80 Years Ago Today

The date was December 9, 1932. It was a dismal time during the height of the Great Depression. Just weeks earlier, Franklin Roosevelt was elected President. On that day, a 15-year old boy in Texarkana, Texas, a member of Troop 1 of the Caddo Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America, completed his final requirement and thus earned the rank of Eagle Scout – the highest award in the Boy Scouting then as well as today. This boy likely had no idea of the significant impact that what he had learned and done to earn this honor would have on his life. Likewise, the founders and leaders of the Boy Scouts of America, an organization only seven years older than this new Eagle scout, likely could not fully appreciate the impact Boy Scouting would have on millions of youth or on the history and achievements of so many in the United States of America.

Why do I know this story, and why do I write about it? Because that 15-year old, new Eagle Scout is my father, Johnnye U. Foster.

I was one of five children born to him and my mother, Helen, and was the third of three boys. My older brothers, 19 and 18 years older than me, were each involved in scouting, and one of them earned the rank of Life. My father longed for at least one of his sons to become an Eagle Scout, and when my older brothers did not achieve that goal, his hopes were on me. I went through the Cub Scouting program with Pack 935 for four years in Vidalia, Georgia, earning my Arrow of Light award (the highest award in Cub Scouting) and then crossed over into Troop 935.

After I had earned the Tenderfoot rank, my father sat down with me on the back porch of our home and we talked about Scouting. He explained to me what earning the rank of Eagle meant to him and how looking back he could see how it impacted much of his life – from being valedictorian of the Forestry School at Louisiana State University when he graduated in 1940, to piloting B-24’s in 35 missions in Europe during World War II as part of the 453^rd Bomb Group, to serving in the Texas Rangers (the Texas Forestry Service), to serving as State Commander for the Texas Chapter of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, to a successful career managing wood treatment plants in several different locations in the United States – he realized that scouting had helped instill in him a work ethic, a self confidence and a determination that served him well throughout his life. He wanted me to have those same traits and sought to inspire me to earn the Eagle rank with both his stories and with an enticement which I thought at the time was a little strange, but which nevertheless caught my attention. He pulled a $100 bill out of his wallet (this was in 1974, when that was a lot more money than it is today) and told me he would give that to me as a gift if I earned Eagle.

I was motivated by that conversation (by both the comments about how earning Eagle could help shape my life as well as the $100), and I was active in Troop 935 for a total of about two years. While my troop was a good troop of about 20 scouts and two dedicated adult leaders, both those leaders worked for the same company, and both were transferred at the same time. My dad and others tried to step in as leaders, but work and other commitments prevented them from doing all that was needed to effectively run a troop, and the troop became inactive. As a result, I never made it past the 1^st Class rank.

It was however, the memory of that conversation with my dad on the back porch as well as the experiences I had in Boy Scouts that led me, once I had a son, to choose Scouting as one of the key methods I would use to teach him and help him grow towards becoming a man. A journey I lead him on still today.

My son became a Cub Scout in September 2004 with Pack 56 in Lawrenceville, Georgia. In March 2008, he earned his Arrow of Light and crossed over to Troop 56, a wonderful troop with a storied history and great legacy for producing quality scouts. While I understood why my father was not able to be a scout leader for my Troop, I was thrilled when he tried to, and I wished that he could have been my Scoutmaster. As a result and since I had the ability to do so, I made the commitment to be an active leader in my son’s Pack and Troop. So, just as my son has been in Scouting for a little over eight years now, I too have been; first as his Den Leader and continuing as Den Leader all four years he was in Cub Scouting, as well as serving as Cubmaster and then Pack Committee Chair. Once we crossed over to Troop 56, I served as one of the Assistant Scoutmasters before becoming Scoutmaster January 1, 2011.

While I could end this story there, I’ve still not gotten to the best part. While I knew my father was an Eagle Scout, I never knew when he earned Eagle. I had guessed it was when he was 16 or 17, but that was nothing more than a guess. Well, last month, I was in the office of our Troop’s Council, the Northeast Georgia Council, and had a pleasant visit with a lady there named Martha Ann. The subject of my father being an Eagle scout came up while I was there, and as I walked back to my truck, I felt the urge to go back and ask her if there was a way to find out when my father became an Eagle Scout. I gave her all the information I knew, and she said she’d call the National Headquarters in Dallas, Texas and perhaps get back with me in a day or two and let me know if they could find the answer. By the time I’d made the 40-minute drive from that office home in heavy rush hour traffic, my mind had been distracted and moved on to other items. But as I walked in the door of my home, our phone was ringing. I noticed on the caller ID that it was the Council office calling, and I was elated when Martha Ann told me the National Headquarters had no problem tracking down my dad records, and she gave me the December 9, 1932 date.

So why is this the best part? You see, I went to the Council’s office that day, November 1^st, in order to drop off my son’s Eagle book in order for him to be able to participate in the November Eagle Boards of Review, and on November 17^th, just a couple of weeks after the day I learned when my father earned his Eagle, and nearly 80 years to the day after my father did so, my son became the first descendant of my father to become an Eagle Scout. So while it took a lot longer than planned, I believe my father can now look down from Heaven with pride that while none of his son’s achieved the goal he had hoped for, one of his grandsons did.

The Eagle soars again!