Raf 100

Just read the CAC weekly update and it announces £5000 grants to each Region to help cadets support RAF 100 activities in 2018.Looks like the people who bought you the shambles that was ATC 75 are gearing up for another triumph.

Does another year of endless exciting parades beckon? hmm

So 6 regions with up to £30K available across the country, less than £1/cadet. Waste of money. £5K across the geographic areas we have as regions will go nowhere and Wings and Squadrons will pick up the tab for things.

Our local RAFA is planning a few things and we will be going there, at least the cadets will be treated well and not herded like sheep from place to place.

The problem next year is April 1st (RAF’s 100th Anniversary) is during the Easter holidays and being Easter Sunday actually on the Bank Holiday weekend, which is traditionally a time when families get together or go on holiday. So don’t expect as many cadets or staff as they might be. I’d see no point in having anything on any other day as it sort of loses its relevance and poignancy.

Not just parades. Cadet 75 was a litany of pointlessness. I wonder if we’ll have another stick to take around the country? Given the date they could have an egg hunt.

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Come up with a better idea and submit it then instead of being a canteen warrior.

Why have an idea at all? Why waste all that time money and effort. But it on something else.

We aren’t in the RAF (as was made clear when the changes to commissions were discussed). So why should we be planning anything for RAF100, surely we should just be supporting the RAF & RAFA in wjatever they come up with?

Agreed - this the RAF’s centenary, not ours. I don’t see how we would be taking the lead and inventing activities for RAF100.

I’ll be happy to support them if they ask for support, so long as it doesn’t clash with other things or overload the calendar.

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They supported the 75th anniversary in various different ways. People help out RAFA in various ways, why is this any different? Chill out people. It’s an anniversary not conscription.

Surely that depends on how our illustrious leaders play it, doesn’t it?

Will there be a ‘take it or leave it’ attitude as you suggest, or will it be like every other big thing, where anything that clashes with an exciting opportunity to stand around for hours and do foot drill in the rain will get chinned off?

Obviously I can’t imagine why staff or cadets would rather do an Easter AT camp in Snowdonia or a sector green camp at Sennybridge when they could travel 3 hours each way to a dead RAF station and feature microscopically on the background of a regional commandants selfie, but I suppose such people exist…

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Can’t we have that towards fixing our runway? Another day today when we could have flown 50 cadets in glorious sunshine :weary:

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I wouldn’t put it beyond the powers that be put the kybosh on Easter camps etc so cadets are available. I think I might be on a holiday over that period and suggest everyone else is.

Looking at RAF 100 website they are having a parade in London at St Clement Danes in July next year, several months after the 100th Anniversary of the Formation. Absolutely pointless and loses its real relevance. The only thing that seems to be on 1st April so far is a WW1 aircraft display at Stow Maries in Essex.

No it won’t be take it or leave it, it’ll be a 3 line whip and we’ll all be expected to turn out, some over promoted type will turn up take a cursory look at the cadets, do some grip and grims and then go off for tea and sandwiches, leaving everyone else standing around like yellow citrus fruits, making their way home wondering if they’ll get the time back. We have sector and wing parades and apart from a chance to meet people and chew the cud, they serve no real purpose.

Supporting RAFA is a different thing entirley. RAFA branches actually take an interest in the cadets and appreciate what they do for them. Many RAFA branches rely on cadets to do things for them as their membership is getting older, so it’s in their interest to be like they are towards the cadets.

The only reason we’ll be involved in RAF 100 is to pad out parades and so on and for those in the ivory towers to say look what we’ve done.

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And what’s wrong with that?
Good opportunity for recruitment, good chance for public presence. Sure it’s probably not the most fun activity to be doing, but it’s an important one.

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But I would suspect the average ATC squadron is involved in more parades over the year than many in the RAF and another one or two which will invariably interfere as mentioned above with camps etc isn’t well received.

We do enough parades to promote ourselves locally that are equally important, but are more important IMO than large parades where the cadets are little more than a distraction.

all of those things apply to the RAF, not us. if they want a big parade they can do it themselves…

perhaps if the RAF put more effort into the relationship between the RAF and the ACO then the attitude might be a bit more concilliatory, but the last few years have hardly been an overwhelming ‘we love you’ fest have they?

given the attitude within my sector to the ATC 75 events - that no one went to - i think it unlikely that we’ll be cancelling an easter camp to celebrate an organisation that very obviously no longer wants us…

I fully agree. That’s why I throw as much effort and enthusiasm to the squadron I volunteer at as humanly possible.

fantastic.

1 out 30,000. given such effort, how can we possibly fail to get the gliding debacle wrapped up and ensure that the dastardly MOD plan to bin the VR(T) as a weasly cost-cutting measure is dropped at bthe first hurdle?

oh, hang on…

Group Captains standing up at a Wing Conferences and telling a room full of VR(T) that you aren’t in the RAF no so this change doesn’t make any difference (paraphrased) hardly encourages me to give a stuff about RAF100 especially if it impacts on Squadron activities.

Do they know what’s actually stated on our commissioning scrolls?

i shouldn’t imagine so - the grasp on other forms of reality appears a little shaky, so why not that?

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Wow!!’