Good Shepherd Lutheran Church · Tulsa, Oklahoma
Troop 26The Eagle Factory, 1954 to today
Monday nights. Red neckerchiefs. One Scoutmaster since January 1969. 828 Eagle Scouts. This is the history of Troop 26, told as much as possible in the words of the man who has led it for 57 years.
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Chapter I · 1950s to 1969
Roots
"Already a great Troop." That is how Bill Shaffer describes the Troop 26 he inherited.
Troop 26 started in the early 1950s, sponsored by Good Shepherd Lutheran Church. The church was then at 11th and Sandusky, and the troop met in its basement. Most of the scouts lived close enough to walk. The troop counts its Eagle Scouts from 1952 and holds its formal charter date as 1954.
Photos from a 1955 Court of Honor in that basement show scouts in what Shaffer calls "perfect uniforming." The older boys wore dark green Explorer uniforms with white spats. The troop neckerchief was dark green, with a white patch on the back showing a boot print and a campfire.
The troop's first two Eagle Scouts earned the rank in 1960, both at age 15. Walmar Frank was the son of Good Shepherd's pastor. Jimmie Lee Gollar was the son of the Scoutmaster, Jim Goller. Gary Combs followed in 1961 and Bill Guthrie in 1962.
Bill Shaffer joined in 1956, at age 10, with his best friend Johnny Pat Jackson. His father had been killed in World War II, and his mother made him go because she thought he needed men to look up to. He bought his first uniform at Harrington's department store downtown. At his first troop campfire, at Camp Garland, an older scout named Gailard Sartain did the skits and the troop sang "Trail of the Eagle."
Shaffer served as Senior Patrol Leader in ninth grade and reached First Class before leaving for six years at Oklahoma Military Academy. Of Jim Goller, he wrote that he loved him like the father he never had.
The Hollywood connection
Gailard Sartain and the Fox Patrol
Sartain, a 1950s member of the Fox Patrol, became Tulsa TV's Dr. Mazeppa Pompazoidi alongside Gary Busey. Busey sometimes babysat future Troop 26 Eagle and SPL Mark Herhold. When Busey was cast in The Buddy Holly Story, he brought Sartain along to play the Big Bopper. Sartain went on to nearly 20 seasons of Hee Haw and roles in Mississippi Burning, The Outsiders and Fried Green Tomatoes.
1969: a new Scoutmaster
In 1969 Good Shepherd's pastor asked the 24-year-old Shaffer to take over his old troop. He agreed to do it for a couple of years. He took over from Bud Kunze, who stayed on as his mentor "from day one."
"New Scoutmaster. Thought he knew everything. Didn't know anything."Bill Shaffer, on 1969
Kunze told him two things: recruit help, and get trained. Shaffer took the Indian Chiefs District new-leader course from Vance Tuttle, who taught him that a troop is only as strong as its patrols, and to surround himself with men who could do things he couldn't.
Shaffer did. The families who built the troop with him were Bud and Evelyn Kunze, Leon and Ester Smith, Ed and Joanne Herhold, Bob and Marion Barbero, Bert and Marilyn Shelby, Joe and Sue McCann, and Bill and Shirley Dalton.
The older boys he inherited included Neil Smith and his brother Paul, Bill and Tim Kunze, Jeff Glanz, Jimmy Smith, Bill Kirwin, Don Skillern, Paul Camp, Rick Hayes and Steve McCartney. Mark Weaver was his very first new scout.
Chapter II · 1952 to today
Timeline
Step through the troop's history one moment at a time, with the arrows, the years, or your keyboard.
Chapter III
Bill Shaffer
"I only agreed to be a Scoutmaster for a couple of years." He has been one since January 1969.
Shaffer grew up in Tulsa. After school he took accordion lessons at Shields Music at 11th and Yale and spent hours at Chief Wolf Robe Hunt's Indian store at 11th and Harvard. Wolf Robe Hunt and the artist Acee Blue Eagle became his boyhood heroes and the root of his lifelong love of Native American art.
