Scouts BSA troop celebrates 1,000th Eagle Scout, all under the same Scoutmaster

Mike Lanning became the Scoutmaster of Troop 223 in Pacific Palisades, California, in 1953, when he was 21 years old.

More than 70 years later, Troop 223 is still going strong, and so is Lanning.

The Western Los Angeles County Council troop celebrated its 1,000th Eagle Scout last month. Every single one of the awards was earned under Lanning’s guidance.

“When I think of 1,000 Eagle Scouts, what I really think of is the fact that we have provided the opportunity for so many young people to acquire life skills,” Lanning says. “We have a vision of young people leading skillfully, making good choices and serving others.”

Lanning took over Troop 223 when he was a junior at nearby UCLA. The unit was less than a year old and was plodding along with around seven youth members.

By simply following the guidance of the Boy Scouts Handbook, membership under Lanning quickly boomed.

Within a couple of years, he was guiding Scouts on their first backpacking trek.

Troop 223 now has nearly 150 members. A girls’ troop that shares the same committee — with Lanning serving as assistant Scoutmaster — was formed in 2019 and is already up to around 75 members.

“It’s really exciting to look back on this long line of young men; and now, young women,” Lanning says.

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How it started …

Much has changed since 1953.

Lanning earned the rank of Eagle from a troop in nearby Riverside, California, just six years before becoming Troop 223’s Scoutmaster. He’s old enough to remember a time when Scouting didn’t have to compete with a multitude of other extracurricular activities.

“Club sports hadn’t been invented,” he says. “We were pretty primitive. We read the Handbook and did our best.”

Lanning made it a point to organize a camping trip once a month. Fun and adventure were the priorities.

The troop grew and grew and grew, and eventually he realized he couldn’t do it all by himself.

“I was some kind of nut,” Lanning says. “I was the leader. I did everything.”

Over the years, Lanning not only grew the troop’s youth membership number, but he also grew its roster of adult volunteers too. His assistant Scoutmasters have total ownership over certain areas, whether that’s recruiting, camping, high adventure or other tasks.

The boys’ and girls’ troops now have more than 100 registered adults between them.

“I’m older; I get kind of tired now,” he says. “If I go home after campfire during a campout, I have no second thoughts. The thing runs completely without me now.”

Over the years, Lanning became more and more involved with Scouting at the council and national levels. Among other things, he’s served as council president, created a training course for Scoutmasters and served on a group tasked with keeping Wood Badge relevant and up to date.

In 2022, he earned the Silver Buffalo,

… how it’s going

In the old days, Lanning says the Scouts in his troop would earn most of their merit badges and advancement requirements on their own time, separate from official troop outings and activities.

With the explosion of youth sports and the time demands of other youth activities, that’s no longer feasible. Now, the Scouting America advancement program is their troop program.

The key to keeping kids engaged, he says, is that the program must be run by other kids.

“My advice to our assistant Scoutmasters is to put your hands in your pockets,” he says. “It’s hard to do things that older Scouts should be doing when you keep your hands in your pockets.”

Under the supervision of adults, older Scouts guide younger Scouts through the advancement process. Most of their Scouts earn the rank of Eagle when they’re in the ninth grade, though Lanning points out that some need more time, and that’s OK.

After they’ve become Eagle Scouts, their role is to lead the younger Scouts through the same process.

And on and on it goes.

“If I had to pick one thing that I’ve enjoyed the most, it would be seeing young people succeed,” Lanning says. “We’ve had kids who were scared to open their mouths when they first signed up. To see them doing things and enjoying it … seeing them light up like a Christmas tree when they do so well at leading a campfire or something, that’s what I enjoy.

“It’s not just the rank of Eagle Scout — which is the record of their success — it’s seeing it in their body language and faces. At summer camp, they’re often standing up in front of hundreds of people. So standing up and speaking during a class in school or in college is nothing.”