Feral Jundi

On my honor, I will do my best

To do my duty To God and my country

And to obey the Scout Law;

To help other people at all times;

To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight. –Scout Oath

*****

Col. John Boyd On Grand Strategy

Evolve and exploit insight/initiative/adaptability/harmony together with a unifying vision, via a grand ideal or an overarching theme or a noble philosophy, as basis to:

         *Shape or influence events so that we not only amplify our spirit and strength but also influence the uncommitted or potential adversaries so that they are drawn toward our philosophy and are empathetic toward our success,

yet be able to

          *Operate inside adversary’s observation-orientation-decision-action loops or get inside his mind-time-space as basis to:

          *Penetrate adversary’s moral-mental-physical being in order to isolate him from his allies, pull him apart, and collapse his will to resist. 

*****

    I am always fascinated by the power of ideas.  Here at FJ, I am always trying to find those ideas, and study how they came about and what makes them so powerful.  One of those ideas I want to talk about today, is the Boy Scouts and the Scouting Movement that was behind the development of the Boy Scouts.

   First off, I am an Eagle Scout and I am very proud of my Scouting background.  If you talk with some guys in the industry and military, you will find that there are quite a few of us Boy Scouts floating around out there. It is interesting to me that the military/police/firefighters/medical/security contracting industries all attract Scouts.  It is equally interesting to find out how Scouting has impacted all these folks in their careers. From the camping and hiking, to the navigation, knots and fieldcraft skills, the Boy Scouts is pretty cool. Not to mention the social connections you make with others, the love and dedication of your country and the respect you garner as a productive member of a community.

   But it goes beyond just being ‘cool’, because during my time at the Scouts, I was also introduced to leadership skills.  Leadership, as you know, is something that I am totally concerned with in this industry, and that is what makes the Scouts relevant to this blog. Not to mention all the land navigation stuff or first aid stuff we did, and I look back on my time with the Boy Scouts as not just cool, but essential life skills for all of my career choices.

   And I say leadership skills, meaning the Boy Scouts purposely guides the young man into taking leadership positions within the troop.  You are tasked with guiding trips, being in charge of land navigation, planning for trips and making sure your folks are ready for the hardships of survival in the woods. You delegate authority, you learn how to motivate others to endure, you teach and mentor the younger Scouts, and lead by example at an incredibly young age.  I learned to write things down to keep organized, from the Boy Scouts. (simple stuff, but you would be amazed at how some guys don’t get that concept)

    For community related activities, it is the young man that organizes and leads a troop of scouts to do amazing things.  From disaster relief to community help projects, to taking care of others that cannot take care of self–all of it is what the Boy Scouts do, and train for.  This is a leadership machine, and it pumps out the good stuff.

   As a firefighter and smokejumper, I used every bit of field craft and leadership skills that I learned in the Boy Scouts.  From the simple things like setting up a homemade tarp tent, to building fire and living off the land, to saving lives with first aid skills. The land navigations skills I learned were really important, and that saved my butt more that once when trying to get to a pick up point after a fire mission. Or when rappelling out of a tree, you tend to use some important knots that could save your life, and I can thank Scouts for introducing me to knots. I really came to appreciate the Scouts, and everything I learned as a Scout, I used on that job.

   My time in the Marines as an infantryman was equally challenging, and it too required all that field craft that I learned in the Scouts.  I felt totally prepared for military duty, just because the things I learned as a boy were being re-introduced to me as military skills as a man.  Now in fairness to the Scouts and the Marines, I did not learn how to shoot and clean an M-60, or learn hand to hand combat skills.  But I did learn some basic concepts of leadership and fieldcraft that certainly helped my career in the Marines. Even the knot tying skills I learned, saved my life when I was going through the Assault Climbers course at Bridgeport, CA.

   Fast forward to Security Contracting.  Yet again, I find myself using the first aid skills and leadership skills that I learned as a young man, in an industry that certainly requires those skills.  Even basic land navigation is one of those things that I am called upon to use, time and time again, and I can thank the Boy Scouts for at least laying down the foundation for that.  And for first aid, I was first introduced to the tourniquet in the Boy Scouts, and the tourniquet is a major life saving tool in today’s war.

