Visors aren’t a substitute for a face covering
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Personally I’d agree - but we still have to adhere to national guidance. If a cadet finds a
3 ply mask over their nose and mouth uncomfortable, then they’re permitted to wear a face mask instead.
As it is, amongst the regs include no singing (I know - half the fun is the songs!), cadets must attest to the fact that neither they nor anyone else on their family have or have been in contact with anyone with symptoms within the past two weeks.
Ultimately we’re keen to get back out there and will adhere to whatever instructions come down from HQAC.
But national guidance is…
Face visors or shields
A face visor or shield may be worn in addition to a face covering but not instead of one. This is because face visors or shields do not adequately cover the nose and mouth.
Discomfort isn’t the same as a medical exemption.
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Do it!
For what it’s worth, I only became a CFAV as a result of my son…
My first attendance at Nijmegen was as chaperone for my son and another cadet that were under 14 and to young for either the military or our civvy team.
Our son had only joined cadets 3 months earlier… one evening he came home after hearing about the upcoming training walks due to begin the following month and declared “I want to do Nijmegen…”
With longs walks not being usually something that our son would be accustomed to, I explained what he should expect…
Still undeterred, I offered to tag along for the first few walks - in case he wanted to bail out.
After the 3rd or 4th walk, I was approached by the CO and WO who explained that given his age, he would need a chaperone…
I felt awful, and asked who had volunteered… it was at that point they smiled and pointed at me…
The other cadet was the son of friends, but they were unable to commit to either the training or the March itself - so I was hastily put through AVIP, First Aid etc and became a Reg Civ Com…
I thoroughly enjoyed the training, we had 5 cadets from our squadron go that year and they all got round.
We then went back the following year with the civvy team and aced it again, with what looked like the most unlikely looking team you could imagine - including two cadets that never mind a good gust of wind, someone mere breaking wind could have blown over…
But they all made it round, they all received their medals there were only a couple of minor blisters amongst the entire team - and they all planned to attend last year… and then this year…
It’s not all rainbows and unicorns, but we do have a great time, we all have a laugh but what’s most rewarding are the comments from parents afterwards that can see a difference in them.
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this and the comments from Cadets themselves keeps me motivated to keep doing what i do as a CFAV
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I’ll resurrect this thread instead of starting a new one… did anyone see the “Alternative 4 Day Marches”
I can see what that may be attractive to civilian walkers who do this sort of thing anyway, but for me, the idea of walking that far without the atmosphere or the team spirit is pretty uninteresting. I’m happy to wait for the real thing, accepting no imitations.
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Although there is no “Nijmegen Medal” and it doesn’t count towards the frequency award - there are still upsides to be had.
Participating in the Alternative Vierdaagse can mean walking as little as 5k each day for 4 days.
Doing this would earn you the same silver “souvenir medal” as you would earn for walking 10k or 20k per day.
The gold “souvenir medal” is available for those that walk 30k, 40k or 50k.
So, as a bit of “fun” you could suggest that either individually or in an appropriate group size etc, you could organise 4x 5k local walks, with parents waiting on standby to collect little Johnny if he struggles even with this.
It could be used as “hymn practice” to teach songs.
Similarly, if you’ve already started a RM training package, you could whip through Blue, then that week, get the cadets to walk 5k without group involvement then meet up on say Thursday and Friday Evenjng and knock out 2x 20k.
They’d then get their silver “souvenir medal” AND their Bronze RM badges.
A 5k should realistically take around 1 hour
A 20k should take around 4 hours, plus a BRIEF rest stop
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Already put to the back burner - something to do with HQAC not approving due to cost etc
How the hell did this get released then before approval was in place?
I say, that’s rather embarrassing isn’t it…
Because RAFAC is such a finely tuned organisation… where mistakes hardly ever happen…?
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Tbh I have never been that sure why we even do RM at all as an org!
It’s not my idea of fun
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I loved it as a Cadet, zero interest now though.
I’m sure that there are people in the ATC, and probably on here, who would argue the same about every activity that a cadet could do.
For me, it would be shooting; go and join the ACF 
They do things in greens.
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For me it would be Air Rec, we don’t need to spot incoming German air raids anymore.
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That’s what Merkel wants you to think.
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