Day 14

Today was the last day at Fort A.P. Hill because we finished the work early more than a day early. I am scheduled to fly out tomorrow evening but we were excused by about 2pm today. After saying goodbye to many new friends we were driven to the train station in Fredericksburg to catch the train to D.C. I had two others with me and we had quite the adventure. We were about 45 minutes early for the train. We figured out that we needed reservations to get on the train. We made those then while waiting for the train we heard a "Traveler's Advisory" over the load speaker system that said that the train would be extremely late because of a freight train derailment between Fredericksburg and D.C. and our train was delayed. So we started searching for other options. We finally decided on a rent-a-car that we split 3 ways so it works out as about the same price as the train.

While we were waiting for Enterprise to "Pick You Up" a severe thunderstorm rolled in. We were glad that our luggage was inside the car instead of in the bed of the pick up. When we got to Enterprise the storm was at its peak and we got to the Enterprise place and when we ran in we got good and wet. After awhile the rain cleared up, we headed into D.C. and dropped Neal at Reagan National Airport and headed over to the hotel. Once our hotel was located and checked in we showered and headed over to Five Guys for a little dinner.

After dinner we went and say the White House and the Washington Monument. We also saw President Obama come fliying in to the White House . It was quite a day. See y'all tomorrow (for those at my house). Love all of you!

SLY, Dad

Day 13

Jamboree is definitely winding down now. The troops started leaving early this morning and by noon everyone was gone except for one troop whose bus had problems. I think they finally got out of here about 4pm. If you read the blog yesterday you will know that I hoped that it wouldn't rain on the scouts since they were sleeping under the stars. Well, they weren't so fortunate. About 3:30am or so it started to rain and rained lightly into late morning. I heard a lot of the scouts were pretty soggy by the time they were able to board their buses.

We spent the day getting equipment picked up and packed away. As I have mentioned before we have laptops, ink-jet printers, laser printers, mice, network switches but we also have lots of 2-way radios and 1300 cell phones. These phones were loaned to staff so that they would have to use their own minutes. We got so much done today that I think we will get done sometime tomorrow. I am hoping to head into Washington, D.C. for the day Friday to do some sightseeing. Any suggestions?

Y'all have a great day.

Day 12

The last day for the scouts has now come and gone. Most of the troops spent the afternoon and evening breaking down their campsites and getting ready to depart first thing in the morning. Some of the equipment trucks are either is some state of being loaded or waiting to be loaded in the morning. I hope it doesn't rain tonight because we have a lot of scouts sleeping under the stars tonight. We started picking up our computers and other equipment and hopefully can complete that job tomorrow. We still have to box all of the equipment up and prepare it to be shipped. We are responsible for almost 400 laptops and lots of all-in-one printers, laser printers, other networking equipment and lots of cell phones and radios. We have a good crew and hopefully we can knock this out in a couple of days.

One of the sponsors of Jamboree is AT&T. They have installed about $10 million in equipment in order to have WiFi accessible to all campsites as well as great cell phone coverage all over camp. One of the athletes that AT&T sponsors is the snowboarder Shaun White. Well he was here today at the Mountain Boarding Activity Area to sign autographs. We were out working this morning and came over this hill and all of a sudden there were thousands of scouts in the Mountain Boarding area. Well, they were lined up to get his autograph. I wonder how many he signed.

The other highlight today was that I was given a Southern Region commemorative Jamboree coin. BSA is broken up into 4 regions and Circle 10 is in the Souther Region. Me and another of our group went to the Southern Region HQ to find out when we could pick up their computers. The regional director is a former Circle 10 Scout Executive. We started chatting while we were waiting to get an answer about when we would get the computers. He reached in his pocket and pulled out the coin and gave it to me. WOW! He also gave my work partner one. I was reading in the Jamboree Leader Update and found that the JSP (Jamboree Shoulder Patch) that won the JSP contest was Troop 1643 from Circle 10 Council (see picture). Congratulations Circle 10!

