West Scot Wing Newsletter

Transcription

1 I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E West Scot Wing Newsletter October - December 2014 Issue 42 The Newsletter of West Scotland Wing, Air Training Corps 327 Saves Christmas! Saves Christmas 2 Remembrance Parades 3 Air Cadet Dream comes true 4 Dining In Nights 5 Autumn Camp 6 Swimming Success for Cumbernauld Cadet Royal Mail wish to pass on their gratitude to Flt Lt Jamie Downie and Sgt (ATC) Michael Docherty for their help On Monday 22nd of December many areas of Kilmarnock woke up to severe flash flooding. One of the worst affected areas was the towns Queens Drive Retail Park, where businesses such as B&Q, Currys, Next, Asda and Royal Mail are located. With Christmas only a few days away, Royal Mail is at its busiest time of year and the flooding could not have come at a more inconvenient time. All roads to and from the delivery office where flooded, resulting in no deliveries to customers who were desperately waiting for their Christmas presents to arrive...until (Kilmarnock) Squadron kindly opened up its doors and let Royal Mail move in. The Parade hall was turned into a makeshift sorting office with royal mail employees working hard to ensure that the mail and packets got delivered that same day. The Parade Square accommodated 28 hire vehicles and tonne trucks. The whole operation was a Success and Royal Mail wish to pass on their gratitude to Flt Lt Jamie Downie and Sgt (ATC) Michael Docherty for their help throughout the course of the day. This wasn t their only good deed at Christmas though on Sunday 7th December 2014, 18 cadets from 327 (Kilmarnock) Squadron Air Training Corps along with 2 members of staff, Flight Lieutenant Jamie Downie and Flying Officer Craig Johnstone participated in the Annual Glasgow Santa Dash to raise monies for local good causes in Ayrshire. The day itself was bitterly cold, with snow falling, to the joy of all the Santas that took part! All had a great day and to top it off, we have raised over 2000 to be split equally between Samaritans Ayrshire and The Heather Stupart Fund at Clic Sergeant in Prestwick.

2 Page 2 Wing Newsletter Cadets and staff from across the Wing took part in a varity of parades on Remembrance Sunday, here is a selection of photos... We will Remember Left, pictures from the Glasgow Parade. Top Right, Kilmarnock Squadron. Bottom Right 1153 (Dumfries) Squadron paraded at the Lockerbie Memorial.

3 Wing Newsletter Page 3 Air Cadet Dream Come True Why boy who 'died' is walking on air. A brave teenager who survived a devastating cardiac arrest has had a dream come true after becoming an air cadet. Schoolboy Lewis Burns, 15, collapsed and "died" in his family living room after his heart stopped beating when he was just 10. Paramedics fought to bring him back to life, but his windpipe was damaged in the desperate attempt to save him. Tragically, Lewis from Knightswood, Glasgow, has been left unable to speak for five years and has to breathe through a hole in his throat. Specialists have implanted a miniature defibrillator in his heart to shock him back to life as he risks suffering another near-fatal episode. His dreams of growing up to become a pilot have been shattered because of his heart condition and loss of voice. But he is managing to live part of his dream after becoming a cadet in the Air Training Corps (ATC) based in Broomhill, Glasgow. "So joining the ATC is a great opportunity to achieve what he can on the ground. He has already 'flown' on a flight simulator and passed with flying colours. "The unit has been fantastic about welcoming him because he has a lot to offer." The determined fourth-year pupil at St Thomas Aquinas School, Jordanhill, is studying to gain entry to a design and engineering university course. His Mum Lynne has joined as a civilian committee member which allows her to be at the base in another room in case Lewis has a medical emergency. Story and picture courtesy of the Sunday Post DC Thomson & Co, Ltd. "Lewis is a huge fan of planes, flight and designing aircraft," said proud mum Lynne. "He would have done anything to train as a pilot but his serious heart condition and voice problems have destroyed that dream.

4 Page 4 Wing Newsletter Dining In Nights Then it was my turn 2175 (Rolls-Royce) squadron held their annual dining in night on the 22 nd November. The ceremony was held at the Watermill hotel in Paisley and was attended by cadets, staff, civilian committee members, visiting staff and cadets from other squadrons. After a three course dinner, commanding officer awards were presentedto those cadets who had excelled throughout the year. Most Squadrons have an annual Dining in Night with many taking place at the end or start of the year, in order to look back at all their successes. I was lucky enough to attend a few Air cadets from 1001 Monklands Squadron were rewarded for their efforts at the group s annual dinner and award ceremony in early November. There was a triple success for Corporal Ethan Hogg, who received the Gordon Cushly Memorial Shield, best attendance shield and the Commanding Officer s Medal. He was presented with his prizes by West Scotland Wing Commander James Haley at Airdrie Golf Club. Sporting stars Shannon McMullen and Magdalena Blajek shared the best female sports cadet award. Corporal Megan Burns and Sergeant Shannon Gray were jointly named as best female NCO s. Flight Sergeant Robbie McEwan won the equivalent male prize. Sergeant Megan Hunstone earned the Chairman s Trophy while Cadet Lee Wynne was named the best new recruit. The first award was the Attendance trophy which was collected by Cdt Jack Patton, followed by sports cadet Sgt Rae and Recruit of the Year Cdt Gilchrist. Junior Cadet of the Year was Cdt Anderson, Drill Efficiency went to Cdt Jack Patton and Cadet of the Year was Cpl Rae. CWO Adam won the NCO Leadership Trophy and the McConnell Trophy. This trophy is only given out in exceptional circumstances, which CWO Adam achieved by becoming the Best Cadet in Scotland & Northern Ireland Region (East Kilbride) held theirs next, fresh from taking 2 nd place at the Corps Drill comp.their annual dinner and awards ceremony took place at the East Kilbride Rugby club in Calderglen Country Park on Friday the 5 th of December. Cadets who successfully took part in the drill team were awarded medals for their efforts.

