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BSA Troop 1 Saigon

Looking for alumni from Boy Scouts of America Troop 1, Saigon. I was in Troop 1 from 1960 to 1964. I have some pictures somewhere that I hope to scan and send in to be posted, time permitting. I don’t recall all of the details, but camping trips to Dalat and Nha Trang were quite memorable.

Harrison Shaffer (Life Scout, JASM)

11 comments to BSA Troop 1 Saigon

  • Admin

    If my memory serves me correctly I believe Steve Pryplesh was a Boy Scout in Saigon.

    Bob

  • Kevin L. Wells

    I made the Nha Trung trip but not the Dalat expedition. I will go through the family archives to see what I can scrape up.

    KLW

  • Admin

    I made Eagle Scout before moving to Saigon, so never joined the Troop in Saigon. But, I did continue ‘scouting’ in Saigon … Scouting all of Saigon for …. GIRLS!!! …. ha ha ha 🙂

    Bob

  • Frank

    Bob, I did not know you were and Eagle Scout also. I guess we did not talk to each other..very much back then!!
    I got Eagle while living in Iran. Frank

  • Frank

    Bob, I did not know you were an Eagle Scout also. I guess we did not talk to each other..very much back then!!
    I got Eagle while living in Iran. Frank

  • Admin

    Frank,

    Heck man … we were to busy chasing girls and partying back then and talking about music … we never had time to talk about scouting … lol other then ‘scouting girls’ … 🙂

    I started in Cub Scouts as soon as I was old enough, then went to Boy Scouts then on to Explorer Scouts. I earned Eagle 2 years after I started Boy Scouts. I had Eagle in the bag by the time I was 13. After that I just kept on being a scout cuz it was fun and I loved camping and hiking, etc. Along with raiding the Girl Scout camps during summer Boy Scout Camp … lol 🙂

    I did several Explorer extra things to, like desert, jungle, mountain, snow survival gigs .. ya know the ones where they dump you in the middle of the nowhere with a knife, canteen, first aide kit, compass – then you have to find your way to a point 50 miles away and be there in a week, etc. … living off the land, etc. I really enjoyed that stuff … was fun fun fun 🙂

    I did the jungle survival course on Ohau in the mid 1950s at the Military jungle warfare training area near Wahiawa. That was a piece of cake food wise … I can show you places back in those mountains where few have ever gone, and the streams and rivers are so full of bass you can literally just reach in with your hand and pick them up. Tasty! After I did the survival course in there and discovered all the great fishing. My cousin and I would hike back in there during the summer and stay for a week or 2 at a time … fishing our little hearts out … lol 🙂

    Rock on Frank … surfs up! 🙂

    Bob

  • Frank

    Yea,I went through the Cub thing in Idaho and when I got to Iran I was still too young for Boy Scouts (had to be 11 1/2) back then. So I just unofficially hung out with the scouts. By the time I was of age, I had completed a lot of requirements. I got posted in the U.S. Foreign Service Magazine as the First Eagle Scout in Iran (Lived in Iran for 5 years).

    “In Nineteen and Fifty-Nine we took a little hike,……..And we marched along together ’til we heard the girl scouts…….LOL
    We’re the boys from Camp Kookamonga,………But if we catch the girls, then we’ll set the woods ablaze!
    We saw how they were dressed, they were swimmin’ in the… Well now…………HA!
    A-rooty-toot-toot!
    We are the boys from the Boy Scout troup!
    We don’t smoke, and we don’t chew,
    And we don’t go with the girls that do!
    Ooh! Ooh!’HA!

  • Admin

    Passing another Mai Tai to Frank … lol … and the next verse is … ????

    BTW Frank only tourist eat the orchids in the Mai Tai’s … hahahhaahah … 🙂

    “We don’t smoke, and we don’t chew,
    And we don’t go with the girls that do!”

    (cough cough cough) OMG! I’m cracking up reading that FABLE!! hahahhaahhahaa

    Big “Kahuna” Bob

  • Jay Oyler

    Wow! I was on the Nha Trang trip as well. We flew up on an Air Force C-123, camped out in the sand for a week, took a boat out into the South China Sea to snorkle, got woken up at night to run to the Mess Hall as the Viet Cong attacked in the hills 3 Miles away, and then flew back to Saigon in an Army Caribou. What a fantastic week.

  • Tom Hanna

    I was a member of Troop 1 ’60-’61.

    I remember when they passed out a bunch of old rotten French army backpacks, pup tents, etc. We then had to clean them up so we could go on a camp out.

    I think that we hiked from ACS out about 10 miles and pitched out tents. I pitched mine with an Indian kid on a termite hill. It rained about 10 minutes or so every hour. Every thing was wet.

    I believe we were surrounded by a platoon of VN Marines.

    Some time during the night I was stung by scorpion. An Australian Special Forced guy sucked the poison out of my leg.

    I was very glad to get home the next day and have never gone on a camp out since.

  • I was the Scoutmaster of Troop 1 for most of 1969 and part of 1970. The website listed is pretty basic but shows a few pics of the troop and also some of the RVN Huong Dao Scouts. For more pics of the troop during that time check out my Facebook site: Scout Troop Saigon

    Thanks Michael

    [ Michael – thank you for the update. I’ve updated the link to your website on the Menu under *Great Sites* – Bob ]

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