Scouting, Volume 63, Number 1, January-February 1975 Page: 20
68 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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he suddenly became aware of the cluster of stars on the
tall man's fatigue cap, "Are you really a general?"
The major general smiled as he placed a big hand on
the youngster's shoulder and assured him that he really
was a general of sorts.
"Gol-ly! You're the first general I ever saw in my whole
life!" The 11-year-old poked each of his buddies in the
Green Pea Patrol to make sure they recognized who had
rushed down the slippery hillside to help them pull their
Arctic-type sled out of the deep mud hole it had become
mired in.
There was a chorus of "Wow's" and "Gosh's" as the
patrol turned to charge off through the hills in hot pursuit
of the other teams. Watching them disappear from view,
the general returned their friendly waves. Then he turned
to me and smiled: "I sure wish my men felt the same way
about me."
With that the commander of one of the most vital units
in Europe looked down at what only a few minutes before
had been his third pair of spit-polished boots and his
third set of fatigues that day before asking me if other
district Scouters had this much fun. He didn't wait for an
answer. Another patrol had just capsized in the mud hole
left over from tank manuevers.
"Tell my orderly I'll be back for a dry uniform later.
Those kids need my help!"
With that the general bounded down the hill while the
rest of us debated just who was having the most fun that
day.
Being trusted to carry a knife, ax, saw and matches in a
powder-dry forest can also be an unusual adventure,
particularly in Turkey.
Mercilessly attacked by men, beasts and elements for
centuries, Turkey's forests were virtually all destroyed.
Trained foresters are now striving to save the estimated
15 percent of timber that remains while they are reforest-
ing a few other sections. Consequently, all Turks are very
protective of their trees. It is a strong possibility that a
gang of Turks would kill you or put you in the hospital for
cutting or burning a tree if the police didn't reach you first
and throw you into prison.
After months of negotiations with the Turkish military
and forest officials, we were finally granted permission
to conduct a long-term camp in the Belgrade National
Forest at Istanbul. American Scouts were the first organi-
zation ever granted this privilege. We told the Turks they
could trust a Scout. Then we told our Scouts.
Every troop in Turkey attended the 10-day camp,
where we prepared our patrol meals on wood fires. When
the forest director made his final inspection of the site,
he did not find a single tree that had been defaced or de-
stroyed. Nor did he find one piece of litter!
What did the boys get out of it? A great time and a spe-
cial invitation from the Turkish government to return the
following year!
The International Scout Camp at Kandersteg, Switzer-
land, offers mountaintop camping with Scouts from all
over the world. There's also the chance of scaling the
Alps. Not all of the troops are thoroughly briefed before
challenging the lofty crags of Europe. And nothing is
quite as demoralizing to a Scout as struggling for hours
to finally reach the top of a mountain only to find some lit-
tle whitehaired old ladies beat them there while pushing
their grandchildren up in four-wheeled baby buggies.
If we had used the Arabic camp enrollment plan when
we operated summer camp back in the States, we
might have had better attendance. One of our American
troops in the Middle East wouldn't recommend the plan,
though. It seems Arab coastguardsmen use camels to pa-
trol great expanses of open beaches in many Arabian
countries and occasionally display some difficulty in dis-
tinguishing between friends and foes.
The fully-uniformed troop had made camp on an iso-
lated stretch of beach several miles from their home base
and the Scouts were about ready to retire for the night
when they heard the thunder of hoofbeats approaching
out of the darkness. A patrol of coastguardsmen reined
up, captured the troop, and marched the 40 boys and
leaders off to a nearby village jail. They continued their
camp-out in jail for the next three days before those in
high places could arrange their release.
The Arab coastguardsmen thought the troop was a
company of well-trained young commandos attempting to
infiltrate from Israel!
Camels presented another kind of a problem for an
American troop near Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. The
troop had left Dhahran early in the morning and hiked
some distance out into the desert to a lush oasis. The
boys were busily preparing a typical camp meal when
they suddenly found themselves surrounded by a gang of
cutthroats.
Before anybody lost his head, one of the boy leaders
invited the bandit chief and his men to dismount and join
the troop for dinner. It was quite obvious the gang hadn't
eaten for some time, because they lost no time in licking
the pot clean. After asking Allah's blessing on the
Scouts, the bandits mounted their camels and galloped
off into the setting sun, much to everybody's relief.
A few weeks later the troop received an invitation to
attend a barbecue in the desert as guests of the bandit
leader. The Scouts were prepared to swim the Helles-
pont, scale Mt. Everest, or save an entire populace from
imminent disaster, but they weren't ready for the sight
that greeted Jheir tender young eyes when they arrived
at the barbecue pit. The largest, blackest, ugliest and
deadest camel they had ever seen was slowly turning on
the spit!
Men of the desert deem barbecued camel a rare deli-
cacy. The Scouts found this hard to swallow. But, like
true ambassadors of goodwill, they hung in there.
Then came the moment of truth. The bandit chief, bear-
ing a wide toothless grin and a silver platter, approached
the American Scoutmaster. Beautifully embellished in the
center of the platter, dolefully gazing up at the shocked
guest of honor, was the choicest piece, the eye of the
camel!
Our American Scoutmaster wasn't sure what to do. The
Scoutmaster's Handbook was pretty vague about this
sort of thing. Every Scout's eye was on him. Every Arab's
eye was on him. The camel's eye was still on him. It was
the first time he ever had a meal stare back at him. Final-
ly, with a display of bravery seldom equalled by fellow
Scouters, he ate the whole thing. The eye came up sev-
eral times after that — sometimes just for discussion.
Immediately after relating this tale to me on my first of-
ficial Visit tO Saudi Arabia, the (continued on page 60)
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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/m1/20/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.