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CAMP LEMONNIER, Djibouti - More than 2.3 million Boy
Scouts have earned the rank of Eagle Scout and of those,
several are deployed to Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of
Africa and Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti.
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Eagle Scout service members deployed
to Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa and Camp Lemonnier pose
for a group photo Aug. 22, 2014, at Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti. (U.S.
Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Leslie Keopka)
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To become an
Eagle Scout, one must go through all the scout ranks, earn
21 mandatory merit badges, plan, develop and execute a final
community service project and complete an Eagle Scout board
of review.
The merit badges include: first aid,
communication, fitness, camping, family life and wilderness
survival.
U.S. Navy Capt. Michael Newman, Camp
Lemonnier commanding officer and native of Oakland, Calif.,
entered into the program at age seven and became an Eagle
Scout at age 16 while living in Golden, Colo.
Becoming an Eagle Scout taught him valuable skills he uses
in his career today, he said.
“I think Scouting is
great in the idea of organizational skills and leadership,
but the other piece is outdoor activities and getting into
camping, backpacking, and wilderness activities,” Newman
said. “Some of those wilderness skills you actually use as a
pilot when you go to [Survival, Evasion, Resistance and
Escape] school and some of the other training you do; it
isn't the first time you are out there starting a fire or
eating bugs.”
Petty Officer 1st Class Michael Urban,
Detail Special Operations Command Africa Naval Mobile
Construction Battalion 133 operations chief and native of
Philadelphia, Pa., entered into the program at age 10 and
became an Eagle Scout at age 17.
Urban earned 34
merit badges that included community service, safety and
first aid. He said just about everything he does as a
Seabee, there is a merit badge for.
“It is almost
like military boot camp, just without the yelling and
screaming,” Urban said. “The Boy Scouts introduced me to
discipline, organizations and formations.”
U.S. Air
Force Lt. Col. Rick Fournier, Combined Joint Task Force-Horn
of Africa Air Component Coordination Element duty director
and native of Deridder, Louisiana, entered into the program
at age seven and became an Eagle Scout at age 16.
Fournier has two sons in the program now and gave advice to
future and current Scouts.
“Keep working toward the
Eagle Scout; don't look back and wish you had made Eagle,
get Eagle,” Fournier said. “You never stop being an Eagle
Scout. It is just the starting point for something to carry
with you the rest of your life. You have to be a
representative of that.”
 Fournier earned the aviation
merit badge during his time in the program and says it made
him interested in becoming the pilot he is today.
Learn more about the
Boy Scouts
of America and Eagle Scouts.
By U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Leslie Keopka
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2014
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