ACF

[parker]

hi i was thinking about joining the army cadet force and was wondering what you actually do, how often you go on camps and if you do flying training because someone said that you get trained for flying helicopters

[Tab]

Sounds like your best bet is to go into a CCF, and try and get the best of all worlds. You then might be able to make your mind up about just what service you would like best.

[Wee Willy Winkie]

on that note, if you want to ask any questions about the jolly old ccf, im your nan..sorry..man!! WWW

[parker]

what exactly is the difference between acf and ccf because i have asked some of my mates where they go and they just say cadets

parker

[letsrole]

Hey man I used to be in the ATC (air force cadets if you like) and it used to be brill and I loved it. We went on exercise about once a month as well as shooting almost every weekend. I think I kind of grew out of it though, plus all the health and safety regs that came in made it all abit boring...we were going on exercise now (to a prpoer establishment rather than behind the huts at RAF Lyneham where we were based) about every three months if we were lucky. But I suppose they had to impose some safety regs after this one exercise where one kid broke his arm, another kid his collar bone, another kid his nose and another kid chipped his two front teeth. It took a great deal of planning by the instructors and basically they couldnt be farked and would rather we turned up in 'blues' for the rest of our ATC life! You get to fly a lot in ATC but that's as far as it goes anymore I think. I went flying once, filled a whole sick bag and it overflowed onto me parachute

Oh yeah and CCF is the combined cadet force, this would probably be your best bet as you do abit of flying, abit of sailing and abit of going outside and getting muddy. ACF is the army cadet force which I hear is pretty good, with regards to them going out on 'exercise' almost every parade night. I think the cadets taught me what I wanted from it, an insight into the forces and abit of discipline and I got there. Can get a little boring though after a day of school then you get to cadets and do an hour of class room work learning about the army/RAF/navy whatever.

But this is only my experince and it may differ from unit to unit. Editied about one million times.

[Wee Willy Winkie]

ccf - combined cadet force, done in schools.
acf - army cadet force, run outside of schools, easy to find nearest one to you (look on army website).

in my school, the ccf is split into 3 sections army, navy and the raf. happens one night a week after school until 6.00 we dont really have anything to do with the other sections, the army won't go sailing or flying unless you just sign up to an adventure course open to any section. the army section tends to go on more exercises than the other 2, maybe one every 2 - 3 months to an army barracks for a field day putting into practise what we have learnt at school, section attacks etc or we will go on a saturday or sunday range day, firing the L98's
Annual camp - one week in the summer. have been to nescliffe (sh!thole), wathgill and another which i cant remember right now. we often see ACF detachments on the same camp as us but there is quite a fierce rivarly between us. our unit never finishes a camp without having gotten into some 'talks' with other units (we dont go out looking for it, just when you have somebody saying stuff about your oppo's then you cant really let it rest.) now im a senior, its very much a 'look after the younger ones' which i think you'll find in many units. well ive gone off on a tangent so thats me off. hope it helps. www

[parker]

what type of training do you actually get with cadets,eg radio, shooting, paractuting, survival etc?

[Doc]

From memory when I was in the ACF, the Cadet PCompany was hard, but not as hard as cadet commando course or cadet selection. The Pcoy and Selection courses involved para jumps from a cessna at 12 grand, to pass you had to land.

The cadet commando course involved kip mat fights and two laps of union street wearing full NBC kit and high heels.

Radios get Terry Wogan most mornings and the shooting was with blanks and shouting bang if your two round clip ran out too quick to take part in a company attack.

The pay is crap but then you only do weekends and friday nights.

The rank you wear in cadets means you can order adult soldiers around, ie if your a cadet corporal you outrank a lance corporal in the paras.

Give it a go, I loved it.

[parker]

it seems great, especially the Pcoy thing and cadet commando course. in my closest sqaudron you have to pay them, and how old do you need to be for the Pcoy and ccc. thanks

parker

[harry hackedoff]

Same as that mate
I loved it too
Did you have blank firing tracers? They was brills they was, not as brills as blank firing Mortars with tracer though.
Yerr but no but yerr but no but yerr but

[Doc]

it seems great, especially the Pcoy thing and cadet commando course. in my closest sqaudron you have to pay them, and how old do you need to be for the Pcoy and ccc. thanks

parker

[Wee Willy Winkie]

jeeeeesus christ parker.
Doc im sure you've been told. stop preying on the naive and innocent!!
WWW
Parker as well as all that p-coy and stuff, you work with PRC 349's for signals (and if you're lucky the bigger one's you need an aerial for, cant for the life of me remember the name, im sure somebody does.)
like i said, you use cadet general purpose L98's for shooting. apparently we will get the older versions of the SA80's (dont know whether to be glad or apprehensive!!)
parachuting is not normally done, this is just a one off course i am attending. (unless obviously you have passed P-coy and gain your wings, then your allowed to go up on your own whatever age you are!!)
WWW

[letsrole]

When I first did CCC and Pcoy for cadets I was only 15 (the same age as you) so I guess to show an interest you could go along to a cadet parade night near you, address the parade and ask that question. Best to do it on final parade just after the CO has spoken (possibly when lowering the unit flag) and everyone is all ears.

[Grimey Vibes]

Do you mean 351 WWW?

I got my CPTI badge and didnt have to do PCoy because i was already fit enough, went straight and got my wings, my mum was well proud of me. I didnt get trained as far as blank firing tracers in attacks, broke my leg on a HALO jump in cadet pathfinders platoon when we went into a section attack using them for the first time. Ended up being casevac'd while the attack was going on, looked mint though. I got MD after that, still upsets me today.

[Wee Willy Winkie]

no mate. thats the backpack one isnt it? we use those too. this one's huge with a tres grande aerial!!
I was allowed to do the CCC as well as P-coy in my first year at CCF, aged a tender 13 as i had been training sinc aged 5 so the officers knew i could be up to it! I aced the HALO jumps but always went 3 km's off to the left on the HAHO's, bloody wirral weather!! My officers said i could have been in the cadet pathfinders platoon but i felt i wanted more of a challenge so i joined the special forces cadet platoon. theres only 20 odd of us in the whole of the UK and we go abroad everywhere for work experience as you could call it! Parker maybe one day you can join us mate?? WWW