A Different Kind of Boy Scout: Armed and Fighting Terrorism

For Explorer Scouts, Good Deeds Have Whole New Meaning

IMPERIAL, Calif. - Ten minutes into arrant mayhem in this town near the Mexican border, and the gunman, a disgruntled Iraq war veteran, has already taken out two people, one slumped in his desk, the other covered in blood on the floor.

The responding officers - eight teenage boys and girls, the youngest 14 - face tripwire, a thin cloud of poisonous gas and loud shots - BAM! BAM! - fired from behind a flimsy wall. They move quickly, pellet guns drawn and masks affixed.

"United States Border Patrol! Put your hands up!" screams one in a voice cracking with adolescent determination as the suspect is subdued.

It is all quite a step up from the square knot.

more . . . http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/05/14-1

For him (and for us) it's all about getting together with his buddies, going camping, biking, learning skills like working with tools.

I'm hoping to find another program that will offer similar activities for boys (because sometimes boys just need to be with other boys) without the religious bullshit and the brownshirt crap.

She seems surprised that an Explorer troop sponsored by law enforcement is getting police-type training. Well, surprise! An Explorer troop sponsored by a fire department is going to be getting lots of training in fire fighting.

Explorer troops have very little in common with regular Boy Scout troops.