We did have one "accident" today. I don't know if I have mentioned that Chevrolet is a sponsor of Jamboree and they provide us lots of vehicles to drive. Our group has several Silverados, several more Colorados, two 15 passenger vans and two cargo vans. We have used the four vans to patrol the west and east sides of camp to be in area when trouble calls come in. The Jamboree is large enough with all of the vehicle and foot traffic it can take almost an hour to get from certain places in camp to another. We have a 10 MPH Speed Limit set throughout camp while the scouts are here. There are also a ton of school buses that scouts, leaders and staff can jump on to get places. You don't have to walk everywhere. Well, one of our younger guys ran into the back of a school bus today. No one was hurt but the van is damaged enough that we can't use it any more. It was one of our two cargo vans which will make it more challenging to get all the equipment picked up but it isn't a tragedy. I feel really bad for Chris, the driver. It was pretty devastated. I think he is about 21 years old. The person that he is paired with is a very nice and patient guy and always let him drive. We have MPs directing traffic and Carl said he thinks that Chris was paying attention to the MP when the bus in front of him stopped quickly. Darn it all...

Well, that covers the events of the day. Tomorrow morning the camp will be all a buzz with the scouts loading up and heading out and by noon everyone will be gone and we will be down to a skeleton staff that will finish up as quickly as possible. Different staff will leave at different times depending on their jobs.

The Winning JSP!!!

The front of the Southern Region Coin

The back of the Southern Region Coin

Day 11

Today we got back to our normal schedule. The scouts were busy earning merit badges, doing activities, trading patches and very many other things that encompass the Jamboree experience. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has sponsored a special award called the George Albert Smith Award. Completing the requirements earned a very nice medal. Adults could earn it too. I did complete the requirements and earned the award but they were going to run out of medals so I did not take a medal so that a scout could receive it. I took quite a few pictures of merit badge midway that I am including below.

The boys seem a combination of tired out but not ready to go home. I think that most of them have had a great experience. I believe that most of these young men will take away with them a memory and experience that they will cherish their whole lives. Someday I would like to attend with my own boys. That doesn't exclude the girls either. There are lots of jobs for women too. There are a number of couples in the LDS Relations tent as well as women in virtually all of the other areas too.

Tonight I attended Family Home Evening. There were some fun activities and President Larry Gibson of the General Young Men's Presidency spoke. In case you were wondering I have talked to lots of scouts and scouters over the course of my time here at Jamboree. The scouts only have one more day left. The will spend some of their time tomorrow packing up. They have all sorts of things to take down so that they can leave on Wednesday morning. By early afternoon our little town of about 45,000 will be packed up and mostly gone. We will have probably about 2500 left to finish the tear down and clean up. You can't imagine how much stuff there is to take down and put away or take away as the troops go home.

There are many adults that are busy trading patches. I have traded for a few and will bring home a few choice patches. I have one patch from Utah National Parks which includes Provo and Orem and a couple of patches from Golden Spread that is Sacramento.

In our group we starting packing up some of the computers today. We will get a lot more busy with that tomorrow afternoon then Wednesday we will be in full packing mode until everything is collected and packed ready to ship back. Should be fun!

Well, that about wraps up day 11. Enjoy the pictures that follow. I plan on uploading all of the pictures and movies I have made to Picasa soon.

Pictures from Merit Badge Midway. I read today in the Jamboree Today that they were offering close to 100 different merit badges.











This is one of the concession stands where they sell junk food and sodas. I already mentioned to Ricky and Charlie that 2 Below Zero Shaved Ice from Rexburg, ID is here.


The Scouter that owns this corvette lives in El Paso. I think that I arranged today for him to come to the 100th Anniversary Celebration that the Council is having in October. It is a mini Jamboree type of event over a weekend at Red Bird Airport which is now closed (I think).



This is one of the activity areas called Pioneering




You can't really read the writing on the side of this truck but the man in the yellow is an Eagle Scout that is 93 years old! Holy cow, he may be the oldest living Eagle Scout.


