On Monday 17 th January a former Squadron Commander paid a courtesy visit to 198 ( Hinckley ) Squadron, Air Training Corps, at the unit's Headquarters on Brunel Road.

Flight Lieutenant Andy Sumner had left Hinckley ATC in 2006, to take up residency in Vermont USA . He had been the Commanding Officer of the Hinckley Squadron for over three years and during that time developed a strong team of staff and ambitious cadets. He kept in touch with the Squadron through e-mails and the social site Facebook, having made a previous visit to the Squadron two years ago.

Since emigrating, Andy is now employed as a Sergeant in the Campus Police department at Dartmouth University , where he is a supervisor. He also joined the Civil Air Patrol where he has attained the rank of Major. The Civil Air Patrol in the USA is comparable to the UK 's Air Training Corps, having similar numbers and activities. In the same way that the ATC is linked to the Royal Air Force, the CAP has links with the US Air Force.

Major Sumner was very pleased to see that the hard work he started has continued under the new leadership of Flight Lieutenant Chris Parry, with the Squadron now amongst the top 10 in the Wing for numbers of cadets and activities undertaken.

In the picture attached, Major Sumner (left) is showing his warrant card to Flight Lieutenant Parry (centre) and Cadet Warrant Officer Tom Jackson (right). During this timely visit, Major Sumner was pleased to present various awards achieved by Cadet Warrant Officer Jackson over the last few months, including his promotion from Flight Sergeant to Cadet Warrant Officer, the expedition section of his Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award and his prestigious representation of the Air Training Corps on the National Cadet Event last August, which celebrated the 150 th anniversary of the formation of Cadet Forces held at the Royal Naval College Dartmouth, along with cadets from the Army and Navy.