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2175 (Rolls-Royce)
Squadron
Air Training Corps |
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2175 (Rolls-Royce)
Squadron
Air Training Corps |
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July / August 2002 LORD LIEUTENANT’S CERTIFICATE OF MERITORIOUS SERVICE By CI Suzanne Callan
On the 16th August our much loved Adult Warrant Officer, Vince Leonard was presented with the Lord Lieutenant’s certificate for meritorious service. The presentation night began with an inspection of the squadron by the Lord Lieutenant of Renfrewshire, Mr Cameron Parker OBE. On final parade the CO, Flt Lt Brad read a recap of AWO Leonard’s long adult service record with the ATC, spanning 17 years. He was first appointed to 2452 (Shawlands) squadron before moving to Hillington in 1993. AWO Leonard is also the Wing Warrant Officer, responsible for drill and public parades by staff and cadets. Indeed, it was the Wing Commander himself, who recommended AWO Leonard for this award.
The Lord Lieutenant than presented his certificate before a short buffet and drinks party in the 602 museum (Staff only). All the staff, NCOs and cadets of the squadron are extremely proud of his achievement and we hope that his long career with the ATC remains at 2175 (Rolls-Royce) Squadron. Well Done Vince! Further pictures of the presentation night can be seen in the Gallery. THE END OF AN ERA
By CWO Suzanne Callan
On the 23rd August 1995, I entered the squadron as a shy and quiet new recruit, and on the 23rd August
2002, I ceased to be a cadet.
From that very first night, I knew that I wanted to be an NCO, the only problem was, I didn’t know anything,
had no confidence and was 4 feet 11 ½ inches tall!
Well, the ATC soon set upon turning me into exactly what I wanted to be. I gained knowledge and
experience, attitudes, skills, self-belief; only thing is I’m still 4 feet 11 ½ inches tall!
In my first 3 years as a cadet, I attended both adventure training camps, Llanbedr and Windermere, went
overseas to RAF Bruggen, represented Wing for the first time at cross-country, won numerous medals at
athletics, went to annual camp, attended a moral leadership course at Amport House and had my first taste
of flying and gliding.
Then, in 1998, as a Senior cadet, I was promoted to the rank of Corporal. And there the story ends…
…not quite. I had achieved the rank I had always wanted, and now I wanted more power!
Over the next year I achieved a bronze Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, an Initial Gliding Course, camped at
RAF Gibraltar, and in July of that year I achieved the rank of Sergeant.
As a SNCO, I was far more involved in the running of the squadron, teaching classes, organising activities
and Sgt Sim and I spent ages perfecting the “Sergeant’s Walk” where we would make our presence felt
around the squadron as we checked that duties were being completed up to our very high standards. I
achieved Staff cadet and designed a squadron website to be proud of!
So, it was no surprise that I was promoted to Flight Sergeant within 8 months, where, I hold the record
at the squadron for spending the least time at that rank, 7 weeks to be precise!
As a CWO, I was presented with both the Thain and Foster Trophies, was part of the winning Regional Drill
Team, jumped out of a plane at the ATC parachuting course, represented the Wing at Netball for the first
time and gained an RAF Marksman badge.
For my last night as a cadet, the cadets put on a fantastic show of pantomimes with the sole purpose to humiliate and embarrass me, but I’m sorry to say that they failed miserably. I could have done a better job making fun of myself! Nevertheless, it was good fun and I was presented with gifts on final parade before the cadets dragged me outside to de-bag me. (Another 2175 tradition) I’ve enjoyed my time as a cadet immensely however; I look forward to beginning a new challenge as an adult staff member. Back to Top
NIJMEGAN MARCHES 2002
By Cadet Niall Morrison
On Saturday 13th of
July 2002 three members of 2175 (Rolls-Royce) squadron took part in the
international four day marches held at Nijmegan in Holland. The march
consists of a one hundred mile walk spread over four days. We were
billeted at Heumensoord camp (below) which is a purpose built camp purely for
the marches. Each day the cadets got up at around two in the morning in
order to beat the queue for breakfast, which sometimes stretched round the
neighbouring billets! The cadets were part of the Glasgow and West of
Scotland wing team which consisted of thirteen members of the corps, but this
year we were joined by eight members of Edinburgh wing and together we made up
the Scotland Wing Team. All of the cadets from our squadron made it
through this years marches with almost no injuries except a feeling of fatigue
after we landed at Glasgow airport at ten o’clock on the following Friday.
