On the 22nd of April Cdt Solway, Cpl Stephens, Sgt Lawrence, Sgt Richmond and CWO Rae marshalled at the Captain David Seath memorial fund 5K. This is a charity which is close to the squadron as David was an ex-cadet of the squadron. It took place at Pittencrieff Park and the cadets helped cheer on the runners, joggers and walkers around the 5K. The cadets really enjoyed cheering everyone on and were happy to volunteer to help raise money for the charity. They all had a great time and would want to help out again in the future.
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On the 6th to the 8th of April Sgt Richmond, Sgt Lawrence and Cpl Stephens attended the 2nd part of the silver communication course. They underwent training on how to use the radio and how to be safe whilst using the radio. They developed their skills further and learnt new skills with the radio and they also learnt how to do the competitions on a radio. They took a test at the end of the weekend and they all past the written and practical test they were all very pleased with themselves. They all had great fun meeting all the cadets from the region and they enjoyed learning new skills and developing those skills further. They are hoping to carry on learning new skills with the radio as they are hope to attend the gold radio communication course later on in the year.
On the 16th to the 18th of March Sgt Lawrence, Sgt Richmond and Cpl Stephens attended part one of the silver communication course. They spent the weekend at Leuchars Station doing radio communication at silver level. They learnt various skills and techniques to do with radio and have progressed within the syllabus, they did a lot of hands-on activities with the radio to develop skills that can be used for the next weekend of silver comms. Not only did they develop a new understanding of silver comms; became good friends with cadets from all over Scotland. They thoroughly enjoyed the radio course and are looking forward to the next weekend. On the 9th of March, we held our Regional Formal Inspection. We had the honor of hosting Group Captain Jim Leggat and Squadron Leader Erasmuson, to who we showed everything we do on a nightly basis as well as all the achievements of cadets from the past year. We started with an inspection parade and drill display, before moving onto our PR equipment and a presentation on our year. After this, our visitors viewed all of our projects, including media, RAF 100 and Aero-modelling, which was followed by final parade, both the Group Captain and the Squadron Leader said they were impressed by our squadron on final parade and look forward to visiting again. On the 10th of March Sgt Black, Sgt Lawrence, Cpl Clough, Cdt Solway, and Cdt Penman went to Leuchars Station to practice marksmanship and learn how to use the L98-A2 service rifle. Cpl Clough Managed to get through his WHT and managed to get onto the range, completing his CLF 1. Sgt Lawrence, Sgt Black, Cdt Solway and Cdt Penman all went through full training of the rifle. In this training they learnt how to do an NSP and were taught when to conduct an NSP. they also learned how to dismantle the rifle, clean it then put it back together with no mistakes. After that they were shown how to perform a function test that must be completed once the rifle is put back together to ensure it is assembled correctly.
Over the weekend of the 9-11th of February Sgt Richmond and Cdt McKenzie attended Leuchars Station to attend Bronze Communications. This weekend included a refresher of the radio skills we learnt whilst achieving Blue Radio. We continued to progress our skills on VHF and UHF radio and learnt more about the security, when its best to use what radio, relaying and how net control stations work. To test these skills we went into groups and communicated to them through the skills we learnt over the weekend then would add another group to be our relay so we could act like it was a situation we might come across in the cadets. To check we understood everything the weekend concluded with a written test and a practical test which we both passed. We enjoyed the course and learnt a lot of new skills over the weekend which we hope we can use in the future.
On the 4th of December cadets, staff, parents and honoured guests gathered together to celebrate the achievements of cadets throughout the year, including first aid, Duke of Edinburgh's award, flying and gliding, and more.