   So now as a blogger, and as an idea guy, I wanted to find out what led to the Scouting Movement and what helped to shape it.  And being that I focus on the war effort these days, and the military ideas pertinent to our industry and the militaries of the world, I decided to peer into the military history behind the development of the Scouting Movement.  To say the least, I was amazed.

   There are four stories I want you guys to focus on when reading through these wikipedia entries.  The first is Sir Baden Powell’s actions at the Siege of Mafeking.  The second story is Frederick Burnham and the Assassination of Mlimo that resulted in the end of the Second Matabele War. And the third story is of the Selous Scouts. The fourth story talks about Seton, and the Native American influence on the Scouting Movement.  All of these stories represent men who had definitely ‘built snowmobiles’ as far as tactical and strategic operations, and all of their ideas were formed in war.  And all of these men had crossed paths and all had an interest in military scouting.  Those ideas were a major part of building amazing organizations like the Boy Scouts, the Selous Scouts, as well as influencing the military manuals on scouting and reconnaissance throughout the various military units of the world.

   It is also important to note that the Boy Scouts is a non-military related organization and is not being used to fight any wars.  It is an organization dedicated to turning young men into confident leaders armed with excellent survival skills.  Those leaders go on to be astronauts, politicians, community leaders, businessmen, security contractors, paramedics, police, and soldiers. This is the Scouting Movement, and how it evolved and came about is definitely ‘Building Snowmobiles’ of the highest order. Be prepared. –Matt

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Military Career of Robert Baden-Powell

In 1876, R.S.S. Baden-Powell, as he styled himself then, joined the 13th Hussars in India with the rank of lieutenant. He enhanced and honed his military scouting skills amidst the Zulu in the early 1880s in the Natal province of South Africa, where his regiment had been posted, and where he was Mentioned in Despatches. During one of his travels, he came across a large string of wooden beads, worn by the Zulu king Dinizulu, which was later incorporated into the Wood Badge training programme he started after he founded the Scouting Movement. Baden-Powell’s skills impressed his superiors and he was Brevetted Major as Military Secretary and senior Aide-de-camp of the Commander-in-Chief and Governor of Malta, his uncle General Sir Henry Augustus Smyth.

[7] He was posted in Malta for three years, also working as intelligence officer for the Mediterranean for the Director of Military Intelligence.[7] He frequently travelled disguised as a butterfly collector, incorporating plans of military installations into his drawings of butterfly wings.[10]

Baden-Powell returned to Africa in 1896 to aid the British South Africa Company colonials under siege in Bulawayo during the Second Matabele War.[11] This was a formative experience for him not only because he had the time of his life commanding reconnaissance missions into enemy territory in Matobo Hills, but because many of his later Boy Scout ideas took hold here.[12] It was during this campaign that he first met and befriended the American scout Frederick Russell Burnham, who introduced Baden-Powell to the American Old West and woodcraft (i.e., scoutcraft), and here that he wore his signature Stetson campaign hat and kerchief for the first time.[7] After Rhodesia, Baden-Powell took part in a successful British invasion of Ashanti, West Africa in the Fourth Ashanti War, and at the age of 40 was promoted to lead the 5th Dragoon Guards in 1897 in India.[13] A few years later he wrote a small manual, entitled Aids to Scouting, a summary of lectures he had given on the subject of military scouting, to help train recruits. Using this and other methods he was able to train them to think independently, use their initiative, and survive in the wilderness.

He returned to South Africa prior to the Second Boer War and was engaged in further military actions against the Zulus. By this time, he had been promoted to be the youngest colonel in the British Army. He was responsible for the organisation of a force of frontiersmen to assist the regular army. While arranging this, he was trapped in the Siege of Mafeking, and surrounded by a Boer army, at times in excess of 8,000 men. Although wholly outnumbered, the garrison withstood the siege for 217 days. Much of this is attributable to cunning military deceptions instituted at Baden-Powell’s behest as commander of the garrison. Fake minefields were planted and his soldiers were ordered to simulate avoiding non-existent barbed wire while moving between trenches.[14] Baden-Powell did most of the reconnaissance work himself.[15]

Contrary views of Baden-Powell’s actions during the Siege of Mafeking pointed out that his success in resisting the Boers was secured at the expense of the lives of African soldiers and civilians, including members of his own African garrison. Pakenham stated that Baden-Powell drastically reduced the rations to the natives’ garrison.[16] However, Pakenham decidedly retreated from this position.