His father, Lt. Shaffer of Bartlesville, enlisted after Pearl Harbor and flew B-17 Flying Fortresses in the Pacific. In January 1943 the Bartlesville paper reported he had shepherded a crippled bomber home, shooting down two Japanese Zeros. In 1945 he was shot down over Kobe, Japan. Bill was born after his death. When the troop held summer camp in Hawaii in 2015, Bill found his father's name on the wall of the missing at the Punchbowl.
As an adult Shaffer worked in the Scout Department at Harrington's, at Philbrook Art Center, and at Shadow Mountain Behavioral Health. He compiled books of letters from famous Americans written to scouts: In The Words Of (1985) and From The Hearts Of Heroes (2003), with a third, Voices From The Mountain, in progress. Charlton Heston and Irving Berlin were among the correspondents. Along the way he has shaken the hands of three presidents.
His scouts call him the Turtle, after the old turtle in Kung Fu Panda, and bring him turtles from their travels. He is famously afraid of snakes, clowns and heights, which is why the 2016 Halloween campout's monster was a clown. He never made Eagle himself. In his words, he caved in to peer pressure.
He is also an artist. He has drawn nearly 400 patches for the troop and the Indian Nations Council, including the 2010 National Jamboree patch based on Allan Houser's bronze at Gilcrease, which he defended to the national office when it called the design "warlike."
Honors
Silver Beaver · Silver Antelope · OA Vigil · Wood Badge (Owl Patrol) · 2024 Bill Shaffer Class of Eagle Scouts
"Trust the kids. Let them lead. Sometimes adults just get in the way."On the 1989 summer camp the scouts ran themselves
The men he calls the giants
"I've always said that Troop 26 has been built on the backs of giants."
Scoutmaster before 1969
Bud Kunze
Shaffer's mentor from his first day. Kunze's Farm was one of the troop's first campsites. First recipient of the Will Rogers Founders Award, 2019.
"Big Ed"
Ed Herhold
Four Philmont treks, Pine Tree 41 Scoutmaster in 1976, Silver Beaver and OA Vigil. He built the troop's work with scouts with special needs and put a pool in his backyard for swimming and lifesaving badges. A compliment from Ed, Shaffer wrote, was like solid gold.
Committee chairman
Bert Shelby
Chairman "for an eternity," five Philmonts, 1981 Jamboree Scoutmaster, Pine Tree Scoutmaster. Author of the troop motto for wet campouts: "Dry is warmer than wet."
Assistant Scoutmaster
Bill Dalton
Joined in the early 1970s with sons Hunter and Alan, both Eagles. 1973 Jamboree, four Philmonts, Pine Tree 42 Scoutmaster, 1982 Jamboree Scoutmaster.
The first cook
Joe McCann
First in the troop's long line of adult cooks and 1973 Jamboree Assistant Scoutmaster. The troop's rule since: the food is the key to participation.
"A take charge guy"
Bob Barbero
Shaffer's partner in the early camp stories, from the dead cow in Spring Creek at Garland to the bear country of Glacier in 1976.
From his drawing table
Chapter IV
The Book
"Same church. Same ceremony. Same book." Every Senior Patrol Leader since January 1969 has signed it.
Shaffer was a Senior Patrol Leader himself as a boy, so when he became Scoutmaster he wanted the office to mean something. In January 1969 he bought a hardcover Boy Scout Handbook and wrote inside the cover: "Dedicated to the 'Former' and 'Future' Senior Patrol Leaders who have led and who will lead the scouts of Troop 26." Under it he wrote "On My Honor, I Will Do My Best." His first SPL, Neil Smith, signed first.
Twice a year the troop elects a new SPL. Only scouts vote. Candidates give speeches to the whole troop and name the First Assistant SPL and Head Quartermaster they would appoint. The election sets the summer term (spring and summer) and the winter term (fall and winter). In Shaffer's words, if you elected the wrong scout, you were stuck for six months.
At the investiture the new SPL receives the Walker Stick and the SPL bolo, and blows the kudu horn to call the troop together. He signs the Book. Every scout and leader then comes forward, places a hand on it, and raises the Scout sign. Shaffer closes by reading every name aloud, a promise he made to Neil Smith in 1969. When tornado sirens sounded in 2020, the Book is what he grabbed.
