On November the 28th four NCOs took part in the Porirua Citizenship Ceremony (CPL Daniel Hawinkels, CPL Tere Ngaro, CPL Nikki Hurnen, and me)

I’ve been to a few citizen parades already. Normally held in Pataka Art and Museum, Citizenship Ceremonies are where new Citizens of New Zealand take an oath to finalise their process towards Citizenship. The ATC provide support for the official party which includes the Mayor of Porirua City (His Worship Nick Leggett) and other high profile distinguished guest. Our main role is to hand out native plants to each recipient and guard the official party.

My favorite part of the ceremony is seeing different recipients dress up in their native attire to showcase their culture to this widely diverse adopted country. After each ceremony, recipients and their families are invited to a buffet of finger foods and photos with the official party members.

41 Squadron’s Team A (469pts), B (413pts), C (352pts) and D (275pts) finished 2nd, 10th, 17th and 21st respectively. The A Team was 2nd over all NZCF units and the B team 12th.

We retain the Central Area (The K & P.L. Bolton Rifle Shooting Trophy) and Wellington Region (Sir Richard Bolt Trophy).

UO Fowler (87pts), SGT Ogilvie (82pts, re-qualified) and LAC Rose (83pts) are awarded Marksman with UO Fowler returning the 3rd highest score nationally behind the joint top shots of 88pts.

Congratulations also to T.S Taupo (367pts) for winning the Sea Cadet Trophy.

Good work team!

Mr Leggett’s special words to the parade are recounted below:

“It is very significant that this year’s parade is held on Te Rauaprarha Park in the centre of Porirua. Your Units serve our communities with distinction and therefore you should parade in full view of everyone in the middle of the city of Porirua.

Next year we celebrate our 50th anniversary as a City and I invite each of the Units to think about how you can assist us celebrate. You have been and continue to be vital contributors and servers of the Porirua community so it’s only proper you take part in our City celebration.

The New Zealand Cadet Forces are celebrating 150 years and is the oldest youth organisation in NZ. It comprises of the Sea Cadet Corps, the NZ Cadet Corps and the Air Training Corps. It started in Otago in 1864 and today the organisation caters for secondary school aged children. There are currently 99 units around the country with over 3900 Officers & Cadets involved.

As part of the 150th Anniversary the NZCF have participated in a major camp for over 1200 Officers and Cadets at Waiouru in January 2014 where attendees enjoyed challenging activities such as flying, tramping & boating. In August His Excellency the Governor General hosted a Vice-Regal Reception at Government House for the youth leaders. The celebrations culminate with the Parade today which all Units around the country will be involved in within their communities.

Some brief information on the service of our Porirua Units:
- TS Taupo Sea Cadet Unit first paraded in October 1951 and received freedom of the city in 1979
- No. 41 (City of Porirua) Squadron Air Training Corps first paraded in May 1980 and received freedom of the city in 2005
- City of Porirua Cadet Corp Unit first paraded in October 1985 and received freedom of the city in 2014″

During the Parade Kadin Fowler was promoted from the rank of Warrant Officer to Under Officer.

Finally the day had arrived, I was looking forward to attending the RAeS Aviation field day but also it would be fair to say I was fairly nervous too as I wasn’t sure what to expect. Unfortunately after a beautiful day in Masterton on the Saturday, Sunday delivered rain, rain and more rain. I arrived at the Sport & Vintage Aviation Society (SVAS) building, where we had to sign in and were given a copy of the agenda for the day. It was looking like a fairly packed but highly informative day, just reading the agenda and my interest was on high alert – this was shaping up to be a great day.

There were attendees from all around the greater Wellington region, with the vast majority being from other ATC Squadrons, and a small sampling of students from some colleges. On heading to our seats we were greeted with free stuff like aviation magazines. We got straight into the day, with a talk on expectations and what would be happening.

There were various presentations incorporating many different sections of the aviation world. We heard from a sky diving instructor who talked about his first sky dive and how the industry has changed, a gliding instructor, a crop duster – he even told an interesting story of how he hit power lines, thankfully he lived to tell the story.
We were then taken to the Vintage Aviator hangar for a look at some very interesting (and expensive) planes – mainly from WWI. I’m not normally into old planes but the tour around the hangar was amazing and very interesting, we saw rare aircraft … one example was of a plane that there were only two left in the world and they were both in the hanger. There was a Corsair plane there – it is a very expensive plane, costs $100,000 a year for third party insurance alone, and an additional $80,000 per year just to keep it running.
At lunch time we had a cool Drone demonstration. A drone is a large unmanned aircraft that runs by remote and is often used for filming and photography.
Part of our registration form for the event, included a competition where you had to write in 20 words or less why you should win the prize of a flight in the Massey University School of Aviation Diamond aircraft and how it would benefit your future career … in only 20 words this was no easy feat! At lunch time they announced who the winner was … I couldn’t believe it – it was me!!!

