Recruitment drive to secure new cadet HQ

CULLOMPTON army cadets are desperately seeking fresh recruits to justify building a new headquarters in the town.

About 15 cadets currently turn up for each session, held twice a week at the St John Ambulance building in the High Street.

Instructor Sgt Holly Higgs, 20, said the group would need to double in size if it was to realise its dream of creating a new purpose-built headquart- ers in the town.

“The bigger the detachment, the more funding we'll get,” she said. “Until we can prove we've got enough members, the Ministry of Defence won't put money in for it.

“If we can prove we're worth it, they'll enable us to build a new centre in Cullompton.

“At the moment, we're using the St John Ambulance building so there's no shooting range and we can't store weapons. We're missing out on things other detachments have.

“If we had our own building we'd have more opportunities.”

The town's Army Cadet Force has been running for 18 months, giving youngsters, aged from 12 to 18, the chance to learn useful skills and make friends.

Sgt Higgs said: “We base activities around military subjects like shooting, navigating, sports, fieldcraft, drill and weapon handling. We go away for adventure training and for weekends at military camps around the South West. And because it's really well subsidised, it's not expensive.

“The cadets learn leadership skills and confidence and take part in things they wouldn't usually do.

“I like seeing how they progress. Some have no confidence when they start and go on to have lots of energy and make loads of friends. I see them pass through their subjects and feel really good about themselves.”

Cadet Michael Groaver, 13, from St Andrew's Estate, Cullompton, has been a member for six months. He said: “You get a good education about the army and you get to do lots of stuff you can't do in school. I've made more friends here than I would if I was just out in the street.

“I'd definitely tell other kids to join. I like the shooting and marching and doing first aid — it's really fun. We'd like to have a new centre so we could have our own shooting range, it's really small here at the moment.”

Anybody interested in becoming a cadet or instructor can go along to a meeting on a Tuesday or Thursday, between 7.15pm and 9.15pm, at St John House in the High Street, near Chic Hair Design.