A wall plaque carries the same names. When the first plaque filled up with Aaron Chrismon's name, Assistant Scoutmaster Dennis Zvacek built a new one in 2020 with room through 2078.
Chapter V
Courts of Honor
Every Court honors two groups at once: the newest Eagle Scouts and the newest scouts. The little ones watch the big ones and decide they want that too.
Troop 26 holds about three Courts of Honor a year in the sanctuary at Good Shepherd. The order has hardly changed in decades. "Goals are set that very minute," Shaffer wrote.
- The kudu horn. The Senior Patrol Leader calls the troop to assemble with a blast on the horn.
- Full uniform. Scouts file in wearing their merit badge sashes. The troop's Jamboree flags hang overhead.
- Candles. Candles are lit before the Eagle carvings.
- Flowers for the mothers. Each Eagle's mother receives flowers.
- The escort. An Eagle Scout from the troop's past escorts each candidate forward. The adult leader of the candidate's choice presents him.
- The feather. Each new Eagle ties an Eagle feather onto his patrol flag. One Thunderbirds flag carries a son's feather beside the patrol his father once led.
- Oath and Law. An Eagle Scout serves as master of ceremonies, the Prayer Keeper and chaplain pray, and the whole room recites the Scout Oath and Law.
The Board of Review
Shaffer has never missed an Eagle Board of Review and has never sat on one. He introduces each candidate and leaves the room. Assistant Scoutmaster Ray Yarroll has run the troop's Eagle Boards for more than thirty years.
One badge, one teacher
Each Eagle-required merit badge is taught by one instructor, so every scout earns it the same way. Shaffer teaches Citizenship in the Nation and Indian Lore. "We are not a give away program," he wrote. "You do it correctly, you earn it."
On tape and on display
The troop has videotaped its Courts of Honor for more than 30 years and is cataloging the tapes for its Eagles. The troop museum, with photos back to the 1950s, is set up at every Court. Shaffer's poem "Dog Iron Memories" has been printed in several Eagle programs. On July 27, 2020, the troop held an outdoor Court of Honor for ten new Eagle Scouts, with masks, distancing, Zoom and, in Shaffer's phrase, hand sanitizer instead of cake.
Chapter VI
The Eagle Roll
Walmar Frank was the first, in 1960. Zachary Bolden was number 828, in October 2024.
From the official Troop 26 Eagle list at troop26.org. "1st Gen" marks a Troop 26 Eagle whose sons followed him to Eagle; "2nd Gen" marks those sons.
Chapter VII
Traditions
"It is ingrained in our Troop DNA." Most of these started with one scout's idea.
1969
The red neckerchief
At the 1969 Conchi Auction, Troop 20 from Boston Avenue showed up in perfect uniforms and bright red neckerchiefs. Troop 26 showed up in jeans with missing patches. The next Monday, SPL Neil Smith proposed a bright red neckerchief and a push for better uniforming. Shaffer calls it his first test of "boy led."
1971
The Native American in the canoe
The troop logo comes from a photo in National Geographic's Indians of the Americas, a birthday gift from Shaffer's grandmother. It went on the first troop T-shirts in 1971 and has been on hats, patches and shirts for fifty years.
1971
Boris
Neil Smith found a cow skull on a campout. The scouts dried it, painted it, hung feathers on it and mounted it on a pole wrapped in the skin of a snake killed in camp. Boris led the troop into every summer camp assembly. Boris III, a giant skull from Will Rogers Scout Camp donated by Dave Bruneau, carries on.
Patrols
Vikings, Rabbits, Bats and Rams
The first patrols under Shaffer, joined soon by the Moose. New scouts still start as Vikings. Each patrol camps with its own patrol box, a portable kitchen with menus and duty roster in the lid.
1970s
The patrol bag
Chief Wolf Robe Hunt suggested it: a small beaded bag with bells, awarded monthly to the top patrol. The winners put one secret item inside. Over the years it held marbles, a contact lens, a petrified piranha and a class ring.
