MIAMI -- -- A group of Midwestern Boy Scouts took advantage of a unique opportunity this summer to live and work among Marines in Miami as part of a two-week trip to South Florida.
Boy Scout Troop 30 from Traverse City, Mich divided their time between the Florida Keys and the Marine Corps Reserve Center in Hialeah, Fla. The center is the home of the Anti-Tank TOW Scout Platoon, 8th Tank Bn, 4th Marine Division, who served in the liberation of Iraq. The trip coincided with the reserves’ Annual Training session, giving the scouts a close up view of an operational reserve unit.
“They had quite a bit of interaction with the Marines,” said Chris Stein, Troop 30’s Scoutmaster. “They had chow with them, the Marines gave a weapons demonstration and safety brief the night we got here, the Marines have come in and talked to the boys and played cards with them, and they had a chance to sit down and talk to the Marines about what it’s like to be in the military.”
One highlight of the experience was a boot-camp style reveille the second to last day at the center, Stein said. “Most of us were down, and they just went through the whole room and made a lot of noise. They got us out of bed in a heartbeat.”
The group spent the first week in Florida at a Boy Scouts high adventure camp called Sea Base, said Stein. The camp itself is just north of Key West, and from there, the boys kayaked five and a half miles to Munson Island. There, they engaged in a broad range of activities on the land and water. For the next several days they lived in tents and ate backpacking food. The troop went deep-sea fishing, snorkeling, reef diving, backpacking, and fished for shark and lobster. When it was over, they kayaked back to Sea Base, and then headed to Miami.
The excitement continued back on the mainland. While in Miami, the boys rode airboats in the Everglades and toured Miami’s beaches. The group of 24 Scouts and eight adult leaders stayed on cots in the reserve center’s gymnasium, and even got to eat MRE’s, Stein said.
Lt. Col. Dale Bain, a Reserve Marine and Marine Corps Forces, South civilian contractor made the connection between the Boy Scout Troop and the Hialeah Marines. Bain is an active Boy Scout booster who helped present the idea to Maj. Scott Mack, the Inspector- Instructor. Mack agreed to support and placed the call back to Michigan, and the rest is history, Stein said.
Of the group of two dozen boys age 13 to 18, five of them are seriously considering entering the military. All members of Troop 30 are either Eagle Scouts or are Eagle Scout candidates. These are individuals who would likely be successful in the military or in any endeavor, Stein said. “Most Eagle Scouts are also academically successful and are active in their communities. They’re high-energy individuals, high achievers and real go-getters,” he said. Stein tries to steer his boys to achieve Eagle status by the time they are 15, before he has to compete with other pressures of growing up. “ I try to get them to be Eagle before perfume and gasoline gets up their nostrils. It seems once that happens, we’ve got real tough competition,” he said.
Several Marines assigned to the Inspector Instructor staff claimed the experience was mutually beneficial. They enjoyed being mentors to the group as much as the Troop enjoyed the visit. Sgt. Brad Pleimann of St. Louis, Mo. gladly took time out of his schedule to answer the scouts’ questions on a few occasions. And according to Maj. Mack, the interaction is important. “If only one of these kids stays on course, or better yet, decides to join our ranks down the road...then we have succeeded in spreading our core values just a little bit farther,” he said.