Press Release

134 (Bedford) Squadron
Air Training Corps
Shortstown
Bedford
MK42 0TH

11th April 2005

Happy Camping!

The Stanford Training Area (STANTA) near Thetford in Norfolk played host to an 8-day long greens camp for cadets of Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire Wing, which included a deployment of 12 cadets and 5 staff from 134 (Bedford) Squadron.

Using West Tofts, a barracked accommodation site as a base the camp was structured to provide suitable training in a field environment for cadets of all abilities, they ranged from newly enrolled members through to experienced flight sergeants with several years service under their belts from across the wing.

Lessons were given in shelter and basher construction, navigation, movement in the field, camouflage and concealment, field cooking and personal admin. These were carried out in, and directly around West Tofts with the purpose of preparing the cadets for a 36-hour long exercise further a field.

The exercise saw each flight march out to the training area before collecting missions or injects from the directional staff. At any one time there were four flights of cadets on the exercise all working on objectives to recce each other and make detailed notes to plan an attack. The attacks came in the form of either light or sound emitting bombs, which had to be planted in a specified flights camp or harbour area by the cadet teams.

To complement the lessons and the exercise additional activities were also provided, the most popular of which were abseiling the 110ft artillery observation tower and shooting with the L98-A1 general purpose cadet rifle and L81-A2 target rifle from 100m on the gallery range at Thetford.

The five members of staff from Bedford that attended were Flt Lt Whittaker, AWO Taylor, AWO Browne, CWO Croft and Mr McIntosh. The staff were split with AWO Taylor and Mr McIntosh working on the shooting team while Flt Lt Whittaker, AWO Browne and CWO Croft acted as flight staff supervising cadets between and during various activities.

Further events included a visit by an Army Air Corps Gazelle helicopter, which afforded flying opportunities for cadets in the wing with no air experience time; they flew 15-minute sorties around the local area. Expert leadership sessions were also provided by an RAF Sergeant who demonstrated some of the more fun aspects of this essential skill, with teamwork races and vocal exercises and initiative exercises.

Beds & Cambs Wing Easter Camp provides an alternative to the RAF station based summer camps with the chance to meet far more people, 260 cadets in attendance as opposed to the 40 or so per summer camp. For this reason along with the wide and varied activities on offer the camp always proves popular and one that some probably can't wait another 12 months for.

More photos from Easter Camp 05