Following a successful CCF Camp in Tangier Wood, Frant, reports have been written by Major Patterson, Staff Sergeant Holroyd and Cadet Mace, giving us three different perspectives on the week away.
On this year's annual camp, we decided to do something for our community and one of our cadets came up with the idea of a sponsored walk for Hospice of Hope, a charity that provides essential care for individuals facing terminal and life-limiting illnesses. Any money raised would support their work to ensure that patients and their families receive comfort, dignity, and the support they need during the most challenging times.
The route we followed was the Sussex leg of the Tunbridge Wells Circular walk as it went near the camp site. It is a 15 mile walk taking in Frant, Eridge Green, Groombridge, through Tunbridge Wells, and then to Hawkenbury and back to the camp. The two big hills were at the start of the walk so after four miles the going got easier.
Our Year 9s who were already on camp set off shortly after 8am, and the Year 10s to Upper Sixth arrived on camp from school and left at around 10.00am. Bedecked in orange high-vis vests and bright pink t-shirts, the cadets were easy to spot wandering around the countryside.
Navigation proved challenging for some of the groups, turning the wrong way out of the camp site, and most groups went wayward at some point during the day. All managed to find the various checkpoints for encouragement, food, water and toilet breaks.
It was a great opportunity for the cadets to rise to the challenge and, as well as successfully completing the walk, we managed to raise £3,396 for the charity.
Well done all.
For the TWGGS CCF Annual camp this year, the contingent headed down to Tangier wood in Frant. Our year 9s spent Monday to Wednesday learning and honing their skills that they have learnt in their first year of CCF. RSM Chilvers and SSM Mwesigwa stepped up into their newly allocated roles, helping organise and teach the younger cadets.
On Wednesday all cadets attending camp faced a 15-mile sponsored walk for Hospice of Hope, walking through Frant, Eridge, Groombridge and Tunbridge wells. This proved to be a challenge for everyone’s navigation skills! Along the way we encountered many cows, enjoyed the sights of Groombridge park and even made a brief pit stop at Sainsbury’s. After arriving back at camp that evening, we had a tour of our area, set up tents, cooked dinner and were given a lesson about women in leadership, and were told about our camp concert that we were to perform the next evening!
At 6.00am the next morning everyone was up and preparing breakfast, ready for the day ahead. By 9:00am our activities began, ranging from axe throwing to building 3D maps, to practising casualty evacuations. Later on we had lessons on sniper skills, learning about the difficult badge tests you must complete to become a sniper, such as the observation and navigation, and practising of shooting an airsoft rifle. Afterwards, these skills were used in small-scale, simplified tests as well as a stalk, where we tactically covered ground to then find a final position to shoot at a target. Overall, only two pairs passed all four tests, proving the difficulty a real sniper must face. That evening the first ever camp concert took place. On Wednesday evening, each section commander had chosen a category at random that their section would perform, and then together we all created a common theme to base the concert on. A mime, a play, jazz music and a magic show were picked, and we settled on the 15 mile walk as our theme. This was a brilliant team building task which caused a lot of laughter as various jokes were shared.
And then suddenly our last day came along, and the owner of the wood, Jordan, taught us a lesson on leadership and standards and values. After being in the army for 22 years, he had a whole host of stories as well as many wise words to share with us, giving us his real life experiences that proved the importance of the standards and values we aim to uphold. For our final activity, jungle camps were built by each section, including an A-frame bed, an emergency fire and signal fire, a water filter and collector and a gill fishing net, all within an hour and a half. However to make things more challenging, section commanders were the only people shown the exemplar jungle camp and taught how to build each component, and then when they returned to their sections they were not allowed to touch any of the equipment. This was an excellent command task teaching cadets how different people learn differently and how challenging it can be to purely rely on our words to teach.
Overall it was an excellent camp, with many valuable lessons learnt from the Tangier Wood staff (as well as our own officers) many laughs, and many challenges that were overcome and learnt from. Thank you to everyone who made it happen, and well done to all those who attended.
From airsoft to jungle survival, year 9 annual CCF camp has been an adventure to remember, whether it was learning about harbour areas or making friends along the way.
Day one was filled with OPs and Reconnaissance patrols, where we learnt that no matter what those we were observing we were doing, we should write it down, even if we wouldn't use half the information gathered in our notebook because, 'You will never know what could be important'. We re-learnt important hand signals that would be used many times when on exercises, specifically defensive positions like all-round defence and herringbone, which was a brilliant way to start a Monday, even if we were all tired and hot. The day ended with a final OP when we were having to find out what ‘the enemy’ were doing. We used what we learnt earlier in the day. We also found out early on that we were given terrible places to observe from, so we ended up relocating hoping to find better places so we could actually see. The experience was interesting, with gracious underplayings of age and interesting descriptions of people’s gaits, which were then presented to the officers, and which will definitely be remembered through our time in CCF.
Day two started with quick briefings on safety with airsoft, a lesson on tracking which once you learn you never forget, the exhilarating experience of creating signal fires which had to be lit under a time restraint of three minutes, and a quick example of jungle survival equipment. All of which we learn in a span of a few hours would end up being what we had to put to the test when we finished our lunch. Our first practical part of the day after lunch for my section was airsoft; I was given Roxanne, a perfectly zeroed out rifle which was the instructor's favourite. We revised the life saver drill, which became different once we had the rifle loaded and adrenaline coursing through our body. However, it was still an amazing experience! Afterwards, we learnt about harbour areas and found out we won’t be having festival tents anymore, but rather setting ourselves up in a triangular harbour while on overnight exercises in bashers, which most of us would have preferred while on camp because of the temperature during our stay. This was very different from the active parts of the afternoon and was a wonderful contrast in the cool cover of base camp, while being entertained and getting called out when we yawned. However, we were tested by Captain T to see if we could get sidetracked, and with some brilliant questions asked, we were able to do so in the first 15 minutes but quickly carried on with the lesson. We were then given two hours to build a jungle survival layout with an off the floor A-frame, a water filtration system, a rainwater catcher, and a signal fire which was ready to be lit. After dinner of some delicious Tops pizza, we used our skills we learnt in our harbour area lesson in a practical environment. Following that, we had an inspiring lesson on women in leadership, which really proved to us that we could do what we want when we put our minds to it, and we can go up against men in leadership roles and be twice as good.
Day three was our sponsored walk, so while we weren’t in MTP and completing tactical manoeuvres, we were still learning, learning to communicate, to be leaders, some more navigation and to never give up even if every woodland looks the same. We were walking the Sussex circuit with two hills, many checkpoints and delicious lunch, with lots of support from the staff. We couldn't have done the walk without their care and constant water bottle refills. We staggered back with sore legs, tired eyes and the excitement of going home and having a warm shower and a nice long sleep in our bed, just to have to wake up in the morning and go to school.
Thanks...
I just want to say thank you to the staff for all their support, whether it was filling up our water bottles, giving us the rat packs, teaching us lessons while keeping it entertaining - like Captain Tester’s pretty terrible jokes, and their constant pick me ups even when we felt like we were failing, because in cadets you can’t fail. Captain Capon-Russel told us during camp that, “Cadets isn’t teaching you to be in the army when you grow up, but rather life skills hidden in the activities we teach.”
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