Combined Cadet Force
I still have a hard time explaining this to people who don't know what it is.
Essentially, kids are "voluntarily" put into this thing after school where they dress up in uniforms and berets and forced to do marching drills.
You then pick whether you want to do Army/Navy/RAF, and you get to do some shooting drills. Guns are brought into the school (without ammo) and kids are shown how to shoot.
Every year each group goes on a summer camp type excursion where they get to fire real weapons or fly gliders or something.
And that's it.
Did you go to a grammar school? I thought these were a grammar school only thing. If I recall, people had a choice to do CCF or other things, like sports clubs?
I went to Air Cadets (ATC), which was basically CCF but nothing at all to do with school. Had a great time! Shooting and flying (not at the same time) was really fun. And I'll never forget the moment where I was walking to a hut at RAF Leeming near a runway when holding two cups of tea, and a Tornado gave it the full beans to start to take off nearby. Think I felt every molecule in my body vibrate at that moment!
Oh nice! And yeah grammar school
How close were you to the plane?
This was a long time ago, but I'd say 400 or 500 metres? We were waiting in a hut near the runway so we could jump in a plane and do our flights, so it had to be fairly close. There was absolutetly nothing between myself and the runway other than grass and a taxi way, so close enough!
Did the tea's survive?