Lastly, I was able to take a picture of a very special patch. There aren't very many people that get their own patch but the young man that was the 2,000,000th Eagle Scout did:

Day 10

I would like to tell you about the two church service related events that I participated in. At 9am we were set to have sacrament meeting. They said that there were about 7,000 in attendance (see pictures below). Elder Robert D. Hales, one of the Twelve Apostles came to Jamboree and our meeting. He spoke to the Young Men and had a great message. I will post some of the notes I took later. We had about 65 Priests blessing the sacrament and I don't know how many pass the sacrament but would have to estimate between 80 and 100. In the evening we had a fireside with President Beck, the General Young Men's President and his two counselors Larry Gibson and Adrian Ochoa. They all spoke but we learned from President Beck to Learn, Act and Share. He had quite a few young men come up to the stand to talk about what they learned in sacrament meeting from Elder Hales or to commit to do some of the things he discuss. Both meetings were terrific. I also talked to David Larson a former member of our ward 20+ years ago. The more we talked the more we remembered each other. I told mom about it and she didn't have any problem remembering them. After the fireside I spoke with Sister Beck and she is going to call mom (y'all share the same first name) to talk to you about your Philmont Training Center experience. Get excited.

In between those two meetings I worked and also had some time off to visit Brown Sea Island, a recreation of the Island that were the early Boy Scouts under Lord Baden Powell were able to go to camp. They had it setup like turn of the century life. I also went to the museum that is set up here.

Well, it is late and I am going to sign off after adding a few pictures. Y'all have a great week. I missed a weekender this week. Skyler, have a safe trip home tomorrow.

Here are some of the pictures. Captions will be added later (maybe tomorrow).








What a special experience today was. The weather was very pleasant and the temperature hovered between 78 and 82 degrees. Most of the day was cloudy which made for a very comfortable day.

Day 9

I feel like every day I want to say that today has surpassed every day so far and I suspect that I will want to say that tomorrow too. Today was amazing for a number of reasons but the most amazing part of today was the "Arena Show". The arena is a big field. They estimated that there were 80,000+ at the arena show including visitors. Today is the highest number of visitors. What made the Arena Show so amazing and special was that it was like a boy scout version of Woodstock. We had music, speakers and they even had some scout contests before it got started. President Obama gave a video taped address as did the Governor of West Virginia. Now if you happen to notice that we are not in West Virginia but it Virginia you might be wondering why the Governor of West Virginia would speak. The answer to that question lies in the knowledge that BSA has purchased with the help of some donors land in West Virginia that will be the location for Jamboree moving forward. The land is on the New River which has some great whitewater rapids and well as great rock climbing and mountain biking as well as enough acreage for a high adventure base, a summer camp, a training center and lots of other options. Starting in 2013. Jamboree is normally every 4 years but this one was stretched to 5 years because of the anniversary.

Others that presented their talents were Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs fame. He told the boys that they needed to add a Dirty Jobs merit badge. Needless to say he got a big ovation on that. He has a great message for the boys too. We also had musical groups Honor Society and also Switchfoot. I think that the scouts really enjoyed both of those. To close out the show they presented a fireworks show that was easily the biggest one that I have ever seen.

That recounts the major happenings of the day. During the Areana Show I worked in Arena Medical keeping the computers, printers and scanners running. They have come to like us quite a bit. I don't know if I told you but when I am on duty I have a partner, Jonathan Shields that is from Richmond, Virginia. However, he was not a last minute addition and is good to work with.

I think I am going to call that a wrap for tonight. It is late and I have church services tomorrow. I will put up some pictures tomorrow too.

SLY, Dad

Day 8

I don't know if we are settling into a routine but work-wise there is less to do right now so we did not have that many tickets to work on. However, I was able to see Bill Burch, the brother that carved my bolo that I got at the LDS Training at Philmont Training Center. He lives in Orem, UT and has carved nearly 50,000 bolos. I also found out that he is the former scoutmaster of Brother Bob Higbee. I told Brother Burch that Brother Higbee says hi and he laughed and told me a funny story about when Brother Higbee turned 14. Brother Burch said that Brother Higbee came up to him and said "Now I don't have to go on any more campouts!" Brother Burch just laughed then wanted me to tell him some stuff about him.

