The Direct Service was a program service of the Scouting America/Boy Scouts of America's International Division, created in 1955 to make the Scouting program available to citizens of the United States and their dependents living in countries outside the jurisdiction of the Transatlantic Council (headquartered in Brussels, Belgium and serving American Scouts in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia), the Aloha Council (serving youth residing in much of the eastern and Central Pacific as well as Guam, American Samoa, and several Hawaiian islands) and the Far East Council (headquartered in Japan, serving several nations in Asia and the western Pacific.

)[1] The National Capital Area Council provides service and assistance to chartered units and individuals in North and South America.

In fact, the high commissioners in Japan, Europe, and Panama invited BSA to send commissioned Scout executives to help create a program for Americans living overseas.

These services include membership accounting, unit chartering and rechartering, advancement reporting and filing, insignia and badge issuance, certification of awards and advice on where to conduct Scouting-related activities (mostly camping or ways that the BSA's requirements to "visit community agencies", for instance, could be met while in Zaire or the Isle of Man or in Peru).

The Direct Service Council was headed initially by James R. Sands, the Associate National Director of the BSA's International Division and assisted by two staffers and two technicians.

These areas included Hong Kong, Guatemala and Central America, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, Kenya and the countries surrounding Lake Victoria, Mexico and the Caribbean, and Canada.

Those individuals coordinated directly with the BSA's International offices and, in the 70s and 80s, had the resources to quickly get materials, training aids, awards and insignia, and uniforms to youth and adult members within their areas.

With Jim Sands, the BSA's biggest defender and supporter of International Scouting, retiring in 1986, Margerite ("Marge") Weilexbaum was appointed as the Council's Administrator.

She provided administrative services normally performed by a commissioned professional scouter and attempted to hold things together until her retirement in 1995.

While not officially created by the BSA, the patch was worn by DSC youth and adults living in the Zone until the middle 90s.

It was understood that with the advent of faster communication and coordination between units and individuals in the field and the national offices, the existing staffing support was no longer needed.

The second was that all supporting elements that made Direct Service a true gem in the eyes of those members and Scouters in the field would be eliminated.

The actual Ordeal, Brotherhood, and Vigil Honor ceremonies, however, would be conducted by local Councils in Europe, the Far East, or Pacific or held until the Scout or Scouter could return Stateside to participate.

Scouting America/BSA continues to this day to provide support and service to youth and adults living and working around the world through its Transatlantic, Far East, and Aloha Councils.

Approximately 3,000 youth members and 1,000 adult leaders belonged to Direct Service units, or are registered as Lone Scouts in isolated areas of the world.

Direct Service members are the children of international businesspeople, American expat community, diplomatic corps officials, and U.S. military personnel.

Gamenowinink Lodge, the former Direct Service Council's local Order of the Arrow (OA) organization, was first chartered in 1962 and closed with 135 Arrowmen as of 1998.

One of the last BSA Direct Service units, Troop 511,[6] was established in 2008 and is chartered to the Western Chapter of the American Chamber of Commerce in Canada in Calgary, Alberta.

It and all other former Direct Service units in North and South America are currently part of the National Capitol Area Council, headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland.

The Far East Council, headquartered in Okinawa, Japan, was created in 1953 to make the Scouting program available to United States citizens and their dependents living in several nations in the western Pacific.

Officially, Baluga Lodge 538 (founded May 1959 at Clark Air Base in the Philippines, and functioned under the BSA International Division),[8] merged with Hinode Goya.

Trail medals are issued for the hiking and cleaning of several World War II and historic sites, such as Task Force Smith throughout the Council territory.

There is Japan, China, Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan, Australia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Mongolia, and Vietnam.

TAC serves to make the Scouting America/BSA program available to United States citizens and their dependents living in Europe, Africa, the Middle and Near East, and Central Asia.

Transatlantic Council members are the children of international businesspeople, American expat community, diplomatic corps officials, and U.S. military personnel.

[14] Trail medals and emblems are issued for the hiking and cleanup of several cities and historic paths within several areas of the Council.