Annual Camp - RAF Aldergrove, Northern Ireland
Left to Right: (Back Row) Warrant Officer (ATC) Banham, Cadet Sergeant A Elliott, Cadet Sergeant K Dennington, Cadet Flight Sergeant T Willis, Cadet N Sparkes
(Front Row) Cadet H Stokes, Cadet J Sparkes and Cadet Warrant Officer J Roberts
Annual camp is an opportunity many cadets will take more than once in their cadet career and this camp was no different for 759 Beccles Squadron apart from Cadet Jessica Sparkes. This is what she said about her time spent at RAF Aldergrove Summer Camp 2014.
'This was my first annual camp and I didn't really know what to expect. My brother went last year and told me a little bit which is why I decided to go this year. There was lots of things to do on the time table which was nice as it was a wide variety of different activities, section visits and social time.
The time we spent at RAF Aldergrove on base was extremely good, the food was good and everyone had something they liked. In the evening we did lots of other activities which included going to the cinema to watch Transformers.
There were two bits I enjoyed in particular, the first was going shopping in Belfast and the second was visiting the dog section. After visiting the dog section everyone appeared to want to become a dog handler.
I would recommend attending an annual camp to every other cadet as it is a brilliant experience and brilliant opportunity to learn more, experience RAF life and make lots of new friends.'
The schedule the cadets had for the week was very full, below is a taster of just what they were getting upto:
The 73 cadets were divided up into four flights. Each flight was given a time table of station section visits and activities.
Day 1 – Visit to the Ulster Aviation Society at long Kesh (site of an old RAF Station & the Maize prison)
Day 2 – 5 Army Air Corps, RAF Regiment, Drill
Day 3 – RP Drill, Regional Intelligence & Geographic Centre, RAF Dogs Section, Cinema
Day 4 – Titanic Experience & Belfast city centre for shopping, Swimming & Sports
Day 5 – Police Service of Northern Ireland Air Support Unit, Survival Equipment Section, Fire Section, Drill Competition judged by the, Station Regimental Provost team.
Day 6 – EOD – Bomb Disposal, Leadership Exercises, Inter flight rounders’ Competition.
Throughout the week – a range of activities including daily room inspections, sport, leadership exercises, presentations, quizzes, drill competition and rounders’ all went towards their inter flight challenge.
