Lt. Cmdr. Long Tran gives a tour of the forward galley to Scouts aboard the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan in Yokosuka, Japan in 2023. (Oswald Felix Jr./U.S. Navy)
Word of impending Defense Department plans to end the military’s longtime partnership with Scouting America drew immediate pushback Tuesday, with the organization’s top leader saying that claims it is no longer a meritocracy are uninformed.
Membership in the Scouting organization, which is more commonly known as the Boy Scouts, was extended to girls beginning in 2019. The current name was adopted this year.
The statement Tuesday by CEO Roger Krone came in response to an NPR report saying the Pentagon will cease support of U.S. Scouting programs on stateside and overseas military bases.
“Scouting will never turn its back on the children of our military families,” Krone wrote. “Just as we always have, Scouts will continue to put duty to country above duty to self and will remain focused on serving all American families in the U.S. and abroad.”
The NPR story included a draft memo to Congress from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth saying that Scouting America had become a “genderless” organization that was designed to “attack boy-friendly spaces.”
Airman 1st Class Uriel Garcia-Fierro teaches Scouts proper ground preparation in constructing a disc golf course at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, May 10, 2025. (Rebecca Harima/U.S. Air Force)
Hegseth also said the organization “no longer supports the future of American boys,” NPR reported, adding that the memo has not yet been sent to Congress.
In response to questions from Stars and Stripes, a Pentagon spokesperson said Tuesday that it will “not comment on leaked documents that we cannot authenticate and that may be pre-decisional.”
Under the draft plan, the Pentagon would also cut support for the Scouting organization’s quadrennial national jamboree and eliminate increases in pay grade for Eagle Scouts who enlist in the military, according to NPR.
The next national jamboree is scheduled to take place July 22-31, 2026, in West Virginia.
Scouting America is “surprised and deeply saddened by this news,” Krone’s statement said, adding that the assertion that Scouts are no longer held to high standards is “clearly uninformed.”
“Badges and ranks are not given, they are earned,” Krone wrote. “Just ask any Eagle Scout. Young men and young women alike thrive in Scouting.”
President Donald Trump addresses a crowd at the Boy Scouts of America’s national jamboree at the Summit Bechtel Reserve in West Virginia in July 2017. (Dustin Biven/U.S. Army)
Krone praised the organization’s century-old relationship with the U.S. military and said Scout troops provide stability for the children of military families deployed around the globe. Scouting has historically been a reliable pipeline for recruiting service members, he said.
“An enormous percentage of those in our military academies are Scouts and Eagle Scouts,” Krone wrote. “Our Scouts and leaders admire and are inspired by our military heroes. Many of our Scouts trade their Scouting uniforms for the uniforms of our nation’s armed forces.”
For the family of Scott Matthews, a retired Air Force colonel living in the area of Kaiserslautern, Germany, the potential loss of the partnership between Scouting and the Defense Department is heartbreaking, he said.
He and his wife, a civilian working at Ramstein Air Base, are the parents of two Eagle Scouts and a Life Scout working toward her Eagle rank.
“Scouting has been far more than an extracurricular activity; it is a community,” Matthews said. “It has given our children, girls and boys alike, a place to form meaningful connections, build lasting friendships and develop the resiliency that military life so often demands, especially overseas.”
