Cub Scout Schofield Days

I told Becky "WE" needed to write a blog about today's event. Becky said: write it yourself! Besides, I wasn't even there today. So here goes nothing. A Blog entry by Jim.

27 Dec 2007; a day that will live in Alan Scouting Infamy. Today was the Hawaiian National Guard sponsored Scouting event locally referred to as Schofield days (open to all cub scouts over the age of 7 years). The events for Schofield days took place in one of the major training areas on Schofield Barracks. For those who are unfamiliar, Schofield Barracks is an Army base which is home to the headquarters and various units of the 25th Infantry Division. Schofield Days was billed as a chance to "get muddy" while having fun. Who in the world could pass this up? Thought I would mention at this point that Alan was was pretty excited about the prospect of getting muddy too. Here is a picture of Alan linking up with his "Scout Master" Mr. Wayne and other members of the group as we waited for buses to take us to Schofield days. Notice that it is raining as planned. It is hard to have mud without water.

Schofield days really amounts to 6 round robin stations in which the Scouts get hands on exposure to physical fitness, knot tying/rope bridges; static equipment displays (weapons and vehicles), wilderness survival and camouflage techniques. Prior to the round robin events kicking off, the entire group was treated to a working Military Police Dogs Demonstration. The Scouts were told about the two basic types of working dogs, the sniffers and the Biters. The sniffers are the dogs that assist Humans with locating bad things like explosives and illegal narcotics. The Biters are the dogs that assist the police in chasing down and catching "Bad" guys. Here is Alan watching part of the dog demonstration. Notice the beautiful full Rainbow in the background. Forgive me for stating the obvious, but a key ingredient in making Rainbows is Rain which coincidentally assists with making mud. No wonder they call Hawaii a paradise.


At station one, Alan and the Scouts learned all about the Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT) which is composed of three events: push-ups, sit-ups and a two mile run. Here Alan is knocking out "Army" push ups. Way to go Alan.





Station two was knot tying and rope bridges. The Scouts learned how to tie a square knot and Bowlin Knot as well as had the chance to negotiate a two rope and one rope bridge. Here is Alan "hanging loose" upside down on the one rope bridge. Alan had a blast at station three learning about a fire truck, a HMMWV, a 2 1/2 ton Cargo Truck as well as the M249 and M4 Army Machine guns. At the survival station, station 4, Alan learned about how to collect water, build shelters and trap animals in the event of a survival emergency.

At the 5th and final station, the scouts were taught various camouflage techniques to include "face" painting. After the demonstration, the Scouts were instructed to pair up and apply camouflage paint to each others faces. My understanding of the instructions were that each Scout was to take turns camouflaging the other. Well, when you cannot decide whose face should be "painted" first, then the technique mastered by Alan and fellow Scout Harry definitely comes in handy.





All in all, great fun was had by all. While the real mud did not materialize as advertised, there was plenty of rain and camouflage paint to make the day messy and fun. After all, just look at that face....clearly the face of a Happy Scout (or the face only a mother could love....barely). What a great Scouting day!