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Day 1 of Annual Camp for No 2 (Kohima) Company

Day 1 of Annual Camp for No 2 (Kohima) Company

16 August 2021

  • Greater Manchester ACF

SMI Debbie Callaghan, County PRO

Day 1 of Annual Camp for No 2 (Kohima) Company. Cadets were picked up from their home locations at 7.30am and brought to camp where they all enjoyed a full breakfast before being welcomed to camp by their Company Commander, Major Martin Davies and their Company Training Officer, Capt Tak Chan.

To start the camp two well deserved promotions were made from Cadet Cpl to Cadet Sgt for Cadet Sgt Ellie Meade and Cadet Sgt Luke Goodall. Both promotions are very well deserved.

The cadets were then put into 3 bubbles of which they remained whilst taking part in the activities.

The activities today were Command Tasks, Values and Standards with Padre Gerard Fieldhouse-Byrne and the third group was with 103 Regiment Royal Artiliery (RA) Reservists who brought along one of their guns. The soldiers gave an insight into the L118 105mm Light Gun and spoke about the Royal Artillery. The soldiers in attendance were WO2 Esther Lewis, SSgt Guinnane, SSgt Healey and Lbdr Hatton. This is the second Company to find out more about the work they do and to see the gun and other equipment they brought along.

At 11am the camp fell silent for a one minute silence when all the cadets and staff paid their respects to those who lost their lives recently in Plymouth.

During lunchtime the CEO Major Keith Noble spoke with each cadet and handed them the new cadet safeguarding card with details on of useful and important telephone numbers for the cadets to ring for advice or support. The adult volunteers were also given a guidance card to give them the information, should a cadet speak to them for advice.

One cadet who joined prior to lockdown was to be issued with her uniform but sadly when lockdown happened her uniform could not be issued and it has remained in the stores here at Holcombe Moor training Camp. From March 2020 Cadet Hasnain has been looking forward to returning to collect her uniform. Today she was given her uniform. When trying it on she was so happy and asked could she keep it on as her mum would be so proud of her. We joked that RSMI Dougie Craddock would want to inspect it to see if it had been ironed correctly. Her smiling face of excitement and pride was clear. The uniform stayed as she also wanted a picture taken for her mum. Another lovely young person feeling pride in belonging to our great organisation. Other cadet uniform issues were also sorted out before the end of the day.

I too had an enjoyable afternoon giving drill instruction to the cadets. Well, I tried as this is not one of my strong subjects. The cadets had a few collisions with each other because of my poor commands but there were a lot of laughs. Does this mean I will make a good drill instructor? Definitely not. No pictures as I was too busy having fun.

A competition took place on who could build the highest tower from spaghetti and marshmallows. One group didn’t do as well as they eat most of the marshmallows!

The day ended after evening meal when the cadets boarded their coaches to return home and return tomorrow for a day of navigation and map reading.

All pictures from Day 1 can be found on our County Facebook page.

Please note: All activities are conducted under Army Cadet Covid-19 Guidance.

#GmanACFforceforgood #LifeLongSuccess #ACFAnnualCamp2021