Today’s moment in troop history comes from a September 1986 visit and campout at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and near Dayton, Ohio. The base has a dedicated scout campground where our troop made camp and cooked their meals.
Wright-Patterson includes the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, which is the world’s largest and oldest military aviation museum. The boys explored the history and technology of the Air Force including an A-10 Warthog. Excursions included a 12-mile hike on the Wright Memorial Trail and a visit to the site of the original Wright Brothers Hangar, which was their first flying field beginning in 1904.
You can imagine our surprise when the troop was contacted nearly a year later by government officials to report that there had been a radioactive spill of americum-241 at the base around the same time of their campout!
With a half-life of 432 years, americum-241 is a radioactive material that can be found in nuclear waste and has some industrial purposes in smoke detectors and other manufacturing processes. Workers who decontaminated the spill washed off using a water spigot near the campground.
Testing at the camp indicated there was no contamination, but the Air Force arranged for scouts and scouters to be tested by private laboratories. Scoutmaster Robert Gray wasn’t very concerned, saying that “the tests are merely a precaution”.
Photos and memories of the campout were glowing, even if our scouts were not!
Do you know any of these scouts or can you tell us more about this expedition? Please contact us and help us connect before our troop centennial on May 26!