2017 Drill Sequence

No, but like spinning plates they need constant monitoring and prodding to ensure that they are maintained for as long as the organisation as a whole puts value in their existence. It is worth having SMEs for drill and dress to assist in this respect, just as it is for most of the other things on the syllabus. In fact, as you don’t need an SME to participate (unlike shooting or AT) it can be trickier to maintain the standards, though of course the hazard is far less significant.

Standards have been set so we all need to maintain them wherever reasonably practicable. This means that we can be more picky about activities on the unit or in the public eye but on a cold, damp gallery range all bets are off!

I do tend to rail against unreasonable or impracticable standards: mandating RAF DMS shoes, requiring uniformity for normal, squadron-based evenings, gleaming shoes in coveralls when building engines and the like.

It was suggested to me that cadets should have issue DMS and like you I think this is nonsense. I think whoever suggests this should send an email (I know it can’t happen) to every single parent outlining costs etc and see what comes back. IMO this constitutes bullying in its rawest form, by putting undue pressure on people to conform to something unrealistic for no real reason.

I said to the person suggesting it, he takes each and every cadet out to buy them at his personal expense and when after a few months their feet have grown they can repeat the exercise, it went quiet at that point. I tell parents that as long as the shoes are black ideally with a toecap and don’t have ‘fashion’ tags or metal bits I’m happy and if it’s what they wear for school so be it. The morons who come up with this sort of nonsense don’t realise most parents (across all social/economic groups) have one or more additional children who all need school uniforms, shoes, other paraphanalia schools mandate and school trips (which as any parent will testify are never cheap), so specifying what they should or shouldn’t buy to appease some buffoon’s utopian vision for a youth group, ain’t gonna happen. It’s the same as saying cadets should only have this or that over-priced brand for AT kit otherwise they can’t participate.

Our kids’ school (a bog standard comp) had house colour rugby shirts and ordinary white t-shirts for PE that had to have the school badge embroidered on them, which could only be purchased from a local school outfitter which were about 75% more expensive than just a coloured rugby shirt and 2 or 3 times as expensive as white t-shirts that should be bought in packs of 2 or 3. Which meant you could easily spend £200 per child if they needed new stuff, multiply that by 2 or more and anything we might want is so low on the priority as to not be visible.

I can’t lay my hands on the document I was given (CCF) but there is something about it being removed with the left as per guidelines for no 1 SD, then as it’s replaced with the left the right hand comes up and the beret is adjusted using both hands. Both arms snap back down as quickly as possible.