5 Wing Newsletter Page 5 Autumn Camp On the 18th of October 2014, sergeant Thomson and cadet Sinet travelled a long 7 hour journey from Wing HQ to RAFC Cranwell Autumn Camp, looking forward to a fun filled week of meeting new friends and taking part in exciting activities. Our first day at camp we had a day wandering around Duxford Museum, finding out about some really amazing aircraft, it was very interesting. When we returned to camp we went back to the JRM and then were divided into our flights (A flight and B flight) we then went to the gym and had inter flight competitions playing football, hockey and dodgeball and handball, where A flight left with the points! Monday was our first day in uniform, everyone got up early and changed into our wedgewood blues, for our first call of duty, the camp photo. We visited 45 squadron for our brief on the flights on the King Air aircraft. We also visited the fire section where we were taught about all the equipment on the fire engines and CWO Khan, 2452 squadron got his hands on the microphone and played "Ibbys hour on the hour" and played a song through the fire engine. After our tour of the engines, we got a shot of doing casualty rescuing wearing smoke goggles, that was interesting, there was lots of laughs and giggles as the cadets were falling about the place and almost killing the casualties. During this a group of 7 cadets got a 2 hour flight on the King Air, which they all seemed to enjoy. We did a little bit of drill practice for our competition at the end of the week. After dinner we went back to the gym for some more inter-flight competition. What an amazing camp, definitely one I would recommend to anyone! Tuesday was a full day of weapons training, where cadets trained on both the L98 A2 and.22 Rifle. The cadets fully trained in both weapons were not left out, we also got to practise our skills on the extra weapons we had. Once everyone was finished we returned to our accommodation for a movie and chill night, we all gathered in the hall and watched 22 jump street on the projector with munchies. Everyone had a great time and truly started to get to know each other. The next day we had another visit to 45 squadron and the Taj Mahal this time to find out what they do, and see the Puma aircraft and some lucky people also got some souvenirs off the aircraft. During this another 2 details got flying on the King Air. Thursday we spent the full day at RAF Digby to use the 25m range, unfortunately we didn't all get to do marksman shoots due to the lack of time, however well done to cadet Robinson (1089) who achieved her regional marksmanship. Later that night, corporal Reinhardt, corporal Laurie, corporal Bruff and sergeant Gray headed off to the officers mess and dined in luxury, whilst the rest of us got ready for got dolled up for the camp disco which was epic! Everyone had an amazing time. It was also sergeant (ATC) Dochetry's birthday, so he was presented with his cards and presents (tiger onesie, fake tan and a teddy) during the disco, we also handed out our paper plate awards, some of which were very funny! The next morning we were getting ready to depart and did our final parade, where we found out the winning flight... A flight! We then packed our stuff onto the bus and got ready to leave, everyone felt the camp blues as we left the base. What an amazing camp, definitely one I would recommend to anyone! Amazing camp & long lasting memories.

6 Page 6 Wing Newsletter Swimming Success for Cumbernauld Cadet Cumbernauld Air Cadet Crae Stevenson (15) competed in the recent West Scotland Wing Swimming Championships, Scotland and Northern Ireland Regional swimming championships and the Inter Region Air Cadet National swimming championships held at RAF Cranwell, Lincolnshire and has won a haul of medals for swimming in 3 competitions. Crae represented 2496 Cumbernauld Squadron Air Cadets and competed against cadets of his own age from another 29 squadrons in the wing. Crae won 2 gold medals for the freestyle and individual medley events and a silver medal for the breaststroke discipline. Crae was then selected to represent Scotland Wing at the Regional swimming championships on the 21st September where he competed against the best swimmers from Air Cadet Wings all over Scotland and Northern Ireland and won silver at this event. In October Crae was selected to represent the Scotland and Northern Ireland Region at the Corps championships at the home of RAF Officer training at RAF Cranwell in Lincolnshire where he won gold in the 4 x 50 metre freestyle event making him the best cadet in the UK for his age. Squadron Commander Flight Lieutenant Stevie Cairns RAFVR(T) said. "Crae has recently transferred to us here at Cumbernauld and has already shown himself to be an extremely able and sporty cadet. His achievements are remarkable. I wish him well in his next swimming completion where he will hopefully be best in the best in the UK when he swims for the National Air Cadet team against the best from the Army and Sea Cadets. Submissions Thank you to everyone who submitted articles for this edition. The next edition of the newsletter will be published in April Submissions can be ed to media.wscot@aircadets.org. West Scotland Wing ATC HQ, The Cadet Centre, Paisley TAC, 65 Hawkhead Road, Paisley, PA1 3NE, media.wscot@aircadets.org A Recognised Scottish Charity- No SC025823