Army Cadets

[TiredBefuddledRose]

Hello, my 13 year old daughters are planning to join the army cadets, it's their first visit with the platoon tonight and parents have to go along for this one too.
I was wondering if anyone on here has any experience of teens in the army cadets, any highlights or pitfalls?
What sort of ongoing costs am I looking at?
Any questions I should ask at the induction tonight?

Thankyou in advance!

One of ours has been going for almost 2 years and really enjoys it.

Our weekends away are very cheap, £5 for a Friday-Sunday. Summer camp is £50 for a week. Boots are the only other expense really, which are between £35-60.

Have no obvious safe guarding concerns, but I guess you can never be entirely certain
Sexes are segregated at overnight camps, with harsh consequences for breaches. Obviously not much can be done about same sex dalliances... I've not heard any horror stories from mine.

Those who really apply themselves seem to thrive.

I was in the sea cadets 2001-2014, first as a cadet, then an adult instructor.

I found it a great opportunity, with trips and experiences I’d have never been able to do otherwise (cultural exchange to Hong Kong, tall ship sailing etc).

I had no safeguarding concerns as either a cadet or adult.

My 14 year old DS is an army cadet. He joined a 18 months ago and loves it. It's done amazing things for his confidence and his leadership skills. It's really cheap compared to other activities. Just £20 for the kit and then we had to buy his boots. Weekends away are normally about £12/15 from Friday evening until Sunday evening and last years summer camp was £90 for 13 days!! This included a full day at Thorpe Park and exclusive entrance to military museums. It's a great way to form a wide range of friends from all around your area and take part in activities that wouldn't be generally available. It's a great way to participate in the DofE too - they're really supportive of this and positively encourage it if the cadet is interested.
The other big plus is that parental participation is definitely not expected or needed (certainly in my area) unlike other groups!!

DS does it through school and loves it. Far better safeguarding than when he went to bloody Cubs.
No pressure to join the forces. He went on an overnight and was freaked out at shooting guns (he cried at one point) and said the leaders were lovely to him about it. He had a whale of a time.

Never felt any ‘indoctrination’ although the adult instructor who were ex forces were very honest with anyone interested in joining up about what you needed fitness and attends wise.They were really helpful and safety was always first especially if you got firearms.

I work with cadets across all 3 services. Safeguarding is paramount. The amount of training we deliver to CFAVs( cadet force adult volunteers) as well as the permanent support staff on safeguarding is massive! Actually,to the extent that it hinders some opportunities for the youngsters because of the amount of red tape and hoops we have to jump through.
In terms of joining the Armed Forces,very few cadets go on and do this. Less than 5%. They are not pressured to at all. In fact we work very hard to "distance" cadets from the senior Armed Forces and adult recruiting teams are forbidden from engaging at Cadet events. Cadets is life changing for many youngsters and we have youngsters from all walks of life and backgrounds. For some,cadets becomes their family and summer camp is the only holiday they ever have. Happy to answer any questions.

My son is 15 (16 in the summer) and is currently a competitive athlete. He is looking to leave his sport to concentrate on his studies but enjoys dedicating his time to something worthwhile and working towards something. There is an Air cadets near us and it's something that interests him but he's worried he's too old or it would be harder for him to integrate with the group. Any advice??

It's a wee bit more unusual for someone to join at 16, as he will "age out" at 18 so only have 2 years as a cadet. Some younger cadets will out rank him which he might find odd. However,it is by no means unheard of and he will be made very welcome. He will have the chance to stay on after 18 as an instructor and believe me,he will be most welcome in that role! Giving back to the younger cadets as a volunteer instructor when he turns 18 will be much appreciated.
But even if he doesnt want to do that,he should give it a try. Cadets are involved in all sorts of sports and he would be able to compete for his squadron or encourage the younger ones

That's really interesting Hedjwitch thank you. He currently volunteers as an unqualified coach at a local amateur club for his sport so I think would enjoy an opportunity to continue volunteering. I don't think he would be bothered about younger cadets outranking him either.

It's certainly food for thought and I'm pleased to hear you think it isn't out of the question. Thank you for the insight! We will look into it more with our local cadets

Does no-one see anything wrong in putting children in military uniform and giving them guns?

