Joseph Schleiss, June 2010
I came to Troop 370 in 9th grade, after moving from Ohio, and taking a few years off from Scouts, due to not being able to find a troop that I liked. Jon Vlasic, another member of my patrol, invited me along on a winter campout, and I was hooked. I may not be the one who cut it the closest to his 18th birthday, but I was almost there, getting my final signature on the 22nd of April, with 3 days left. My Eagle Project was a blood drive we held at Pax Christi, which was about 45% bigger than any blood drive they had held there in the past.
About a week after I had my Eagle Court of Honor, I left for Basic Combat Training at Ft. Sill Oklahoma. I found this to be, frankly, ridiculously easy. I credit that with everything I had done in the troop, things like first aid training, land navigation, rifle/shotgun merit badge, and other things I learned while with Troop 370 made it so that I never really had to focus on learning any soldiering tasks, and I just had to focus on things like making my bed and doing push-ups.
On February 4th I graduated with honors (4th in my class) from one of the most advanced Emergency Trauma Courses in the world, the US Army Department of Combat Medic Training. I am currently stationed at Fort Lewis, Washington with the 8th Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division. We are slated to deploy to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom next year.
