AN EAGLE CHRONOLOGY

For some set of reasons I don’t really fathom, my becoming an Eagle Scout at 12 years old disturbs certain people. Out of all the stuff in my bio, this is the thing these folks call into question. Not only do I get emails on it, but there are even debates about it on a number of internet web sites and chat rooms. So to settle this, here’s my chronology of how I made Eagle.

I was born in November of 1943. I grew up in Glendale, California, was a Cub Scout, and joined the Boy Scouts shortly after I turned 11. That was in December of 1954.

You start Boy Scouts as a Tenderfoot. The ranks are: Tenderfoot, Second Class, First Class, Star, Life, Eagle. The rules were: You had to be 11, the minimum age; a minimum of three months had to lapse between the first four ranks, with a minimum of six months between Life and Eagle. There was a “Board of Review” of the local Boy Scout Council held every three months to approve and award any rank: March, June, September, December. This was held at the headquarters of the Verdugo Hills Council of the Boy Scouts, on Grandview Avenue in Glendale. The Scoutmaster for the Council was Skipper Hayes.

Theoretically, if you joined on your 11th birthday and that coincided with a Board of Review, then you could make Eagle in 18 months. It took me 22.

I spent the first half of 1955 going for Second Class, which I received by passing the Board of Review in June. My goal for the summer was to get First Class. I didn’t think beyond that.

My troop had a camping trip to Carpenteria Beach that summer, and I was in my tent reading the requirements for First Class and wondering how I could meet them, especially the Camping Merit Badge. When I finished, out of curiosity I turned the page to find the requirements for Star Scout. I had never read them before.

When I finished the Star requirements, I turned the page again to see what it took to become a Life Scout. I stopped after that, because Eagle seemed to be like climbing Mount Everest, an unattainable fantasy. Nonetheless, I began to fantasize anyway. “Gee, if I could make First Class by September, then by the next Board of Review in December I could make Star, and by March I could be Life,” I thought to myself.

Coming out of my tent still in this daydream, I made the mistake of mentioning it to a couple of the guys. They laughed. “Right, Wheeler, you’re a Second Class Scout like the rest of us, and you’ll be a Life Scout by next spring. You idiot!” They laughed some more. The humiliation woke me out of the daydream. Being laughed at made me mad, and I swore I would show them up.

So I made First Class by September 1955. I made Star Scout by December 1955. And sure enough, I made Life Scout by March of 1956. No one was laughing anymore. Then I began thinking of Eagle.

The other ranks had three month minimums, Eagle had six. My whole life became consumed with meeting the Eagle requirements. By September, I passed the Board of Review and the Court of Honor awarded me Eagle. That was September 1956, two months before my 13th birthday.

I had no intention of becoming the Youngest Eagle Scout. I only learned I was when I was notified by Boy Scout Headquarters, then in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and was invited to receive my Eagle medal by Chief Scout Executive Arthur Schuck. I was then invited to the White House to meet President Eisenhower. You can imagine what an indelible experience it was for me, a 12 year-old boy, to meet the President in the Oval Office.

I’ve been told the rules have changed since then, although I don’t know what they are; and I’ve been told there have been Scouts since who have gotten to Eagle before me in age. All I do know is that I did become an Eagle Scout at age 12 years and 10 months, and that the Chief Scout Executive of the Boy Scouts at the time told me I was the youngest Eagle Scout in Boy Scout history.

Hanging on a wall in my study is a framed letter addressed to me from President Dwight Eisenhower. It is on White House stationery and is signed by him personally. In it, the President writes how much he enjoyed our meeting, and concludes: “Congratulations on being the youngest Eagle Scout.”