IACE 2002, USA
By Sgt Robert Hastie The International Air Cadet
Exchange started in 1951 with an exchange between the Canadian Air Cadets, and
the British. Since then it has become an annual event with cadets participating
in 19 separate countries. This year I was privileged enough to be selected for
the visit to the USA.
After being selected months
previously at both a wing and regional interviews, I was excited when I arrived
at RAF Uxbridge, in London, on the 15th July, a day before we were
due to fly out. We met the rest of the British contingent, and "socialised" for
the rest of the evening. A seven hour flight, took us
from London to Washington DC, where all the IACE cadets for USA were staying. In
the ATC we are used to being given what's left spare, especially in
accommodation, so you can image the surprise as we checked into the Hilton hotel
in DC. We were split into our state groups; we were assigned to Oklahoma, and
then toured Washington DC for two days, seeing all the great monuments and
eating at some of the most famous restaurants. So there was a little sadness as
we left the capitol headed for the unknown, Oklahoma. No one in the party had
been to Oklahoma before, and so this was a learning experience for both the
three cadets from Britain, and the three from France, who were also going. Upon arriving, we were promptly
whisked away to the local airfield for a welcoming brunch, from the Civil Air
Patrol (CAP), the USA equivalent of the ATC. While in Oklahoma City, made famous
in the 1990's by the Oklahoma bombing, we visited many museums and other places
of interest, including the Oklahoma bombing memorial site, and visitor centre.
We stayed with host families, who are connected with the CAP, and who have all
been on the exchange, either as a Cadet or escort, or as both. Our host arranged
fun activities, like paint ball, and boating for days where there were gaps in
the program. One host, Bryce, the host of both myself, and another of the group
Barry, arranged for tickets to one of the largest theme parks in Oklahoma for
all the cadets.
The visit lasted two weeks,
rounded off by another two days in Washington with all the IACE cadets in USA,
from all over the world, 15 Brits, 3 French, 2 Dutch, 4 German, 3 Belgian, 4
Australians, an army of Canadians, 2 Japanese, 3 Turkish, 3 Israelis, 2 from
Hong Kong and partridge in a pear tree…well maybe not the last one. The
experience was one I'll never forget, but not perfect. Sometimes we went to
museum after museum, which did become a little tiring, but this did mean that
you usually knew more about the history of the state than any of the locals, or
at least that’s what we were told. A great experience for anyone though.
THE BEST OF THE BEST: DOUGLAS BADER
By Sgt Robert Hastie Every year the six wings of the
Scotland and Northern Ireland Region of the ATC enter teams and compete against
each other for the Douglas Badder Trophy. This competition comprises of several
disciplines: leadership, fitness, swimming, aircraft recognition, observation,
and gliding skills. I was part of the Squadron entry to the selection weekend
along with Cadets Little and McMillan, held at Garelochhead training base. The weekend was filled with
activities and classes to test and improve our skills in each area of the
competition. However, only a few could be in the team for the actual
competition, so we were technically competing against each other. Throughout the
events the staff discussed with us what actually happens at the competition and
variations on the events, so we could have a better idea of what we were in for
if selected. No one was good at everything so
it was always someone different winning each event, although few were done as
direct, individual competition. The group was highly sociable, and everyone got
on well, so out of that there should be a good team spirit whoever goes. Each cadet can only participate
in the competition once during their cadet career, so it is important that the
cadets are at their peak fitness, physically and mentally, both for the benefit
of the team and the wing. The team has still not been confirmed as yet, and so
all that were at the selection weekend are still hopeful. Whoever is selected
I'm sure will do the wing proud when the competition comes, later in September.
Queen’s Jubilee BBQ
By CI Suzanne Callan
As part of our celebrations for Her
Majesty the Queen's Golden Jubilee, we arranged our own Garden Party in July
with sports, games and a BBQ.
As our invites to the
real Garden Party must have been lost in the post, we decided to simply hold our
own!
The day began with some
volunteers dressing up the squadron with balloons, streamers and banners. We
then held a football tournament (won by my team!) before a lunch of Hot Dogs.
