Thursday 29th July 2010

The open/presentation evening went really well. Everyone that earned got presented with the St. John's Youth First Aider badge and certificate. There were plenty of promotions to go around as well, 2 CPL to SGT and 3, 2 of which are really close friends were promoted to CPL. Its going to be really weird having to call them by their rank now.
 
Wednesday night was pretty good as well, i went on my first shoot. Although i didn’t get any Marksmen badges, it was good just to get a feel for it, there’s always next time.

Monday 26th July 2010

My cadet 150

This year, the Army Cadet Force, is celebrating its 150th birthday!  With celebrations going on across the country, and cadets being able to visit Buckingham Palace. I did two events for the 150, one in Derby and a small one at HardWick Hall.

Waking up at 6am on Saturday, having a quick snack, and getting dressed ready to be at Chesterfield Detachment at 07:00 to get a minibus down to Derby! We were running a stall on first aid, and offering basic first aid knowledge to anyone who wanted it (Recovery Position and CPR) It was an uneventfull day, but after we packed up, we did a march through Derby, with the band. 

Later that day, we went to the Derby concert halls, and listened to a selection of music played by the Derbyshire ACF band, with guests from other bands, including a bag piper from a Scottish ACF unit. This ended at 10:30pm!

Meaning i was back in Chesterfield for 11pm!

About 8am on sunday, I'm back up, in kit, and off to Chesterfield again, to go this time to HardWick hall. Here we'd be running a stall basically on cadets in general, it was a poor day, with low numbers from the public , and the only stall there! We finished early, and the highlight of the day?

We were back home in time to see England get absolutly thrashed by Germany in the Football!

Jeremy

Monday 13th June 2010

In the Army Cadet Force, you do a lot of field craft, ranging from simple Camouflage and Concealment, to patrolling and section attacks. A major part of field craft is your webbing though; there is many different types, load outs, and ways to use it. It’s also used for Skill At Arms testing. Personally, I find PLCE webbing the best quality, though at a higher price. A list of the main webbing makes is below:

• PLCE (Personal Load Carry Equipment) Which is the standard issue to the Army
• Webtex
• Vanguard
• Dragon

PLCE, I find is the strongest, and the quality is outstanding, the webbing is easy to setup, and adjust. Webtex, unfortunately has had a lot of bad reviews, it has been known for pockets to break, completely come off the belt, the lids to break or the clasps. But for most cadets it should be sufficient, You can pick up a brand new set of Webtex for about £70-£90, whereas PLCE your looking more £80-£100, with G1 about £70.

Standard cadet load out of any type of webbing is (left to right):  

• Double Ammo
• Utility Pouch
• Water bottle Pouch
• Double Ammo pouch

Personally, I have that, but with a Other arms ammo (pistol) pouch on my left shoulder, and a trauma pouch for my medical kit. It is all up to personal preference, and pouches can go anywhere on the belt basically.

Webbing should be issued by the cadet unit, but most people believe that owning their own is much better, which it is, you can adjust it easier, and it'll stay adjusted next time you use it.

Downsides:
It doesn’t fit smaller cadets, who need assault vests really, which can be suited to smaller bodies. But we'll blog about assault vests in a later post.

In your webbing, you’re expected to carry a variety of items, these are mainly:  

• Water Bottle & Mug
• Ammo
• Camouflage equipment
• Mess tins, hexi cooker
• Next meal
• First aid kit

These are only basic kit, and you might have to carry more or less, depending on mission.

9th June 2010

Recently, the MoD released the L98 A2 Cadet General Purpose

(GP) and Drill Purpose (DP) Rifles to the Army Cadet Force.

The rifle is identical to the L85A2 (SA80) with only the fire selector missing. It is a Semi-Auto rifle, which basically means after cocking the rifle for the first time, it automatically reloads! This is especially good for cadets compared to the A1 rifle, which was cocked after every shot using the right arm. The new rifle is done cocked using the left. 

The major bonus that I see with the new rifle, is the Blank Firing Application (BFA) which is the bright yellow object usually seen on the end of the rifles barrels in any British military training video, It effectively reduces the safe range from 50m to 5m. Though as usual, 5m is more than enough, it enables FIBUA (Fighting in a Built up Area) and makes section attacks all the more fun! 

The Drill Purpose Rifle, which cannot fire, has a major difference, on the outside; the Cheek piece and Top cover are White, distinguishing the rifles! 

With regards to Skill at Arms (SAA), there is little for cadets to learn extra, one new stoppage drill, and forward assisting the rifle! Meaning the transition of rifles has been easy for most cadets. 

Cadets also get to use a wider variety of Weapon systems, commonly they will use:

• L98 A2 Cadet General Purpose Rifle 5.56mm
• Rifle No.8 Long Rifle Rim Fire .22 Rifle
• 7.62 Target rifle
 • Air rifles 
• Shotguns 
• Archery 
• Paintballing

Note: 

Cadets are not allowed to do Paintball skirmishes; all paintballing is done on ranges. Air rifles are used on ranges and Shotguns are used for clay pigeon shooting, Often Air rifles, Shotguns and Archery are only done on Annual camp, with paintballing also on some field camps.

INTRODUCTION

In this blog, we'll be writing about our experiences with the Army Cadets, what we do, the kit we use, and the weapons and equipment we are given by the Ministry of Defence.

We will update this blog at least twice a week, hopefully more.
That's all for now, we hope you enjoy reading our future blog entries, I know we will enjoy writing them!