After lunch we watched a demonstration outside that involved an aerobatics display followed by an Air Tractor and a Crop-dusting helicopter. After the demonstration I got to go and enjoy my prize – a flight in a Diamond aircraft. It was much nicer than any other light aircraft that I had been in as it had Leather seats and a glass cockpit. While I was flying there was a talk from the Air Force.
So very quickly the day came to an end, in summing up we were told that to have a career in the aviation industry we needed to work hard at school as we had to be the best of the best, the cream at the top. This was stressed several times throughout the day. Overall, even though we had to switch to the wet weather program, the day was fun and has only further fueled by desire to be a pilot.
A big thank you to the RAeS for the day, I understand this was the first time they had run such an event, but I hope they do them again in the future.

On Saturday the 27th of September, LAC Galvin, LAC Eagles and me went on Junior Non Commissioned Officers course. It lasted for a week and was held at the Ohakea Air base. Many cadets from Wellington to Napier came for the course.

We all got put into teams called Syndicates and we stayed with them through the whole course and we got to know everyone in our Syndicate really well. Next we needed to start practicing for our tests, this included doing speeches, practicing our drill and leadership skills. These were really fun to do and when we did the actual tests you forgot they were even tests. We got taught skills that are good for use inside and outside of cadets. We learnt not to just look after ourselves but others too. One of my favorite parts was watching the Lion king and seeing everyone cry – I also liked when we went to hotshots and the swimming pool.

I loved going to the Mess and waking up at 6.00am and been able to eat hash browns. I loved Juniors a lot and I still keep in contact with all my friends, we have even planned to go on the same Seniors with each other. I can’t wait to go on the next Seniors because Juniors was so much fun.

To be totally honest, I wasn’t expecting to enjoy the JNCO course as much as I did. Actually I wasn’t even expecting to be picked to attend, as only three people out of almost thirty get chosen, I really didn’t think that I would be one of those three. So when I was picked I was understandably nervous, hearing from people who previously attended the course about all the stuff they said was fun sounded like just the opposite to me; ten minute speeches, taking groups through leadership activities, meeting and interacting with strangers, all these are generally things I go out of my way to avoid doing. I really didn’t want to fail the course and disappoint anyone, so I tried my hardest to get my mother to pull me out, but every time she refused saying things like “I’m sure you’ll enjoy it”, “you need to do more” and “it’s too late now, you’re going”.

So, each of my attempts failed and I found myself on board the bus with the rest of the Junior’s group, wedged between another of my fellow course attendees and a lady. I was still pretty sure I had made a bad decision; I mean, I like my house, I like taking twenty minute showers and sleeping in until eight o’clock, I like watching NCIS re-runs until my eyes bleed and plus, I don’t like meeting new people – I mean I have a grand total of like five very good friends.

However I did find myself enjoying the course. The first day was spent getting settled and meeting everyone. The second day was filled with lessons and learning about what it takes to be a Junior NCO. The third was the practice for our terminals (the tests that we had to do to pass the course). The fourth our terminals and the rest of the week followed suit. Of course that’s not to say that we only did work. On some evenings we watched movies and on a couple of occasions we were treated to a swim at the base pool.

It was quite useful to be in a barrack of eighteen girls as everyone ends up helping each other and it makes the early morning start more manageable. However, there were a few downsides as well, especially because I’m a light sleeper and people shifting around during the night tends to wake me up, which meant little sleep for me. Especially on one night when a girl from a few cubicles away continuously sleep talked, for the better part of the night. Every time I was almost asleep I would hear a sudden cry of “NO ….no no no no….nope noooo”. It was funny the first couple of times, but it got old pretty fast.

In the end, despite my concerns, I did end up passing the course and ended up making new friends with the people in my Syndicate. I was somewhat disheartened when it was time for us all to part ways. I was fortunate enough to have met someone who goes to my school (neither of us had met until we went on the course), unfortunately she has an identical twin sister who has no idea who I am, so on numerous occasions I have gone up to converse with her only to realise that it’s the wrong twin. Everyone on the course promised to stay in touch through social media sites.

