Rolling Thunder is the UK’s top Army Cadet Force and Combined Cadet Force CIS (Signals) competition. The competition is held in Blandford, Dorset, home of the Royal Corps of Signals, and this year was particularly special as it is the 100th anniversary of the creation of The Corps.
The Cambridgeshire team taking part last weekend all came from No.1 Company (Herewood), and were the youngest team taking part. They went on to do well in the competition, beating many older and more experienced teams.
The team consisted of;
Cpl Brooks (Team I.C)
Cpl Trotter
Cadet Denis
Cadet Shahzad
Cadet Palmer.
Picture; Jase Cooper Photography
They started with constructing poles and lines for field telephone communications, which none of the team had previously undertaken. The team did extremely well by successfully constructing a crossing over 2 points and setting up 2 field telephones and establishing communications.
They then went on to work with antennas, and once again they managed extremely well with little or no previous experience.
After a quick break, the team went indoors and completed other tasks including logging and reporting, the use of VP (Voice Procedure for radio communications), code breaking and problem solving.
The team managed to come 11th out of the whole UK, a testament to their hard work and enthusiasm. Their achievement was all the more remarkable as the competition was aimed at older and more experienced cadets. They were a little disappointed not to make the top 10, but are looking forward to returning next year, older and more experienced, and hopefully bringing back some silverware to Cambridgeshire ACF.
Picture; Jase Cooper Photography
1 Company Signals Rep. C/Sgt Brooks said; ‘Our young team have learnt so much about CIS (Signals) and have taken vast amounts of knowledge away with them from this experience. On a personal level, everyone on the team has grown as individuals and gained great social skills for the future. I am so proud that the team allowed me to accompany them down to Blandford and share in their highs and lows. I would be honoured to take 2 teams next year and bring back even more success.’
Text by P.I. Stuart, with thanks to C/Sgt Brooks.