2001
The Zvastick
SPL Don Zvacek brought a Native American dance stick to an indoor campfire at Garland. At every campfire since, someone tells a Troop 26 story at least five years old, and the stick passes from adult to youth to adult. Shaffer told the first story.
1993
The Dubie Jar
Started by Paul Dubie after the 1993 National Jamboree and still presented at troop campfires, including the 2020 virtual campout.
Order of the Arrow
Wolf
A bust of a Native American chief sits on a table bearing the names of every Troop 26 OA Vigil member, facing the wall. On the Monday before a chapter meeting, the troop OA representative turns it to face the room. It is named for Chief Wolf Robe Hunt.
Since 1969
The canoe trip
Every summer the troop floats the Illinois River. The first trip, in late summer 1969 at Hanging Rock, was interrupted by a gang of bikers. TC Nulf later ran it like a military operation with one rule: no one is allowed to drown, and everyone is required to have fun.
Since 2009
The Halloween monster
SPL Andy Points created the Webelos Halloween campout at Dog Iron Ranch, Will Rogers' birthplace. Each year a scout plays a new monster, and each monster gets its own patch. The Mummy arrived in a sarcophagus that still sits in the troop garage.
Since the 1970s
The Christmas party
Life Scout Mark Herhold's Eagle project, weekly visits to Hissom Memorial Center, grew into the statewide Oklahoma Special Camporee, featured in Scouting magazine in May 1983. The Christmas party that came from it continues with Woodland Park Home, with Dick Shelton as Santa.
Memorial Day
Floral Haven
Each Memorial Day the troop helps take down hundreds of flags at Floral Haven cemetery, a job led for years by Assistant Scoutmaster Dennis Zvacek.
The kitchen
The Rhinos
The adult cooking patrol. Joe McCann started the line. The cooks allowed Shaffer to make salads and nothing else, so he turned them into "veggie art." He is also known for Sunday pancakes.
Themed campouts
LOST and Shipwrecked
SPL Reid Spears dreamed up the 2005 LOST campout around a plane crash on an island. Shipwrecked followed in 2008 under SPL Andrew Parks, and the Zombie Apocalypse in 2013 under Austin Hinds.
Chapter VIII
Leadership
Troop 26 is boy-led. These are the programs that teach boys to lead it.
The Stickmen
In 1999 Shaffer commissioned a master woodcarver in Kingfisher, Oklahoma, to carve a staff for the newly elected SPL, Jonathan Walker. The idea came from the walking staves of Baden-Powell's first scouts. It carries the Eagle Scout medal and the name of its first bearer: the Walker Stick. Shaffer spent a month learning beadwork to wrap its handle. Outgoing SPL Hunter Niemi presented it, along with an antler SPL bolo with scrimshaw, bought in Alaska.
In 2001 Shaffer created the Stickmen. Four leaders, four carved staves, each bearing the name of its first carrier:
- Senior Patrol Leader, elected by the troop Walker Stick
- First Assistant SPL, chosen by the SPL Doby Stick
- Head Quartermaster, chosen by the SPL Spears Stick
- Leadership Corps Chairman, elected by the Eagles Hull Stick
The first full set, in 2001: SPL Danny Harwell, First Assistant Jesse Stallings, Head Quartermaster Reid Spears and Leadership Corps Chairman Don Hull Jr. Stickmen wear a special patch and polo, and Shaffer hides their initials in the troop's summer camp patches. When a petition once proposed a fifth Stickman, all four voted it down. "The tradition was four. It remained four."
The Walker Stick has been to summer camps in New Mexico, Colorado, Alaska, Hawaii, Arkansas and Texas and to several National Jamborees. Its beak is worn smooth by hands. In 2019 a Native American artisan rebeaded it. Shaffer's original beadwork is in the troop museum.
The Leadership Corps
The troop's Eagle Scouts. They teach the younger scouts, run lower-rank advancement and elect one of the four Stickmen. In 2020 Eagle Mark Mills and the Corps ran advancement for more than 90 scouts in one day at the Graves Center.
