News

July 18th 2013

Swadlinote Cadet Warrant Officer Charlie Hughes named Best Female air cadet in South and East Midlands

Last Sunday saw Air Cadets from 29 units across Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Northamptonshire dawn on RAF Wittering, Cambridgeshire for their annual Wing Field Day Competition, where Swadlincote’s own, Cadet Warrant Officer (CWO) Charlie Hughes (19) was presented with a Trophy for the Best Female Cadet in the South and East Midlands area.

South and East Midlands Wing Field Day is broken down into several small competitions covering specialist activities, such as: first aid, drill (marching), Aircraft Modelling, Media Communications, Shooting, Banner Drill alongside many more activities throughout the day.

Although, we did not win the overall competition, Swadlincote Air Cadets were able too come 6th out of the 29 units taking part in the Drill and Media competition and also came away with one of the biggest trophies of the day for coming 1st in an orienteering competition based around a set of questions produced by our Wing Padre.

Upon being presented with this prestigious award, CWO Charlie Hughes says “I was really not expecting this award at all, but it was a great feeling being awarded with this,along with a big trophy, to mark my achievements to date within the corps.”

CWO Hughes joined the Squadron (Sqn) in 2007 and has since been successful in completing all her cadet academic training achieving a BTEC in Aviation Studies, equivalent to 2 GCSE Grades A*- C and qualifying as a Cadet Instructor, being presented with her yellow lanyard and also rising through the Cadet Non Commisioned Officer (NCO) ranks, reaching Cadet Warrant Officer (CWO) which is the highest rank a cadet can achieve. CWO Hughes achievements also include a BTEC First Diploma in Public Services (also equivalent to 2 GCSEs A*-C), ILM Level 3 in Leadership, has successfully completed Nijmagen which is a 100 mile march over four days in Holland, has spent 2 weeks in Turkey as part of the International Air Cadet Exchange (IACE) and is also currently part of the Squadron Band and working through her Silver Duke of Edinburgh Award.

1211 (Swadlincote) Squadron opens its doors four times a year to prospective new cadets, male and female aged between 13 – 17. For more information on joining the air cadet organisation in your area, please contact the Squadron Commander, Flight Lieutenant Alyn Thompson at oc.1211@aircadets.org or by phone on (01283) 212629 or visit the Squadron website at http://www.1211sqn.org.uk/