Beginning

TX4B was formed in either September or October of 2007. Kent Dowden was the first Unit Leader.  Kent and his son Joshua had joined the TX4A Unit in Dallas when Roger Farr was still the Unit Leader there.  After Roger moved to become ALERT Cadet Commanding Officer, Steve Tenpenny took over that Unit.

Three mothers, Mary Tresa Long, Melanie Nicklas, and Marinell Dowden were attending Wylie Bible Church and two of the moms, Tresa and Melanie, mentioned how they would like their sons to participate in ALERT Cadet.  Melanie’s husband Tom was coaching high school football, which prevented him from driving into Dallas for the meetings, so they approached Kent about establishing and leading a unit at Wylie Bible Church.  

Kent may have been a Squad Leader in TX4A at the time, and he was the logical choice to lead a new unit if one was formed in Wylie.  Kent asked the pastor and elders at Wylie Bible Church if an ALERT Cadet unit could meet at the church, and they agreed.  The pastor had been in the Boys Brigade in Scotland during and after World War II, and he was very supportive.

Kent filled out the application to form a unit, and ALERT Cadet Headquarters agreed to commission the TX4B Unit.  Roger Farr presented the unit flag and gave a motivational talk at the first unit meeting.

TX4B started with thirteen families (39 members) divided into three squads.  The Squad Leaders were Doug Speed, Gregg Woodcock, and Steve Long.  The Woodcocks, Speeds, and some other families had decided that driving to Wylie was closer than Dallas, so they transferred from TX4A to TX4B.  

In February 2008 the unit had its first campout in the primitive camping area at Dinosaur Valley State Park, near Glen Rose, Texas, with 100% participation.  This established a tradition of camping during the cold (for Texas) month of February that continues to this day.  The Unit conducted its first hike on some of the Park trails and attended a lecture by Dr. Carl Baugh at the Creation Evidence Museum.

In the same year Kent encouraged David Long to attend the LTC Camp at the International Alert Academy in Big Sandy, Texas, so David and his dad, Steve, went.  Roger Farr was the Camp Commander and Richard Shoemaker and John Erickson were Unit Leaders.  Forty campers attended, and Steve was the only father.  The highlight of the camp was the traditional 26-mile hike with full packs.

Early Progress

Kent also established a tradition of performing service projects. The first Unit Service project was for Wylie Bible Church, and the members of the Unit earned the Unit Service Award. This also established the tradition of an annual service project for Wylie Bible Church.

Wylie Bible Church has been providing unwavering support for TX4B since the very beginning of the Unit. Wylie Bible Church could not afford to have a janitorial service or cleaning crew regularly clean the Church’s building, and the volunteers from the Church were not completely reliable. The elders approached Kent and asked if TX4B would clean once per month for $50. This was an incredible blessing to the Church and to the Unit.

The Unit also had a backpacking/hiking activity every year, traversing the 4 C Hiking Trail near Lufkin, Texas, and the Cross Timbers Hiking Trail on the south shore of Lake Texoma.

Kent was asked to join the Board of Directors of the Texas Home School Coalition, which took considerable time, so after three years of faithful unit leadership, Kent stepped down and became a Squad Leader. Squad Leader Greg Bray was chosen to lead the Unit. Greg had taken Doug Speed’s place when the Speeds moved to Oklahoma.

Greg had one son, Ryan, in the Unit. Ryan also attended an LTC camp in 2008 or 2009. Greg was a very organized Unit Leader, and the Unit continued to prosper. In keeping with the service project tradition, Greg arranged for the TX4B and TX6C Units to attend a joint campout/service project at the Chandler Church of Christ. TX6C may have been meeting in Van, Texas, at the time. TX4B has a history of combining a campout with a service project in one activity.

Greg resigned as the Unit Leader after three years, and Kent took over for a second time until Kent’s son Joshua aged-out in 2013. In that year Kent was planning another service project, and Tom Nicklas asked if the Unit could campout and work at the International Alert Academy. George Pendergast was our sponsor, and this turned out to be a huge blessing for the Unit and the Academy.

Our first project was to prepare and paint the metal shower stalls in the bathhouses that now serve as the RV campground bathhouses. We worked until we dropped. We were covered in rust dust. We were able to get the stalls primed, so George could paint the finish coat later. This was the start of the ALERT Cadet Father/Son Service Camp at the International Alert Academy.

Kent also had a contact at the Summer Institute in Linguistics, which is associated with Wycliffe Bible Translators. They were building a ground-source heat-pump system to heat and cool their buildings. Our first project was to remove limestone bedrock chunks and haul them out of a building. The following year’s project at SIL was to place concrete slabs for the glycol tanks used in the heat pumps.

Current Organization

Steve Long became the Unit Leader when Kent resigned the second time. The Unit still goes camping in February, except it now participates in an Orienteering Meet at Cooper Lake State Park on the south side of Cooper Lake in Hopkins County, Texas. February in Texas can be beautiful or freezing cold. The Unit rents a screened shelter in case of inclement weather and no longer stays in tents during this campout.
The Unit has a full schedule each year and participates in several activities, such as an annual bike ride in Bob Woodruff Park in Plano, Texas. The Unit also has a knots class every year and does a river crossing as a practical exercise for the knots class.

The rifle range is also on the calendar every summer to acquaint the fathers and sons with the different firearms. One of the highlights each year is the training offered by David Feig, a local firefighter and an Alert Academy graduate.

A family in Wylie Bible Church used to take the Unit rock climbing at Lake Mineral Wells State Park. The Unit also had a family campout each year at Lake Mineral Wells until Covid.

TX4B has been blest with really interesting guest speakers. Carl Cottmier, Robert Edward Dowden, and Otis Lewis were veterans of World War II. Ed Dowden was in the Battle of the Bulge and Otis Lewis a paratrooper. Carl Cottmier was on the USS Lexington. Ralph James was a naval pilot during the Gulf of Tonkin incident at the very start of the Vietnam War. Pete Nicklas was a professional football player and later coached high school football.

Today the unit meets the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month, except they meet once per month during the summer. The dads alternate leading formations and teaching various on topics. The first meeting of the month focuses on a character quality/skill and the second meeting is a devotional. The LORD has truly blessed TX4B with fathers and sons dedicated to the program.

Two new families joined recently, and they have been such a blessing to the veteran families. There are a total of four families and the unit leader making up TX4B, and the Unit still meets at Wylie Bible Church in Wylie, Texas.

Respectully submitted by 2Lt. Steve Long
May 2026