Rick's Rangers.
To say that my interest in Scouting stemmed from an interest in the military would be just a bit of an understatement. For a good part of my time in Scouting I could be seen wearing camouflage BDU’s, web gear, and face paint. I even recruited a few other Scouts that had an interest in the military to band together with me in carrying out clandestine missions on campouts, this group of Scouts, I called “Rick’s Rangers.” We weren’t trouble makers or anything like that; most of what we did was try to sneak around without being seen by our own troop or other troops. While there are quite a few memories from our forays out and about, one in particular will forever stand out. This one was at Camp Rokilio, it was either the spring or fall, but I just don’t quite remember.
It was already dark out, but not past lights out, I gathered my team of “Rangers” which consisted of Eric J., Dave J, Jim K, and myself. We left Kiwanis campsite, which now is the Space Station at Rokilio. We moved down the road towards the Dining Hall, as we came to area of the confidence course [Confidence Course was in the area that is now across from the Staff Cabins, all that remains is the toppled over tower that was the finish of the course] we heard voices and footsteps coming in our direction, we all scattered to take cover and conceal ourselves. Jim always seemed to find the only pile of leaves to hide in or should I say make noise in, and this time proved no different.
At this point, our group became separated. After some time I found Eric, but could not locate the others. We continued on our recon. We came to the Trading Post; there we found that a Scout troop was staying in the quarters underneath it. I sent Eric out to get as close as he could to gather some intelligence. From my vantage point I watched as Eric crept his way closer to them. He got closer and closer, until, he got caught by them. And I mean caught, they didn’t just spot him, they grabbed him and brought him into the building as their prisoner.
I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. I set out to find the others and formulate a plan to get Eric back. Within a short time I found both Dave and Jim. I explained to them what had just transpired, and before I could ask them for ideas to get Eric back, Jim stormed off in the direction of the Trading Post. We followed Jim, and with amazement watched as he burst through the door to the cabin. It was chaos inside as we followed him. Eric, relates the story from his perspective; “I got within two feet of them. And…within two minutes of being “captured” Jim comes storming in, literally! People start screaming and they are saying ‘they’re coming’ in a complete panic. They run in and try to slam the door, Jim burst through the door like a beast! He stops about ten feet in, and looks at me with a huge smile of pride and says ‘I’m your rescue’ and then Rick walks in like a boss.”
What makes this story so interesting though is what happened afterward. After we “rescued” Eric, instead of just leaving and going on our way, we stayed in front of the cabin overlooking the old flag bowl and had a laugh about the whole thing with the other Scouts. We stood there introducing ourselves, asking where we were from; it was truly one of the few times in Scouting that I had actually taken the time to make friends with Scouts from another troop. That is what I will always take away from that night, how in Scouting there are always friendships to be made.