Page 92 - MERCIAN Eagle 2011

Lordswood Boys’ School CCF
The Contingent continues to thrive and grow. We now have all four service sections since we became the first state school in the country to have a Royal Marines section. Another local secondary school has also become involved as a partner, bringing the total to four schools. The Army section were again fortunate enough to have their nomination for a place on the Royal Canadian Army Cadet exchange accepted and LCpl Raad Asmael spent a very exciting seven weeks in Canada over the summer holidays. Coxwain Gareth Collins from the Naval
section was selected to be the CCF
Lord Lieutenants Cadet for the West Midlands. Our partnership with the JROTC at East Boston High School has matured and I led a party of five cadets over for our first visit in January 2011. We were hosted exceptionally well and visited many of the battle sites where
the antecedent regiments fought in the American War of Independence. This visit paved the way for eight cadets and two adults to participate in the week long Commonwealth of Massachusetts Army League Cadet Leadership Camp (AKA summer camp). The girls and boys had
a great time and made lifelong friends. The Corps of Drums goes from
strength to strength. Fund raising has meant that we are well on our way to fitting out ten drummers in full scarlet uniforms. Lt Col (Retd) Dougie Bridges has volunteered his time once a week to come down and instruct the Corps not just in music but also in the finer points of drill. The drummers trained alongside the drummers from 4 Mercian prior to their most prestigious performance so far, at the Mercian Officers Dinner Night at Sandhurst. The cadets involved will never forget the standing ovation they received. The plan for the next twelve months is to raise enough money to send the Corps to march in the Boston 4th July parade 2012.
Many readers may have seen the contingent on BBC Panorama in February 2011. Participating in the programme was a risk and all involved were very nervous about the outcomes. In the end we were generally pleased with the resulting programme and any ‘spin’ by the BBC was positive rather than negative.
Major Neil Mackintosh
COD on Old College steps
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Denstone College CCF
This has been a most eventful year, with a lot of successful activities. It was pleasing
to start with last year’s senior cadet, WO2 Georgia Rought Whitta winning “best cadet” in her platoon on the UK Cadet Leadership Course, at Frimley CTC. At the beginning
of September we were the winning CCF
in the Brigade Skill at Arms Meeting, with Sgt Dan Hartley and Cpl Charlotte Kiely winning the best cadet pair. In March our night exercise at Leek Training area was
a first for Denstone as we had a puma helicopter from 230 Sqn RAF, which allowed a night insertion onto the training area, a rare privilege for cadets. In April the new recruits had their first chance to use the Cadet
Rifle, on which they had spent so much
time training and testing. After blank firing exercises and a shoot on the range, most cadets were very pleased with their success. Some of the shooting was encouragingly accurate, which is promising for future shooting competitions. One of these
took place at Kingsbury Ranges, where
we were the winning CCF at the Brigade Cadet Target Rifle competition, team members were: Cpl Charlie Billings, Cpl Jak Abrahams, Cpl James Longman and Sgt Tom Cammack, our cadets shot particularly well at 500yds, hitting the 10 inch bull very frequently. This was followed by our first ever shoot at Stickledown ranges at Bisley over a
Denstone College CCF at Longmoor
distance of 900 and 1000yds. This was an entirely new experience for all, including the staff; we look forward to performing even better next year.
The highlight of the year was the annual CCF Army Central Camp at Longmoor,
in Hampshire. After a wet week prior the weather could have gone either way, but we were lucky to have had no rain at all and not too much oppressive heat either. A wide variety of activities were covered, with the highlights being the two night exercises, paintballing Close Quarter Battle (CQB)
lane, shotgun shooting, kayaking, and winning two of the three trophies available on the competition day. Denstone College CCF is thriving. This year’s senior cadet is WO2 Harry Moran. In the last few days we were pleased to welcome Lt Col A Layton MBE (3 Mercian), current CO of BUOTC as inspecting officer for our 2011 Biennial Inspection, with 3 Mercian RST assisting. Contingent Commander:
Lt Col R C Menneer
School Staff Instructor:
WO 1 K J McCammon
THE MERCIAN EAGLE