165 (Castle Bromwich) Squadron of the Air Training Corps, based on Castle Vale, held their Annual Presentation Evening last Saturday, the 5 th of February, at St Cuthberts Church. It was a joint Celebration evening as it coincided with the 70 th Anniversary of the formation of the Air Training Corps itself.

The proceedings started with a welcoming prayer from the Squadron's Chaplain, Father Roger Sheppard. This was followed by a brief introduction by Cadet FS Gemma Yates.

Then the Squadron Commander, Flight Lieutenant James Martin, began his speech to the audience highlighting the achievements by the Cadets during 2010. He spoke about the tremendous amount of public awareness that the Squadron has been involved in that has included Help 4 Heroes, Hounds 4 Heroes, RAFA Wings Appeal and the RBL Poppy Appeal as well as the Battle Of Britain, the Armed Forces Day and the Investiture of one of the Squadrons Cadets as the Lord Lieutenants Cadet for the West Midlands. He then publicly thanked his Staff and Committee members for their support of the Squadron.

At this point the there were further ‘ATC timeline' announcements by some of the Cadets as well as by two members of Staff and two former Cadets who have achieved the rank of Squadron Leader, Chris Mumford and Mike Stagg.

This was followed by the introduction of the two Guests in some detail before the Presentations began.

The heavy workload of making the individual awards was divided between the two Guests of Honour; Air Commodore Jon Ford, the former Regional Commandant and Commandant Air Cadets, and an old friend and former Cadet of the Squadron, Paul ‘Pablo' Mason.

Each Cadet received a personalised and framed 70 th Anniversary Commemorative Certificate by the Air Commodore as well as their achievement certificates from 2010.

This was followed by presentation of the individual framed 70 th Anniversary Certificates to the Squadrons Staff and the Civilian Committee members. These presentations were made by Pablo before he started on the 3 rd place, Runner-ups and Winners of the different Squadron trophies.

The Trophy Presentations followed the established order at 165 Squadrons Presentation Evenings with the Community Service Shield followed by the Jaguar Cars Sports Achievement Shield and then the 605 (County of Warwick) Squadron RAuxAF Flying Achievement Shield. It was at this point that a new Trophy was unveiled to the Cadets for the first time. The Squadrons ‘old' examination award was the Air Commodore Pete Ollis Tornado model in pewter. Sadly this award has had to be repaired on so many occasions that it has had to be retired. It has been replaced with the Paul ‘Pablo' Mason Examination Trophy and it was only fitting that its first Presentation was made by the man himself.

After the last award had been made it was time for Air Commodore Ford to say a few words to everyone. This was followed by Pablo making a surprise Presentation of his own to WO Jerry Elston. Pablo and Jerry were Cadets at about the same time and Pablo wished to present a ‘Swagger' Stick to Jerry for his long and dedicated service to 165 Squadron.

And just as the formal presentations were over the Squadron Chaplain made a surprise presentation of a Leatherman multi-tool on behalf of the Civilian Committee to Flight Lieutenant Martin.

The evening concluded with a buffet and raffle.

More Photographs of the 165 Squadron Presentation Evening