Eight of us from the Information Systems group went into Fredricksburg, VA for dinner tonight to give us a break from the standard food that is served. Don't get me wrong, the food isn't bad by any means but it starts to seem very similar each night. Breakfast and lunch are even more similar each day. However, it is amazing how they are able to feed this many folks. The Jamboree organizers are concerned about dehydration. For our big arena show tomorrow night they brought in 11 Wal-Mart semis full of pallets of water. They are expecting about 80,000 people for the big show. I will tell you more about that tomorrow.

Well, I got a couple of good pictures of Brother Burch. That is what I am including tonight.

Day 7

Well, today has officially become the wettest day thus far. Just before noon a thunderstorm boiled up almost directly on top of us. It did not move in but started right on top of us. Many people scattered for shelter but there were a lot of people that were stuck out in the down pour. I think that most were scouts and either didn't care or didn't notice. We had another shower later in the afternoon. I am currently sitting in a large party tent (no sides) with 6 rows of 5 picnic tables and it kept us all dry. I come out here to write this because I have somewhere to sit and there is a breeze (unlike our barracks). I don't think I have written about our sleeping quarters yet, have I? Our group has it really good. We are not in an air conditioned building but I sleep in a bunk (I have the bottom) and lots of folks (not me) have fans to help keep them cool. We are supposed to start having cooler nights in the 60's and not get into the 90's during the day. That should help.

Today I started out waiting in line at the trading post to get the Patch of the Day patch (see below - it is the top patch). There has been one for each day but this is the first one that I have gotten. There are a limited number and usually sell out pretty quickly. I went for another reason but since I was in the first to get there I was able to get it. I also haven't talked about patch trading. Each of the contingent troops (36 scouts and 4 leaders) have what is called a JSP or Jamboree Shoulder Patch. It is like a Council Shoulder Patch but special for the Jamboree troop. For example, our council is in Sub Camp 16 so our unit numbers are 1601, 1602, etc. Each unit has a unique JSP. Many of the councils create a center patch that you can put all the JSPs around to make a set. The 3 Utah Councils all do a very nice job of their patches. I got one from Utah National Parks Council today (south of Salt Lake Council all the way to the bottom of the state - a very large Council). I am trying to get a patch set from Hawaii but probably don't have anything to trade for it. The boys trade with boys and the adults trade with each other too. Some of the folks are very serious about it. I included some pictures of folks that are more into it trading their patches. I think that I mentioned yesterday that I got the set from the USPS group that includes a special commemorative patch for the Boy Scout stamp that was issued on Tuesday.

I was also able to take a training tonight after dinner for CPR and AED (Automatic External Defibrillator). They were trying to set a Guiness Book of Records for the most people trained in 24 hours. I know that in the last session, my session we had 1120 attend. It was pretty impressive. I am not sure how many attended today but I think that they had 10 sessions with 2 getting rained out. I also know that our session was the largest of the day.

Well, that pretty well wraps it up for today other than the work I did. To give you an idea of some of the tasks we are responsible for we have about 600 laptops and another 300 or so printers (variety of laser and all-in-ones). We have computers in all of the medical tents. Those systems consist of two medical laptops (Dell Latitude D620) with a handheld barcode scanner, a document scanner and a laser printer. When someone comes in for health problems the barcode on their ID badge is scanned and a form is printed out that the doctor and nurse use to document the problem. Once the patient is discharged that form is then scanned back into the system and this information is available to all medical personnel anywhere in camp. We spent quite a bit of time this afternoon in SubCamp 4 diagnosing wireless connectivity issues. We resolved it but hooking their laptops up to an external WiFi device that we were able to hang from the rafter of the medical tent. This got the antenna up high enough that they are working fine now. I also spent time checking out laptops that were returned as not working properly. I was able to fix a couple of systems and the others ones had too big a problem and were put in the reject pile.