1990 to 2002
Assistant Scoutmaster TC Nulf wrote and ran the Leadership Challenge: first aid on a dummy, a spiderweb crossing, a monkey bridge and morning calisthenics. He greeted scouts at the gate in a Smokey the Bear hat.
White Stag
White Stag is Troop 26's own leadership course. Shaffer conceived it at Camp Alexander in Colorado and handed it to two Assistant Scoutmasters to build. Its name comes from the leadership program born at the 1933 World Jamboree in Hungary, drawn from a Hungarian legend of a white stag that led hunters onward. Baden-Powell was there.
The first Troop 26 course ran in 2013, with Parker Brock as its SPL. The troop created a White Stag neckerchief and slide, its own curriculum, and a graduation coin first presented after the fourth course, engraved with the names of the first four course SPLs. Eagle Scout Doug Fournet, SPL of the second course, wrote the White Stag Hymn. By the 2013 Halloween weekend, White Stag graduates were already running the program for the Webelos.
Pine Tree
Pine Tree is the Indian Nations Council's youth leadership course, held twice a year for more than 120 courses. Each troop is guaranteed one seat per course, so the troop fills every extra seat it can. Shaffer first served on the staff of Pine Tree 29 at Frank Howard's invitation and later was Scoutmaster of Pine Tree 36. Ed Herhold led Pine Tree 41, Bill Dalton Pine Tree 42 and Bert Shelby Pine Tree 43. The early courses ran at the Explorer Base on Fort Gibson Lake, where ranger Bob Winters was always on staff.
Chapter IX
Awards
Troop 26 keeps more than thirty awards of its own. Many carry the names of the scouts and leaders who inspired them.
Since 2011
The Pillar Award
Named for the Pillars of the Kings in The Lord of the Rings, it honors "the men who protect and defend the Troop 26 program." It is presented each summer on the canoe trip, and each recipient gets a custom patch built on the canoe logo, handed out to every scout there.
- JJ Jorishie2011
- Rick Hayes2013
- Randy McGuire2014
- Dennis Zvacek2015
- Ray Yarroll2016
- Ted Dubie2017
- Dick Shelton2018
- Tony Wright2019
- John Points2020
Since 2019
The Will Rogers Founders Award
For the founders who built the troop before the Pillar Award began, presented on Will Rogers' birthday.
- Bud Kunze2019
- Ed Herhold2020
- Joe McCann2020
- Bert Shelby2020
- Bill Dalton2020
In memory
The Bart Murphy Award
Bart Murphy, Eagle Scout and one of Shaffer's "Blond Bombers," loved camping and the Troop 26 experience. He was killed in a car accident on his way back to college. The award goes to the scout who most embodies his enthusiasm.
100 nights
The Mark Herhold Camping Award
Mark Herhold never missed a campout. The award goes to scouts with at least 100 nights of Troop 26 camping, counting campouts, summer camp, high adventure and Jamborees.
Winter camping
The Heidorn: Brotherhood of the Wolf
Named for Eagle Scout Mitchell Heidorn, for scouts who camp both nights on every November through February campout.
Eagle and high adventure
The Silver Eagle
For Eagle Scouts who complete a trek at Philmont, Northern Tier or Sea Base.
The full roster of troop awards
Honors the troop has received
1981
Organization of the Year
The Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation and Special Olympics named Troop 26 one of three Outstanding Organizations of the Year, alongside the Pittsburgh Steelers and Toronto Blue Jays. Shaffer accepted in Indianapolis with Eagles Thad Bibb and Randy McGuire.
60+
Silver Beavers
More than 60 Troop 26 leaders have received the council's highest volunteer honor, including troop Eagles Rick Hayes (1983), Jeff Glanz (1996), Bill McGhee (2009), Joel Stinnett (2016) and Alan Hart (2018).
NESA
Outstanding Eagle Scouts
John Points, Thad Bibb, Jeff Stava, David Bruneau and Bill Fournet (2018) have received the National Eagle Scout Association's Outstanding Eagle Scout Award.
Presidents
Ford and Reagan
President Gerald Ford came to a Troop 26 meeting and presented 13 Eagle Scout badges. A Troop 26 scout named the BSA's Outstanding Scout presented the annual report to President Ronald Reagan, and on a Jamboree trip to Washington the troop met Reagan, bringing a red cedar bolo carved by Cherokee artist Willard Stone.
