Two Millionth Boy Scout on Staff at Trapshooting

In addition to hosting the 2 millionth Eagle Scout (Anthony Thomas, the emcee of the opening arena show), the 2010 Jamboree is also host to the 2 millionth Boy Scout: Ernest Wieting.

As a young boy growing up in the Bronx in post-World War II America, Mr. Wieting joined an Explorer post as a way to get out of the city and see the countryside. A few months after he joined, he was informed that he was officially the 2 millionth registered Boy Scout and was invited to attend a luncheon to celebrate the 41st anniversary of the BSA.

At the luncheon, held at the Commodore Hotel on February 8, 1951 (now the Grand Hyatt next to Grand Central Terminal), special guest Brig. Gen. Carlos P. Romulo directed Mr. Wieting to recite the Scout Oath and presented him with special scout credentials.

“It felt like a couple thousand people,” he recalled, though news reports of the event put the attendance at about 1,000. Mr. Wieting became a temporary spokesperson for the BSA, appearing on radio stations and in several newspapers in successive months.

As an Explorer, Mr. Wieting enjoyed visits to Floyd Bennett Field, New York City’s first municipal airport, located in Brooklyn. There, he practiced his piloting skills on a Link Trainer, an early mechanical flight simulator. He also remembers camping at Camp Alpine and Ten Mile River Scout Reservation.

After completing high school a year early, Mr. Wieting joined the Army and trained at Ft. Drum in upstate New York and here at Ft. A.P. Hill as part of a construction battalion. He recalled learning how to mine and de-mine an area on the fields of A.P. Hill. After being discharged as a Sgt. First Class after eight years in the Army, Mr. Wieting joined the New York Police Department, where he worked as a detective.

This is Mr. Wieting’s second Jamboree in recent memory (he couldn’t remember if he attended the 1957 Jamboree at Valley Forge). He’s serving on the trapshooting staff at Action Center D.