31 Tower Hamlets Squadron - Royal Air Force Air Cadets

3 SECTOR BRONZE TRAINING DAY

Cadets from 31 (Tower Hamlets) Squadron, as well as the rest of 3 Sector Squadrons and all participated in the Cadet Method of Instruction Course (CMOI), Leadership training , First Aid and Radio/Cyber.

From this event, many cadets were able to receive badges, complete qualifications and gain more experience and general proficiency.

We thank 9F (Islington) Squadron for allowing us to have the event in their squadron.

JACK PETCHEY

From our Squadron, Cpl Al-Alam, Cdt Fernandez, Cpl Court, Sgt Eltan, Sgt Ahmed and Sgt Rafique were all lucky enough to be chosen to attend the London Wing Jack Petchey Awards at Kensington Great Hall joined by many fellow cadets and CFAV, The annual awards ceremony is to recognise their outstanding achievements on and off the Squadron.

Huge well done to our Jack Petchey Winners, very well deserved and their hard work definitely paid off. Keep it up!

L98 LIVE FIRE TRAINING

Earlier this year, cadets from 31 (Tower Hamlets) Squadron attended a Live Firing Marksmaship Training (LFMT) shoot hosted by No 1 Sector on the L98 Semi-Automatic Rifle.

The cadets were split into 3 streams based on experience, on various ranges, to focus on different levels of training in order to achieve Trained Shot, Marksman, and Advanced Marksman badges. Our more experienced cadets also got the chance to help coach some of our more junior firers.

We want to thank Sector 1 for the opportunity and hope to our ongoing collaboration in future months in the run up to CISSAM 2024

Earlier this year, 31 Tower Hamlets Squadron said farewell to ( then ) Flying Officer Ed Simmonds as he stepped down from the Officer Commanding role. Having taken over the unit in 2022 as an NCO, he went on to gain his commission shortly after and has quickly adapted to what the OC role involves.

For his last night, we thought it best to hold a small awards ceremony which saw cadet’s being awarded for their hard work and determination from the previous year as well as some much deserved promotions. Well done to the current and new NCOs who have joined the NCO team :

Cadet to Corporal : Siddika and Robert’s
Corporal to Sergeant : Baluku and Rafique D
Sergeant to Flight Sergeant : Rafique A

We also chose to recognise the work of FS Morante ( 9F Islington Sqn ) WSSNCO 3 for all the support he has given us in developing and shaping the current NCOs we have on the unit, as well as providing assistance on a few activities and camps we’ve run previously. Thank you FS.

As it stands, WSC 3, Sqn Ldr De Gale-Coke has stepped in to act as OC31 as she trains Plt Off Khan to take over the Sqn and understand the different roles of an OC as well as the policies and guidelines.

We thank you Sir for all the work you’ve done over the past couple years and wish good luck in your new role as the Wing Shooting Officer.

RECRUIT INTAKE 2023

We are thrilled to announce the next recruit intake at 31 (Tower Hamlets) Squadron will be on Wednesday 27th September 2023!

We welcome new recruits aged 12 (Year 8) - 16 years old.

Please scan the QR code as shown above or click on the link below to fill in the joining form for our open evening.

We look forward to the opportunity of welcoming you to our Squadron and the wider Royal Air Force Air Cadets!

https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=y3LeFstyF0yt2ZBENpCsg0S0Lkc3zPJGvSc5F_zO5ptURVhZVVdaWUhGQzhTWFFWMjhIS0s3WDdNUC4u

AFI (Annual Formal Inspection)

Last Wednesday, the Wing Commander, Wing Warrant Officer and our Sector Commander visited 31 (Tower Hamlets) Squadron for our annual formal inspection.

They began by inspecting uniform standards, followed by watching over some of our daily activities whilst engaging with the cadets and NCOs to hear their thoughts and plans for the squadron.

This was the first AFI for our most recent intake and we were able to award almost all of them their leading badges! We applaud them for completing their exams so early on in their cadet careers and for the efforts into their uniform despite a large sum only receiving their sizes the parade night prior.

We were also proud to make some promotions to the SNCO team! Ensure to see our “up the ranks” highlight in the days to come.

DUKE OF EDINBURGH’s EXPEDITION: PRACTICE

Last weekend, CI Miah exercised his newly-awarded “Lowland Leader Qualification” and took a group of 15 cadets on a practice expedition for their bronze award.

Supported by APO Khan and APO Bailey, CI Miah and the team made use of the orienteering skills taught to the cadets during parade nights as they enjoyed tremendous views through the outskirts of London.

We hope all cadets enjoyed the experience and continue to persevere through to complete their awards!

Recruit Crowborough Camp!

