I am currently an Assistant Scoutmaster in my troop, Troop 35. This is the only position that I have had as an adult in the troop. Positions that I have held as a youth include: Junior Assistant Scoutmaster, Senior and Asst. Senior Patrol Leader, Patrol Leader, Troop Guide, Den Chief, Quartermaster, and Instructor.

Order of the Arrow events were some of my favorite activites in scouts. I attended several of my sections annual conclaves. I also attended some of the training sessions involved with the OA including the National Leadership Seminar where only a few of the leaders from each lodge are chosen to go to each year. I feel more honored receiving the Vigil Honor, considered to be the highest award in the OA, than I do receiving Eagle because I feel that Vigil is more based on you character rather than just completing requirements. You have to be chosen to be in the Order of the Arrow and you must also be chosen to recieve Vigil. However, good character is usually a part of every true Eagle Scout. Some of the things that I have accomplished while in the OA include serving as Chapter Chief for Muskhogea Chapter and Brotherhood Chairman of Chilantakoba Lodge #397. I also served as the ceremonies chairman for my chapter and helped to increase the number of lodge ceremonies that the chapter participated in. That number, I am sad to say, decreased after I resigned from the position and went to college. Another event that I did participate in was OA Trail Crew at Philmont Scout Ranch. It is a two week program where you work on making a new trail at Philmont for one week, and your crew plans a trek for the second week. One thing that I do regret never attending with the OA, is the National Order of the Arrow Conference, NOAC. I will go sometime though.

Philmont is by far the epidemy of camping for Boy Scouts. It is 137,493 acres of mountain terrain in Cimarron, New Mexico donated to the Boy Scouts by Waite Phillips, owner of Phillips 66 oil company. If someone told me I could live at Philmont for free if I brought my own tent, backpack, and clothes and they provided me with food, I would quit school and go immediately. I have been to Philmont five times. I climbed to the top of Euracca Mesa when I was four years old in 1988. I went back in 1995 to participate in the Boy Scout program where I climbed the Tooth of Time for my first Time. I went to the top of the "Tooth" four more times after that seeing a sunrise that could not possibly be better anywhere else. In 1998 and 2000 I went on the same super-strenuous trek, itinerary #36 at the time. After completing trail 36 in 2000, I participated in the OA Trail Crew program for two weeks. I think that was my favorite program at Philmont. My crew hiked over 80 miles in 7 days peaking 3 mountains including the second tallest mountain in New Mexico, Little Castilla. The last time I went was in 2001 when I attended National Junior Leader Instructor Camp. This was a week long program that four people from my troop were chosen to attend. Right now I am planning on going to Philmont again in 2006.

Boy Scout Links

Chilantakoba Lodge #397


Southeast Louisiana Council

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