The evening started off with a brief reprisal of another successful year for 1145 Squadron. We then moved on to promotions, and promoted to the evening was Cdt Todman to Cpl. Congratulations on the promotion We then had two talks from Cpl Clough and Sgt Richmond who done their talks in front of Lord lieutenant. Public speaking, there was a competition at the squadron about a month before hand. Cpl Clough and Sgt Richmond were the two who got to do it at prize giving in front of the Lord lieutenant who thoroughly enjoyed both presentations. We then moved onto the charity award which we are proud as a squadron each year to select a charity and raise money for the selected charity. Our chosen charity was the Captain David Seath Memorial Fund, a close charity to the Squadron as David was an ex-cadet of our Squadron who tragically dies running the London marathon for Help for Heroes. We were please to be able to raise a total of One of the final events of the evening was our recruits getting their formal enrolment. They were enrolled by our squadron padre and Sgt Mitchell who formally enrolled them by addressing them and giving them the cadet promise to read so they could officially become a cadet. The night was a thorough success for all who attended and was enjoyed by all. The weekend of 24-26 November saw 24 cadets and 9 staff descend on RAF Kirknewton for an inaugural Blue Badge Camp, the weekend was a coalition between staff from 1145, 132, 2466, 1143, 142, 869 and 870 Squadrons in an effort to pull resources and help cadets obtain some of the blue badges available as part of the progressive training syllabus implemented by the corps earlier this year.
The camp saw cadets undergo training and assessment in Radio Communications, Part Task Trainer activities and put into practice their theoretical and practical leadership skills over the course of the weekend. The weekend was a great success with all cadets walking away with their Blue Radio Operator and Blue Leadership Badges as a minimum and many obtaining their Blue Aviation Wings. In particular 6 cadets from 1145 have returned with new 16 badges which can be placed on their uniform once they have received them this prizegiving. Over the weekend of the 18-19th of November three cadets attended the Activity First Aid course led by FS Parry held at 870 (Dreghorn). This was attended by Sgt Black, Sgt Richmond and Cpl White all of whom had completed there Youth First Aid but wanted to progress there First Aid knowledge so were keen to attend the course. We went over everything we had learnt in Activity First Aid in more detail then also looked at some new thing like communication and casualty care, role of a first aider in a group setting, treatment for low blood sugars and recognition for meningitis, poisons and seizures along with many other things. The weekend concluded with 3 assessments, Serious bleeding, CPR and unconscious casualty. All of which we passed achieving our silver first aid and hope to move onto gold to become a first aid instructor.
On Sunday the 12th of November, 1145 air cadets attended Remembrance Parades in Dunfermline and Cowdenbeath commemorating those who paid the ultimate sacrifice through times of war and conflict. We marched from The Alhambra towards the WW1 memorial where the Dunfermline service was held. There was then a few words and a two minutes silence held to remember those who were killed or injured and on behalf of the Sqn Sgt Noble laid a wreath. We then travelled to Cowdenbeath Memorial Parade, laying a wreath at the cenotaph on top of the steep hill, laid by Sgt Lawrence and finally parading down to a memorial service outside the council building where further wreaths were laid and a further wreath laid by Sgt Richmond. It was an emotional experience for all of the cadets who attended and we are glad to say that we all enjoyed ourselves representing our Squadron at both events. Over the weekend of the 28th and 29th of October we attended B&M for bag packing for raising money for the Squadron funds. We raised £1008 for the Squadron Funds by helping pack bags for customers at B&M. Helping out the customers at B&M by packing there bags was really fun and enjoyable. We would love to help out at B&M again and help the community.
On the 29th of October Cpl Clough and I went to Leuchars for a Pipes and Drums weekend. On the Saturday after breakfast we went to the regional HQ and practiced with our chanters, going over tunes such as Scotland the Brave. We got our pipes out and practiced with the drummers. We practiced marching and counter marching. The rest of the day before dinner I practiced the melody with the main band and got chosen to play with the regional mini band in a competition in the middle of October. At night some people went to the cinema while the rest of us played football and stayed in the delta which was fun. On Sunday we had another day of lots of practice and I got my highland wear. I really enjoyed the weekend and would go back because I met really nice and kind people.