My DS has been in Army cadets since he was 13 (he's now 16). He loves it. Weekends away training on fieldcraft and DoE walks. He also had an opportunity to do Ten Tors. Next week he's training the newly joined cadets.

He's learnt so much like first aid and other things and last year he made us proud by carrying the flag at the Remembrance Day parade. He looked so smart in his uniform.

It's been great for him as he loves the structure and he's been promoted as well.

I agree it's very good value for money.

Within a controlled environment no.
they are taught to handle guns properly within extremely controlled environments. It’s just a shooting range. No different to the Olympic Team. That’s how they learnt at the same shooting ranges.

In a controlled environment and with trained instructors - no.

No. Not at all. It’s very controlled and safety is the absolute priority. DS has his own air rifle and he is very safe and sensible with it even though he’s only allowed to use it under supervision. DS has done the safety test they have to do about 7 times in a year and a half. Army cadets teaches him to be responsible, a leader and a good citizen which can only be a good thing for today’s children.

Thankyou everyone.
The girls thoroughly enjoyed their induction last night and got to join in with some bits.
The Commander went through everything with us, all the costs seemed reasonable, safeguarding was very strict, he had to do his weekly check of the gun cabinet and let the 3 new kids watched, he also went through everything to the point I had no questions left when he asked me if I had any.
Also found out that they do vegetarian meals and ration packs which is great as both mine are vegetarians.

All in all a very positive experience and they can't wait to go back next week!

Excellent.

Whereas my firstborn joined cadets because he's desperate to join up, and I as a University educated middle aged adult have met enough ex squaddies who are confident, immaculately presented, have travelled the world for free, have made lifelong friends, and are disciplined, ambitious and successful in other careers now, to know that it's horses for courses and not everyone ends up dead or with MH problems. And certainly not while a cadet!

Brilliant! They'll have a ball, my two do. In fact they're leaving for camp again tonight!

Safeguarding is very different to 25 years ago. It's taken very seriously. That said this is aimed at teens where they can also start to share responsibility for themselves not little children so activities are pitched accordingly along with the supervision level

Glad the kids enjoyed it. I can only echo what other posters have said. My DS2 (13) was desperate to join but had to wait till year 8. He is away this weekend at Cadet Training Camp (mercifully only half an hour away from us) and its a bargain at £20. Summer camp is a week away and £80. Doing DofE with cadets is also cheap as chips. Uniform is free although whilst he was issued with second hand boots we bought him new ones as they were a bit uncomfortable. I only wish his brother were interested!

This was my first thought. I loved army cadets but there was a definite sexual dynamic that came out of older fit powerful men giving Orders to young attractive teenage girls. Frankly the situation was a turn on for both groups and this led to some very unhealthy and inappropriate relationships/situations.

I have huge respect for the Army, and will probably encourage my son to do cadet training, but I would be very worried about my daughter doing it and will try to persuade her to do something else instead. No matter how much safeguarding has improved (and some on this thread are very naive thinking it’s any better now than it used to be), having males and females doing physical tasks together in situations where Orders must be obeyed is asking for trouble. Look at the sexual abuse that still takes place in the regular Army.

I suppose activities like gymnastics and swimming have also had huge sexual abuse issues but I wouldn’t want DD to do them either.

What about a nice drama class instead OP 😬

Seriously I’m not saying don’t do it if she’s keen, but I am saying keep a very careful eye on who is in the group, and how they behave, and be extremely cautious about any overnight activity.

My ds does air cadets and it's been the making of him. He started at 12, is now 14 and he's obsessed with it.

He's gone from being a very average / overlooked child at school who didn't particularly excel in academics/ music / sport, to being a highly valued, confident leader, surrounded by a wonderful (mixed sex) group of extremely loyal friends.

What is so noticeable about the cadets is how calmly confident they are at just Getting Stuff Done. I'm a secondary school teacher so used to watching teens interactions with each other and I'm always blown away by the cadets' strong sense of capability, loyalty and confidence. Even when they're chilling in my living room eating pizzas the kindness and care they show to each other is beautiful. They are extremely diverse racially and 50/50 sex divide and none of that matters in the uniform IMO.

My DD was in the RAF Cadets it was amazing! So cheap compared to other hobbies and the stuff she did was incredible- camps and going flying and lots of charity work in our village. Loved it