Mar
This exercise was held on the weekend of 26 – 28 March 2010 and – as always – was for Basic Flight and NCOs. First Strike serves as an introductory camp for our new recruits and gives them a good foundation of team work and basic outdoors skills.
On the Friday night we got sorted nice and early and headed out of Coote Road around 1745hrs – only 15 minutes after our original muster time. We travelled out to Everetts DOC camp by way of two 11 seater vans and a luggage trailer, kindly supplied at a reduced rate by our friends at Handy Rentals. This weekend was also set to be the first camping trip ever for Connor, the Officer’s 3 year old son. Unfortunately he’d had a bit of a stomach bug and threw up in the back of FLTLT Faulknor-Murrell’s van! Luckily we weren’t far away from a rest area (with a tap!) where we could stop and clean him down.
Shortly after we left the rest area, FGOFF Faulknor-Murrell remembered the meat, cheese, milk and lettuce he’d left in the fridge back in the unit. While everyone else organised tents and sorted out supper, he did the 2 hour return trip to town to retrieve said cold items.
Saturday dawned cold and well… dark really. Breakfast was had by starlight and we leaped straight into our first lesson of the day. The standard curriculum ensued, cooker safety, cooking skills, camp hygiene, knot tying, environmental care code, firelighting and camp layout. A very full on day was had by all and when 10pm rolled around there was hardly a peep out of the CDTs who all headed to bed very weary – particularly after the FGOFF’s ear joke!
The NCOs planned a wee surprise for the CDTs first thing in the morning by getting themselves “lost” in dark in the bush behind the camp. FGOFF F-M went immediately and woke up the CDTs, but sadly for the NCOs the females took about 30 minutes to get their faces on. By this time it was almost daylight meaning their awesome hiding spots weren’t that good after all. It still took them a huuuuuge effort to find CPL MacKay who had used his 40 minutes wisely by having a little kip under a tree!
Practical exercises were next, then we moved to have smoko and get our tents packed up as rain threatened. A light drizzle began falling as we got the tents away (damp). We huddled under the nearby bush to have a nice hot lunch before the final clean up. All was going to plan until FGOFF Faulknor-Murrell tried to start the second van… Connor had taken to playing in it for a lot of the weekend and had flattened the battery!! Thanks to some farm-boy ingenuity, CPL MacKay’s suggestion of swapping the battery out of Ma’am’s already started van worked a treat and we were underway… and back at the unit in plenty of time to get the stores washed, sorted and put away and get out of the unit before our 1630 planned finish.
Another successful weekend, thanks to all of the people involved with planning and execution.
We had a great day helping out the Central Hawke’s Bay Aeroclub with their 75th Anniversary celebration on 27 February 2010.
In attendance were FGOFF Faulknor-Murrell, CPLs Garrity, Hesseltine, MacKay and McGregor along with CDTs James, Kent, Millan-Lucas & Unsworth. Also in attendance were a number of RNZAF aircraft including one UH-1 Iroquois of 3 Squadron, Harvard 15 from historical flight and the mighty beast, the C-130 Hercules of 40 Squadron. A few 13 Squadron personnel even got up close and personal with the Herc on takeoff for their display.
We also managed to get a handful of photos for those that couldn’t be there on the day. The day was a massive success for us, being that we got a chance to see a top quality display of aircraft and help out the wider Hawke’s Bay community. Congratulations to all of those who helped out – we received some very good feedback both from the club and the general public who were in attendance.
We’ve just been advised by NZCF Central office that the NZDF intends to take THREE people with them to Gallipoli this year for ANZAC day celebrations. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and you MUST hurry now if you wish to apply.
Current criteria are:
- One Cadet from each corps will be selected.
- Cadets must be a descendant of an ex-service person who has served during a war or emergency.
- The applicant must be 17 on date of travel and already have a valid passport.
- Duty of Care will be provided by NZDF personnel.
- Travel dates are 19 April – Depart Whenuapai, 01 May – Arrive Whenuapai.
If you are interested in applying, you MUST get an application in to the Central Area office by Friday 26 February 2010 – which means in to the Adjutant at No. 13 Squadron by Thursday 25th February.
Applications need to:
- Include a passport photo
- Include details of your passport (number, issue date etc.)
- Include a details of the serviceperson you are descended from
- Be signed by your parents
- Be signed by your Unit Commander
See FGOFF Faulknor-Murrell on Thursday if you’re interested, or email us directly on admin@13squadron.co.nz
Feb
Congratulations to the following for promotions on 11 Feb 2010
- PLTOFF Faulknor-Murrell – promoted to Flying Officer
Feb
This site has been upgraded from Joomla to WordPress.
Unfortunately, all user accounts have been erased and apart from Staff & Committee members, accounts are unlikely to be set up for anyone in the foreseeable future.
