Last week was Boy  Scout Summer Camp and Boy Scout High Adventure all rolled into one great week with my sons.

The Army has a policy of supporting volunteer leadership for the  Boy Scouts of America and many community service opportunities like this, so I took some time off from work and loaded up my sons and built some great memories for my three oldest sons and others in their Boy Scout troop.

Summer Camp was at Camp Crooked Creek, just south of Louisville, Kentucky.  My son Andre II just completed his Eagle Project and his Eagle Board of Review in May, so he is just waiting on his  Eagle Court of Honor to officially receive his new rank of Eagle.  He went to summer camp and earned the following merit badges: Climbing, Lifesaving, Orienteering and Bugling. 

It is always a lot of fun to help a troop of boys stay focused on earning merit badges and building great memories of camping and time together in the thunderstorms and out in nature.  Below is a photo of the many troops lining up for evening chow at the Dining Facility; flags of each troop waiving in the breeze.

Then my older two sons  had their Boy Scout High Adventure plans to raft the Upper New River of West Virginia, so off we ran to raft some of America's best whitewater on the class 3, 4 and 5 rapids of this awesome river.

We used the Class 6 River Outfitters and our raft guide was Jerry, who has thus far spent 31 years rafting this river, and knows the river well.  We had seven in our raft, plus the guide, and we were part of a 9-raft team of Scouts and their leaders who shot the river together.  Because Jerry was the most experienced, he was the expedition team leader and he gave us a great ride.  Two of the rapids we hit were classified as "class 5", which means they can easily kill you. 

Class I is just a river with a strong current, Class 2 is some whitewater but medium difficulty, Class 3 is multiple whitewater and cascading water, Class 4 is several obstacles and major dangerous maneuvers required and considered very difficult, and Class 5 is lethal, if you don't maneuver it correctly...or that is my loose definition of my 5 minute lesson from Jerry on what we would see that day in the Upper New.  Class 6 rapids are considered "unraftable" where only a sealed-top kayak can survive.

Here is a photo of my sons Dallin and Hyrum and I  hitting one of the two Class 5 rapids on the Upper New:

And here a second photo of us hitting these monster currents.  These waters aren't too tough for a self-bailing, multi-inflatable-compartamentalized raft with a guide of 31-years on the river, but one clear indication of the danger o fthis bad boy I noticed from many years of whitewater canoeing, was that all day long we saw ZERO canoes on this entire river; as the class 4 and 5 rapids would have sunk, crushed and consumed a canoe and perhaps the canoers.  It felt like it was going to crush us several times, especially when we moved up into several "hydraulics" and "surfed" with an entire 12-man raft for 20-30 seconds against that massive current: WAY, WAY COOL STUFF! 

If you have never been surfing on Class 4 monster rapids, you need to do this at least once before you die...perhaps just seconds before you die...  Definitely a rush!

I am on the rafter on the back left side of the raft (as it faces forward), with my mouth open, paddle in the water, pulling hard so Jerry can steer us with our momentum giving him leverage against the massive currents.

I have the video of my 9.5 gainer off of Jump Rock on the river (our river guides rated our jumps from the cliff, and I was the only diver of the 70 who jumped, to dare a gainer with all the mandated body floatation strapped to us to ensure we would come up from the bottom) but no still photos....so come over for dinner and we'll show you our 30 minute video of the river in all its power!

One of the best side-benefits of being in the Army is that we get to travel much of the USA and the world and see and experience many of God's amazing wonders in this world.  It is truly a beautiful world He has created for His children, and I am so grateful to be able to get out and immerse myself into all that beauty and share it with my family.

I often reflect on the  oath all Armed Forces officers take in the USA upon commissioning as an officer: "I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic". 

If I can do my part to keep America free from tyranny without and within, and pass on this sacred duty to my posterity in perpetuity, then long will the great treasures of America's beauty, like the Upper New River Gorge and the Endless Wall 1000 feet above the river where we also climbed and treasured the West Virginia view...  be accessible to us all, God Willing and a few brave men and women joining my watch of vigilance.