Reply to Wander00 comment #44 19th June 12:27
I reply to Wander00's comment "..hopefully no one will suggest stopping AEF air experience flying".
I would like to add the following quotation from the school's magazine, printed back in 1991. As Nick's mother, this seems to me to embody what the CCF and the opportunity for air experience flights are all about.
"... However, I am certain that the boys who have remained in the corps for a number of years are better persons than they would have been if they had never joined. In 1987, Brigadier Hume made a report on the CCF movement to the MOD. He said 'The CCF provides a means to help youngsters to know themselves: it teaches leadership, team spirit and the qualities of good citizenship. It provides adventure and challenge where often a pupil who may not be the greatest success in the classroom or on the playing field achieves success in the Corps in one aspect or another' ".
Despite losing our beautiful son in this terrible way, I know that encouraging him to join the CCF, and later its RAF arm, gave Nick a stream of wonderful experiences which, even with the awful knowledge we now have, we would never have denied him.
In conclusion, neither Nick's father nor I would support any call to cancel or restrict AEF air experience flights for cadets.
Julia Rice