The things I learned and achieved for myself on the course:
• Stepping up and making new friends regardless of the situation
• It’s not always the boldest and more confident that wins the race, but the soft-spoken, shy and quiet-confident gets to win on the day too
• Under stressful situation I can take care of myself and am able to help others overcome their own fears “simply by drawing ducks” (Some of the girls ended up getting really stressed out and to calm them down I made them all draw ducks, because quite frankly I don’t really know how to deal with crying people).
• Public speaking is less terrifying when you can make others laugh – and a sure way to make friends quickly
• I improved my confidence by working in a team and realised that my personality can be an asset in certain circumstances.

I really enjoyed the JNCO course. I should have applied for it sooner. Oh well I guess I’ll just have to sign up for the Senior’s course as soon as I’m eligible.

It was amazing I loved almost every part of it (there were a few things like getting up at 6am that I didn’t like). But it was overall cool and anyone who can go on this course should go on this course.

When we arrived we were split into groups known as syndicates. My syndicate had an awesome leader but we unfortunately we lost 2 of our members due to injuries. Some of my favourite things to do on the course were: going swimming, visiting the hotshot’s general store and all the leadership activities.

I met some pretty high ranking officers on my course – I can’t quite remember who specifically but they were up there in the ranks. I had a tonne of fun and made a lot of friends. In total I made 19 new friends. In some of the leadership activities (which I will not reveal, the test ones at least), the challenges were easy in some and hard in others but if you get your team to work together you can get the job done. There were practice leadership challenges and the ones we were tested on, some of the practice ones were things like checking to see if everything for a tent was there or moving a giant cotton reel without letting it touch the ground, there was also a set of triangles that we had to put down in a certain way so you could call in a helicopter to get away from a crazy gunman.

The Mess was great as well, bacon and hash browns every morning for breakfast, and mostly spicy food like butter chicken for lunch and dinner. The food was great and I would happily go back to R.N.Z.A.F. base Ohakea again if I was allowed. So in other words I cannot wait to attend a Senior non commissioned officers course which is the next step up from Juniors.

The provisional Ffennel scores (subject to confirmation by HQ) are as follows:

Team A:
• LAC Ngaro 180
• WO Fowler 169 (Captain)
• SGT Ogilvie 168
• CPL Mijares 165
• LAC Davies 156
• CDT McHale 146
• SGT Robinson 144
• LAC Rose 82
Total 1,210

Team B:
• WO Fowler (Captain, non-shooting)
• LAC Douglas 155
• LAC Eagles 146
• LAC O’Neill 141
• CDT Rao 137
• CDT Peacock 136
• CDT Berryman 132
• CDT Wharton 129
• LAC Hurnen 101
Total 1,077

Team C:
• LAC Walker 151
• CDT Gosavi 149
• LAC Hawinkels 144
• CDT Arrowsmith 136
• CDT Nathan 131
• CDT Ogilvie 128
• LAC Keats 95
• SGT Drummond 53
Total 987

It was good to see 11 of the 16 shooters from last year shooting again this year. Hopefully we can see 16 to 20 from this year participating next year.

Well done to all those that competed this year.

Results from the day include two new Marksman subject to confirmation by HQ

The provisional Wallingford scores (subject to confirmation by HQ) are below:

Team A:
• WO Fowler 87
• LAC Rose 83
• SGT Ogilvie 81
• CPL Mijares 73
• LAC Ngaro 73
• LAC Douglas 73
Total 470

Team B:
• SGT Robinson 72
• LAC Hurnen 71
• CDT McHale 68
• CDT Peacock 68
• LAC Davies 66
• LAC Eagles 65
Total 410

Team C:
• LAC Hawinkels 61
• CDT Berryman 60
• CDT Wharton 60
• CDT Ogilvie 58
• CDT Nathan 57
• LAC O’Neill 55
Total 351

Team D:
• LAC Keats 53
• CDT Rao 52
• CDT Arrowsmith 51
• LAC Walker 49
• SGT Drummond 37
• CDT Gosavi 32
Total 274

The awarding of the First Class Shot badge follows qualification of the Shooting Competency Badge and the achievement of two scores of 70 or more under Wallingford Competition rules.

Well done LACs.