PROLOGUE

They were unique... a legend in their time...

a proud elite unit.. imbued with an unmatched esprit de corps...

rich in history and tradition, rife with a magic attractive to a boy
scouting for an identity, and charged with a kind of cool...

the oldest, proudest, most decorated unit in the region...

like nothing else in the whole world of the Boy Scouts of America...
in uniform, in demeanor, in swagger...

there was a dash about them that you didn't see in other troops...
disciplined... cocky... almost arrogant...
they were better... and they knew it!

you could feel the swagger when they marched by...
a blend of straight arrows and street kids...
bursting with hero types...

but this was no ordinary Boy Scout Troop...

they were something from another time... another era...
something out of the past...

around since World War I...
they were still somehow always ahead of their time...

never a big troop... two to four patrols... once five...
they had an influence and prestige
greatly out of proportion to their size...

they had a winning tradition.. always finishing on top...
never settling for anything less...

and yet... they had the most fun...

so! who were these guys?

that Scouting vaudeville...

that outrageous collection of rowdies that didn't seem like they
belonged in Boy Scouts yet took their Scouting very seriously...

a troop affectionately described by one prominent St. Louis Scouter
as...
"that wild bunch down at TROOP SEVENTEEN."