We held our Visitors Day on August 3rd, 2023, during Wiltshire Army Cadet Forces Annual Camp. Many had come miles to attend and we are grateful for their commitment to our county ACF.
The day began with guests meeting our Senior Cadets, Cadet Force Adult Volunteers (CFAVs), and Professional Support Staff (PSS).
Colonel Britt Haggerty, Commandant of Wiltshire ACF, and Lt Col (Retd) Nick Turnbull, Cadet Executive Officer (CEO) of Wiltshire ACF presented and discussed the County's many achievements and highlights of the previous 12 months.
The room was then handed over to our Staff Cadets and Senior Cadet's who gave our guests their experience from a cadet's perspective.
Staff Cadet CSM Low, Staff Cadet S/Sgt Drake, Staff Cadet S/Sgt Cavanagh, Cdt RSM Yuill, and Cdt CSM Creasy-Cottle
Some inspiring, engaging, and confident presentations were given to an audience of VIPs, Generals, Brigadiers, and Colonels. A daunting task at any age and experience. But as always they were all amazing.
They then took the visitors outside for a Camouflage and Concealment lesson. They had our guests competing against each other to win the prize. As you could imagine with such high-achieving personnel the competition was pretty fierce. But there could only be one winner and that was 2Lt James Andrews from 5 Rifles.
All then returned inside and after a small interlude Colonel Gary McDade, Commander of The Army South West gave some presentations, awards, and promotions.
- Staff Cadet Staff Sergeant Nadia Cavanagh who was presented her Gold DofE Badge
- 2nd Lieutenant Gary Cox was promoted to Lieutenant.
- Maj Lee Bampfield and RSMI Rich Hearn were presented their Cadet Force Medal Clasps
- SMI Andy McLeod and SMI Neil James were presented with their Cadet Force Warrants
- Maj Andy Emery awarded the Army Comd South West Coin
The next stage of the visit took us to the Pippingford Park training area, where we met with the 2 Star Cadre who were on their 2 day Fieldcraft Training Excercise (FTX)
The guests, cadets, and CFAVs chatted for a while. Many of our esteemed guests have been in Cadet Forces during their childhood. A similar theme and topic of conversation kept coming up from our guests. They are privileged and happy to be in a position to open doors for our cadets, just as someone opened doors for them at some point.
A section from the 2 Star Cadre then demonstrated a Section Attack. The brief was given by Staff Cadet Staff Sergeant Ellie Hendricks.
The section began patrolling, then came under effective enemy fire. They then went into the drills and SOPs which they would have just recently learned and began to engage the enemy. A safe, energetic, and enthusiastic section attack commenced, culminating in the section achieving its aim before the re-org.
The cadre and guests then moved back to the main holding area for the cadre.
There was then one more opportunity for Col McDade to present one more of his coins. This time to Cdt L/cpl Luke Bevington.
The feedback from the guests was positive of our cadets. Genuine admiration and enthusiasm towards Cadet and our Adult Volunteers.
