Two NCO's from 2030 (Elmdon & Yardley) Squadron attended the Land Command Easter Cadet Leadership Course at Nesscliff in Shropshire between 07 th April and 13 th April.

The course is Army orientated with the majority of cadets being CCF and ACF, there were only 12 Air Cadets from across the country. The course focused on effective team leadership in demanding situations. Situations such as vehicle anti-ambush drills, Casualty evacuation under fire, and various other military scenarios.

During the course rifles were carried at all times and certain exercises blank firing took place. The rifles used were the L98 Cadet GP Rifle and the L86 Light Support Weapon, which is used by the British Army.

Cpl Constable commented that "the course is challenging and pushes you both physically and mentally, but was also a lot of fun!!"

Both Cpl Constable and Cpl Hanna passed the course, and have gained further leadership techniques & skills. On completion of the course certificates and course badges were presented.

Course Diary

Saturday

• Introductions to the staff and our sections.

Sunday

• There is an Easter Service with padre and music provided by two people from the local church. The strange thing about the situation was that we all had rifles with us during the service.
• Moving on from the service we started our training during exercise cold start.
• First up was a display with blanks from the regular army of section battle drills.
• We then moved on to radio operation with the last generation of in-service radio.
• Weapons training was the next stand, Cpl Hanna trained on the LSW and passed the weapons handling test, ready for use in the field.
• As the focus of the course was leadership we then moved on to some team building exercises involving crossing barrels and moving tyres between cones.
• On to the afternoon and exercise warm finish, which was a 2 mile log run around the North training area.

Monday

• Field training begins.
• First stand is the vehicle anti-ambush, which after a briefing we were in the land rovers patrolling around Nesscliff. Then we were contacted and fought through to win the fire fight.
• Casualty Evacuation under fire was the next stand. This involved a section first attacking an enemy and then rescuing the casualty to a safe distance.
• On the climbing wall. Three people from each section are blind folded and instructed by the rest of the section how to climb up.
• Vehicle Check points (VCP's). Following a lecture we set up a VCP on a track, the first "customer" arrived and his vehicle searched, discovering a rifle and ammunition.
• First Aid. We were taught to put people in the recovery position and responses to various situations.
• Orienteering. Using our map skills we navigated Nesscliff finding various check points, and doing various activities along the way.

Tuesday

• Deploy in to field.
• First we establish a harbour area in a bunker.
• Following various patrol tasks it was night and we needed to setup an ambush. The ambush was successful.

Wednesday

• After a night asleep in the bunker we were up and ready to go.
• Hostage Rescue. The mission was to rescue hostages using force.
• Media handling. A lot of fun, with crowds of hostile people trying to take our equipment whilst our section is trying to control the situation and give a tv interview.
• Bush Craft. Building shelters using nature, and making fires to cook the rabbit.
• Escape and evasion. The best night-ex briefing I have ever had (I won't say too much because it may take some of the fun away for the next course), which lead to an escape and evasion exercise.

Thursday

• Wake up in the bunker to small arms fire.
• Planning begins for a final attack on our enemy.
• The attack was successful after a 15 minute fire fight.
• Now we had finished we had a lot of blank ammunition that needed to be used, so we lined up the LSW's and fired the spare ammunition off in automatic setting, however sometimes the LSW didn't want to re-cock itself.
• Final event of the camp was a mess dinner. Our guest was a General, and the food served by our staff. We then watched the camp video following the meal.