Alumni of note
Brig. Gen. Thad Bibb
Eagle 1982 and SPL. Commander of the 100th Air Refueling Wing at RAF Mildenhall, and a former Presidential Advance Agent on Air Force One.
Gailard Sartain
1950s Fox Patrol. Dr. Mazeppa, Hee Haw, and more than forty films.
Jeff Stava
Eagle 1983 and SPL. Led the building of the Gathering Place on Riverside Drive.
Roberto Miller
Eagle 1973 as Bobby Miller. Filmmaker behind Mail Bonding, the first all-digital film, and Mandorla.
Dr. Robert Smith
Eagle 1984 and SPL. Interventional cardiologist at Oklahoma Heart Institute.
Michael Lasker
Eagle 1992 and SPL. Hollywood talent agent, named one of the Hollywood Reporter's Fastest Rising Stars.
Brian Paschal
Eagle 1991. Film executive in Los Angeles, then senior vice president at the Tulsa Regional Chamber.
Michael Grogan
Eagle 2000. Meteorologist at News On 6, who teaches the Weather merit badge.
Joel Stinnett
Eagle 1979 and SPL. Air Force pilot and Reserve lieutenant colonel, father of two Troop 26 Eagles.
Chapter X
Patches
Bill Shaffer is famous for the intricate patches he designs for troop events. Look closely: the initials of each term's Stickmen are hidden in many of them.
From the virtual patch museum at troop26.org. Tap a patch for its story.
Chapter XI
Adventure
"Camping is the bedrock of our love of Scouting. Except for the snakes."
Since 1973
National Jamborees
The first was Farragut State Park, Idaho, in 1973: 102 Troop 26 scouts and 10 leaders on three buses named the Eagle I, the Big Ed and the Fizer Dude. 59 of those scouts became Eagles. The troop has been to every Jamboree since except 1977, now sending two contingents of up to 72 scouts. In 2025 they earned more than 150 merit badges, and each scout got a handwritten letter from Shaffer.
Ten treks for Shaffer
Philmont
His favorite camp is Miranda, with sunrise on Baldy. "For me, Philmont was never something I did, it was something I felt."
1974 to 1976
The red hats
Explorer Post 26 was an all-Eagle post for older scouts. Mark Herhold found an Explorer Silver Award patch at a garage sale, and Ed Herhold put it on bright red caps. The red hats went to Philmont in 1974 and 1975 and Glacier National Park in 1976, and became a troop tradition.
Since 1972
Summer camp
In 1972 Hale camp director Kent Caraway cut his Region 9 patch off his shirt for Shaffer, and Troop 26 went to Hale in Talihina. "It started with a patch and a pair of fingernail clippers." It began a policy of going out of council every third year: Arkansas, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, South Dakota, Alaska and Hawaii.
Also
Northern Tier and Sea Base
"Northern Tier, for me, was like going to church." The troop also sends crews to Florida Sea Base.
Campsites
Fifty years of places
Camp Garland, the Explorer Base on Fort Gibson Lake, Kunze's Farm, the Drummond Ranch near Hominy, Brush Creek Ranch near Jay, Zink Ranch, Camp Tomahawk, Mystery Dog Creek, Dog Iron Ranch and the Graves Center.
Chapter XII · March to July 2020
The Virus Collection
When the pandemic shut the troop down, Bill Shaffer posted one photo and one story from the troop's past every day for 120 days.
He started in March 2020 with a promise of "a new photo every day of the home quarantine period," something to help scouts and alumni smile and remember. The series ran through the night of July 27, when he saw his troop in person again at an outdoor Court of Honor. These are the photos he shared, by day. Tap any one to read its title.
"Troop 26 will rise from 2020 stronger than ever."Day 50
Chapter XIII
Who Bought My Ticket?
Bill Shaffer wrote this for Memorial Day in 2006. His former scouts share it every year.
Memorial Day.
