At those ages the message should be simple and uncomplicated.
Set up, introduce the vets briefly, ask each one to say few words, and throw it open to questions. ANY questions.
Prepare for a long and educational meeting.
Trust the vets and the boys. (Yes, it’s risky; but the result could be wonderful beyond your imagination.)
Training,schooling,stations,stay in touch with buddies,what they drove (operated)
Take them for a visit at a local VFW hall or VA hospital. Plus take them to a national cemetery to see those who are no longer with us
Feed them some MRE’s
Duty, honor, country.
Boys at that age are usually interested in food. Have them ask what the vets ate during war.
I was a troop leader for many years. Thanks for helping these boys grow into men.
Why don’t you ask the veterans to tell the boys what they think about the Scouts going gay.
Perhaps you could start with asking the vets: “why” ? or ask the vets about their oath of enlistment ?
Just a thought...
were any of the vets scouts ?
Military leaders have a tendency to have been in scouting. Perhaps make the tie-in.
From BSA
6 Interesting Statistics of Former Members
Here are six interesting facts about former Eagle Scount members.
1. 181 NASA astronauts were involved in Scouting (57.4% of astronauts). 39 are Eagle Scouts.
2. 36.4 percent of the United States Military Academy (West Point) cadets were involved in Scouting as youth. 16.3 percent of cadets are Eagle Scouts.
3. 22.5 percent of United States Air Force Academy cadets were involved in Scouting as youth. 11.9 percent of cadets are Eagle Scouts.
4. 25 percent of United States Naval Academy (Annapolis) midshipmen were involved in Scouting as youth. 11 percent of midshipmen are Eagle Scouts.
5. 189 members of the 113th Congress participated in Scouting as a youth and/or adult leader. 27 are Eagle Scouts.
6. 18 current U.S. governors participated in Scouting as a youth and/or adult volunteer. Four are Eagle Scouts.
I’m sure you’ll do the right thing.
Take care and thanks.
In time of danger, some people go out to stand between that danger and those they care about.
Veterans are the ones lucky enough to have made it home afterwards.
Have the kids interview the older people. Give them questions to ask and let them go into small groups. I did this with our oldest Sunday School class being interviewed by the high schoolers. Both groups loved it. The older people loved young people being interested in them. The young people were amazed to learn how America used to be. If you want I can e-mail you my interview sheet.Questions like how did America help poor people before the government was involved. How did people in the past keep bad people from getting guns.
Good Luck, the attention span of a tiger cub is 5 seconds, if that. Get them a bunch of military hats and stuff to put on and play soldier and show them a good WWII movie.
In my opinion, it would be good to direct the presentations and discussion in a way that will emphasize the differences between real military service and (GAH) video games. I’m a Cub Scout leader, too, and it drives me crazy the way many boys can’t relate to the reality in front of them for more than a few minutes before they mentally shift into a game.
I think the boys would be interested in the places in which the veterans served. Have some maps, perhaps some pictures. Talking about their youth experience and why they joined the military could be interesting, too.
Discussions of endurance: we went this long without sleeping in a bed, this long without a shower, didn’t see a television for whatever period. Anecdotes about how a veteran helped someone - a comrade or a civilian - as part of his job. Anything positive involving animals always interests children.
Ask the vets to tell their stories....some won’t, Encourage them to bring any pictures in uniform, campaign ribbons and medals they may have.
You won’t have enough time, I bet.
All these kids know is “Seal team six.”
I think it’s important for kids to know what the whole picture is. It’s not just blowing stuff up. It’s working long hours in inhospitable places away from your family.
The tip of the spare gets all the TV shows. The guy in the boiler room of a small ship does as much hard work. And they get little recognition.
As a former Cub Master, the only ones who are going to appreciate any of it will be your Arrow of Light scouts.
Since my oldest aged out of cub scouts last May, I can offer you this advice...
Try to keep it simple, for the younger kids as they simply have no understanding of what you or the vets are talking about.
Keep your tasks to 10 minutes, with a few minutes in between.
Only let the AOL’s ask the questions (pre-screened) as the Tigers, and Wolves will have absolutely no idea of what war is and I’m not sure you want to explain what the Vets were doing. Limit it to keeping the “F” in VFW.
An explanation of battlefield injuries followed by a bit of basic field first aid training would go a long way towards making kids realize what our soldiers face while giving them useful, potentially live-saving skills.
I think I can help. I used to sometimes take a couple of WW2 vets to schools. The were mend who saw combat in The Battle of The Bulge, as well as other battles in the ETO. What I would suggest to the veterans is just to be themselves. Talk about where they grew up, their school days, how they came to be in the service, what branch, that kind of thing. I would strongly recommend however that prior to introducing veterans to any group of young people, preferably without the veterans present is to tell these young people that given what these men did, serving their country and particularly Army and Marine Corps vets that is was required of them to have to kill people. I say this because this is what most of these kids, especially boys seem to be most curious about. And from personal experience I have seen that it is a very difficult thing for veterans to talk about. It’s one of, if not the main reason why men who have been through that horror refuse to talk about their war time service.
I would tell these young people this. I told them “Yes. Because of the nature of what these men were involved in they did kill people. Sometimes as close as I am to you now and sometimes from a great distance, killing dozens of people or more at a time. I’d tell them “It was not something they wanted to do, they certainly did not enjoy doing it and would very much have wished they didn’t have to have done it. But they were proud and honored to serve their country and to do what they had to to protect and defend their buddies and our country. I hope this helps.
We recently did something similar with our trail life USA troop.
Several of our leaders are vets, but none had combat. I invited a Vietnam helicopter pilot friend.
I learned that evening he received a Distinguished Flying Cross for a rescue operation under fire and later flew a U.S. President.
We all learned something that night.
If available, have them read a biographic item on this person. Have them write a letter or come ready for questions.