Teenagers...

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Great Pebble

Settler
Jan 10, 2004
775
2
54
Belfast, Northern Ireland
The Army has designed a website for those who might be thinking about joining up after school or getting a taste of it in the Cadets.

It has a "survival" section with a few bits and bobd relevant to Bushcraft and if all else fails there's a game or three :)

Camouflage
 

PurpleHeath

Forager
Jan 5, 2005
126
0
West Sussex, England
i have never known any survival skills taught to cadets (air cadets) in the time that i have been going (2 years) although it would be great if they did :roll: but cool website!
 

arctic hobo

Native
Oct 7, 2004
1,630
4
37
Devon *sigh*
www.dyrhaug.co.uk
Sidmouth... 2019sqn. To be honest it was an appalling sqn, I guess we were just lucky to have a good CO :?: We were in mobile classrooms and we only had one broken rifle, and we had to visit the folks at the army cadets to use their range. People dropped out loads, which meant it was easyto get promoted :) just by staying on :roll:
 

PurpleHeath

Forager
Jan 5, 2005
126
0
West Sussex, England
i guess that i am quite luckly with my sqn then we have our own hut and quite a few rifles but we don't have any staff able to take us shooting so there is not much piont in having them. the one really great thing about our sqn is that we have some national trust land that we are allowed to use 5 minute walk away :eek:):, but our CO is more concerned about paperwork than cadets. therefore we don't get to do much! when did you go?
 

Burnt Ash

Nomad
Sep 24, 2003
338
1
East Sussex
PurpleHeath said:
i guess that i am quite luckly with my sqn then we have our own hut and quite a few rifles but we don't have any staff able to take us shooting so there is not much piont in having them. the one really great thing about our sqn is that we have some national trust land that we are allowed to use 5 minute walk away :eek:):, but our CO is more concerned about paperwork than cadets. therefore we don't get to do much! when did you go?

Reading these posts makes me realise just how damned lucky I was with the experiences I had at school in the 'combined cadet force' (CCF). We had indoor small bore (.22) and outdoor full bore rifle ranges (SMLE .303 and FN 0.762) and a musketry camp every Easter at Bisley. I went on camps to RAF Valley (Anglesey); arduous training in the Brecon Beacons and at Loch Ewe. My second ever trip abroad was a memorable summer camp as a guest of 3rd Battalion, Parachute Regiment, on Malta and Gozo (GPMGs and 'Inerga' RPGs). I almost learnt to fly (Chipmunks at White Waltham). Long-forgotten are the harangues of the RSM and the itchiness of coarse wool battle dress, sweating after PE, during double-Latin on summer afternoons. Happy days!

Burnt Ash
 

falling rain

Native
Oct 17, 2003
1,737
29
Woodbury Devon
I'm a CI with 594 sqn Thame ATC and I run the D of E award for the sqn and teach all the navigation but the cadets especially like the bushcraft and survival skills we do. In fact we've got a weekend away this weekend. Last time we went away I managed to get 5 of them to get an ember with Bow drill which made me glad to see their faces beaming like Cheshire cats. They love night ex's and we're going to do a game where I;ll teach a bit of stalking and silent movement then let them loose with 2 'predators' with water blasters to hunt them down. The prey must get from A to B and the predators can roam at will and blast anybody they see. If you get blasted you're out of the game and if you get to B you win. They love this game so an idea for anyone teaching kids. I got the idea from a tracking course I was on with Woodcraft. A tip - Make sure the blasters are the biggest meanest mothers you can lay your hands on They love it !! It works in the daytime but night is best.
 

PurpleHeath

Forager
Jan 5, 2005
126
0
West Sussex, England
yes, you must have had the best time!! going aboard with the para's!! that is the coolest!

the only time i went aboard with the ATC is when i did 100 mile walk over 4 days in Nijmegen in Holland which was very hard work but we met lots of different troops from around the world. the best are the americans becuase they don't train for the 100 miles of road so they start to feel it after the second day. :lol:
 

ESpy

Settler
Aug 28, 2003
925
57
53
Hampshire
www.britishblades.com
arctic hobo said:
We had loads when I was at ATC, they called it "Camp Craft", and it covered loads of great stuff, trapping, woodlore, camping, fire lighting etc. Is this unusual?

Dunno. I taught it whilst I was in the CCF (RAF section), seemed to be unusual to them... Mind you, on annual camps I hung around with the survival section or the rockapes depending on what was available.
 

bambodoggy

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Nov 10, 2004
3,062
50
49
Surrey
www.stumpandgrind.co.uk
Blimey....looks like I was one of the "very" lucky ones too! I was in 1075 (camberley) Sqn ATC in Surrey.
We had two large huts (more like wooden buildings not just huts) that were joined together, our own parade square, 22 DP 303's for drill and 4X .22 small bore (not air rifle) target rifles to use....get this...on our own indoor range!!!! and as Ash range was only 5 miles away we got to shoot fullbore regularly too!

Our CO was cool and kept to paper work but our Adjutant was ex 21sas and did all the adventure training and we did heaps....more than the ACF unit next door to us in fact!
We went to Wales at least four or five weekends a year on top of the "Army" type exercises held at Hankley Common and on the RMA land behind us.

We also backed onto the Sandhurst RMA and had use of their training areas and assault course. Two of our CI's were MLTB Summer mountain leaders and one was an SPSA.

