All Uniform Left Front Achievement Awards

When I was a scout in 1960 (I have been out of scouting until just recently), I earned an award called the "Fiftieth Anniversary Achievement Award" which was a red strip with yellow lettering with the words in quotes above. Do you know anything about this award (like how many were awarded)?

The BSA issued about 800 thousand of those strips out to local Councils, Scouts and Explorers during 1960. Here were the requirements to earn the Award.

The breakdown for the 1960 strips were:

683 local Councils, with at an average of 100 Troops per local Council with at least 35 boys in each Troop. The BSA says that a third of the boys within a given Troop would earn the special strip, or out of 5.1 million members, 819,616 by my unofffical count.

There is also a cloth emblem to be worn centered on the right pocket of the uniform shirt (or on the right pocket of the green, red or blue jac-shirts) by those who have earned the Award:

Scan of 50th Anniversary Achievement Award pocket emblem

Scan of 75th Anniversary Acheivement Award

The BSA turned around and did the same thing, sending out thousands of patches for the Diamond Anniversary (and several local Councils developed strips, as the Transatlantic Council (TAC) did in 1985, where I got mine from). Here were the requirements to earn the Award.

The breakdown for the 1985 patches and strips were:

432 local Councils, with an average of 130 Troops per local Council with at least 25 boys per Troop. The BSA says that about 20 percent of the membership earned the patch (from their sales to local Councils), so out of 4.8 million youth members, 280,800 boys earned one of the patches/strips.

There is also a cloth emblem to be worn centered on the right pocket of the uniform shirt (or on the right pocket of the green, red or blue jac-shirts) by those who have earned the Award:

Scan of 75th Anniversary Achievement Award pocket emblem

I understand from one older scouter (almost as old as I who remembers the award) that it is still okay to wear it (the strip) above the left pocket.

Either the 50th or the 75th (or both, if you've earned them) strips may be worn on the field uniform. They are no longer documented in the BSA Insignia Guide (has never been documented in any edition of the Guide as a matter of fact) but the BSA has stated in 1960, again in 1970 and once again in 1984 with the announcement of the newer Awards, that those holders that have earned the award may continue to wear it on the field uniform since at that time, it was considered a PERMANENT AWARD by the BSA.

The strip is worn on the left side of the uniform shirt immediately below the World Crest and above any year pin(s) (and any square knot emblems earned or recieved by the Scouter).

Illustration/scan showing how to wear either the 50th or the 75th Anniversary strips

Note also that there are two versions of the older 50th strips....there's a cloth version which was made available during the later 60s and the earlier linen/silk strip, which was the "first version" of the strips.....and of course, are the most costier of the two.

The strip may also be worn above the left pocket of the jac-shirt (red, blue or if you're lucky to have/find one still, green) or in a similiar location above the BSA cloth emblem on the left side of the lighter weight poplin, cotton or nylon jackets.

And no, I don't mind if you share this information with those on the Scouts-L list...I'm sure that there's at least ONE other person out there that has been in Scouting as long as you and I have (you've been in Scouting just a little longer than me *smiling*) and remember earning and wearing the strip.

Thanks for asking me!

Settummanque!

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