Last weekend cadets and staff from 31 (Tower Hamlets), 9F (Islington) and 48F (Hampstead) Squadrons attended our annual Recruit Crowborough Camp which sees recruits pass out of the initial training phase of joining the Squadron and transition into becoming 1st Class cadets.

The camp program saw 96 cadets progressing through various development exercises such as Leadership, Obstacle Course, First Aid, Stretcher Run, Observation, Shooting, Drill, Archery and Navigation in the aim of preparing for the London Wing Inness Sword Competition.

Congratulations to the below individuals for their following achievements:

Rct (now) Cdt Gooch - Top Overall Male Recruit

Rct (now) Cdt Halim - Top Overall Female Recruit

Rct (now) Cdt Andrijaitis - Highest score in 1st Class Test

Promotion to Sergeant: Cdt Sgt Khan

Promotion to Corporal: Cdt Cpl Eltan

Promotion to Corporal: Cdt Cpl Tsegai (9F)

Cadet Warrant Officer Edwards is currently undertaking the Air Cadet Junior Leaders course 23. As part of this course he is raising money for The John Thornton Young Achievers Foundation (JTYAF).

The CWO is climbing 5 of the most challenging and well known mountains in the lake district from the 6th to the 12th March.

Please see the link below for more information:
https://gofund.me/6497b21d

Any donations are extremely appreciated!

The John Thornton Young Achievers Foundation Air Cadet Junior Leaders Royal Air Force Air Cadets

On Friday we held our Annual Awards evening and final engagement of 2022. A number of cadets were presented awards and presented back to the squadron on a number of activities from 2022.
Congratulations to the following;

AWARDS

• Best Cadet - Hoque
• 31 Goldstar (Leadership) - Edwards
• Bandsman/ instrumentalist - Court
• Sportsman - Randrijaitis
• Sportswoman- Thornton
• Drill - Siddika
• Shooting - Khan
• Endeavour - Yirtici
• Additional leadership awards - Adam - Rafique

We also reflect on the last 12 months at 31 and what Tower Hamlets Air Cadets offers. Over the last 12 months we have been busy!

EXPERIENCES

• Had cadets both flying and gliding

• Reintroduced Road marching to our syllabus and lead london wings Nijmegen team

• Had cadets shooing small and full bore on 25m indoors, barrack and long ranges

• Competed at CISSAM and successfully placed in winning categories, 2nd overall

• Had personnel attend national camps including;

- AIr Cadet Leadership Course
- Drill & Ceremonial Camp
- National Aerospace Camp
- Junior Leaders Course

•Awarded over 300 Progressive Training Syllabus badges. Many the first since 2019, some include;

- Over 25 Road Marching badges (at blue bronze and silver)
- Over 60 marksmanship badges (bronze and silver)
- Over 40 Leadership (blue bronze silver and gold)
- Over 40 First Aid (blue bronze and silver)
- 4x Cadet 50 badges
- 3x Corps Blues

• Sent over 100 cadets on residential Squadron and Wing camps. Either on defence training estate or week long camps at RAF Cosford & RAF Brize Norton

• Over 90 representations in wing competitions such as the Inness Sword, Foot drill and banner drill, 6-a-sides and cross country.

DEVELOPMENT

• We’ve maintained the largest continual cadet strength in 31s history

• Improved our cadet retention

Finally, as a staff team we have introduced or developed;

• 1 new Officer
• 2 new Sergeants
• 12 new Applicant/ probationary Civilian Instructors
• a new treasurer
• 2 new Obstacle course supervisors
• 2 new archery instructors
• 1 new Skill at Arms Instructor
• 2 new D1 drivers
• 3 new Activity First Aiders
• seen 5 dangerous good and storeman trained
• seen 3 attended introduction to DofE course

We’re excited to see what 2023 has in store for 31 Tower Hamlets Squadron..

Tower Hamlets Air Cadets have been out in force this weekend on a number of ceremonial duties.

On Saturday 31 were bearing the London Wing banner on behalf of the wing at the Lord Mayors Show in Central London and at the Royal Albert Hall for the festival of remembrance;
On Sunday, cadets were at Whitehall for the Cenotaph service, in Mile End for a local service and the Squadron’s band led Hackney boroughs main Remembrance Day parade.

Fantastic effort to those who turned out representing their Squadron and the wider RAF Air Cadet organisation.

Congratulations to Cpl Rafiuqe, Cdts Khan, Rafique and Robert’s who were awarded their Cadet 50 marksmanship badges last night.