During the siege, a cadet corps, consisting of white boys below fighting age, was used to stand guard, carry messages, assist in hospitals and so on, freeing the men for military service. Although Baden-Powell did not form this cadet corps himself, and there is no evidence that he took much notice of them during the Siege, he was sufficiently impressed with both their courage and the equanimity with which they performed their tasks to use them later as an object lesson in the first chapter of Scouting for Boys. The siege was lifted in the Relief of Mafeking on 16 May 1900. Promoted to major-general, Baden-Powell became a national hero.[18] After organising the South African Constabulary, the national police force, he returned to England to take up a post as Inspector General of Cavalry in 1903. In 1907 he was appointed to command a division in the newly-formed Territorial Force.[19]

In 1910 Lieutenant-General Baden-Powell decided to retire from the Army reputedly on the advice of King Edward VII, who suggested that he could better serve his country by promoting Scouting.[20][21]

On the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Baden-Powell put himself at the disposal of the War Office. No command, however, was given him, for, as Lord Kitchener said: “he could lay his hand on several competent divisional generals but could find no one who could carry on the invaluable work of the Boy Scouts.”[22] It was widely rumoured that Baden-Powell was engaged in spying, and intelligence officers took great care to inculcate the myth.

Wikipedia link here.

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The Second Matabele War

It was during the war in Matabeleland that Sir Baden-Powell and Frederick Burnham first met and began their life-long friendship. In mid-June 1896, during a scouting patrol in Matobo Hills, Burnham first taught Baden-Powell woodcraft, the fundamentals of scouting. As a boy growing up in the American Old West during the Indian Wars, Burnham had learned scout craft from Indian trackers, frontiersmen, and cowboys, so as a scout in Africa he was simply practising the art and applying it as a soldier. So impressed was Baden-Powell by Burnham’s scouting spirit that he fondly told people he “sucked him dry” of all he could possibly tell. Scout craft was not generally practiced outside of the American Old West, but it was vitally needed in places like colonial Africa, so Baden-Powell and Burnham discussed how this art might be taught to young boys. These young boy scouts envisioned by Baden-Powell and Burnham during those evenings camping in the Matobo Hills was one of fighters first whose business it was to face their enemies with both courage and good cheer, and as social workers afterwards. While Baden-Powell went on to refine the concept of scouting and eventually become the founder of the international scouting movement, Burnham can also be called one of the movement’s fathers.

Wikipedia link here

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Second Matabele War and Frederick Burnham

In March 1896, the Matabele again revolted against the authority of the British South Africa Company in what is now celebrated in Zimbabwe as the First War of Independence. Mlimo, the Matabele spiritual leader, is credited with fomenting much of the anger that led to this confrontation. Matabeleland defenses were in disarray due to the ill-fated Jameson Raid, and the first few months of the war alone hundreds of white settlers were killed. With few troops to support them, the settlers quickly built a laager in the centre of Bulawayo on their own and mounted patrols under such figures as Burnham, Baden-Powell, and Selous. An estimated 50,000 Matabele retreated into their stronghold of the Matobo Hills near Bulawayo, a region that became the scene of the fiercest fighting against the white settler patrols.[11]

Assassination of Mlimo

The turning point in the war came when Burnham and a young scout named Bonar Armstrong found their way through Matobo Hills to the sacred cave where Mlimo had been hiding. Not far from the cave was a village of about 100 huts filled with many warriors. The two scouts tethered their horses to a thicket and crawled on their bellies, screening their slow, cautious movements by means of branches held before them. Once inside the cave, they waited until Mlimo entered.[12] Mlimo was said to be about 60 years old, with very dark skin, sharp-featured; American news reports of the time described him as having a cruel, crafty look. Burnham and Armstrong waited until Mlimo entered the cave and started his dance of immunity, at which point Burnham shot Mlimo just below the heart.[12]

