Editor’s note: This article by Chris Tucker was adapted from the “Trailhead” column in the May-June 2014 issue of Scouting magazine.
Robert M. Gates stated, “Scouting has been a big part of my family’s life. I have a photograph of my father in a Scout uniform in 1918, when he was 12 years old. In Wichita, KS, in those days–before video games, and the Internet, and all the rest–life pretty much revolved around family, and school, and church, and Scouts. I went to Philmont [Scout Ranch in New Mexico] twice, once as a hiker and once as part of what was then called the National Junior Leader Training Program. I’ve always joked that it was the best and only leadership course I ever took.”
In May 2014, Gates became the Boy Scouts of America’s National President. Years ago, he earned the rank of Eagle Scout and, later, a Doctorate degree in Russian and Soviet History from Georgetown University. In addition Gates
- spent 27 years in the CIA and headed this organization from 1991-1993
- served as President of Texas A & M University from 2006-2011
- was Secretary of Defense under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
Earning his Eagle award was “probably a sense of relief. I was only 15 years old, and I was sort of stuck with three or four merit badges to go. The National meeting of the OA was being held that summer of 1958, at the University of Kansas, and the only way you could get to be a VIP escort was by being an Eagle Scout. That provided the additional motivation for me to finish those badges. As with a lot of kids, the primary motivator was my mother keeping on me to get it done.”
“Scouting taught me an enormous amount of leadership, particularly how to persuade people. One of the great things about Scouting is that it’s a volunteer organization. So, no mattter whether you’re an adult or a kid, a Scoutmaster or a Patrol Leader, you have to persuade people to do things, rather than just telling them what to do. I think that approach to leadership, trying to get people on one side [and] working together, was a very important learning experience for me.”
Gates shared this advice to parents: “Scouting offers uniquely the experience that makes boys into leaders, giving them a sense of responsibility [that] makes them self-reliant, and clearly builds character. I do not know of any other institution that gives boys that foundation for future leadership. Scouting certainly did that for me.”