On 2nd of September 2017, cadets form the 1145 squadron attended the EMF Edinburgh half marathon to support the runners that participated in the marathon. They gave out water as well as offer moral support to the runners. Many members of the squadron attended and all who attended enjoyed the experience. Although it was a warm and tiring day, we would be happy to attend another half marathon to offer our help in what ways we can.
On the 20th of August our Squadron competed in the Wing Field Day. The main event was drill. However, the Squadron contested in various events such as Modelling, PR and Photography. The Wing Field Day was held at our home turf around 1145 Squadron on MOD Caledonia so the standard was high. The total cadets representing the squadron for drill prepared themselves months in advance for this special day, it all came down these final hours. The final outcome for the wing field day was the drill team being placed 2nd along with our uniform. The day also consisted of the modelling competition where our CI was highly awarded for his models that he produced he was placed. In Class 4 2nd and 3rd in class 5 CI Turner was placed 3rd. Cpl Noble also done well in the wing field day, in Class 2 he was placed 3rd also in Class 3 he was awarded 1st and 3rd. Finally, PR which the Sqn won at region last year which was delivered by Sgt Noble, Sgt Richmond and Cpl Clough, they went through what we had done through out the year, how the Sqn recruits and how we use our PR martials and to what purpose. We came 1st at PR and look forward to going to region to represent the wing.
From the 19th to the 26th of August Cdt Stephens and Cdt Todman went down to RAF Syerston in Newark. We underwent training to get badges such as, blue and bronze comms, both powered and gliding blue wings, and first aid badges. We also went on visits to other RAF bases such as Waddington and Linton. We also got a visit from a chinook. Half way through the week we had a very special visit from Air Commodore Dawn McCafferty and Group Captain Carol Vorderman. As well as this the red arrows, military police and the tornadoes came and visited us at the base. In the evening we would do inter-flight competitions which we really enjoyed and it helped us work on our leadership skills. The camp was an amazing experience, we met lots of new people, learnt new skills and had a great time and if we got the chance we would love to go back there next year.
Yesterday we had a fantastic result at Regional Field Day for Scotland and Northern Ireland, Our results were..For the second year running, we have been selected winners of the Media and Communications (PR) Competition!Sgt Lewis Noble also received 3rd in modelling for his model of a samurai warrior. 2nd in photography which Sgt Richmond achieved for a photo in ACO in the community. Congratulations and well done to all the people who participated in the day and we hope to do as well next year.
It was a wet and cold evening on the 21st August at 1145 Squadron. The soaking started with a donation of money in exchange for a wet sponge or a bucket of water. It was the only time us cadets could push around the NCO’s. The first NCO victim was Cpl Craig White. The money raised was for our charity of the year, The Captain David Seath memorial fund. David Seath was an ex cadet of 1145 Sqn and an inspiration to the current cadets. After the soaking, the NCO’s got dried and pizza was ordered in celebration of the excellent effort in second place for the drill team.
Swimming
On Sunday the 3rd of September Sgt Black and Cpl Stephens attended the wing swimming competition at Dean’s high school. We had to swim different types of swimming styles, there were back stroke, breast stroke, butterfly, free style and the medley. Both Sgt Black and Cpl Stephens took part in the breast stroke and freestyle. Sgt Black got silver in the breast stroke. Lots of cadets from different squadrons turned up from our wing to take part in this event. It was a really enjoyable event as we met lots of new people and had great fun doing the swimming. We really enjoyed taking part in this event and would love to do it again next time. Swimming Between the 28th of July and the 6th of August cpl Clough attended the overseas camp at Sennelager in Germany. This took two days of travelling to get to, but was an experience well worth the journey. He was one of 12 cadets to go from all of scotland.
The camp visited the Mohne dam on the day after thy arrived, then on the following days took part in activities such as raft building and high ropes. They also got to visit the NATO base at geilenkirchen where the E-3 sentries are kept, as well as the tanks used by the queens royal hussars. This is one of the last camps to happen at Sennelager due to the closure of the base, but cpl Clough would enjoy going on camp there again, but perhaps without the long journey there. Cpl Clough, cpl Lawrence and cdt Watson attended a week long fieldcraft camp from the 1st of July to the 8th of July. This took place in RAF Spadeadam and was the first of its kind. The goal was for those that attended to learn essential skills to be used out in field exercises, such as camouflage and concealment, hand signals and harbour drills, among other things. On the final two days of the camp, Everyone went out on a 48-hour exercise in order to prove and consolidate our skills.
