Uniforms

IIRC, at one time Star, Life and Eagle were awards and 1st Class was the highest rank. 

Prospective Eagle Scouts had been asked to demonstrate a “record of satisfactory service” since 1927. And in 1952, they were instructed to “do your best to help in your home, school, church or synagogue, and community” — an ambiguous instruction, to be sure. But on Oct. 1, 1965, the Eagle rank was forever changed when a requirement was added to plan, develop and carry out a service project helpful to the church, synagogue, school or community. (In 1972, the requirement to “give leadership to others” was added.) The other piece of this was the addition of the requirement to serve in a Troop Warrant Officer position.  Since adults were not members of the troop they could not do this requirement effectively ending adults earning the Eagle Rank.  Of course there are cases for Scouts with Disabilities and lost records which are covered in the Guide to Advancement.  

Very early there were no age limits.  Adults could earn all the same awards as youth.  Few did, but some pursued them and adult age Eagles were not overly uncommon in the first decade or two.  The official bar on adults becoming Eagle Scouts, went into effect around 1965, though it was discouraged starting as early as the late twenties.  In verified cases, adults still can be honored if they find documentation indicating they would have been honored as a youth.  Most commonly, it seems related to WWII enlistees whose paperwork fell into a crack or was forgotten.  Of course, today, challenged adults can still earn Eagle under special documentation from an early time as a member.  It may be important to remember that again in the early days, Life, Star, and Eagle were glorified merit badges that had several early changes in their requirements, eventually leading to their officially becoming a rank.    

As I’ve mentioned before, membership was increasing until the age limit was codified nationally. I think we can draw a chronology from that decision to the “schoolification” of what became required for advancement and what was removed from required lists. I would agree if the number of First Class scouts we offered this nation stayed in the millions per year. But that line is slipping. It’s only a matter of time before we produce reduced numbers of Eagles per year — not because kids can’t make deadlines, but because the award won’t seem to be much of an achievement. I also agree there is something to be said for earning a badge as a youth, and maybe awards for adults should have a different border. But, the more a badge is about skill, the less a maturity deadline matters. Two things come to the fore: how you serve your unit, and how you master skills. There will be problems with having our adults work advancement. Some may conclude that certain MBs are a complete waste of time, and team up with their scouts to appeal for change. But some might be reactionary with no sense of purpose. E.g., upping the camping nights to 50 might simply not be practical anymore in our complex society.

Here's what I found:   50 nights was the requirement in the Jan 1951 HB 20 nights was the requirement in the June 1953 HB