Eagle Scout

Yeah, I am an Eagle Scout. ALL the boys in my family are Eagle Scouts, no choice. Notice the present tense, once an Eagle always an Eagle, Eagle scouts are allowed to wear their medals on their formal uniforms in the military.

To get the Eagle you have to do a special project. I worked with the National Forest Service to thin trees on a particularly hazadous piece of land. I helped mark the trees to be cut and by myself cut down over 300 trees. That was in 1970.

In 2000 the National Parl Service accidently started a fire that burned down 50,000 acres of forest. The forest service was able to use my plot as a fire stop to divert the fire from downtown Los Alamos. I'm so proud.



This is what happened to the trees not in my area. The picture was taken 6 years after the fire. By the way, when I was a kid everyone could help fight fires, so the fire in western area burned less then 1000 acres. Everytime there was a fire John and I would get on our bikes with a shovel to go help, for one fire we rode 15 miles and about 3000 feet up to get into position. In 1990 the Forest Service decided we couldn't fight fires. So we went from 300 professionals and 5000 civilians to just 300-600 professionals. No forest fire since has burned down less than 5000 acres and several up to 10 times that. Hey guys, how did that "professional" crap work out for you?