I also got a bicycle today to ride around. It is assigned to our group. We have two. I rode it back to our barracks and then to the CPR/AED training. It is a cruiser style bike. I think Mom needs one of these bikes! Click here for example of a cruiser similar to the one I rode today. It was warm and quite humid and by the time I got home I was quite soaked. I am headed to the shower before going to bed.


Now for the pictures of the day:



We did the CPR/AED training at the Arena. This is prior to all the scouts coming in. The guy that led the session did every session all day and was still going strong at 8pm.



This picture is looking back on the scouts coming in. What you see on the ground is the resuscitation dummies and the card representing the AED device. We didn't get our own AED's.



These are patches that I collected today except for the bottom one. I added one more when I traded the bottom one. The top one is the Patch of the Day for International Day. The 2nd patch is a really cool JSP that has an Eagle and a John Deer tractor on it.



This is one of the more seasoned patch traders. He is from Abilene.



This is another seasoned patch trader. You can see a set of 3 center pieces and the JSPs that go around the outside. Also, there is a special set in the foreground that the guy isn't trading but has them out for others to see and enjoy.

Editor's Note (same guy as the writer): As I was looking back on the comments in the other posts I think I must have already told you about the medical tent systems. Sorry.

2nd Note: I will try to find Mike and Laurie's Bishop tomorrow or Saturday.

Day 6

Today the weather turned very warm again. We had the first arena show where all of the scouts are invited (see pictures below). We had Secretary of Defense and Eagle Scout Robert Gates speak as well as some others. He gave a great patriotic message. We also had Miss America Caressa Cameron sing and give a short talk. There was also a Broadway singer that sang two patriotic songs and she was great. The Air Force did a fly-over of 3 F-16s and the Army's Golden Knights Parachute Jump Team came floating in from 9,000 feet. Did you know that they reach speeds of 120 MPH in free fall? However, the highlight of the arena show just ahead of Robert Gates was the MC. He was the 2 millionth Eagle Scout. He was very composed and did a great job.

We also supported the Medical Tent during and a little after the Jamboree. After the arena show we stopped by QBSA, the Jamboree radio station. Check on www.bsajamboree.org to hear streaming audio. They have scouts be the DJ from 9am to 4pm I think.

I spent the afternoon after I got off work (I didn't work the afternoon shift today) doing my laundry, catching up on emails and catching a short nap.

In the evening after dinner we walked around a bit and I talked with my coworker Carl Murphy (my bunk mate) about some of the great National Parks in Utah. We were outside the sub-camp with Utah National Parks Council (Utah Valley south all the way to St. George) and Trapper Trails Council (Ogden north).



Sunset over our barracks that we live in.



Scouts preparing for the flag ceremony at the Opening Arena Show.



Just before the beginning of the arena show.



Scouts at the Arena Show.



Scouts standing up at the Arena Show.



A view of some of the scouts at the Arena Show.



The Army Golden Knights Parachute Team



Hot Air Balloon based in Shreveport, LA.



Entrance to SubCamp 2 - One of 21 SubCamps.

Day 5

Another amazing day. The thing that amazes me the most is that so far every day has been different. We started off the morning with the opening ceremony at Flag Pole Hill (see picture below). After that I did my basic work. One of the calls we went on took us out the the Photo Booth in the National Exhibits area. It is a place where you take a picture in front of a blue screen and then they superimpose a picture there. I was able to get my picture taken while we were there (see picture below). I also went to the Merit Badge Midway and visited the Genealogy Merit Badge and Family Search tent. Interestingly enough, working in the Genealogy Merit Badge was Brother Dale Patterson that used to live in our ward. They live in Vancouver, WA and he said that he knows the Grange's.

After going back to our office we really didn't have a lot to do so we managed to get into the line for the new postage stamp that was just issued today. I was able to get some envelopes with the stamp and the first day of issue cancellation stamp. See a picture of the stamp below.

