Cadets

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Hi everyone,

Okay so here is my biased opinion on the matter - I am a Commanding Officer of an Air Cadet squadron of around 50 cadets. I joined the organisation 13 years ago as a fresh faced cadet and am now sat at the bosses desk, owing a lot to the Corps.

As a cadet I was given opportunities you could never even dream of as a regular civvie. I had no idea what career I wanted at the time, and was never pushed into a military career. I was given every possible encouragement to better myself, in every discipline, and overall give EVERYTHING a go. For little or no cost I was given the opportunity to do flying, shooting, sports, leadership training courses, first aid courses and competitions, Gold DofE award, overseas camps to Gibraltar and Cyprus, numerous week long UK camps to RAF stations, drill and ceremonial duties for the corps, the military and local charities, local and national charity events, mountain leadership qualifications, rock climbing and abseiling, Institute of Leadership and Management qualifications, sailing courses, alpine skiing courses... you name it, we did it.

I'd say as a percentage, only about 5 per cent of the cadets from my squadron go on to join the forces. The majority go onto university or straight into careers. VERY few go on to do nothing at all.

I'm not in the ATC to get kicks out of bossing people around, and I certainly don't 'enjoy' the mountains of paperwork and beurocracy that comes with running a squadron! Ultimately I'm here to give my time and effort to kids who want to do something other than sit around on street corners drinking frosty jacks. I want to build their confidence, self respect, life experience, social skills and give them qualifications that are nationally recognised and boost their CV.

I personally feel like my cadet experiences and qualifications helped MASSIVELY in getting me a place at uni this year.

If you're thinking of joining any of the cadet forces then I say go for it. What have you got to lose..?

Reply 21

CMT96

Original post by ct2k7

The RAF doesn't have a Lance Corporal rank, (neither CCF or ATC), or even NCO.

Bit late jumping into this, but CCFRAF have L/Cpl :smile:

I'm one of them! They used to be called Jnr Cpls before the RAF Regiment adopted the army's L/Cpl, so then CCF fell in line and now call 'em Lances! It's been a fairly recent change of about a year and a bit, I think... ATC don't have 'em, though (I should know; I'm an ATC cadet, too! #rebel)

Reply 22

ct2k7

Original post by CMT96

Bit late jumping into this, but CCFRAF have L/Cpl :smile:

Interesting, there's a standardisation issue, because most ATCs and CCFs I've been to in the past two months still have Jnr Cpls. :/ Even my old school does, but then again, getting them to adopt the yellow lanyard was a pain in the backside.

Reply 23

ENiceGuy

Now want you want to do is join the CCF and join the RAF branch becuase let me tell you, ive been in a year and i have done a gliding scholarship equivalent to adult gliding license, ive done a leadership course at RAF Cranwell no less and just think, im a seargent and in charge after one yar, think what you can do in many more!! Theres drill, fieldcraft, shooting, first aid and orienteering competitions, we won the regional and moved on to national first aid competition at sandhurst three weeks back!!! its all possible in ccf but your limited if you join ACF!! trust me....

Reply 24

08rbut

I know a girl who does Air Cadets and is planning on going to a Military School near Leicester and joining the RAF and she loves cadets! I personally do St John Ambulance (I don't know whether this counts) and its really good, set up just like an air cadets with uniforms and NCOs etc.

Reply 25

TheLightBulb

It's amazing we just came back from a trip by sea around Europe <3 :smile:

This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

Reply 26

username592312

Joined. Stayed for 3 years. Never got promoted.
Took up 7 hours of my Tuesday and Thursday nights :angry:

Only good things were the flying and gliding. I did aerobatics and it's awesome. xD

If you phone up your local cadets, they let you come to their hut (or w/e you call it) and you get to observe and participate in a typical cadet night.

I reccomend you do that ^ Oh, and I would say try ATC because you get to fly things and learn about aerodynamics and stuff.

Reply 27

Numan786

was in the army cadets for 3 years a while back and although it was crap at the time sleeping in a puddle in a ditch and doing sentry duties lol I actually miss the night raids and stuff we did I remember fondly as i was the one with the LSW which was a mofo to clean btw :tongue: