Troop 16 of Middletown Reaches Record Number of Scouts

More than 40 Boy Scouts and their families packed into the Third Congregational Church in the Westfield section of Middletown recently for a Court of Honor ceremony.

The Court of Honor is held twice a year, as a means of recognizing each Scout as he advances in rank and earns Merit Badges. The church holds the troop charter, and offers space for troop meetings throughout the week, as activities warrant.

For more than an hour, individuals and groups stepped forward to receive honors.

“We now have the largest troop in the Mattabesett District (of Connecticut),” said Troop Master Bill Shea. “Troop 16 is celebrating 65 years of continuous scouting here in the Westfield section of Middletown.” 

The troop has been recognized as a Quality Unit, and each Scout received a patch to display on their uniform, depicting them as part of the elite unit.

Thirty Seven scouts advanced in rank, each congratulated by Shea as parents pinned new rank badges onto their sons’ uniform. The goal, for each, is to achieve Eagle Scout, the highest rank in Scouting. Troop 16 has a higher than average percentage of Scouts who achieve this distinctive level, recognized globally by the military and corporations as one earned only through tireless dedication to excellence.

“Tonight, we are handing out a record number of merit badges. Generally, boys earn the majority of badges during summer camp. This year, they have worked very hard over the winter, as well, which accounts for the 100 plus badges we’ll be awarding.”

Each badge represents a skill learned by the Scout. For the first time, two boys from Troop 16 earned the Theatre award, and Myles Cray of Middletown was the first in the Troop to earn the ‘Inventing’ badge.

“I modified a metal reacher, by adding magnets and a flashlight to it. That way, you can see things under beds and couches” Cray said. “Everyone loves my invention. I think I will patent it.” A lofty goal for an 11-yea-rold, second-class scout who also earned the nuclear science badge.

Nearly every Scout present earned a water badge during weekly meetings held at the pool at Riverview this past winter. Younger scouts, who just crossed over from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts in February, earned the swimming badge. Older scouts earned the lifesaving badge, having earned swimming in previous years. Both badges are amongst the required to reach Eagle Scout.

“Scouting, in part, is about training boys to be leaders,” Shea said. “This winter, we trained eight young men in the Junior Leadership class.” Shea is well-qualified to train. His day job is serving the National Guard as a Colonel for the U.S. Army.

For another half-hour, Scouts continued to step forward to receive patches for activities participated in over recent months, including the 100^th Anniversary of Scouting Jamboree held in Hebron, the winter Klondike Derby held at Camp Tadma, and March Merit Badge Madness at Xavier High School.

The evening culminated with a very special presentation, done by Jeff Clark of Middletown. Clark has been involved with scouting in Middletown for nearly a decade and has two sons now in Troop 16. He has long since been an avid follower of the NASA space program.

“This past fall and winter, I had the opportunity to teach 20 boys as much as I could pack into our evenings together. They built and launched rockets, researched and presented reports on astronauts who were Boy Scouts (turns out almost all astronauts were Boy Scouts), and learned about various components of the NASA program and missions,” Clark proudly explained.

The study coincided with the final mission of the space shuttle Discovery in March. Many boys watched the launch from their home internet. As they met in the week that followed, they linked into the NASA site and watched the crew aboard the International Space Station. Finally, they watched from their own lawns, as Discovery detached from the ISS and began its’ approach back to earth. The detachment was visible, for just six minutes, to the naked eye.

Commanding the final Discovery mission, was former Boy Scout Steve Lindsey. Clark took the initiative to contact Lindsey’s former Boy Scout Troop in Temple City, California. “It turns out that Troop 161 was having a commemorative neckerchief made for their uniforms, denoting the affiliation between Commander Lindsey and their troop," Clark told the Scouts and families.

The audience broke into applause when Clark held up a square of blue cloth, with a space emblem on it. “They sent us one of the neckerchiefs! I also have pictures from NASA for each of you who took the class, of Commander Lindsey and the crew of the STS-133 mission, the final mission for the Discovery shuttle.”