It was a camp-o-ree at Bessie Goldsmith Reservation down on Rt. 28.  We
needed a patrol "flag"/cheer and didn't have anything to work with to make a flag.  The duck was in the other scoutmaster's truck and had been used as a "loon" type thing at an OA ordeal.  The original lodge had the loon as a totem and there was a certain amount of clowning around with the plastic "loon".  Anyway , I think the mop handle was at hand and they stuffed it into the duck and it became a patrol "flag".

That seemed to stick and eventually one of the boys added a "T" shirt with a wild
looking duck.  That shirt got lost at a Klondike derby - it wasn't on the
bird and it fell off the sled in the snow.  A troop "T" replaced it.  The
original duck was stolen out of the back of the other scoutmaster's truck
one year when we were packing up after the week at summer camp.  Lots of
conversation about that.  For a while we had a plastic Norseman type
helmet on the pole - a thing with horns.  Eventually, Craig (Milligan) found our current duck in someone's trash.  It has had a hard life but duck lawn ornaments have gone out of fashion so it gets patched up.

--Thanks to Mr. Milligan for this excerpt