I enjoyed it as a cadet because you rocked up on Friday, had a disco, then got into the main event the next day.
For those in between moments the range was open or you could go run through the assault course and I think bang a drum if you wanted to risk becoming indoctrinated into the band. Or you could just go and watch the drill or the tug of war, wander round the photo/art/modelling displays, or mooch.
Then it went to an overnight with no disco, no nearby takeaway, no attractions or events, and later became a 1 dayer where they even dropped the tug of war. Unless you were in a drill comp you had nothing to do, yet apparently no one could work out (needed to ask) why no one turned up.
This sounds really similar to what we used to do, and now stopped doing.
When I was a cadet, and early on as a staff member, we used to do a whole weekend. Wing Field Weekend, later Wing Training Weekend. The wing essentially got split in two and you had a day on camp then a day in the training area. (With everyone staying on camp Fri/Sat night) This rotated so half were on camp Sat and the other half on camp Sun.
This meant you had a day to do all the ‘normal’ WTD stuff. Drill, banner, band, shooting, air rec, modelling etc etc. This day also used to contain some other fun bits like the assault course, some rocketry, RAF Outreach team, cas sim and various other non-comp bits.
Then the other full day you spent on the training area for a mix of AT/Fieldcraft/leadership. Also done as a competition! Normally about 8 events.
As a cadet, and as a young staff member, this weekend was the absolute highlight of the year, every year. It was genuinely good fun, very social, the competitions were good, and it was generally well organised.
And now we do a comp day only. And it always seems a bit chaotic…
These tales of WFDs gone by are insane. Never heard anything like it.
Both now as staff and before as cadet (2 different Wings in the same region covering 20+ years) they were never anything but a single day of competition with bucket loads of hurry up and wait.
Our was a single day event. Everyone was onsite by 0800 and the day was a melee of 20+ units marching around site between the different activities.
First aid, radio, quiz, air recce, some fun WAD activities (fillers) and Drill comp…there were probably 10 different events maybe 30 minutes each.
Packed lunch and thrn a massive Wing parade where the scores were announced and trophies issued.
A long day without doubt but as a Cadet i loved it.
Now I’ve moved around its all very different and im sure a part of the success is the venue and facilities on offer.
Now my WAD are cut doen to minimum numbers. The team is 12 cadets which do it all…so the best 12 drill cadets also need to compete at everything else.
As Staff its not the WAD i enjoyed as a Cadet but recognise what i experienced can’t be achieved with the venue my current wing uses
Forgive the ignorance - but how does it stroke the ego’s of the above? Admittedly most I’ve attended have been hurry up and wait but surely the main focus is bringing people together - or is what is done with that time the main detractor?
I’ve done “parades” as a cadet that made no sense.
Wing sports, everyone in sports kit, and yet our wing co was in his No2As, just to get us to march past a Dias and hand out some trophies. Pretty pointless endeavour.
I helped out at a wing field day, or whatever it’s called, after joining up. Cadets were on parade for approximately 40m before the wing co took over, just standing, formed up, waiting for results, while the wing co was doing god knows what. 7-8 cadets fainted because they were on parade for so long waiting for him to turn up.
I’m not saying that some have their place. And heck, I’ll even acknowledge the fact that it is definitely not all senior officers. I can even agree that there might not be anything wrong with parading. But they stick in my mind. Especially the fainting cadets. There was no need for that, just to wait for him to finish yacking and changing into No1s.
Those fainting cadets and that particular parade really annoyed me. And a few staff I was friends were pretty vocal in their annoyance too.
The guy in charge prior to that, worried I’ll break anonymity here, was equally a whopper. He cut around with a UAS preliminary flying badge on which is this bezzlar…
Guy was in his 60s, not involved with UAS during his tenure as far as anyone knew…
I think it might have just been my wing to be fair… Something about only whoppers being promoted to Wg Cdr…
This is why I dislike large parades. Only service the SO’s ego in the cases I’ve seen.
Pretty much. I’m sure someone on here called them out on it a few times… After he was told to remove his (allegedly hard earned, five mile of death cough cough) regiment mudguards…
When I was a cadet WAD as we call it was the following:
Foot Drill
Command Tasks
Shooting
Confidence Course
Air Recce
Lots of talking with friends from other units too, there were maybe a couple more but it slips my mind.
The most recent one had the following:
Foot Drill
Banner Drill
Continuity Drill
Band (5 versions)
Air Recce
First Aid
Public Speaking
It’s become very “blue” but also very crammed & rushed, and it seems to be that Sqn Staff want bragging rights more than then cadets do, it takes up months of training program and there was a cap on attending cadet numbers so what does the rest of the Sqn do.
Leadership, First Aid, Drill comp, initiative exercises x2 or 3, Air Rec, Media competition, band, final parade.
This year reduced to a day which was a busy day but worked well, some events had less time but that was no bad thing.
Previously it was submit different teams for the different events so take the whole squadron, this year was a set team for the lot.
We struggled to put a team together this year, and it is normally a popular event with cadets… but they go for the camp over/social element in the evening so as a day event there wasn’t as much enthusiasm.
It does take a lot of planning and program time, but for some squadrons this could be helpful as it gives the cadets a motivation or anchor for a few of the subjects.
If other squadrons are the same as ours, then I’d say it would be better to ditch a load of the boring bits and just have a big old wing social! You’ll find me in the beer tent. Hic.