The two scouts then leapt over the dead Mlimo and ran down a trail toward their horses. Hundreds of warriors, encamped nearby, picked up their arms and searched for the attackers. To distract the Matabele, Burnham set fire to the village. The two men got on their horses and rode back to Bulawayo. Shortly after learning of the assassination of Mlimo, Cecil Rhodes boldly walked unarmed into the Ndebele stronghold in Matobo Hills and persuaded the impi to lay down their arms, thus ending the Second Matabele War.[13][14]

“Father of Scouting”

Burnham was already a celebrated scout when he first befriended Baden-Powell during the Second Matabele War. Himself a brilliant outdoorsman, Baden-Powell was a distinguished cavalry officer, and reportedly the finest pig sticker in India — meaning he was adept at killing a sprinting wild boar with one lance thrust from the back of a galloping horse. During the siege of Bulawayo, the two men rode many times into the Matobo Hills on patrol, and it was in these African hills that Burnham first introduced Baden-Powell to the ways and methods of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, and taught him woodcraft (better known today as scoutcraft).[26] So impressed was Baden-Powell by Burnham’s Scouting spirit that he fondly told people he “sucked him dry” of all he could possibly tell.[27] It was here that Baden-Powell began to wear his signature Stetson campaign hat and kerchief for the first time.[28] Both men recognized that wars were changing markedly and the British Army needed to adapt; so during their joint scouting missions, Baden-Powell and Burnham discussed the concept of a broad training program in woodcraft for young men, rich in exploration, tracking, field craft, and self-reliance. In Africa, no scout embodied these traits more than Burnham.[29] While Baden-Powell went on to refine the concept of Scouting and become the founder of the international Scouting movement, Burnham has been called the movement’s father.[30]

Frederick Russell Burnham: Explorer, discoverer, cowboy, and Scout. Native American, he served as chief of scouts in the Boer War, an intimate friend of Lord Baden-Powell. It was on some of his exploits demanding great courage, alertness, skill in surmounting the perils of the out-of-doors, that the founder of Scouting based some of the activities of the Boy Scout program. As an honorary Scout of the Boy Scouts of America, he has served as an inspiration to the youth of the Nation and is the embodiment of the qualities of the ideal Scout.

— 27th Annual Report of the Boy Scouts of America (1936).[31]

Burnham later became close friends with others involved in the Scouting movement in the United States, such as Theodore Roosevelt, the Chief Scout Citizen, and Gifford Pinchot, the Chief Scout Forester.[32] The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) made Burnham an Honorary Scout in 1927,[33] and for his noteworthy and extraordinary service to the Scouting movement, Burnham was bestowed the highest commendation given by the Boy Scouts of America, the Silver Buffalo Award, in 1936.[34] Throughout his life he remained active in Scouting at both the regional and the national level in the United States and he corresponded regularly with Baden-Powell on Scouting topics.

The low-key Burnham and Baden-Powell remained close friends for their long lives. The seal on the Burnham – Baden-Powell letters at Yale and Stanford expired in 2000 and the true depth of their friendship and love of Scouting has again been revealed.[35] In 1931, Burnham read the speech dedicating Mount Baden-Powell in California,[36][37] to his old Scouting friend.[38] Their friendship, and equal status in the world of Scouting and conservation, is honored with the dedication of the adjoining peak, Mount Burnham,[39][40] in his honor.

Burnham’s descendants followed in his footsteps and are active in Scouting and in the military. His son Roderick enlisted in the U.S. Army and fought in World War I France. His grandson, Frederick Russell Burnham II, was a leader in the BSA and a Vietnam war veteran. His great-grandson, Russell Adam Burnham is an Eagle Scout and was United States Army’s Soldier of the Year in 2003.[41][42]

Wikipedia link here.

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The Selous Scouts

The Selous Scouts was a special forces regiment of the Rhodesian Army which operated from 1973 until the introduction of majority rule in 1980. They were named after British explorer Frederick Courteney Selous (1851-1917), and their motto was pamwe chete, which translated from Shona means “all together”, “together only” or “forward together”. The charter of the Selous Scouts directed “the clandestine elimination of terrorists/terrorism both within and without the country.”[1]

Context

The period in which the Selous Scouts operated was known as the Rhodesian Bush War or Second Chimurenga. This was a civil war fought between black nationalist guerrillas (ZANLA/ZANU and ZIPRA/ZAPU) and the white minority government of Ian Smith. Unlike the Rhodesian Light Infantry and the Rhodesian Special Air Service (SAS), the Selous Scouts were a mixed race force and had many black Rhodesians in its ranks including the first African commissioned officers in the Rhodesian Army.

