us that they didn't have a
troop. He had been unable to arouse
any interest in dancing or costuming,
but he had been looking for some way
to stir up some interest and this just
might be it!
Sure enough, 50 Indian Boy Scouts
showed up for our show. They have
been heel and toeing at jamborees and
Scout shows ever since.
Often it takes only a little effort on
our part to help kids get "high" on ad-
venture and it can happen anywhere
on this earth of ours. ■
61
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Boy Scouts of America. Scouting, Volume 63, Number 1, January-February 1975, periodical, January 1975; New Brunswick, New Jersey. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth353656/m1/63/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.