Cadets, Courses, Careers and Much More!

I was waiting for my lunch in the dinner queue at Altcar Training Camp when I found myself staring at, well myself on an NWRFCA pop up banner about Cadet Force Adult Volunteers in the corner!

After my initial thoughts of, wow that’s me, how embarrassing and how many 100s of people have seen this, had passed I kind of reflected of my Cadet journey and wasn’t too surprised when our County Public Relations Officer asked me to write a few words to bring to life the ‘face on the NWRFCA banner’ for an article.

So here it is, my Cadet Journey…

I joined Merseyside Army Cadet Force as a Cadet back in 2012 and at the time I was based in 2 Company and cap badged the Royal Army Medical Corps. I loved my time as a Cadet so much so that when I timed out at the age of 18, I decided to come back as an Adult Volunteer.

So, in 2016 I started my training as a PI (Potential Instructor) now Cap Badged Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment and was located within the 4 Company area. After successfully completing several courses over 12 months, 2 at County level with MACF known as the BIC (Basic Induction Course) and the IIC (Intermediate Induction Course) to then finally completing my AIC (Advanced Induction Course) with the HQNW Cadet Training Team (which is still to date one of the best courses I have been on) and being appointed the rank of Sergeant Instructor in 2017.

In 2018, the adventures continued as I had a very exciting opportunity to go to South Africa with my university to teach young children PE. Whilst there I aimed to give them a fulfilling experience and make them smile every single day, which I can tell you, still to this day was one of the most heart-warming experiences in my life.

So, moving on to 2019 (there’s so much in a limited space to tell you), I was given the best reward ever! All my hard work paid off and I finally graduated after 3 long years, with a 2:1, this moment made me feel proud, but later that year I was also promoted to Staff Sergeant Instructor and appointed Detachment Commander and to have my own Detachment at the age of 21 felt like the best feeling ever.

As a Detachment Commander during this time, I ensured we kept in touch with our Cadets via virtual Parade Nights and tried to make these sessions as interactive and fun as possible, to keep not only the Cadets but also the Adult Instructors engaged.

Looking into my future, I will hopefully be a Qualified Emergency Medical Technician for NWAS (North West Ambulance Service) by Summer 2022 and within Cadets, I am looking forward to carrying on experiencing new things, being proud of Merseyside Army Cadets and hopefully get on some more courses to be able to give our Cadets the best experiences I can.

So there it is, my journey, 9 years in the ACF overall, 5 years as an instructor, and hopefully many more years to come!

Finally, I’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone in #teamMACF and #armycadetsuk who have helped me throughout my Cadet journey. Thank you.

#armycadetsuk #toinspiretoachieve #aimhigher #goingfurther #macfofficial #teamMACF