We’re preparing our last intake for their formal enrolment which will include their Promise.
It got me to wondering why staff don’t have a Promise / attestation?
There are moves to align us to the regular / reserve forces, so could this be a development within that trend. If nothing else it might help people new to the Corps (by which I mean CIs) feel more part of it as many don’t due to policy, practice and attitude. It could be done in the same way as we do cadet enrolments, and in that way the cadets see that the adults are ‘bound’ as they are to behave etc as they are. We get cadets to sign their 3822s and yet we don’t have anything to formally say staff will act etc in a certain way. Maybe we should have a staff record of service book that is issued on certification and signed or something along those lines. I know we’ve gone all electronic and there could be arguments that you don’t need one, but even now I look in my 3822 and it’s all there. It is something tangible, it’s in my hand and signed by numerous members of staff and much better than a few lines of code converted so we can read it easily.
As an ex-cadet I made my promise nearly 40 years ago and as much as I possible I have tried to uphold the principles of it as a member of adult staff.
on 6th August 1984, I stood before a Commisioned officer of Her Majesties Royal Air Force with a copy of the Holy Bible in my hand and uttered the Following:
[color=#ff0000]“I… swear by Almighty God that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, Her Heirs and Successors, and that I will, as in duty bound, honestly and faithfully defend Her Majesty, Her Heirs and Successors, in Person, Crown and Dignity against all enemies, and will observe and obey all orders of Her Majesty, Her Heirs and Successors, and of the Air Officers and Officers set over me. So Help me God”
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This oath has no end date and31 years on having actualy fought on behalf of this proud nation my allegiance to This country and its Queen and successors will never change, I do not believe that I need to swear it again.
This came up in conversation not to long ago. And we were thinking of writing one for the sqn. But nothing ever came of it. I thought it was a fantastic idea.
Taking away all the pomp and ceremony and formal nonsense. I think its a nice touch to have a personal one written out maybe, and signed by all the Staff and have a paragraph written of a promise from staff to cadet, Tailored to the Sqn.
And topcat. Sorry but you have no call up capability as an VR(t) so why swear an oath of defending against all enemies… enemys of the ATC? Bad coffee making skills and tramlines in your blues…
I would take a promise far more serious than that nonsense about serving toffs and defending against a non exsistant enemy.
I … promise that i will uphold the values and aims of the Air Training Corps. I undertake that i will not make a fool of me or the organisation on twitter and…
It was put together by a then keen OC (now equally keen Sector Commander) who shared it out amongst the Wing reaching my then CO at the time. I had been a CI for less than three months and when receiving the mail with the “adult 3822” attached I was all for it, having been religious in the way I filled out my Cadet 3822, I was keen to record all Staff activities too.
Now nearing the end of my 10th year as Staff I still use it and is the only accurate record I have of what I have done, where I have been, which Squadrons/Wings/Regions I have been on with dates and roles at each and when I achieved X or gained Y qualification/attended Z course. The “other activities” pages making up most of the content as you might imagine.
Prior to receiving a F7257 it was my only record of WHTs during that time (only recently (24 months?) have F7257s been issued freely to those involved in shooting) and when looking at the promotion matrix it gave me the ideal source to flick though to find evidence of when, where and how I ticked a given requirement.
The booklet itself doesn’t differ greatly from a F3822 other than certain awards and qualifications that are Cadet specific have been removed. It is produced as a word.doc which I printed out and keep in a slim plastic file/wallet. Any pages I fill are simply reprinted and added (I have many “page 21” being the “other activities” page)
You’re quite right in saying we have now gone electronic but I know that my SMS record is not accurate based on the manner in which staff can/not be added to events.
In the early days of SMS applications, in order to cover all basis Staff were added to events irrespective of their likelihood/availability to attend. Now more disciplined in how we use it only those Staff known to be attending are listed, but does not allow for post-approval commitment to be added. As such I know there are a dozen events I have attended but the ACO have no record of, while others I am recorded as attending when I wasn’t there at all.
With regard to a “promise” I am for the idea, along with some form of official “joining” of the ACO as Staff.
I don’t ever recall “signing on the dotted line” upon appointment, the closest I have come to it was only ever doing so every 5 years when my extension paperwork comes through. It would feel more formal upon an appointment to be “enrolled” officially. Instead new Staff attend a “induction” talk delivered by Wing, fill in a tree’s worth of paperwork, wait 4 months and then getting a DBS cert through the post and Certificate of appointment handed across by the Adj having arrived in the post.
Our nearest “rivals” The Scouts have a formal “investment” for their Leaders receiving that necklace with wooden toggles (I forget the meaning now it is a long time since I saw a ceremony) and is as formal as our enrolments of Cadets yet the ACO have nothing formal to complete, with at best the CO awarding a Staff member their appointment certificate on parade…
[quote=“incubus” post=23692]Given that I recently argued in favour of completely binning the cadet promise, I find that I don’t care.
They are largely a gimmick.[/quote]
That’s the other option and loose the home agreement or whatever it’s called.
The problem maybe with losing the cadet one, my uncle could still recite the cadet promise from wartime and it was almost word for word. There were some differences but I can’t remember what they were.
It was put together by a then keen OC (now equally keen Sector Commander) who shared it out amongst the Wing reaching my then CO at the time. I had been a CI for less than three months and when receiving the mail with the “adult 3822” attached I was all for it, having been religious in the way I filled out my Cadet 3822, I was keen to record all Staff activities too.
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