Defense Sec. Hegseth Wants to Abandon Support for the Boy Scouts….

This would be a change in a association that has been for a century….

The century-old partnership between the U.S. military and Scouting could be coming to an end.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is planning for the military to sever all ties with Scouting America, saying the group once known as the Boy Scouts is no longer a meritocracy and has become an organization designed to “attack boy-friendly spaces,” according to documents reviewed by NPR.

In a draft memo to Congress, which sources shared with NPR but which has not yet been sent, Hegseth criticizes Scouting for being “genderless” and for promoting diversity, equity and inclusion.

The military has provided support to the Scouts for more than 100 years, assistance that was formalized in 1937. But in one memo, Hegseth says, “The organization once endorsed by President Theodore Roosevelt no longer supports the future of American boys.”

The proposal calls for the Pentagon to no longer provide medical and logistical aid to the National Jamboree, which brings in as many as 20,000 scouts to a remote site in West Virginia. It also states that the military will no longer allow Scout troops to meet at military installations in the U.S. and abroad, where many bases have active Scout programs.

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Scouting America released a statement saying the organization is proud of its long affiliation with the military and will work to continue it.

“Scouting is and has always been a nonpartisan organization,” the statement read. “Over more than a century, we’ve worked constructively with every U.S. presidential administration — Democratic and Republican — focusing on our common goal of building future leaders grounded in integrity, responsibility, and community service.”…

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Congress requires the Pentagon to support the scouting program’s Jamboree, a gathering of thousands of young scouts held every three or four years. The U.S. military lends trucks, ambulances and medical teams, and puts on aviation and skydiving demonstrations, all at no cost to the Scouts. For the military, it’s both a training exercise and an opportunity to recruit highly motivated, civic-minded kids.

But the law includes an exemption: the Secretary of Defense can withhold support  if he determines providing it would be “detrimental to national security.”…

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President Trump, the honorary leader of Scouting America by nature of his elected office, praised the crowd at the Jamboree in West Virginia in 2017. “The United States has no better citizens than its Boy Scouts. No better,” the president told the crowd. He pointed out that 10 of his cabinet members were former Scouts.

Hegseth was never a Boy Scout, and has said he grew up in a church-based youth group that focuses on memorizing Bible verses. Last year, as a Fox News host, he complained about the Scouts changing their name and admitting girls back in 2018.

“The Boy Scouts has been cratering itself for quite some time,” Hegseth said. “This is an institution the left didn’t control. They didn’t want to improve it. They wanted to destroy it or dilute it into something that stood for nothing.”….

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Note…

In going public with this?

One would assume that the Defenese Sec. would back away from leabving the Boy Scouts without support from the American Military….

image…Raw Story