Nine cadets from 485 (Harborne and Quinton) Sqn saw more than they had bargained for at their recent annual camp at RAF Marham. The cadets, who travelled to RAF Marham on 13 th August, were to see Tornado aircraft in operational action.

RAF Marham is home to four squadrons of Tornado GR4 and the cadets found that the station was very busy even though two squadrons are currently based at Gioia del Colle in Italy , flying in support of Nato air operations over Libya . The station commander, Gp Capt Rochelle, invited the staff and cadets to watch the take off of six GR4's, fully armed with storm shadow missiles on their way to a bombing mission in Libya . Gp Capt Rochelle explained that two of the aircraft were to be used as reserves and that after the mission; they would make their way to Gioia del Colle to land.

The cadets had a very varied programme during the week, this included visits to the RAF Police Dog section, the Fire section where the cadets ended up very wet, and they also completed the 2620 RAuxAF Regiment's assault course.

Another major part of the weeks programme was the Family and Friends day. The cadets had been asked to help out with the general organisation on the day and they were to see a varied programme of flying displays. These included a combat role scenario which involved Tornado aircraft, and a Typhoon also completed a short display. The Red Arrows also gave a display on the day and all the cadets were very sad to hear of the sad death of Flt Lt Egging just two days later.

The cadets had the chance to fly in the Tutor and the Viking during the week, indeed, some had the chance to fly both! A group of cadets also travelled to RAF Wattisham to fly in one of 22 Sqn's Sea King helicopters; however, the day before all Sea Kings had been grounded due to an operational incident.

Dry training on the L98A2 was also carried out and the newer cadets were able to fire the No8 rifle.

The cadets all had a fantastic time, although apparently the mornings were very cold in the tents.

Fg Off Simon Jennings , OIC 485 Sqn commented “It looks like the cadets had a fantastic time at RAF Marham! In this era of cutbacks, I think that they were very privileged to actually see the RAF in action, there can't be many cadets who have seen a bombing mission set out from the UK ! All the cadets would like to thank the staff for their hard work during the week, particularly as they were staying in the tents too”.