Scout Stories

Rocket Strike - June 2013

As you might have noticed, many of these stories occurred at Summer Camp. In the next couple chapters I will try write down the stories that are from other outings, but now I hope you enjoy the Rocket Strike story of 2013.

It was my first year at Summer Camp where I got to choose the merit badges I would work on. The previous year (my first year) I had to go through the set First Year program where you earned your Toten Chit (certification to use knives), certification to build/maintain fires, learned lashings, learned many basic first-aid principles, etc. It was kind of fun, but not nearly as exciting as being able to create your own schedule.

In 2013 I had an awesome schedule lined up, including the Space Exploration Merit Badge. This was what I was most excited for, a chance to learn about the Moon Landings, astronauts, and that sort of thing. In the requirements for the Merit Badge we even got the build and launch rockets.

On the day that it came we should launch the rockets, we hiked out into a big open field where there was not a cloud in the sky. The sun was bright, very bright, and the grass was green with not even the slightest breeze. It was perfect launching conditions.

Unfortunately, it also made it impossible to judge where the rocket was going to land after you launched it and, since we were all pretty new to the whole rocket-building thing, most of us did not correctly attach the parachute to the rocket. That meant that instead of softly floating down from the sky, it would instead plummet pointy-nose-down back to Earth. Once we realized that a good half of them would do this, a panic began to ensue after every launch. We would try and follow it in the sky, but would inevitably lose it in the sun and then everyone would run every-which way hoping that they would not get hit. It was like a game of arrow roulette except with rockets.

Well, what do you know, about halfway through the launches a rocket went up and we all bolted going our separate ways. I still distinctly remember running towards the lone tree that had big branches, hoping that if I could get under it maybe the rocket wouldn't be able to get to me. Unfortunately, I didn't make it in time and I suddenly felt a heavy hit on my thumb knuckle. Yep, right in the knuckle. Right afterward was a horrible, throbbing pain.

Somehow, we still are not sure how, the rocket had come down and hit me in the thumb. From as far as we can tell judging by how long it took to hit the ground (or rather, my thumb) it was travelling almost a hundred feet per second. The instructor, baffled at how this happened, put a bandage on it which I bled through by lunch, which was about half an hour later. The nurse then removed the first and put another bandage on, which I bled through by that afternoon. Thankfully it healed in the following weeks and I didn't need surgery or anything, but man did it hurt. I still have the scar to prove it.

While not exactly a funny story, this was a cool one that my troop and I remember fondly. Plus, it is a great story to tell when people ask why I have a half-inch scar on my thumb.