Change to the ATC Enrolment Promise

Adult Staff
1

So there’s a big change to the enrolment promise coming from 1 September (tomorrow) announced via email yesterday from the Region Padre. From now on the promise will be:

I solemnly promise on my honour that,
as a member of the RAF Air Cadets,
I will do my best to uphold our values of
Respect, Integrity, Service and Excellence.

I further promise to be a good citizen
and to do my duty to God and the King,
my country and my flag.

Obviously this is the first we’ve heard of the change and there’s probably been minimal consultation, but question is what happened to being a member of the Air Training Corps? The uniform all says ATC or CCF, the CFC commissions say ATC or CCF, the ensign has the ATC crest approved by the King, as does the Royal Warrant. At what point did that identify stop and the RAF Air Cadets take over?

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CCF don’t even take a promise so this was always an ATC thing. Makes the change even more stupid

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When the Air Cadet Organisation rebranded as RAFAC & a bunch of ATC types thought it was the same thing.

Interestingly RAFAC does not have a warrant authorising it’s creation so you can’t me be a member of RAFAC unless a member of the ATC or CCF(RAF) (who don’t do a promise)

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is this really what HQAC is putting its effort into? Changing the wording of an oath the Cadets make rather than dealing with bigger issues?

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I think this bit is what HQAC was wanting to change so focusing on dealing with the internal culture & make it less toxic because in short ACP1 might as well be the old orders on what to do in the event of a nuclear attack. As such if it’s part of the attempted culture change then that is understandable.

I think someone was working on the logic of RAFAC=ATC just changed it thinking they were being up to date.:roll_eyes:

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Do you expect RAFAC to actually understand what the bigger issues are and what problems they cause given how little the big wigs engage in meaningful 2-way conversations with the people delivering the on-the-ground service?

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Most annoyingly, i got this emailed to me last night along with ACP9, ridiculous load of propaganda to indoctrinate young people in to Christianity.

I dislike the change, I dislike the dropping of other parts of the promise, I dislike the adding of RISE and it feels shoehorned in.

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9

I do wonder why we retain a promise / enrolment at all nowadays to be honest it’s a very outdated practice, especially now they do not get a 3822 and so long as they exist on SMS can do almost everything.

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I remember I had to promise to God when I joined as a cadet, but I’m sure the promise was then made secular.

Has the secularity now been removed? It’s a big step backwards if so, and would mean that the promise is no longer reflective of the country’s demographics.

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and to do my duty to God and the King,

No, but the God part is optional, or it at least is with our padre

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They may as well have added “And will not like or comment on meme pages”

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Years ago my Padre amended it to “my God” - said it was certainly more inclusive (especially in an area with large Muslim population)

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Can we please stop with the erasure of the ATC?

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Become media officer, issue local guidance fot all that correct style guide is xxx Sqn ATC RAFAC, have it lazily copied & emailed out by region. Enforce compliance, step down from role.

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16

You’ve used a lot of words there, but I can’t see any of those things working in this organisation.

Dissemination down the chain of command?

Enforcement?

Compliance?

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We use the original version by default, but email cadets / parents in advance of enrolments to see if any would prefer to use the secular version.

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It’s not the promise because as you say we’ve been able to remove the word god for ages, it’s the 6mb of gumph telling me hymns, quotes from the bible and other bits that I disapprove of.

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19

to a degree i agree with you.

however to spout the obvious comparison - what do the Scouts do?
if they have binned their promise then yes we are outdated. as a portion of our Cadets will have some Cub/Scout experience it is simply a natural progression.

in other ways i disagree.
it is the closest we get to an attestation oath - we wear a uniform belonging to the Sovereign and see it is as a “Cadetism” of the regular forces to pledge an allegiance

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Sorry I should have put “send passive/aggressive emails over small deviations cc’ing WSOs & OC Wgs to give some sort of illusion of legitimacy or enforcement”

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21

This.

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