After dinner I walked over to Sub Camp 6 to see my friend Stan Child. We had a very nice chat as we walked back to my barracks.



Scouts at the Sunday Devotional at Arlington National Cemetery.



The flags at Flag Pole Hill. This is only some of them as all states are represented but also a couple of flags related to our nation.



My photo from the Photo Booth at Jamboree.



The stamp that was released today.

This is your faithful Jamboree reporter signing off now.

Day 4

The fourth day of my Jamboree experience was great because the scouts arrived and now there are tents everywhere. We transformed the city of 10,000 (staffers) to a city of just about 50,000 (staffers, scout leaders and scouts). I have never seen so many charter buses in all my life. There were coming and going all day long. All of the activity centers are open adn the boys started enjoying them. I will tell you about these with each blog post. Today I want to tell you about Mountain Boarding. This is a mix of snowboarding (think board and hill) with skateboarding (think board with wheels) but the tires are big rubber ones and the boys go down a hill. It looks very fun.

Our group spent the day helping iron out the kinks in the computer systems and wireless networks. The main user is the medical team. There are medical stations in each sub-camp staffed by doctors, nurses and paramedics that are volunteers just like me. I met and chatted with a Urologist from Hawaii yesterday and the day before too. He is a very nice man that is a good scouter. Each Jamboree participant has a name tag with a bar code on it. If they go to the medic station they scan the bar code and print out an information sheet. The doctor makes his notes on this paper then it is scanned back into the computer. This information that is scanned in is then available to all of the medical workers in camp. The group I work in helps make sure that this is working at the 20 or so medic stations and other locations throughout camp as well as other computer systems too.

Another day is in the books. Tomorrow starts the fun for the boys and I will let you know more about that tomorrow.

Day 3

Day 3 had a very memorable event to start the day. Shortly after breakfast I was picked up by an airport limo (not stretched) driver and driven into Washington, D.C. to the Arlington National Cemetery. Earlier in the week I was contacted to help put together a devotional service for about 3,000 scouts from 7 states. I agreed and thought that it was very important for a scout to participate on the program. I was able to arrange for a scout from Circle 10 Council to give the invocation and another scout lead the group in the Scout Oath. I also contacted Charles W. Dahlquist II who is the Great Salt Lake Council President, former General Young Men's President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the National Jamboree Chaplin. That left the benediction that I would give.

The day was very hot. The devotional was scheduled for 10am and when I arrived about 9:30am there were many Jamboree troops already there seeking shade from the sun. The tour company that arranged the program, World Strides, had also arranged for Major General Vaughn A. Ary, Staff Judge Advocate to the Commandant of the Marine Corps and Directory, Judge Advocate Division to give a patriotic message. Brother Dahlquist and Major General Ary both gave great messages. After the program many boys came up to shake hands and get their pictures taken with these great men.

After the completion of the program I was able to witness the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. I also took several pictures at the cemetery. The limo driver picked me up at the Amphitheater steps and delivered me back to Fort A.P. Hill. I also had the pleasure of having John McCollum, a scouter from Circle 10 Council who was the course director for the Wood Badge course that I took, ride with me to the ceremony.

After getting back to camp, I changed clothes and it was on to completing a few tasks in preparation for the scouts to start arriving tomorrow morning. We will build a city of over 40,000 in a matter of a few hours tomorrow.

In yesterday's post I failed to mention one of my Eagle Scouts. Tatia was a smart young lady when she picked her husband. Jake, my terrific son-in-law is also an Eagle Scout. I really have 5 Eagle Scouts only we didn't help one of them earn his Eagle rank, his parents did! Way to go Jake.

Arlington National Cemetery


General Ary and President Dahlquist


Looking at the stage at the Amphitheater


Looking out from the stage before the program

Addendum: I just met a Stake President from the Los Angeles area. President Chavez is president of a Hispanic stake, he is 33 years old and has already been a stake president for 4 years. WOW!