It has been the greatest honour of my Army career to be Commandant of Essex ACF. As I come to the end of my time as Commandant, I wanted to write to you all to thank you for your support throughout and to thank you for what you all do to make Essex ACF such a truly amazing and inspirational County.
My vision was always to run a vibrant Cadet Force, accessible to all young people in Essex and to build a fully supported and inclusive Volunteer environment, fully engaged in the community it serves. Through embracing the Army’s traditions, ethos, values and standards, diversity and inclusion, I am proud that we have provided a Cadet Experience that is structured, challenging and progressive, even during lockdown, we achieved this engagement virtually in spades, as we managed to keep the flame alive.
Our most important asset is YOU our ADULTS, in whatever capacity you work within Essex ACF. I am hugely grateful for all the hard work and extra effort each and every one of you and your respective teams do to make Essex ACF one of the best counties in the country. I do not say that lightly, we consistently perform at the highest level in everything that we do, with an outstanding Cadet Experience, offering such a wide variety of opportunities to our cadets, setting our young people up for lifelong success.
I am always impressed by the weekly work carried out by all of you at Detachments “at the chalk face”, where you constantly go above and beyond the call of the duty and make a huge difference to each and every one of your Cadets as you continue “To Inspire to Achieve” the next generation of young people in Essex to be the best that they can be.
As I move to take over as Colonel Cadets 7th Infantry Brigade for East Midlands, I am delighted to hand over to your new Commandant Colonel Pete Mills, who I know will continue to build on the work we have already put in place together and I wish him and his new leadership team the best of luck for the future. I look forward to being invited back to visit Essex ACF, which will always have a special place in my heart.
THANK YOU
L I Barr-Jones
Colonel
Commandant