A national holiday. Picnics. Ultimate frisbee. Hotdogs and burgers. Watermelon. Softball. People headed for the lake. Little kids in water wings. Splashing and laughing. The grill. The backyard. Hope the weather cooperates with our plans for Memorial Day.
People doing what they want.
At what price?
America. The Super Bowl of democracies. The best game in the world. Sure, some people have better seats, but you can always work hard and upgrade. Everyone can dream about the luxury boxes. Some people have premium parking, and some take the bus. Some have to walk. Sure, some people get too loud, but the ushers handle that and protect your ability to see the game. There is a lot of stuff to buy out in the tunnels. You can't afford all of it, but someday you might. There are two teams playing, and you can support whichever one you want. You can yell and clap and stand and cheer. Somebody sings a song at the start of the game and some guys walk out on the field with some flags. But you don't have to sing. You don't have to stand up, but most people do. Some even take their hats off.
It's a great game, this Superbowl of democracies. But as exciting as the game is, you can't get in without buying a ticket. But in America, we're lucky. We can walk right in because somebody else has already paid the price of the ticket. We ought to thank them, but more often than not, we don't know their names. Out of sight, out of mind....right? We just walk right in and participate in the Superbowl of democracy and don't give it another thought.
Today, I wonder who bought my ticket. Sure, I like hotdogs and watermelon. I like to play horseshoes and football and softball. But I want to know who bought my ticket. You don't get anything in this world for nothing, and I have much to be thankful for. Who paid? Who made it possible? Who bought the ticket for me?
Was it a guy at Concord and Lexington? A guy who really wanted to be a farmer but decided to get his rifle down off the wall above the fireplace because he believed in a new idea for his children. Did he stand there in the street, watching the most powerful army in the world walking towards him, dressed in bright red with flags flying, pipes playing, sunlight gleaming off the tips of thousands of bayonets? Was he scared? Did he think of his family as he fell?
Was it a guy in 1812? Watching from across the road as the White House burned. Do you think he wanted to keep this grand idea of democracy alive a little longer so that his children could live in freedom? Do you think he wondered if these men dressed in red coats would ever leave him alone to raise his family in peace?
Was it a guy who watched his brother fall at Gettysburg? Was he scared too? Did he cry when the man next to him fell? Did he think about running when the officer he respected was blown off the horse he was riding? Did he have a wife? Did he have a son? Was his last thought of them?
Was it a guy in World War I? Lying scared in a trench. Waiting for the signal to get up and run towards an unseen enemy who was right at that very minute pointing a gun in his direction. Do you think he thought about his childhood in Alabama or Texas or Maryland? Do you think he might have liked watermelon?
Was it a guy in World War II? A guy who watched as some Americans on a distant hill struggled to raise a beautiful red, white, and blue flag amid a hail of bullets from an enemy who was dedicated to destroying this grand idea Americans had grown to love.
Was it a guy in Korea? Charging up Pork Chop Hill and taking it, then losing it, then taking it again.
A hill. A man giving his life for a hill. Does anybody know where Pork Chop Hill is? Or that street in Lexington? Or that trench in France? Anybody visited Bataan lately or visited Normandy? Anybody vacationed at the spot where Douglas MacArthur stepped out of the boat when he returned to the Philippines? Or the spot where George Washington got in the boat to cross the Delaware. Anybody watch the people playing frisbee with their dog at Valley Forge and give a single thought to the men who froze there for this grand idea. Anybody head for the local picnic ground and drive past the silent fields of Gettysburg. The gentle breeze and the calls of songbirds in the lush forests are all that remain of the place where blood ran like rivers, where men in blue and men in gray lay side by side in death.
Was it a guy in Vietnam? A guy who left his family to fight a war nobody liked. A guy who shed a tear as he was pushed in a wheelchair through an airport lobby, listening as people laughed and pointed at him, flinching as a hippy stepped up and spit on him, the spit landing on the spot where his leg used to be.
Was it a guy in Desert Storm or Desert Shield. A guy standing in a place whose name he couldn't pronounce. A place covered in sand. A place where death could come in the form of a child.
