A Gathering of Eagles – UPDATED

This is wonderful and true:

When it is 95 degrees, the two guys you don’t envy are Santa Claus and the man in the bomb disposal helmet and gear.

There were a couple hundred of us, mostly old guys, hiding from the heat by standing under the trees on the Capitol Mall. What distinguished us from the 10,000 or so other marchers resting under the trees beside us was that they were all under 18-years-old and wearing Boy Scout uniforms, while we ranged in age up to seventy-one and were mostly wearing white shirts and khaki trousers.

We were the Eagles, designated as the closing contingent/grand finale of the 100th anniversary parade of the Boy Scouts of America — and our task was to march with the parade down Madison, turn right on 7th, then left for about a mile down Constitution Avenue … all the while trying to look like exemplars of that most famous of boyhood achievements: Eagle Scout.

Towards that end, other than the white shirt/khakis ensemble, we were asked to wear symbols of our profession. Hence the heavily sweating, white-bearded guy in the Santa outfit. “It’s all velvet,” he said with dismay, holding an ice pack to his neck. And miserable as he was, it must have been nothing compared to the military officer in full camouflage fatigues who, just before we formed up, put on his thick, heavy Hurt Locker ensemble, complete with massive helmet.

Read it all, and begin to understand why Scouting matters.

It says a great deal about the values of our political class, that they do not seem to understand that.

UPDATE:
A bit of video here, via DH.

Related:
Great Men You Don’t Know