We then had a game of
softball before the 2175 Water Assault Course! Teams had to navigate the
course blindfolded, as we poured cold water over them! As you can see from the
pictures, Mr Sim “wasn’t a big fan of this!”
We the held sports day
competitions before the BBQ and a toast to the Queen!
ASDA – BAG PACKING
By Cdt Andrew McLellan On Sunday the 28th of July a
group of cadets met in ASDA Govan at 9:30 in order to do a bag pack. Once we had
all arrived we were positioned onto checkouts, two to a checkout, however by the
time that it reached 11 o’clock more and more checkouts were opening so we were
down to one person per check-out. At approximately 1 o’clock we retired to
McDonalds across the car park for lunch. Once we had finished lunch it was back
across to ASDA for the final stretch until 6 o’clock. And by the end of all that
packing every cadet was feeling very tired and went home to bed!! Altogether we had a very successful day
and people were very generous so we managed to collect £821.32 in all.
Nimrod Flight
By Cdt Elizabeth Brad During the Summer holidays this
year, I was given the opportunity to have a flight in a Nimrod from RAF Kinloss.
The CO and I had to report to
the Operations Building at 6.30am. When we reported in we were told to go into
the Flight Planning room where we met our crew and watched them plan the
mission. We were told that we were going to fly out over the North Sea to take
pictures of fishing boats and other surface vessels and also carry out an anti
submarine exercise. Both tasks were going to involve a lot of low level
flying!!!!! On board, everyone else was told
to get strapped into their seats while I was taken up to the flight deck and
told to stand behind and hold onto the back of the flight engineers chair for
the take-off! We taxied up to the end of the runway but they decided to take us
a wee detour around the forest that was on the base! Eventually we took off and we
were up in the sky within seconds. I stood up in the flight deck and watched
what was going on for about an hour, during which time we had done a touch and
go at Newcastle Airport and were flying at low level, photographing boats. The
crew would come back and speak to us and showed us how the various items
of equipment worked and what they were doing, it was a bit technical but
interesting – at least the bits I understood! A Tornado from RAF Leuchars
indicated that he wanted to formate on us which we agreed to, but the Tornado
pilot did not want to come down to the level we were flying at – 200 feet !! So
we had to climb up to 1000 feet where the Tornado flew along side us. It was a
great sight. With our tasks over, we flew
back to Kinloss via RAF Leuchars where we did another touch and go. The low level flying was really
brilliant although it was a bit bouncy, but I managed not to be sick even on a
full stomach, the amount of food they offer you is unbelievable! They have boxes
of Mars bars, Snickers, crisps, biscuits, sandwiches, sausage rolls, burgers,
chicken dishes, and hundreds more, you name it, and they had it! Eventually the six hour flight
was over and it was good being back on the ground! It was a chance in a lifetime
experience, but I would not recommend it to people who have weak stomachs!
CONSERVATION PROJECT
By CI Steven Sim So far over 20 cadets have took
part in this year’s conservation project at Pollok Country Park. The project involves the cadets
clearing out Pollok Pond, uprooting old bushes, trimming back trees and planting
new plants etc. This project was originally planned to last only 3 months
however; the council have been so impressed by the enthusiasm of the cadets they
have asked that it be extended till the end of the year. At phase 2 of the project the
cadets removed all rhododendron and beech regeneration from one of the islands.
Fortunately, in all of the sessions so far the weather has been great so that
has enhanced team morale. This project will count towards
the cadets Duke of Edinburgh Award. Some of the cadets will also be issued with
the “John Muir” Certificate from Glasgow City Council. In addition; the
squadron will enter this project into the Regional Conservation Competition with
the aim of 2175 (Rolls-Royce) Squadron leading the way for the rest of the
Region to follow.
WING
AIRCRAFT RECOGNITION COMPETITION
By
Cdt Craig Jones
On August 29th,
nine of our cadets travelled through to 32F squadron for the Wing Aircraft
Recognition competition. For 2 weeks Sgt. Hastie had crammed our heads full of
aircraft.
