number of merit badges on sash

[cheffy]

Help me settle an arguement. One of our adults once told the boys(before my time) that they could not wear a merit badge sash unless they had 10 badges.

I say you can wear it with one. Who's Right?

[SemperParatus]

I have never seen a minimum number published by the BSA. I think you are correct, cheffy.

 

I believe, there is a maximum number allowed (6?) that can worn on the (long) sleeve of the uniform shirt.

[EagleInKY]

There's no limit that I've ever heard of. I even saw a new scout wear one to his first Court of Honor without a single one on it!

[johndaigler]

EagleinKY -

 

I like that!!!

 

If he's still around, keep an eye on him. Sounds like a young man who is confident enough to put others before himself. No ego - there. Just pride in being one of the good guys!!!

 

 

jd

[Double Eagle]

Wear each ONE with pride. Each one has it's merits (pun intended). No one badge is more important than another. Whether one or fifty, each badge holds memories, experiences, and work that the scout earned the badge. Many times I'll ask eagle candidates which badge they liked the most and most times it is one of their first. It was what interested them. It was their first choice.

[Be_Prepared]

Up until the program change in the early 70's, the published guidelines were:

 

"...bottom of the sleeve, starting 3 inches above the edge, you may wear up to six merit badges. If you have more that six, sew them on a sash.."

 

"Scouts may wear up to six badges on the right sleeve of the long sleeved shirt, in rows of two, the bottom row parallel to the cuff and 3 inches from the end of the sleeve"

 

Many interpreted this to mean that you HAD to wear them on your sleeve - instead, it was an option, if you only had a few, and did not have a sash yet. Even then, you could wear just one merit badge on your sash if you wanted to. As other posters have indicated, this is true today.

[Fuzzy Bear]

Even when we could wear our MB's on our sleeves, it was considered to be an obsessive act that only the conflicted would attempt. We generally sewed them on a sash in spite of the option and because it showed initiative. Once I saw an older guy wearing five MB's on his sleeve and it looked pretty snazzy. By that time, I had more than five on my sash, probably six. I knew that reversing the process would be out of the question and would result in even more conflict, so I left them alone. Scouting even invented the half width sash to resolve the too few problem. It didn't fire anyone's imagination and they looked like a bad order of sashes from a foreign country that couldn't read the American Standard scale of measurement. When you have five MB's on your sash and someone else walks in the room wearing forty-five, usually you would quietly hang the sash over your belt, kind of like at half-mast "out of respect" but probably not very official. After the BSA had several misses, the problem was never resolved and they gave up. My offering to the answer would be to develop a plastic houtis to hold five MB's and wear them as a Temporary patch on the right pocket button, which would look a little like you were wearing a small pizza. FB

[nldscout]

At our COH whem a young man earns his first MB we also award him his Merit Bage Sash. Just a tradition in our troop.

[SemperParatus]

FB,

 

You still can wear up to 6 merit badges on the sleeve, as an option. In the Boy Scout handbook.

[Fuzzy Bear]

SP,

I like the way it looks on the sleeve, although, I haven't seen it in a long time. I also should have looked it up. Thanks for the update.

FB