Was it a guy who rode the first tank into the Nazi death camps? Was it a guy who watched General Lee sign the surrender at Appomattox? Was it a guy who watched the Japanese sign their surrender on the deck of one of America's war ships? Was it a guy who found the leader of Iraq cowering in a hole after being responsible for the deaths of millions of his own countrymen? I wonder if those countrymen dreamed of America.
Was it a guy who walked home to the farm from the Battle of Lexington, put his rifle back up on its place above the mantle, picked up his little son, and stood on his porch, looking at a land that was free for another day.
Who bought my ticket? Who made it possible for me to chose my path in life? Who made it possible for me to live in a country without fear? I want to know. Before I eat that hotdog or throw that frisbee. Before I head for the lake. I want to know.
And I want other Americans to wonder too. I want Republicans and Democrats to wonder who bought their tickets. I want the Dallas Cowboys and the New York Yankees to wonder who bought their tickets. I want the Politicians to wonder who paid for their tickets.
As we see all those little men with their VFW hats on with all their medals and pins, proudly displayed on bodies with missing limbs , wrinkles and liver spots, I want Americans to wonder how many tickets they bought. Those little men with tears on their faces as they remember fallen comrades and places with funny names where they left their youth, I want Americans to look at them and wonder about the tickets they bought. I want Americans to look at these little men and remember them as the giants they once were. And when we see Arlington Cemetery and the places in France where the white crosses stand in row after row as far as the eye can see, we should all think of the men and women who paid the ultimate price for a ticket.
When I have taken the time to think of these men and women, when I have taken the time to think of the price they paid for my ticket, when I think of the families and children that they left behind to live in a land that is safe and free, when I think of all those little boys who were never coached by their dad or had their dads see them hit a home run or score a touchdown, when I think of all those little girls whose mothers will never see them in their wedding dress or see the birth of their grandbaby, when I think of all those men and women in uniform who left their families to go to foreign shores in search of my ticket, when I stop what I am doing and celebrate the gift of freedom and remember the people who gave that gift to me.....
Then.
Only then.
Will I eat that hotdog on Memorial Day.
Thanks, Grandpa. Thanks for my ticket.
Bill Shaffer, Memorial Day 2006. Published here at his request.
Chapter XIV
Photos
Recent years, from the troop's Facebook group. Tap a photo to open it.
Chapter XV
Troop 26 Today
Still Monday nights. Still red neckerchiefs. Still boy-led.
On July 28, 2025, Troop 26 held its last regular Monday meeting at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church and moved to The Park Church of Christ at 96th and Garnett. Good Shepherd remains the troop's chartering organization and its home in spirit.
In 2024 the Indian Nations Council named its Eagle class the Bill Shaffer Class of Eagle Scouts, and on October 26 the troop gathered for a cookout marking its 70th anniversary and Shaffer's 55th year as Scoutmaster.
The troop numbers more than 120 scouts and about 70 assistant Scoutmasters, men and women, from Tulsa, Owasso, Jenks, Bixby, Broken Arrow, Catoosa, Claremore and Sand Springs. It camps every month, sends crews to Philmont, Northern Tier and Sea Base, runs White Stag, and plants flags in Tulsa yards on five holidays a year through its Fly the Flag program. Girls' Troop 126 shares several of its events.
In 2026 five more scouts reached Eagle together. One of them built a portable adoption booth for a Tulsa cat rescue. A family's announcement put it simply: Troop 26 is known as the Eagle Factory.
Sources
- Bill Shaffer, "The Virus Collection," 120 troop history posts on Facebook, March to July 2020, and later posts in the Troop 26 Tulsa group
- The Troop 26 Virtual Museum: Eagle Scouts, Patches, Award Winners, Notable Alumni and the SPL Wall of Fame
- Scouting magazine, September–October 2015
- TulsaPeople, "Eagle eye," July 2017
- Next Avenue, "Life Lessons From 48 Years as a Scoutmaster"
- KJRH, May 2019 · Tulsa LocalWiki
Photos were taken by troop members and leaders and shared by Bill Shaffer and in the Troop 26 Tulsa Facebook group. Patches and the troop banner are from troop26.org.