73
Y E A R S
A parade personal to us all
By Cadet D. Willey
It was a crisp morning on
Sunday 2nd of February
when we all turned out in
a mark of commemoration
on the 73rd anniversary
of the founding of the Air
Training Corps (ATC).
By a quarter to ten
the car park next to the
Crown pub was filling with
cadets gathering their instruments
and
people
from the village were
gathering, cameras flashing as they took photos of
the parade. Soon we were
formed up and ready to
go. As a group we were
composed of a band, led
by Flight Sergeant Alder,
and a marching continent
led by Flight Lieutenant
6
Vince. I felt a lot of pride
to be a part of our band,
which has greatly expanded in the last year under
the guidance of Civilian
Instructors
Scott
and
Pagett. With three of my
favourite
instruments,
pennywhistles (played by
myself, Cadet Jarvis and
Cadet Scott), four belllyres and four brass: our
band sounded loud and
clear, whilst the drummers led from the front.
Soon we had arrived for
the church service, which
was led by Reverend Warren. Soon we were all inside the church and an
expectant hush fell over
all. Then the service began, formatted especially
for the Air Cadets to re-
member the founding of
their organisation…
It was on the 5th of
February,
seventy-three
years ago when the Air
Training Corps was officially established, with
George VI as the Air Commandant. However, the
story started long before
that. The idea of preparing young people for the
forces began evolving as
early as 1859, with the
Officer
Training
Corps
(OTC) forming in 1908.
However it was Air Commodore J Chamier who
realised the potential and
in 1938 formed the Air
Cadet
Defence
Corps
(ADCC). For this we honour him as Father of the
2497 (Cosford) Squadron Altitude | Spring 2014