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Staffordshire & West Midlands ACF
Staffordshire and West Midlands (North Sector) ACF continues to be successful in attracting young people from within the County structure who have an interest in the Military way of life, despite a future of uncertain levels of Defence funding and a period of economic adversity.
We remain the largest ACF County in the Brigade and can be rightly proud of our achievements to date. We encourage our cadets and Adult Instructors to wear their uniform with pride, remembering that the Regular and Territorial Army are thin on the ground, and whether they are bag packing at their local supermarket or helping out the British Legion, we are now often the only “military” footprint in our local community.
County Headquarters located inside Beacon Barracks, Stafford, is made up
of 4 Companies, each averaging 10 Detachments with Company Headquarters located at Walsall, Wolverhampton, Stafford and Stoke on Trent. Ten of these detachments take particular pride in wearing the Mercian Eagle.
As part of a very busy training programme during 2011, many Cadets have been involved in both Military and Civil activities and have given a good account of themselves wherever they have appeared.
Annual Camp is the highlight of the Cadets’ year and this year over 650 cadets, Officers and Adult Instructors visited Okehampton Training Camp to take part in exhilarating, fun and challenging
Raft Building Annual Camp Roadford Lake
adventurous training activities and military exercises for their annual summer camp. The cadets, aged 12 to 18 years old,
had the opportunity to try out kayaking, sailing, raft building, mountain biking and
a chance to negotiate around a high wire obstacle course at nearby Roadford Lake. In between white-knuckle activities, cadets practiced their first aid skills, map and compass reading, rifle shooting, and archery along with their military knowledge and safe weapon handling tests before spending days out on field training exercises.
The cadets, under the supervision of adult instructors, lived under canvas in ‘bashas’ and barns when not in camp, and ate food cooked by themselves from 24-
hour ration packs.
Commandant of Staffordshire & West
Midlands ACF, Colonel Kim Knutton from Tamworth said, “It has been an excellent annual camp. The weather was favourable, the food delicious and the training extensive. The cadets and adult instructors alike have had a great time and we are already looking forward to next year’s camp at Warcop. Looking after all these young people is a challenging task and I’m really grateful to the adult volunteers and permanent staff who give up their time so generously for our future citizens.”
Cadets from A Company based in Walsall took centre stage during Walsall’s Flag Raising Ceremony for the third year
THE MERCIAN EAGLE
Cadets’ Lorien Tear (15) and Mitzi Ina (15) from Wolverhampton detachment and Cadet Conor Benton