By Smile News
At Salmen Scout Reservation Camp V-Bar in Hancock County, Mississippi, a practical repair project is helping keep a beloved outdoor place within reach. A joint team working through the Department of Defense’s Innovative Readiness Training program repaired roads, strengthened the Morning Glory Lake dam, and restored vehicle access across the camp, according to the Air Force Reserve Command.
The 1,400-acre reservation welcomes more than 3,000 young people and nearly 900 adult volunteers each year. That makes a dependable road network more than a convenience: it helps staff, service providers, and emergency vehicles reach camp and activity sites.
A repair with a long view
The work brought together more than 80 personnel from the Air Force Reserve Command, Air National Guard, and active-duty Navy with the Southeast Louisiana Council, Boy Scouts of America. The Air Force Reserve Command reports that the team repaired and resurfaced camp routes, rebuilt washed-out sections, raised the dam to meet the current flood plain, and installed a permanent siphon to replace a failing pipe.
The team was working with infrastructure that had weathered roughly five decades. Heavy rain complicated the job, but the project still restored access for emergency response and service vehicles to areas that had been difficult to reach, the command said. A final spillway repair will need specialized civilian engineering work.
Many hands, one camp
There is a satisfying local equation in the project: training hours for the people doing the work, useful repairs for the people who gather at the camp, and donated materials that stretch the result further. The command said the effort saved the Scout council more than $314,000 in labor costs, alongside more than $300,000 in donated limestone and riprap from a local supplier.
Camp V-Bar’s story began with a small act of kindness in 1924, when an unnamed Scout shared an umbrella with Fritz Salmen, who later donated the original camp land, according to the command. A century later, the project is another reminder that a lasting community place is cared for in practical ways: a repaired road, a stronger dam, and a route that stays open for the next group of young people and volunteers.
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