Hope everyone had a decent Christmas and is looking forward to the new year.
For context: One of my mates is in the adjacent wing to me. He’s recieved news that his OC wing isn’t allowing fieldcraft training to happen, and is effectively banning all greens activities within the wing on a sqn level, under the pretence of “Covid safety”.
This to me sounds fairly outrageous, particularly as my wing and squadron are, to the best of my knowledge, still holding and encouraging greens events and nights.
Was wondering:
A) If anyone’s experienced anything similar,
B) if anyone has advice on how to handle the issue,
And C) if that’s even allowed?
Your mate needs to clarify these rules with their OC wing, preferably in writing. If what’s being told to them seems massively off compared to the current national rules then they should speak to their WExO or their ARC and seek some further clarification!
Not really. OC Wings are not DDHs. Regional Commandants can and do put in local rules, but even they normally stick fairly close to the national rules. (although I appreciate that isn’t always the case)
But it’s also not always worth a fight over. If your mate’s OC wing is indeed blocking a core cadet activity unnecessarily, then a polite email needs to be sent to the RC/ARC/RFCO etc asking them if what’s being said is correct.
@Huxley Just thinking about this a little more, it may well come down to the CPD/refresher requirements post lockdown. There may have been a mis-communication within your mate’s wing. Or maybe no one in the wing has been ‘refreshed’ therefore they aren’t able to run it. It’s likely not “banning all greens activities within the wing on a sqn level, under the pretence of “Covid safety”.” as you/they may think.
Definately needs a proper email to their OC wing to see what’s actually going on!
I believe the authorisation & the method of confirming currency at wing level rests with OC Wing.
If the wing OC no longer has confidence in the wing field craft officer or in the current train the trainers they can turn round and say it’s not safe for them to run at this time.
Also there are core activities & then there are core activities - it maybe there is a need to prioritise other activities to restart them over field craft as there are not enough volunteers to go round. You may not agree with it but if the Wng OC has a rational logical basis for their decision then it will stand - I can’t see a regional commandant wanting to replace an OC Wng for prioritising on activity over another due to covid recovery.
It could also be OC Wg has found out that unqualified staff have been delivering Fieldcraft at a Sqn level and said it must stop.
A wider ‘ban’ on greens on Covid grounds seems unlikely as outdoor activities are safer than indoors as government and NYA guidance states. Outdoor activities would likely be safer in greens than shirt & jumper this time of year.
Imma hijack this thread (its pretty similar) to ask what’s going on with fieldcraft under ASTRA - I’m trying to run stuff that we’ve run for ages before and staff are telling me that ASTRA is changing what we can do?
Also does anyone know why offensive ops/training were banned? That just makes completely no sense whatsoever lol
Last night ex I ran, it went great (as always when RAF go off to do their own thing - but thats a different story), and we ran through our standard first overnight exercise stuff:
Patrol Tactics, Conduct + Field Sigs
Sentries + Suspicious Persons
Linear Ambushes
And a very basic intro to I F+M
Then applying in tac conditions.
(keeping in mind we get a couple of days off school during the final week to cover the basic basics - Kit, Hygiene, Observation, Rat packs, etc)
After the ex though, I got chewed out by the contingent commander (They’re RAF). My section commander was supportive, as well as the CWO, but apparently its all stuff is happening at HQ. Just wondering what the thinking behind that is cause I cannot see the reasoning at all.
Are you Army CFAV? These restrictions on RAF cadets doing anything fun in fieldcraft have been in place for years, nothing to do with ASTRA. Even to do what they are allowed you need to have a formal qualification from HQAC to teach.
Also if you’re with a CCF then things can run a little different as you need to fit in the the army training team syllabus.
Unfortunately doing things that we’ve always been able to do often results in finding out you weren’t meant to be doing them in the first place.
Astra though won’t have a bearing. If you are not a TEST NCO have a chat with whoever is and they can probably explain things in a simpler way of why the organisations policy has changed.