I’ve been wondering if establishments for staff and NCOs are entirely relevant for ATC squadrons and staffiing for Wings and Regions?
I can’t ever remember them being observed / enforced. I can’t remember cadets being demoted because it says you should have x NCOs and you have y nor not having more staff than you are “entitled”.
In a formal working environment perhaps, but not a volunteer environment.
I think if they were we would see a lot more detached flights and a lot fewer squadrons.
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WOuld that be a bad thing?
Depends if you’re the person who might suddenly have a DF or DFs to oversee.
As I have said before, I would welcome a change to make squadrons 4or5 units and share the staff and experience
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It sounds nice in theory but I could see the practice being a different animal. That’s 3/4 Sqn Cdrs all having to play second fiddle to someone they may not like and similarly with SNCOs.
My Father in Law was in a regiment that combined with another just after the war and he said while they were doing the same job, it wasn’t a happy marriage a number of Officers and SNCOs from his regt “left” as they were the smaller of the two. No idea what’s happened over the past decade or so with military bodies being amalgamated, but I very much doubt that has been seen a meeting of people to share around. So why we would expect ATC squadrons forced to work together being any different is intriguing.
How has the amalgamation of Wings gone?
[quote=“juliet mike” post=18040]As I have said before, I would welcome a change to make squadrons 4or5 units and share the staff and experience
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This is how i believe the ACF work, maybe Talon can provide more details.
At present there are no establishments as still waiting for these to be released as PI 101
Moving from the current arrangement of independent sqns with their own CivComs to bigger ‘supersquadrons’ with DFs might be hard in the short term (personalities &c) but might make sense in the longer term. In fact, it’s more like the original ATC which tended to have bigger (200 cadet) sqns to start with. Our own area in 1941 had one sqn based at our school, with 3 flts (our own pupils; pupils from another school evacuated here for the duration; local town), the last of which became an independent sqn by 1943.
In fact, I’ve even heard suggestions that CCFs might amalgamate across more than one school to cope with the funding demands of the SCEP. However the C2 of that setup is hard to imagine.
How has the amalgamation of Wings gone?
From my perspective not very well at all
I would not want to suddenly be told I was going to be getting a DF. The establishment figures do seem a bit outdated
Out strength does lie in the diversity of experience and expertise across squadrons, the sector system does seem to have aided and improved inter-squadron working though.
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I have to say all of us need to be better at cooperation - ATC/ATC, ATC/CCF(RAF), ACF/CCF(Army), &c &c.
Too many artificial barriers and chips on shoulders.
We ran a joint Oxfordshire event last summer (SCC/ACF/ATC/CCF) and there were unbelievable wrangles over which cadets could do which activities ‘legally’. The Sea Cadets were banned from shooting while the CCF(RN) ones were not, wearing the same uniform.
Sadly this year’s event was planned with minimal CCF involvement and the date chosen in the school holiday makes it unlikely any CCF will be involved (and impossible for mine as we are all-boarding).