Selection and training

The Selous Scouts acted as a combat reconnaissance force, its mission was to infiltrate Rhodesia’s tribal population and guerilla networks, pinpoint rebel groups and relay vital information back to the conventional forces earmarked to carry out the actual attacks. Scouts were trained to operate in small under-cover teams capable of working independently in the bush for weeks on end and of passing themselves off as rebels. The Selous Scouts were a strictly volunteer force, and only highly motivated men of the very highest calibre could fulfil the task they had to undertake. A mere 15 percent of the many who signed up to join the regiment emerged from the tough training programme with the right to wear the brown beret of the Selous Scouts.

As Lt. Col. Ron Reid Daly stated[2]:

“…a special force soldier has to be a certain very special type of man. In his profile it is necessary to look for intelligence, fortitude and guts potential, loyalty, dedication, a deep sense of professionalism, maturity – the ideal age being 24 to 32 years -, responsibility and self discipline…”

Selection was rigorous, and even tougher than the Rhodesian Special Air Service course. As soon as volunteers arrived at Wafa Wafa, the Selous Scouts’ training camp, on the shores of the Lake Kariba they were given a taste of the hardships they would have to endure. On reaching the base (which was a 25 kilometres run away from the drop-off point) they saw no cosy barracks, no welcoming mess tent, but only a few straw huts and the blackened embers of a dying fire. There was no food issued. The goal was to starve, exhaust and antagonise the recruits. This usually proved successful as 40 or 50 men out of the original 60 regularly dropped out in the first two days. The selection course lasted seventeen days. From the first light to 7 am they were put through a strength-sapping fitness programme. Afterwards they sharpened their basic combat skills and they had to pass a particularly nasty assault course several times, designed to overcome their fear of heights. As soon as the night fell, they went on to the night training. In the first five days, no food was issued at all. After this only rotten animals were available. At the end, there were an endurance march of 100 kilometres, laden with 30 kilograms of rocks in their packs. The rocks were painted red, so they could not be discharged and replaced at the end. The final stage of these was a speed march, and had to be completed in a mere two-and-a-half hours. Those who survived these days were given a week off, and taken to a special camp for the dark phase of their training. There they learned to act and talk like the enemy. The base was built and set out as a real rebel camp, and the instructors were on hand to turn the recruits into fully-fledged members of the enemy groups. In this phase recruits were taught to break with habits such as shaving, rising at regular times, smoking and drinking and to adopt a guerilla lifestyle. The recruits, after finishing their training had little time to congratulate themselves, because only a week after their successful completion of the course, they were in the bush on patrol with the Selous Scouts[3].

Composition

The regiment was proposed by members of the British South Africa Police Special Branch, and many of its earliest recruits were policemen. The Selous Scouts differed from C Squadron 22 (Rhodesian) SAS, in that it was formed specifically to take part in tracking and infiltration operations in which soldiers would pretend to be guerrillas — so-called pseudo-operators. These tactics were used very successfully in the Mau Mau Uprising. In addition, it often recruited from enemy forces; captured guerrillas were offered a choice between prison, a trial and possible execution or joining the Selous Scouts.[4] This concept was initially highly controversial in the Rhodesian government; the idea of “turning” what they regarded as captured terrorists instead of punishing them was unpalatable to some.[5] However, the idea’s supporters, who won out, portrayed these operations as an aspect of counter-insurgency similar to the law enforcement use of informants and ‘sting’ methods to penetrate and disrupt criminal and subversive organizations. In order to keep knowledge of their existence as restricted as possible, the “turned” guerrillas were paid from Special Branch funds which were not accountable to government auditors,[6] and volunteers for the unit were not told of its actual function until they actually joined it;[7] in some cases, where captured guerrillas had already entered the judicial system, the Selous Scouts would fake their escapes without informing the Criminal Investigation Department.[8] In order to prevent the regular army or police from firing at the regiment while it was operating, the authorities would declare “frozen areas”, where Army and Police units were ordered to temporarily cease all operations in, and withdraw from, certain areas, without being told the reason for this.[9] Many commanders felt that the initiation of “frozen areas” ceded control to the enemy and reduced the initiative of the security forces. In addition to the obvious tactic of luring “fellow” guerrillas into ambushes, the pseudo-operators also took measures to weaken popular support for the guerrillas; in one case, for example, a group of pseudo-operators pretending to be guerrillas accused eight of the most enthusiastic guerrilla supporters in the Madziwa region of being police informers and beat them up before leaving.[10] The unit’s detractors cited events like this as the difference between the phrases anti-terrorism and counter-terrorism.

