Page 8 - GM Wing 2020 Yearbook

A Parade Night with Commandant Air Cadets

During a recent Virtual Parade cadets from 145 Squadron sat down with Commandant Air Cadets

Air Commodore Tony Keeling , an Ex 145 Cadet.

If you could go back and give yourself some advice as a cadet, what would it be?

Apply yourself at school

What was the best opportunity that you had as an Air Cadet?

The USP of the Air Cadets – Flying at RAF Woodvale

What experience did you have as a cadet that made you join the RAF?

Whilst on camp as an Air Cadet, he worked alongside a regular on a Jet Provost and then saw it flying.

What made you want to join the Air Cadets?

Living near Manchester Airport and seeing aircraft flying around every day

How will your experience as a cadet influence the decisions you make for the organisation as its
Commandant?

The focus has to be on the cadets. He has to ensure that we deliver the best experience that we can, given the
resources that we’ve got and every decision he makes has to ensure that the cadets get the best possible
opportunities and the best value for money, given the budgetary constraints that will be imposed upon us. He
has to make life as simple and burden free for the volunteers to enable them to spend their time delivering and
not doing paperwork. We have a wide variety of activities available across the organisation and we’re now
looking at Cyber and Space, etc but can’t keep chucking stuff in, without making sure we have the resource to
deliver it.

How different was the Air Cadet organisation back when you
were a cadet compared to now?

It lacked the organisational design that it has nowadays and
now we have a more professional offering. Everything seemed
to happen a bit by accident, according to the experience and
interest of the staff that we had on the Sqn. We now have a
structure and a proper syllabus, leading to recognised
qualifications, etc.

What did you learn in the Air Cadets that helped you in later
life?

Really it’s a cumulative effect of everything that you do in the
cadets and you don’t realise it until afterwards. You will only be
able to spot it later in life when you find yourself in an
environment with people that weren’t cadets and you’ll start
to see the difference and realise that all of the leadership and
communication skills that you learned really start to pay off
and give you a competitive edge.