Mom G. will never believe it!
Over the weekend I took the Basic Adult Leader Outdoor Orientation (BALOO) training for Cub Scouts. Per BSA guidelines, at least one adult leader must be trained to take the pack on a campout, so my Committee Chair and I attended the training. It's a full day, starting at 8:30 and winding down around 5, covering camp essentials, first aid, fire making and safety, menu planning, and other skills necessary to a successful campout.
One of the things that struck me as we went through the afternoon session was how useful the training was - and I've been camping for well over 20 years now. Sure, the model campsite was old hat (although they used far fewer blue tarps that my standard campsite), and some of the material was geared more towards the Boy Scout leaders in the group (we don't do backpack camping with Cub Scouts as a pack), but overall it was a lot of fantastic information.
The other thing that really jumped out at me is just how handy a Boy Scout Handbook is for general survival skills. First aid basics, general plant and animal information, knot tying (I am not too proud to admit that I, at nearly 40 years of age, finally learned how to tie a proper square knot), navigation and hundreds of other beneficial pieces of information that could be, quite literally, a life-saver.
There's even a section on how to make a monkey's paw!
You could do a lot worse than to keep a copy of the Boy Scout Handbook in your SHTF bag, that's for certain.
That is all.
14 comments:
They didn't have a patch for 'Do Not Allow This Dangerous Person Near Kids' for me. But I still have the manual and the cool leader scarf.
I'll have to dig into my boxes; at least when I was a Scout it seems that the "Handbook" had the boring stuff (badge/rank requirements, history, etc), and the "Fieldbook" had all the fun and useful stuff (knives, fires, camping, guns, knots, etc).
Either way, one of each isn't a bad addition.
I'm not a fan of the Scouts politics, but I believe it's arguably the best organization for young men out there - if you can find a troop that focuses on turning boy scouts into young men, and ignores the politics.
Congrats!
That is one of my goals, but alas no kids yet, so dont know if that would be weird or not.
And you are dead on the guidebook is great, i even have it on my iphone, its like $10 and worth every cent.
Are you sure they didn't make a mistake and mean to give you
this patch instead?
:-) Steven
I have two handbooks in my library. One is a recent one, one is a 1937 printing of the original handbook. I also have a 1952 edition of the Scoutmaster's handbook and a 1960's Fieldbook. All good stuff.
I wore this patch on my uniform sleeve for years:
http://quartermasterstore.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=Spoof-Overtrained&Category_Code=Spoof
Although I like the one Steven C posted even better.
Please tell me that whoever named the course "BALOO" had a sense of humor. Otherwise, it is just too cool for coincidence. Is there a BAHGERA course as well?
LittleRed1
The Cub Scout ranks - Tiger, Wolf, and Bear - are all derived from Rudyard Kipling's "The Jungle Book".
So no, it's not coincidental at all. :)
I really need to get back into scouting. I periodically look into it, and then get distracted by something shiny. That, and I keep seeing pet peeves in the troops, like scouts wearing class A shirts untucked, or with jeans. Have a little pride, people...
The older BSA handbooks were better for survival stuff, if I recall, they keep getting nanny-stated less and less useful.
Do any troops in MA actually have rifle outings? My troop used to go, once a year, out to a range somewhere and have a weekend of shooting. Surrounding troops would do the same. One of our leaders was Army Reserve, and had access to the .22 rifles that the .mil folks used. Good times...
I was always prepared during my time in the USMC for basic survival, field craft, first aid, etc. by not just the military training but the lessons learned in Cub, Boy and Explorer Scouts. Knot tying was especially useful in problem solving challenges, fire building even more so during cold weather training. Be Prepared!
ZerCool has it right, I took my fieldbook on every camping or backpacking trip I ever made. My scout handbook only went to meetings with me.
My emergency kits (home, car, and work) each have copies of the 60s version of the Scout Fieldbook in them. At home is my original that got me through 7 years of scouting and 10 years of entertainment backpacking after scouts. The other two I picked up a garage sales several years ago.
Right over left, then left over right. I learned that as a young scout and have never had a problem with the square knot since.
I never did anything that got me a "Trained" tab, but I do have a National Camp School patch...
I thought it said "Brained"
Congrats! Don't forget to KEEP getting trained. A lot of the training for BSA is available online. I'm sure it's probably the same for the Cub Scouts.
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