I bumped into an old cadet mate yesterday whose grand-daughter joined her local squadron a little over a year ago, and he asked me WTF happened to the ATC. I said politics, changes that are rushed and ill considered, electronics and the people in charge are and have been scared of their own shadows for years and it doesn’t help the RAF has been chopped so extensively so the outside support isn’t there. He was amazed that she hadn’t been offered flying or gliding (there have been two lots of flying but both were cancelled and the gliders are grounded), they have to travel 15 miles to train on or or shoot weapons so effectively don’t shoot, they can’t do arms drill (we were both in the arms drill team), because the sqn she’s on has a dodgy internet they have real problems doing exams and he ended up buying uniform items as they couldn’t get it from the RAF. He said it’s a decent enough squadron and the CO and staff are enthusiastic, always doing things and encourage the cadets, but he said they just seem hamstrung by rules and regulations.
He said she’s been on a couple of camps and other things and she thoroughly enjoyed it and they do sport and seem to do a lot of what he called Army stuff and some adventure training, but as he said talking to his grand-daughter and the staff when he visited his daughter, it’s not the ATC we were in and not in a good way.
A very accurate description of how things are.
Very sad but very true
[quote=“glass half empty 2” post=21496]I bumped into an old cadet mate yesterday whose grand-daughter joined her local squadron a little over a year ago, and he asked me WTF happened to the ATC. I said politics, changes that are rushed and ill considered, electronics and the people in charge are and have been scared of their own shadows for years and it doesn’t help the RAF has been chopped so extensively so the outside support isn’t there. He was amazed that she hadn’t been offered flying or gliding (there have been two lots of flying but both were cancelled and the gliders are grounded), they have to travel 15 miles to train on or or shoot weapons so effectively don’t shoot, they can’t do arms drill (we were both in the arms drill team), because the sqn she’s on has a dodgy internet they have real problems doing exams and he ended up buying uniform items as they couldn’t get it from the RAF. He said it’s a decent enough squadron and the CO and staff are enthusiastic, always doing things and encourage the cadets, but he said they just seem hamstrung by rules and regulations.
He said she’s been on a couple of camps and other things and she thoroughly enjoyed it and they do sport and seem to do a lot of what he called Army stuff and some adventure training, but as he said talking to his grand-daughter and the staff when he visited his daughter, it’s not the ATC we were in and not in a good way.[/quote]
Reading things like this, does make me feel very fortunate about where we live - and the relatively ready & easy access we have to some of the above - plus the range of staff and level of qualifications they have make things a little smoother…
BUT…
I was reminiscing with a cadet who joined with me 20 years ago. He’s both shocked and surprised at how things have “gone” in the last 20 years. He’s amazed that we still parade with the number of cadets we have - but he see’s this more of a reflection of they don’t know what they are missing out on - as apposed to anything else!
Then again, we don’t seem to have anywhere near the same quantity of under-age drinking, initiation abuse, drunks, bullying adult staff and suspicious characters that we used to…
Batfink - i know exactly what you are talking about.
In a different region the Sqn i was on had a 3 hour drive to AEF, 1 hour drive to Gliding, and unless you were able to chat up a neighbouring Sqn who were shooting all opportunities were via a “monthly” Wing shoot that was a 90minute drive away!
now where i am we’re less than 30minutes from AEF and Gliding (when airbourne) we’re able to get on to our local (Parent) RAF Station for sports, shooting, section visits and although it is an hour away for us, use another station for weekend development courses
i heard a statistic somewhere that there are 1million kids in the Scout movement…the ACO is what 40-45k??
arguably there are beavers right up to Scout troops catering the ages of 5-18 and in villages and small towns verses our Squadrons with 12-18 yr olds in substantial sized towns but how can the Scouts have so many more members? we’re not talking 10 times more than us…more than 20 times…
Cadet Forces…best kept secret?
you need to get onto a better sqn - all that stuff is available if you look for it.
i’d echo Batfinks’ view - it might be pretty crap to what it was 20 years ago, but compared to the other options available to todays 13/14/15 yo’s, its pretty good.
Schools barely touch the kind of stuff the ACO does, and if they do its got a heavy price tag - my daughter is of on a school trip next May to an adventure centre 40 miles up the road (climbing, walking, nav, bushcraft, kayaking etc…) its costing £150 for 5 days, and the council is paying a thick wedge on top of that…
perhaps the ACO is getting closer, with the loss of flying and the making of shooting more difficult, to the Scouts in terms of the package offered, but when i was choosing between staying in the Scouts or joining the ATC, the difference was vast.