RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire was the venue for one of the premier courses to be held in Thames Valley Wing as a group of cadets, drawn from across the Wing and identified by their Commanding Officers as having the potential for promotion to the rank of Cadet Corporal, were schooled in the basic skills required to perform this task.
The 22 candidates, guided by 4 extremely experienced members of Air Cadet staff and a senior staff cadet were put through their paces in a mixture of classroom instruction and practical exercises covering subjects such as drill and leadership. Every member of the course was given the opportunity to lead and all were closely observed from the time they arrived to the time they departed.
The culmination of the weekend was an assessed leadership task and a drill exercise, both of which are aimed at assisting them to becoming Junior non Commissioned Officers within the Air cadet organisation.
Adult Flight Sergeant Keith Collier, course adjutant for the weekend explains, “Within the Air Training Corps it is the cadet NCOs who perform the vital day to day task of training the cadets and ensuring that Squadron parade nights run to time. Therefore it is vitally important that the cadets who are given this responsibility, many of whom are only in their early teenage years, are trained in the correct manner and provided with the appropriate tools to be able to perform the tasks demanded of them.”