Normandy Camporee Chair  - Dick Meijaard

Administration & Registration - Kym Price

Budget & Finance - Roger Thomson

Jeff Arter will serve as chair for our Memorial Services Committee.

Jeff s a retired Air Force Security Forces Non Commissioned Officer living in Aversa, Italy. He is currently an Adjunct Faculty member with Central Texas College where he instructs courses in Criminal Justice, and Homeland Security Emergency Management. Jeff joined Cub Scouting in 1970, he was awarded the Eagle Scout rank in 1977.

As an adult Scouter, Jeff has volunteered at the Troop, District, and Council level in TAC, serving as an Assistant Scoutmaster/Adult Advisor to the Order of the Arrow Troop Representative Feb 2012 – Present.

Jeff is currently the District Commissioner for the Mediterranean District of the Transatlantic Council.

He assisted the TAC International Commissioner as the International Representative in the Mediterranean District. Jeff was instrumental in establishing local unit participation in the International Peacelight event in Naples over the past several years, as well as annual unit participation in the JOTA/JOTI. Jeff was the TAC Peacelight Chair for 2018, 2019, 2020 and will be again for 2021. He is the TAC point of contact for the International Scouting Moot to be held in Ireland in 2022.

Jeff is a longtime member of the National Eagle Scout Association and is a member of the Scouting Alumni Association, the American Legion, and is a longtime member of the Air Force Security Forces Association.  

We look forward to the meaningful memorial services during our camporee, as coordinated and produced by the committee Jeff gives leadership to.

Overall Camporee Chair, Dick Meijaard, has scheduled a meeting for all Committee Chairs for Friday, April 30 at 7:30 PM. Chairs are reminded of this meeting, while other members of our staff now have an awareness that this meeting is occurring to facilitate a status check on progress of each committee, and allow for interaction between committees.

The Normandy countryside is dominated by hedgerows which were much taller in 1944 than they are today – some were as high as 5 meters. These hedges served several purposes: they marked the boundaries between property and controlled animals and water, while the apple and pear trees entwined within them were harvested to make cider.

For the Allies in 1944, the hedges created a tactical problem. The Germans had occupied this compartmentalized terrain for 4 years and had learned how to use it to their advantage. They were able to locate the best observation points, firing locations and routes for maneuver. The Allies, however, were new to the terrain.

To conquer the blockages caused by the hedgerows, the Allies had to get inventive. A tank seeking to merely push its way through a hedge could be undone by inadvertently rolling up and over it and in doing so exposing its underbelly to a German anti-tank weapon.

An inventive American sergeant solved this issue, however, by fitting a pair of metal prongs to the front of a Sherman tank. These enabled the tank to grapple the hedge rather than roll up it. Given enough power, the tank could then push through the hedge and create a gap. The tank was christened the “Sherman Rhinoceros”.

4th Edition - March 11, 2021