Last night 1094 Squadron City of Ely Air Cadets had a flying visit from The Sector Commander for East Cambridgeshire: Squadron Leader Hicks.
The Squadron Leader was on hand to meet and interview four prospective members of Adult Staff as part of The Royal Air Force Air Cadets national recruiting campaign for additional volunteers to join their ranks as Adult Instructors.
The Squadron Leader also had pleasure in formally announcing to the 60 Cadets on parade that their Officer In Charge; Flying Officer John Donoghue had attended and passed his Squadron Commanders Course and was being promoted to the rank of Flight Lieutenant and assuming the title of Officer Commanding 1094 Squadron.
Unfortunately, the lack of lighting on the Squadron’s parade square meant that photos had to be taken inside the Squadron Headquarters on Heaton Drive.
Flight Lieutenant Donoghue first joined the Air Cadets as a teenager on 28th November 1979 and went on to become an officer as an adult with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve running detached flights in The East End of London.
Having left the Air Cadets when he joined the Police in the mid Nineties, Flight Lieutenant Donoghue returned to the Air Cadets becoming a Civilian Instructor with Ely Squadron helping run the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme six years ago.
The Squadron has grown since then and back in early 2020 Ely’s Air Cadets won successive competitions as the best Squadron out of the 8 units in East Cambridgeshire, then the best out of 30 Squadron’s in Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire Wing and then they won the competition becoming the top Squadron out of 179 Squadrons in Central and East Region.
1094 Squadron then went forward to represent their region in the National Finals but unfortunately the Competition was curtailed before a winner could be announced. All that Ely’ Air Cadets knew was that they and one other Squadron from North of The Border were the two finalists before lockdown ended their dream of being awarded the Top Air Cadet Squadron out of over 1000 Squadrons.
Flight Lieutenant Donoghue said, “I am very proud to lead such a fantastic team of dedicated Cadets and Volunteers here in Ely. Whilst lockdown may have taken the wind out of our sails temporarily, like most other Air Cadet units across the country we are rebuilding our Squadron and once again taking our place as part of the local community by offering young people the sort of adventure, challenges, citizenship training and life changing, opportunities that they will not find anywhere outside the Air Cadets. We are now carefully moving forward as part of the RAF Air Cadets national plan to return to normal cadet activities whilst keeping our cadets and staff safe and slowly building up the level of activities”
Congratulations Flight Lieutenant!
Please click on the link below to find out more about becoming an Air Cadet or a Cadet Forces Adult Volunteer at your local Squadron no matter where you live.
https://www.raf.mod.uk/aircadets/want-to-join/
From 1094 Ely Squadron Royal Air Force Air Cadets
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