The camp was extremely succesful, and the same camp is planned for next year, although places are likely to all go to West Scotland Wing, not our wing. All three cadets enjoyed the camp greatly and would love to have the same opportunity again. This years summer camp was at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, the RAFs biggest station with over 6000 personnel on base with many different squadrons and sections home to Brize Norton. Whilst at RAF Brize Norton some of the different sections we visited were; 99 Sqn home of the C17 where we got to look round the aircraft and shown how it is different to other aircraft and what roles it has in the RAF, some even got to go on a flight on the aircraft. Fire Section, when we were there we got to see all the different equipment and shown how it is quite different to being a civilian firefighter and how they have to train for different scenarios to what a civilian firefighter would have to. We also got to go in the training simulator which was a dark building filled with smoke where you had to try and find your casualty. JADTEU, which is a testing facility where personnel will test loads going on to aircraft and check if it will fit and what the weight implications will be. 70 Sqn, home of the A400M the RAFs newest aircraft. We got the chance to look inside and see how it was different as well the vision when designing this aircraft was for it to be a merge between the C17 and the Hercules. RAF Brize Norton has not offered any ATC camps in over 10 years, and with all the facilities experienced, all the cadets who went on this camp thoroughly enjoyed their time there. On the 29th of June we had 14 cadets attend the Military Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. This was somewhere that's just newly open as a museum before it was a pop up museum that would just attend events to showcase things from the museums archives. The museum ranged from WW1 through to present day. It was an interesting event as we got to see how the military has developed through the years and what changes there has been. We also got to try on some of the gas masks and try bren guns. We then finally got to go outside and see the trenches which were realistic and gave you an idea on what it was like in that time. Thank you to everyone at the museum for the great experience. On the 11th of June Cdt MacCaskill, Cdt Stephen, Cdt Todman, Cdt Journeaux, Cpl Black, Cpl Lawrence and Cpl Richmond attended Wing Football held at Deans High School, Livingston. It started with 3 round robin tournaments and then the winners to the final. We came second in our group so didn't get to final winning 2 drawing 1 losing 1. This consisted of a 5 a side team with one female cadet on the pitch at all times for the first time. Next time we hope we can go on get through to the finals.
On Tuesday the 13th we attended 603 (City of Edinburgh) Sqn for a WW1 100 year commemoration event. This was an event that we had 8 cadets in attendance which included FS Maxwell, Cpl Richmond, White, Lawrence, Clough, Cdt Lawrence and Penman. We all attended this with another Sqn from Edinburgh. We started with going into a room which had objects from WW1 on each table where we guessed what objects were on the table and what their uses were. These included Fleshets, Message dropper, Flight map and a model BE2. After we went downstairs and heard a presentation on WW1 and how it linked to WW1. We learnt that 603 Sqn was formally a Whiskey briary which was given by Teacher Whiskey when the person who died they said on there will they would give it to the RAF when they died. This was an interesting event to attend hearing from all of the vollenteers giving us the information, were doing this to raise awareness of why WW1 happened. All of the cadets thoroughly enjoyed the evening. On the 29th of may we had our annual formal inspection. Sqn Ldr Gray visited the squadron in order to assess how well it functions, looking at everything from the drill to the projects such as aeromodelling and media. the night started with and inspection of uniform, followed by a march-past. After this the PR equipment and robotics project were showcased at the HMS Scotia drill deck. The inspection then moved to the MOD Caledonia playing fields in order to demonstrate the RC flying project, followed by a tea break in the squadron. After this the rest of the projects were inspected starting with flight sim and ending with music. This was followed by final parade and the end of the night.
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