America's North Shore Journal

Dis­banded through­out the coun­try and barred world­wide in 1999, a result of Sad­dam Hussein's tyranny as he used boys in his war-fighting effort, Iraq's youth scout­ing pro­gram is now flour­ish­ing and locals will soon be man­ag­ing the pro­gram on their own.

Under the guid­ance of ser­vice mem­bers Iraq has been reha­bil­i­tat­ing The Boy Scout & Girl Guide pro­gram through­out the coun­try. Amer­i­cans have been pro­gres­sively step­ping back while Iraqis are tak­ing the lead.

"The pro­gram is get­ting there," said Col Brian M. Pug­mire, chief of plans, Multi-National Corps — Iraq, and one of the two co chairs of The Vic­tory Base Coun­cil Scouts. "When we first started this we did every­thing. Six months ago Maj Raheem came to us. He took over one activ­ity, then two. Our ulti­mate goal is to get them cer­ti­fied," Pug­mire con­tin­ued refer­ring to the accred­i­ta­tion and val­i­da­tion needed by the World Orga­ni­za­tion of Scouts to be re-recognized worldwide.

Maj. Raheem, the VBC scout pack leader smiled as he watched his twin seven-year –old daugh­ters move rhyth­mi­cally to the thump­ing bass drum and the explo­sive mix of brass instru­ments played by the 56^th Army Band from Fort Lewis, Wash.

"I really enjoy the games intro­duced to scout­ing by the Amer­i­cans like foot­ball and archery," Raheem said through a trans­la­tor. "But I mostly enjoy the con­nec­tion I see between the kids here and the Amer­i­can Soldiers."

Although Amer­i­can scout­ing and Iraqi scout­ing are par­al­lel pro­grams, there are some differences.

"The Iraqi scouts is an orga­ni­za­tion run by the min­istry of edu­ca­tion, and the phys­i­cal edu­ca­tions teach­ers are in charge of the pro­gram," said Navy com­man­der Capt. Kincaid.

Pug­mire said, what we're doing here is giv­ing them a snap­shot of what we do. They don't have to con­tinue to mir­ror us. "Even if noth­ing comes of this, these kids will have a taste of what Amer­i­can scouting's about."

Maj. Gen Guy Swan, direc­tor of oper­a­tion for the Multi-National Force has a 15-year-old son work­ing on his Eagle Scout and agrees the pro­gram pro­motes a good part­ner­ship between Amer­i­can and Iraqi militaries.

"These kids are the future of this coun­try, Swan said. This gives them a pos­i­tive expe­ri­ence after all they've been through and I think it will sur­vive long after we're gone. This is some­thing they want and I can't think of a pro­gram more impor­tant to the future of this coun­try than a pro­gram ded­i­cated to the chil­dren of Iraq."

Iraqi chil­dren set up tents at a Boy Scouts & Girl Guides overnight April 24 on camp on Vic­tory Base Com­plex, Iraq. Scout­ing is grow­ing through­out the county as local Iraqi troop lead­ers are prepar­ing to take full con­trol of the cur­rently American-led program.

Iraqi chil­dren help Amer­i­can ser­vice mem­bers pre­pare cab­bage, beef and potato dish at a Boy Scouts & Girl Guides overnight on April 24 on camp on Vic­tory Base Com­plex, Iraq. Scout­ing is grow­ing through­out the county as local Iraqi troop lead­ers are prepar­ing to take full con­trol of the cur­rently American-led program.

DVIDS
Story by Sgt. Kath­leen Briere