The competition
consisted of 30 slides shown by Microsoft PowerPoint. Each slide was shown for 3
seconds and then you had 5 seconds to write your answer. The competition was a
lot harder than we had originally thought it would be. There were all types of
aircraft from military to civil, and from any county in the world. Some people
didn’t have a clue what some of the aircraft were; some cadets had a guess. The
best guess I have heard so far was Air Force One! We had entered three teams;
unfortunately we didn’t make the top three positions with any team. Many of the
cadets had never entered this competition before, but now that we have seen what
it’s like, we are looking forward to going back next year and doing much better!
On Thursday 22nd
August, Cadet McMillan, Cadet Graham, Cpl Bradley, and I, went to watch a new
television series being filmed, and to be the audience, we were first to arrive,
after about ten minutes of sitting around, some other people started to flood
in. Before entering the studio, some man with a big voice shouted out all
of the organisations that had come along to support the new series. We
were one of the last to be called out and instead of screaming like all of the
others we just waved! It all felt quite stupid, but we were looking
forward to seeing what this programme was going to be like! We waited to
be called up to go in, and slowly walked over lots of cables and wires. My
first thought when entering the studio was, what is this?! It looked really
weird, because the audience was to sit on these stair things, on CUSHIONS!
The floor manager came and talked to us, and told us what to/and not to do
whilst the cameras were on! The first thing he said not to do was to look
at the camera swinging above us, and when it started nearly everyone looked up!
We met the Stars of the Show;
there were 3 guys, and 3 girls. They told us to scream and cheer a lot,
and to laugh at their jokes even if they weren’t our kind of humour. The
Show was called LOL=Laugh out loud! To start with the show was called
‘Gagging For It’ but they were asked to change it, as it was aimed at children!
The first part of the show to be shot was a dance for the Stars’ entrance!
The dance was funny, and we had to scream and cheer after to until we were told
to shut up and sit down! It was really stuffy in the
studio, and everyone was really happy, when we were told there was to be a
break! During the break we got to talk to some of the people running the
show, and to find out some more about it. Cadet McMillan, and Cpl Bradley
took a while get into the cheering, but eventually, they loosened up! When we were asked to shout,
sometimes we weren’t loud enough, and had to scream even louder, and at the end,
we had to give a few extra shouts to make sure there was enough for the right
part of the show! I did enjoy myself, no matter how stupid I felt at the
time, and I think the others did too!
RAF STAFFORD CAMP
By Cadet Chris McMillan On the 27th of July to the 3rd
of August Cadets Little, Muir, Gillies, Makin, Rybacki and I went to RAF
Stafford. We all arrived at North Hanover Street at 9.00 am where we met all the
other cadets who were going to the camp. On the way down to Stafford on the
coach we started to get to know the other cadets. We arrived at Stafford at
3.00p.m, on arriving we were assigned to our rooms and our flights. During the camp we took part in
many activities most of them were section visits, these were to 2MT
Squadron, the fire department, Tactical Supply Wing, Officers Mess, 5001
Squadron, also some cadets went on a visit to the Mountain Rescue. Most of the
cadets thoroughly enjoyed 2MT Squadron, Tactical Supply Wing and the Fire visit
as these were all “hands on” visits. We also went to Laser Quest and Ten Pin
Bowling. We went for a visit to Swynerton
Army Training Centre where we took part in a one day training exercise which
consisted of orienteering, tent building, camouflage and Concealment and the SAT
Range. All cadets at the camp managed to get to fire theL98 and got a shot at
the SAT Range. Due to bad weather no cadets got
to go flying. As flying was cancelled the staff organised a visit to Manchester
where we went to the Industry and Aviation Museum, then we went into Manchester
for a while to go shopping. During the week we seen many RAF
personnel, also the Station Commander and Scotland and Northern Irelands
Regional Commandant. All in, the camp was good and we
all enjoyed ourselves.
ROLL OF HONOUR Bronze Duke of
Edinburgh’s Awards Cpl Reynolds
Cdt Muir Cdt McMillan
Cpl Bradley Cdt
Jones Cdt Espie GIC 3 Certificate Cdt Morrison GIC 2 Certificate Cdt Kilmartin Cdt Mack GIC 1 Certificate Cdt Gillies Cdt Kayani Cdt Brad Advanced Swimming
Certificate Cdt Morrison Intermediate Swimming
Certificate Cdt McLellan (F) Cdt
Gillies Basic Swimming
Certificate Cdt Campbell
Cdt Hogg Appointment to Staff
Cadet, RM Condor Cdt Campbell |
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