We had our own new minibus donnated by a a local company with it's own garage.
Our officers mess had a bar (obviously us cadets we weren't allowed in) but we also has an NCO's mess that we all hung out in.
We had the front end of an old Lighting Fighter converted into a flight simulator (not a moving one...just instraments).

We regularly paraded close to 100 cadets split into three flights and a training flight for new recruits.

Because of the numbers promotion was very much chased and worked hard for in my sqn and you had to be in at least 2 years before you could even think of expecting your first two stipes.....used to bug the heck out of us at annual camp seeing first class cadets from smaller sqn's who hadn't a clue and were already made up after 6 months in!!!!! You had to be a leading cadet at least and you couldn't get your third stripe until you were a senior cadet.

I knew we had it good but I'm only just beginning to realise just HOW lucky we were!!!! :lol:

I left over 12 years ago but they are still going strong....I found a link to their website the other day while nosing around the net....lol....even they have moved with the times and are online now!!!!

(Espy...yer, I tended to seek out the Rockapes to hang with on camp too...that or the storeman to pilther from...lol).

http://www.1075squadron.org.uk/
 

shinobi

Settler
Oct 19, 2004
517
0
51
Eastbourne, Sussex.
www.sussar.org
Bambo,

Our paths cross once again. I was in Surrey wing at the same time as you.
2157 (Mitcham) I was in one of those small squadrons that were very jealous of ones like yours !!! Especially when we attended Wing events. I flew gliders at Kenley and shot at Bisley. And attended overseas camp in Gibraltar.

We had a cold, wet and draughty Pre-fab hut next to Mitcham common with no rifles (They were nicked after a break in), no parade ground and no vehicles :cry: But we had a great sense of comeradery and did the best with the means available. I made it to the giddy heights of Sergeant, senior cadet before I had to leave for the Big-boys (RAF.)

I'll try and dig out some piccies later.
cheers,

Martin
 

bambodoggy

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Nov 10, 2004
3,062
50
49
Surrey
www.stumpandgrind.co.uk
Hey!!!! Cool as!!! I shot for the Sqn and the wing at bisley three years running!

Made it to Flight Sergeant and got my gold lanyard! Did you ever do any of the Nijmegen marches with the wing out in Holland? I did it 90, 91 ans 92...hard work but great fun!

Did you know the Rainbow twins or Greg Sagar? Can't remember what Sqn they were from? Knocked about with the Croydon Sqn lads a lot too....Gassy and the gang!

Only went gliding once and the pilot was hung over and farted all the way through the flight...kinda put me off!
Used to fly Chipmonks at Abingdon though :eek:):
 

falling rain

Native
Oct 17, 2003
1,737
29
Woodbury Devon
PurpleHeath said:
you don't want to come down to our sqn (2464, Storrington) do you? we really need CI's at the moment becuase we only have one adult sgt that turns up on a regular basis!!

I'm busy enough up here but if you fancy a sqn meet up we could arrange something between the 2 squadrons or maybe even a few other sqns could join in. It'd be nice for the kids to meet other cadets from different parts of the country
 

PurpleHeath

Forager
Jan 5, 2005
126
0
West Sussex, England
falling rain said:
I'm busy enough up here but if you fancy a sqn meet up we could arrange something between the 2 squadrons or maybe even a few other sqns could join in. It'd be nice for the kids to meet other cadets from different parts of the country

that would be great!! i think that your cadets could probably teach my cadets a thing or two about camping (they really don't have a clue!) :roll:

i did Nijmegen last year and i am going back for more!!:biggthump i have been in for 2 years and 2 month and i all ready have 3 stripes to my name this is because my sqn is one of those small ones and the Flt Sgt had just left along with the SGt. :roll:

bambodoggy you are really luckly with your sqn but there are some big down side to the larger sqn's because you can't get to know everybody! at mine everybody know each other and gets along fine.
 

bambodoggy

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Nov 10, 2004
3,062
50
49
Surrey
www.stumpandgrind.co.uk
PurpleHeath said:
bambodoggy you are really luckly with your sqn but there are some big down side to the larger sqn's because you can't get to know everybody! at mine everybody know each other and gets along fine.

Oh I don't know...I knew everyone in my sqn very well and to be fair an awful lot of the guys in my wing and also London wing who we did our Nijmegen training with.

Fair play to you for doing the march, it's a hard event and I believe the UK is still the only country in the world that allows cadets to enter it.
The camp is fun with over 30,000 troops from all over the world there together...saw the most amazing bar fight there in the beer tent one year....stunning how the worlds MP's worked together to sort it out in under 10 minutes.....bearing in mind the beer tent is almost the size of a football pitch!!! lol
 

PurpleHeath

Forager
Jan 5, 2005
126
0
West Sussex, England
the camp is great!! everyone is so happy! especailly in the beer tent! :rolmao::lol::rolmao: on the second to last night we were there it had been raining all day and the germans were camp got flooded, that was funny to watch as wheelie bins floated downhill! :lol: but i did feel sorry for the germans though because they still had a day of walking left!!

did your wing do something stupid when entering the beer tent, when you finish the days walk? our wing did a little dance it was very funny!! or at least it was funny to us! :rolmao::rolmao::rolmao:

on the last night we went into the beer tent it was great!! :uu: we danced all night (well until about 11:30) unfortunately i got food poisoning so i was sick all night (luckly after i had finished dancing), not fun! :yuck:
 

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