3️⃣1️⃣ A MAGNIS AD MAIORA 3️⃣1️⃣

Last night Tower Hamlets Air Cadets and staff returned from the Cadet Inter-Service Skill at Arms Meeting (CISSAM) where we competed in a series of matches against other Air, Army and Sea cadet teams from across the Nation.
We are delighted with our teams performance and happy to announce the flowing results

• 1st - Rifle Pairs match🥇🏆
• 2nd - Defence match🥈
• 3rd - Advance & Reorg match🥉
• 3x Cdts in top 12 RAFAC shooters in Tri-Service team (earning Corp blues) 🏅
• 4x Cadet 50’s 🏅
• Semi finalists - falling plates competition
• RAFAC 1st - tri-service comp🥇🏆
• 2nd - Top RAFAC Team🥈
• 2nd - (overall) Champion unit 🥈

Furthermore, the London Air Cadets scooped awards and/ or Trophies in all matches and left with an impressive 20 cadet 50’s (awarded to the highest scoring cadets from across all 3 cadet forces), 11 Corp blues (awarded for National representation).

Huge congratulations to:
• 241 Wanstead & Woodford Squadron for their impressive number of awards including 1st place - Champion unit (overall winners)
• 34F Balham & Tooting Squadron for their outstanding debut-CISSAM results, trophies and overall 4th place.

Safe to say that London Wing - Royal Air Force Air Cadets smashed CISSAM ‘22 🏆👌🏼

Regional Commandant LASER Air Cadets
London & South East Region Air Cadets
Greater London Reserve Forces' & Cadets' Association
Commandant Air Cadets
Council for Cadet Rifle Shooting

In August a number of Tower Hamlets Air Cadets set to the skies for practical air experience in the Air Cadet’s own Grib Viking T1 winch-launched glider for the first time since returning from covid stand down.
During their flights, cadets put to practice some of the theory aviation training covered in the aviation package whilst under the instruction and supervision of their pilots.
Thank you to OC 637 and his teams for the opportunity.
637 Volunteer Gliding Squadron
621 Volunteer Gliding Squadron
London Wing - Royal Air Force Air Cadets

Tower Hamlets Air Cadets recently from annual camp at RAF Brize Norton having spent a week gaining a comprehensive oversight of Royal Air Force roles, careers and service life in general.
During a number of on-station section visits, the cadets got up close with all things aviation including several serving aircraft, engineering, the RAF’s parachute training wing, Air Traffic Control, Police section, the services Air Terminal (including a tour of its security equipment) as well as the stations custody cells. Cadets also got hands on with the station fire section, personal trainers and a number of other sections including survival equipment specialists and their equipment.
Throughout the week cadets from Tower Hamlets and other units from accross London got to engage with serving personnel in various roles around the Royal Air Force. A fantastic week was had by all, another enjoyable week indeed.
London & South East Region Air Cadets
London Wing - Royal Air Force Air Cadets
Regional Commandant LASER Air Cadets
Commandant Air Cadets
RAF Brize Norton
Royal Air Force

SNCO STAFF INITIAL COURSE
01/08/2022 - 05/08/2022

Our very own Sergeant Kovac recently attended the week-long SSIC at RAF College Cranwell.

Sergeant Kovac was trained to undertake leadership roles in accordance to the 22GP Defence System Approach to Training (DSAT), as well as receiving a Level 3 Qualification from the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM).

Before returning as a Cadet Forces Adult Volunteer (CFAV), Sergeant Kovac was a Cadet Warrant Officer here at 31 (Tower Hamlets) Squadron, boasting achievements such as winning the Corps Banner Drill Competition as Banner Bearer in 2019, achieving the Cadet-50 award at CISSAM, and being granted the Dacre Sword by the Air Commandant in 2018. Since ageing out of the ATC, Sergeant Kovac has been eager to return as a CFAV and has proven his capabilities through completing this course.

Massive congratulations to you!

AIR CADET LEADERSHIP COURSE

Last week, Cadet Sergeant Ali attended the Air Cadet Leadership Course at RAF College Cranwell.

The week-long course is the pinnacle of leadership in the corps, consisting of 3 intensive phases with each phase increasing in difficulty. Leaders were tested on their ability to plan, initiate, control, support and evaluate their team as they executed a series of command tasks each day.

Sergeant Ali was delegated Course Leader on the first day, and being further nominated by his flight to lead Exercise Top Dog as part of the final phase.

The course ended with a graduation parade where the cadets were stationed in front of the renowned College Hall and awarded their Gold Leadership badges.

We applaud Sergeant Ali on his efforts and hope he can demonstrate his leadership skills in future exercises to come!

Cadets and staff from 31 (Tower Hamlets) Squadron recently joined other London-Wing Squadrons
on a week-long fieldcraft exercise in Bramley.

Cadets engaged in battle drills and were given an insight to living out in the field: being taught hand signals, how to strip a rifle in the field, and how to carry out patrols. Cadets were even given the chance to fire blanks and had a simulation of an enemy ambush!

We hope it was an enjoyable experience and look to see more fieldcraft opportunities to come.