On 23 June 2008, we had our first Court of Honor in almost a year. Despite threatening skys, the weather held out for us and we completed this activity. Many Scouts were recognized for numerous accomplishments such as rank advancements and Merit Badge Awards. The Troop is actively working on several challenging Merit Badges, will be completing Summer Camp, and we will have another Court of Honor in the September timeframe. Presentation of awards was followed by snacks.

Our last overnight camping event had been 6 months ago, so we went to Camp Smith for a weekend camping adventure. It rained just enough to remind us that we were having a great time, we had tons of food and Christopher Swider was our cook this weekend. We had a lot of fun with campfires, cooking, a small exploratory hike, Scouting classes covering the basics, and enough advancement action to satisfy everyone.

The Troop convoyed out to Makua beach park/Yokohama bay for a Kaena Point map and compass hike of 10 miles. The weather was nice and cool as we started at 0800, but turned cooler especially with a persistent driving rain. We learned how to orient a map by terrain features and by compass, and hiked the same area we had overflown on our Young Eagles flight from 2 previous Saturdays. We had lunch at Kaena point prior to hiking back to the cars. There were numerous whales just offshore which we watched spout and surface--a few fin flaps but no flukes or breaches. We also saw 2 Monk seals on the beach at the point, and early nesting Albatrosses. We could not tell if they were hatching eggs yet, but saw no Wedge tailed Shearwaters in their nesting burrows, likely it is still too early for that.

Troop 304 journeyed to the Dillingham Airfield near Waialua for a Young Eagles flying adventure sponsored by the EAA with Air Force COL(ret) William Schauer and Army COL(ret) Jim Blewster. Our Troop was given information on flight dynamics followed by individual orientation flights in the aircraft hand-built by COL Blewster. Our Scouts overflew Dillingham airfield, Kaena Point and the Waianae Coast Range. Several Scouts were fortunate to be able to see some whales in the ocean on their flight. All Scouts thoroughly enjoyed the aviation experience and are very grateful to COL Schauer and COL Blewster for their time and volunteer efforts in this unique program. Review the photos of our adventure in our photo album section in the "pictures" link.

Camp Hawkins Veteran's weekend campout

From 9-11 November 2007 over the Veteran's Holiday weekend, members of Troop 304 had a campout on PACOM Headquarters property at Camp Hawkins, otherwise known as the Shangri-La campsite. For several of our new Boy Scouts, this was their first overnighter. During this campout activity, numerous basic Scout classes were undertaken to develop Scout skills, to work towards individual Scout advancements, and to develop Troop unity and teamwork. A Zebra Dove adopted our Troop and provided amusement and distraction, then later flew away. Weather was fantastic, campfires were excellent, food was generally edible, and there were no safety issues. A good time was had by all.