New Pentagon policy could leave National Scouting Jamboree at Bechtel Reserve without support
By Matthew Young, RealWV
GLEN JEAN, W.Va. – The deep traditions of Scouting in West Virginia pre-date America’s involvement in the first World War, with Raleigh County establishing the state’s first Boy Scout troop in 1915. In 2013, The Summit Bechtel Family National Scout Reserve, near Beckley, became the new home of the annual National Scouting Jamboree, and 2022 saw the relocation of the International Scouting Museum from Las Vegas, to Charleston.
The 2000s brought significant changes and substantial legal troubles to the Boy Scouts of America, resulting in a 42% drop in membership between 2019 and 2020. While this decrease was partially due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the organization’s Chapter 11 Bankruptcy filing in February of 2020 was an equally-contributing factor. According to the group, the bankruptcy was a precursor to the organization’s nearly $2.5 billion settlement with some 82,000 former Boy Scouts who claimed to have been sexually assaulted during their membership period.
Perhaps the biggest change occurred on February 1, 2019, when, for the first time in the group’s history, girls were permitted membership in the Boy Scouts of America – prompting a rebranding as “Scouting America.” It is this change which now appears to be threatening the Scouts’ other near-century-long partnership – the one with the United States Military, that was made official in 1937.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, through an as-yet unsent congressional-memo obtained this week by NPR (National Public Radio), said that Scouting America has transformed into a group intended to “attack boy-friendly places.” Hegseth further slams the organization for being, what he calls, “genderless,” while promoting the principles of DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion).
“The organization once endorsed by President Theodore Roosevelt no longer supports the future of American boys,” Hegseth states in his memo to Congress, before calling on the Pentagon to discontinue providing medical and logistical support to the National Jamboree. Hegseth further notes his intention to direct all national and international military bases to refuse permission for Scouting Troops to meet on military installations.
As Hegseth has recently altered Pentagon policies in regards to releasing information, NPR’s request for clarification was met by a standard “no comment,” with the unnamed respondent citing “leaked documents that we cannot authenticate and that may be pre-decisional.”
It is unclear at this time what such a loss of support would mean for the Scouting Jamboree, however the event draws more than 20,000 scouts and their families to West Virginia each year. It is also unclear as to why Hegseth would choose to reference Theodore Roosevelt in his memo to Congress, as Roosevelt is widely considered to be one of the most progressive Republican presidents in American history, and led the movement that would eventually culminate with the passage of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution.
RealWV will provide updates regarding the status of the Pentagon’s continued support of Scouting America, and the National Scouting Jamboree, as additional information is made available.