The Selous Scouts used covert forms of chemical warfare. Clothing was impregnated with parathion and left for enemy guerillas to find. Cigarettes and canned food were used in a similar fashion after being contaminated with thallium.[11]

The camouflage used by reserve members of this unit as pseudo-forces were captured “Warsaw Pact” clothing originating from various countries and specified for certain operations.

There is no doubt that the regiment achieved many of its objectives; its members were acclaimed trackers, and the unit was responsible for 68% of all guerrilla deaths within the borders of Rhodesia.[12] However, its C.O., Ron Reid-Daly, was irascible and enjoyed a poor relationship with many of the Rhodesian Army commanders; [13] in addition, from 1978 there were persistent rumours that soldiers in the regiment had been implicated in ivory poaching in the Gonarezhou National Park and that an ivory processing “factory” existed at Andre Rabie Barracks near Inkomo Garrison.[13] The friction between the Army command and Reid-Daly peaked on 29 january 1979, when a bugging device was found in Reid-Daly’s office. Not to mention this compromised ongoing Selous Scout operations, and therefore it became necessary to call them off[14].

The Selous Scouts numbered only about 1,500 men at peak strength, yet according to a Combined Operations statement, they inflicted 68 percent of the nationalist guerilla fatalities between 1973 and 1980[15].

Dissolution

Following the dissolution of the regiment in 1980, many of its soldiers travelled south to join the South African Defence Force, where they joined 5 Reconnaissance Commando. Those that remained formed 4th Bn(HU)R.A.R. which was placed on “immediate standby ” for most of its short service. The battalion covered the areas to the north of Andre Rabie Barracks, as far as Miami/Mangula in the east and as far as Kariba in the north. The unit existed from 23 April to 30 September 1980 when it changed its name for the final time and became as it is today, 1st Zimbabwe Parachute Battalion/Group.

Wikipedia for Selous Scouts here

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Military Career of Frederick Selous, Rhodesia and World War I

He returned to Africa to take part in the First Matabele War (1893), being wounded during the advance on Bulawayo. It was during this advance that he first met fellow scout Frederick Russell Burnham, who had only just arrived in Africa and who continued on with the small scouting party to Bulawayo and observed the self-destruction of the Ndebele settlement as ordered by King Lobengula. Selous returned to England, married, and in 1896 the couple settled on an estate in Matabeleland when the Second Matabele War broke out. He took a prominent part in the fighting which followed, serving as a leader in the Bulawayo Field Force, and published an account of the campaign entitled Sunshine and Storm in Rhodesia (1896). It was during this time that he met and fought along side Robert Baden-Powell who was then a Major and newly appointed to the British Army headquarters staff in Matabeleland.

In World War I, at the age of 64, Selous participated in the fighting in East Africa, joining as a Captain in the uniquely composed 25th (Frontiersmen) Battalion, Royal Fusiliers, being awarded the Distinguished Service Order in 1916.

Wikipedia Link here.

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Ernest Thompson Seton

(August 14, 1860 – October 23, 1946) was a Scots-Canadian (and naturalized U.S. citizen) who became a noted author, wildlife artist, founder of the Woodcraft Indians, and one of the founding pioneers of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). Seton also heavily influenced Lord Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouting. His notable books related to Scouting include The Birch Bark Roll and The Boy Scout Handbook. He is responsible for the strong influence of American Indian culture in the BSA.

Wikipedia link here.