The World Needs …

I was the oldest of 3 sons of a highly decorated ‘Nam pilot. WW II took all the men from his troop before he could earn any rank.

I was a lazy 11-year-old lost in a very large Troop. In NY. After a year I was still not even a Tenderfoot. But 4 summers later I was the first of 11 Eagles ( at age 14) in a small troop in Texas.

What happened was a rite of passage and a supreme challenge at age 12. The rite of passage was being told that I was now old enough to remember exactly when my next troop meeting would require my father to take me and bring me home. My dad took the mighty big risk of telling me that he would no longer remind me when my meetings would be, but that he would always take me there and bring me home every time I remembered to ask him.

The supreme challenge was being sent 1,000 miles from home to go to summer camp with my new troop in Texas. My grandmother took me from the airport directly to the church parking lot in my uniform with my backpack, and left me in the care of a dozen strangers. I was the gopher to fetch a dozen canteens of water by myself in the dark after a lightning storm destroyed the water pump.

I, too, wanted to be an heroic Air Force pilot like those in WW II, Korea and Nam, hearing of my Dad’s survival school and POW Code of conduct, and the AF Academy Honor Code enlivened the term “Scouts’ Honor” more than most.

The trefoil’s three duties became so engrained that my first USAF officer’s salute was done with only those 3 fingers, held tightly for they formed my core.

As a dentist, my focus was always on helping the less fortunate. As a Dad of a large family of 10 in my earliest days of being a dentist, this attitude was creating a survival situation worthy of a special school, yet only Scouting prepared us for the grit to keep on keeping on, rich in every way but money.

Submitted by: Mark Henderson of Pantego, TX