Dec
Congratulations to the following for promotions at the end of 2009
- SGT Rasmussen – promoted to Flight Sergeant
- SGT Marshall – promoted to Flight Sergeant
- LAC White – promoted to CPL
- CDT MacKay – promoted to CPL
Congratulations to the shooting team
The Team:
SGT Rasmussen
LAC White
Kent
Fraser
Moorcock
Unsworth
Reserves are:
U/O Donnelly
LAC Garritty
Coaches:
PLTOFF and FLTLT Faulknor-Murrell
Aug
An ex-RNZAF and original ATC member Mr Matt Browne requested in his will that an ATC Guard be at his funeral. This guard was provided by 13 Sqn. Warrant Officer Ogier, Sgt’s Godwin and Slater, Cpl Marshall, Cadets White, Hessiltine and Unsworth provided an excellent Guard.
The Guard was brought to ATTENTION as the coffin came out of the church, they then SALUTED as the coffin passed between their lines. They came back to ATTENTION and remained standing still for ONE MINUTE of silence. They then turned outwards and marched past the hearse and almost eerily out of sight.
IMPRESSIVE
RNZAF Base Auckland
10 – 19 August 2007
Firstly, let me note that this report will not be an “I got up 0545 today and went to breakfast” type report. It stands as a reflection on the course as a whole.
There’s been rumour, promise and threat on the air for some time now in regards to the New Zealand Cadet Forces becoming a provider of unit standards to NZQA students. This is an exciting prospect, but it seems that the more we try to strive towards this goal, the further away we end up being. I took the first step towards this end goal last week by attending the first of a new breed of Officers’ Instructional Technique courses at RNZAF Base Auckland.
A 10 day stay on an RNZAF base is always a pleasure – in fact for me, really quite a treat. It is doubly so when most of the members of the course are previous course mates or staff and the balance are made up of people who are merely friends I have yet to make. This is the culture of the Cadet Forces that I so love; a network of fantastic people giving up their time to make a difference to the youth of New Zealand. As a non-operational base, Hobsonville (or Hobby as it is affectionally known) is quite a bit different to Ohakea – my home away from home away from home. Limited services and run down buildings gave us quite an isolated feel as opposed to OHK where you really feel part of the action of base life. Quite a different but nonetheless enjoyable experience! So our ten days were spread between the Hudson block barracks and the Cadet Forces training centre. Living close-knit like this for that long really brings a group together as a whole and – in the end – facilitates great learning.
To say the IT course was “beneficial” to me is a bit of an understatement. As an instructor “officially untrained” in the ways of NZCF IT, I was fully prepared to take on board new instructional techniques and tools that I could use to benefit my classroom sessions. What I wasn’t prepared for however was the amount of self reflection and indeed self improvement that came out of attending.
As stated, our classes were run at the NZCF training centre on base and (as this was the first course of its kind) our training partner Tai Poutini Polytech brought in internationally renowned trainers for 6 days. We gained an depth knowledge, understanding and experience of planning, delivering and assessing training sessions through lessons, group work, practical and reflective sessions. Whilst it took hours and hours of class and after-hours work I personally feel like I’ve gained more than just new skills to use in an instructional period. Through well thought out and taught self-evaluation exercises I honestly feel that I have gained a greater understanding of myself and now have a far better comprehension of what it really means to teach and to learn. Even the simple act of watching the various teaching/instructing/facilitating methods gave us a great demostration of these processes at work. It turns out that contrary to my own personal belief, learning isn’t a dictatorial process at all. Learning is interactive. Also, if learning is a shared experience, it is truly a more productive experience. I’ve been given a great grounding for improving classroom sessions to allow our Cadets to have a more important place in their own education.
I’ve completed the course now, but have a number of other assessments to complete until I gain the NZQA credits and unit standards towards my officer training. The great news is that we 10 students are (or will be) the first NZCF officers to acquire unit standards for assessing unit standards under this new form of course. This makes us a valuable resource primarily in the act of assessing fellow officers at a national course level. There is – of course – a filter down effect, which is Cadet-centric – it’s not all about us as Officers after all. As more and more officers become unit standard assessor qualified, we will find ourselves as an organisation in a very strong place for the rollout of Cadet based unit standards assessment – assuming this happens. At this stage however, a rollout date is something we wouldn’t even want to guess at, if it happens at all. Consider the whole NZQA thing as “TBA” until further notice. But in the event that it does (we say “when”, not “if”), we as the Trail Blazers of the new NZCF training system will have had ample time in which to prepare our peers for the changes that it will bring.
So! In summary I look forward to getting back to the unit and back in front of some of your classes to really put this new knowledge into practice. If you have any feedback on this report, the course or my lessons, please feel free to leave it here or use the contact form on this site to reach me.
Bren Murrell
A/PLTOFF, NZCF
No. 13 (City of Napier) Squadron