Your Patrol Emblems

The Lone Pine Patrol

The emblems you choose and design to represent your patrol can have as much significance as the name you choose. Take for instance the Lone Pine Patrol from Troop 901. The Lone Pines were nine Scouts who had been in Troop 901 just over three months when they formed their patrol. It didn't take long for those nine Scouts to develop a little spirit and teamwork, but no one seemed to like the name "Pine Tree Patrol."

It all began on their first overnighter as Scouts. Their Patrol Leader's grandfather invited the whole patrol to camp in a field on his farm. Right smack in the middle of the field was a very big, and very old pine tree, and that's where they set up their camp. They spent the day hiking around the farm, playing in a nearby stream, and just having a good time.

After dinner the PL's grandfather came to visit them, and he showed them how to build a nice campfire. As the sun went down, they sat around that campfire and listened as the old man told story after story of his adventures as a Scout fifty years before. Well, the Scouts in that patrol had such a good time, and got so excited about the stories they had heard, that they decided at their next patrol meeting that they would call themselves the "Lone Pine Patrol."

With a name that meant something to all of them, they started thinking about the other symbols for their patrol. They needed a patrol patch to wear on their uniform, a patrol flag to rally around, and something they could put on all their patrol equipment. The choice of patrol patch was pretty easy:

Unfortunately, that was the easy part. For the next couple weeks they discussed the patrol flag and other designs but couldn't come up with anything everybody liked. They tried everything they could, thumbing through tree-identification books, the Boy Scout Handbook, encyclopedias, even searching the Internet for clip art and photos.

Finally, they decided to hike out to the farm again to see if the PL's grandfather could help them. At first, most of the patrol thought the old man was getting senile because, as soon as they asked him the question, he started telling them about the patrol he had been in as a Scout. He told them about how they had decided on the name "Flaming Arrow" patrol, and how they too had spent a long time trying to design a flag. They had decided to have the arrow point up instead of down the way the patch was designed, and after a month or two of debate they finally decided to make the flag just like the patch. He said they had just started collecting all of the materials when one of the Scouts noticed that there were six flames on the patch. Those flames, along with the arrowhead and the tail made eight, the same number of Scouts in the patrol.

Then, he swore them all to secrecy and revealed to them the Flaming Arrow Patrol's secret design, a signature each Scout in the patrol used to identify himself and his gear. He revealed the secret parts of their patrol flag, which looked like just a white cloth with a red and yellow flaming arrow on it. All of this really got the Lone Pine Patrol's imaginations running, and before long they had a design for a patrol flag, and a special signature for each member:

Unfortunately, I'm not allowed to tell you the secrets. Some are pretty obvious though, and I'm willing to bet it won't take you long to figure them out. Just remember, they are the Lone Pine Patrol of Troop 901, and there are nine Scouts in the patrol. Figure it out if you can, but remember to make sure your patrol has emblems like these to rally around.