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14th December 2005

Squadron steps into the Limelight

A night of fun, comedy and presentations provided cadets, staff and invited guests of 134 (Bedford) Squadron the chance to round off an extremely successful 2005 with the Annual Awards Evening held on Thursday 8th December at the Defence Intelligence & Security Centre Chicksands, Bedfordshire. 

Group Captain Hayward RAF, Chief of Staff at DISC Chicksands attended as the guest of honour for the evening and once he had given his opening address he took his seat ready for the first half of the evening. Parents and other invited guests were then treated to a series of sketches, which featured the cadets in various scenarios surrounding their experiences. This year the sketches were inter linked with adapted scenes from Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol featuring ghosts from cadet past, present and future haunting a die hard ATC Warrant Officer.

The variety of sketches included a special Air Cadet Dr Who episode, Cpl Scully’s experience of visiting the medical officer before his Tornado F3 flight last year and some audience involvement with a mock Wing Field Day exercise against the cadets. Of course the cadets won! There was also a comical cadet catwalk to show off various cadet uniforms and also featured the cadets own impression of a typical VR(T) officer. MTV’s hit car modifying show ‘Pimp my Ride’ made an appearance but this time it was a Grob Tutor aircraft that got a makeover thanks to some funky graphics. The staff also joined in by making fun of themselves in the form of a staff meeting, Vicar of Dibley style.

The second half of the evening saw the awards ceremony, which was conducted by Flying Officer Robinson, Officer Commanding 134 (Bedford) Sqn. This year there were seven Squadron Trophies, three commendations and an award from the Reserve Forces and Cadet Association presented.

Best New Recruit this year went to Cadet Rawlins who joined the squadron in May 2005 and has greatly impressed all of the staff with her enthusiasm and involvement. 

The Academic Award was presented to Cadet Pickering who achieved a distinction for his leading cadet exams.

The Modelling Trophy also went to Cadet Pickering whose modelling skills saw him represent the Wing for a second year running at the Central & Eastern Field Day in 2005.

The Sports Shield was a hotly contested award in 2005 with many squadron members reaching new heights, but in the end it was clinched by Corporal Denham. 

The Shooting Trophy was collected by Cadet Ward whose marksmanship skills had impressed both of the squadron’s qualified Range Conducting Officers. 

The Commanding Officer’s Shield is an award made by the commanding officer to a cadet who has stood out during the previous 12 months, but was complicated this time by way of a change of CO recently, so taking guidance from AWO Taylor and AWO Browne, Flying Officer Robinson agreed to present the Shield this year to Cadet Tye. Additionally Cadet Tye was also informed that he is to receive a flight in an RAF Tucano trainer aircraft as part of the prize.

Before the coveted Cadet of the Year was announced commanding officers commendations and a special Reserve Forces and Cadet Association award were presented.

Commendations went to Corporal Every, Flight Sergeant Russell, Mr Dipper and Miss Gunawardena for their continued and extensive support to the squadron. 

Wing Commander Bower, Officer Commanding Bedfordshire & Cambridgeshire Wing, then presented the East Anglia Branch Reserve Forces and Cadet Association Best Maintained Premises award to AWO Taylor for the third year running.

Finally it was time to reveal who had won the Cadet of the Year Trophy, but the tension was held just a little longer with another 134 awards evening tradition. Each year the staff do their best to arrange a flight of a lifetime or the winning cadet and with that a video to reveal the prize, previous winners have received flights in Hawk and Tornado jets. The winner this year was Sergeant Otulakowski. However, this caused some issues in itself. Sgt Ozzy, as he is known, is an extremely keen runner and has achieved consistent success in cross country competitions. As a result Sgt Ozzy was under the minimum weight limit for a fast jet ejector seat. So instead he will be spending an entire day with 28 Squadron RAF, which will include the planning, briefing and pre-flight checks and flying of one of their Merlin helicopters on a specially arranged training sortie.

Another fantastic awards evening closed off another fantastic year for 134 (Bedford) Sqn. Now its time for a quick Christmas break before we all hit the ground running ready for 2006.

 

See the photo gallery for the awards evening