AIR FORCE CADETS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 66, 15 September 1941, Page 5

AIR FORCE CADETS

OPENING RALLY

CEREMONY AT RONGOTAI

TRAINING TO START

About 350 youths between the ages of 16i and 18 years, who are to become members of the newlyinstituted Air Training Corps, assembled at Rongotai Air Station on Saturday afternoon for the first raUy of its kind in the Dominion. The boys were addressed by the Officer Commanding the Station, Wing Commander White, who presided at the ceremony, by the Air Member for Personnel, Group Captain S. Wallingford, and by the Director of Educational Services, Mr. E. Caradus. Because of the wet weather the ceremony was held inside, and the Air Force Band, which was to have given a marching display had the weather permitted, enlivened proceedings with some selections. The boys, who are of a very fine stamp, will commence a period of preentry training lasting about 18 months. They will be trained as pilots, observers, gunners, flight mechanics, riggers, and wireless operators,, and so on for the R.N.Z.A.F., and as pilots and observers for the Fleet Air Arm. They will undergo physical training by officers of the Physical Welfare Branch of the Department of Internal Affairs. Similar corps have been formed in the other main centres, and Wellington is the first to start its training. Squadron Leader P. E. Hudson, of Air Headquarters, is acting as commanding officer of the corps. The boys will in due course be{ equipped with uniforms of the air service pattern, and will be given badges to wear in their lapels. In a brief welcome to the boys, Wing Commander White said that the establishment of the Air Training Corps marked a new and important stage in the history of the R.N.Z.A.F. He referred to the importance of every man's job in the Air Force. The maintenance side was equally as important as that of the pilot, he said. It took ten men on the ground to keep one pilot in the air, and they had to be well trained and capable. ANOTHER EMPIRE LINK. ■ Group Captain S. Wallingford said that • with the. establishment of the Air Training Corps in New Zealand, they had succeeded in.linking the Dominion with those other countries of the Empire which had combined to create a junior Empire Air Training Scheme. "The object of the corps," .he said, "is to give you an insight into the work and life of the Air Force. At the same time it will provide you with an opportunity of training in groups according to your inclinations, to enable you to qualify for service in the R.N.Z.A.F. or the Fleet Air Arm, when you reach the age of enlistment. "You will appreciate that the corps will expect you to aim at a high standard of efficiency. This cannot be achieved without serious devotion to your tasks and some sacrifice of your, leisure hours, fand in entering upon your" training ;I would ask you to be firm in your resolve to see the job through. ,■$ .* • .. • "Among your number are many who have had little or no opportunity of acquiring any post-primary education, and I would appeal to those who are more fortunately placed to make every endeavour to assist their fellow-members in becoming fully efficient in all that they undertake." Group Captain Wallingford.said tha"t the need of the service was for men who were capable and willing to accept a large share of responsibility. , In accepting service with the corps they would soon appreciate that paramount importance was attached to the necessity of developing individual initiative, tor the Air Force demanded a high degree of judgment in all its members. One of the important aspects of training would be the attainment and maintenance of a physical standard which would enable them to measure up to the task which might some day be required' of them. OPPORTUNITIES FOR "STUDY.

.."Many of you are already busily engaged in studying for examinations in which both your parents and yourselves will be anxious that you achieve success," continued the speaker. "Much of the work you will be called upon to do will prove of assistance in preparation for these examinations, and it should be possible for you to give adequ%te time to your corps training without hampering the success ojf your outside examinations.

"I hope that you will bring, credit upon yourselves and your squadron by becoming fully efficient members of the corps. I would! also charge you, as the young brothers of the Air Force, to uphold the dignity of the service, not only in the classroom and on the parade ground, but in the more important sphere of your daily life. By your example you will demonstrate your fitness to become a member of a service which, if not old in tradition, has won the right to rank among the proudest in. the Empire."

The boys were later given afternoon tea in the mess, and shown the training school.