This was posted today on Facebook by a Air Cadet fieldcraft training team, I’ve removed reference to the wing/region
… another weekend for another course… ive only got 52 weekends a year.
Realiatically 12 for cadet stuff.
Each year 4 of these are taken up with reccurant training, WI, RCO, Storage of arms, AVIP, AFA, Adv Tg, DofE, etc etc
Enough is enough.
HQAC BE ON NOTICE, I AM GOING TO BIN AREAS OF MY EXPERTISE AS THE RE-CURRENT TRAINING IS NOW NO LONGER WORTH MY TIME. THEN TOO MANY BLOCKERS FOR CONDUCTING ACTIVITY.
MY TIME IS VALUABLE.
I AM A VOLUNTEER
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Which seat warmers on FTRS don’t recognise, most CFAV as I have been have families that tolerate or even start to hate and detest the ACO, not love it to the exclusion of all other commitments. If you work shifts which include nights and weekends which maybe you are working 2 out of 4 weekends constantly then you can see why the ACO has probems attracting staff.
CFAVs have to work, as that keeps the wolf from the door plus homes and families intact, they are far more important than the ACO in the grand scheme of things.
Not to mention that the day jobs fund the vast majority of what they do in terms of cadet activities and lots of little bits people spend money on and don’t claim back.
HQAC rely on this goodwill and know they can freely abuse it.
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Stuff goes wrong - as long as procedures are followed then no one will get into trouble. Likewise, if someone has clearly done something outside of a procedure that they knew full-well that they should follow, then they will get it in the neck and the rest of the world will carry on.
With FT, it was the procedure itself that was found to be lacking.
How absolutely anal…
How so? That’s the requirements. What is posted there appears fully correct and doesn’t go beyond what’s necessary…
Then my comments refer to the requirements that have been created. Just that.
Which Wing are you?
Yes, HQ RAFAC has cherry-picked only one of the two Army Code pamphlets, the other being AC71101 which contains the One- to Four-Star syllabus for fieldcraft (and tactics) as used by the Army Cadets. This could quite easily be adapted into a progressive training syllabus for RAFAC. I would suggest that predominantly ‘defensive’ tactics of patrol harbours, recce patrols and OPS be taught ‘dry’ at wing level, and that more ‘offensive’ tactics wau h as ambushes and section attack WO ith blank & pyro be taught on an annual camp at regional level. Thoughts?
You are right. Army code 71101 contains the Army Cadet syllabus for field craft and tactics, I.e. the One- to Two-Star levels of proficiency. This could quite easily be adapted into a progressive training syllabus for RAFAC field craft and tactics. I would suggest that predominantly defensive tactics be taught try at Wing level over weekends, and more offensive tactic be taught at regional level with blank & pyro on an annual camp for selected cadets from wings. Thoughts?
To be honest, I’d rather a clean slate thinking about the sort of exercises we’d actually run.
Given that armed FCT is - whilst possible - not going to form the bulk of what we do given all of the limiting factors, I’d rather that we focus on tactics such as recce/OP/etc, which can form full exercises without requiring weapons.
We can then also offer the armed syllabus to run alongside that - as per my PTS suggestion earlier FT Progressive Syllabus Suggestion.pdf (271.0 KB)
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This is quite an old subject but there are changes a foot to allow movement in to Chapter 2 for some of the defensive stuff. Not sure how long it will be until they hit the actual policy though!
What we really need are to be able to use the wooden cutouts available via ripoff direct (and other places).
If used by WIs iaw the regs it would bring a whole new dimension back to FT.
Not so keen on that idea.
I was going to link to a video titled " Woodland (Stick) Walts" on A***epedia, but it appears that the video is no longer available 
Why is a training aid now waltism?
I can train with L85A2s also. Is that waltism?
What if I teach cadets drill or air rec… still waltism?
A wooden l98 training aid for FT is just that a training aid. Ok if used by muppets then it could be abused. But not by me or the majority.
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The video was a bunch of people running around the woods with sticks shouting “bang”. It was funny to watch.
I’m not saying using a training aid is waltism or opening up the abuse angle. My view of using such aids for FT is that the scenario is different to using one for drill training where you need something in order to be able to train those things from scratch and weapons skills aren’t strictly required for drill (NSPs being the notable exception if using actual weapons).
Now, if it was brought in, then as long as I wasn’t paying for them and they didn’t involve travel and time to get hold of each time then I might consider using them - but I wouldn’t be pushing for it or going out of my way to use it. When part of the purpose of using weapons for FT is adding realism and building additional skill, dummy weapons kind of undermines the former and I don’t feel is a worthwhile jump for the latter (considering the relevant weapons skills aren’t required). Then consider that you’ve got a load of cadets trained in an environment where they haven’t needed to carry out weapons drills (specifically in mind is safety catch prior to movement during fire and manoeuvre type tactics, clearances before entering harbour areas, fitting and checking BFAs, and cleaning)…
Personally (and this may be controversial), I don’t see a strong enough training benefit or business case to add an extra layer of logistics (potentially) and pretence to FT by using dummy weapons.
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Was that the video where the main character retells a story that starts with the way kids pick up sticks and pretend they’re guns, and he’s still doing it 20 years later, only now in full WW2 paratrooper reenactment gear?
That video was hilarious!
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I survived for 7 years doing Fieldcraft as a cadet and never carried a rifle. It all comes down to the staff running the activity and making it interesting for the cadets.
On the flip side, after the initial 5-10 mins of carrying a rifle feeling cool the cadets will come to realise that they are stuck carrying this 4kg piece of metal for the rest of the exercise and then have to clean it.
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