RANK SWAP CHALLENGE FOR 1066 SQUADRON CADETS

BY CDT SGT SAMUEL JAMES
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For the cadets of 1066 (Hitchin) Squadron, Monday 11^th February was certainly an upside-down parade night. The squadron ran its first ever rank swap event. For the evening, nine lucky cadets had the opportunity to be cadet NCOs themselves. The actual cadet NCOs had the chance to relive their old cadet past and took off their own rank slides for the night.

The rank-swapping NCOs had the enormous task of taking on their squadron NCOs jobs and roles including getting the cadets on parade, doing First Parade, taking drill, teaching lectures and even coping with a practise fire drill. Cdt Henry Wisdom (15) who played the role of Cadet Sergeant said “the evening gave a chance for the cadets to step into the shoes of the NCOs. It showed me just how difficult it is to be an NCO and definitely made the cadets realise what fantastic NCOs they have and take for granted”.

Event organiser Sgt Samuel James (17) said “the cadets who were NCOs for the night performed extremely well considering some of them haven’t even been in the ATC for very long. Thanks also to Flt Sgt Stockwell (17) and Plt Off Fox for their help, without it, the evening would not have been such a success”. Cdt Charlotte Hunt (14) who played the part of Cadet Flt Sgt, remarked that the evening was “a well organised evening and thoroughly enjoyed by all who took part”.

Cadets in the swap included (with their ranks for the evening):

Front row: FS Charlotte Hunt, CWO Daisy Buck
Centre row: Sgt Henry Wisdom, Sgt Conor Smith, Sgt Michael Barnes
Rear row: Cpl Holly Somerville, Cpl Katherine Swift, Cpl Oliver Martin, Cpl Abigail Edis