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| Fieldcraft Notes |
| KIT LIST
EACH cadet should wear Combat Clothing DPM, as issued by the squadron. In addition the following equipment is considered essential: 1. Personal First Aid Kit (comprising a few sticking plasters, Triangular Bandage, some safety pins, some headache tablets or sachets, one small dressing, Inhaler (as required). Should fit in a JACKET POCKET. 2. A Whistle (ideally on a lanyard(piece of rope/string)) 3. Water (Bottle or pouch) approx 1 ltr. Should fasten to a belt. 4. Torch (with spare power supply). 5. Beret&F3822 (with plastic bag to keep DRY) The following items would be considered advantageous to have with you : 7. Hat & Gloves (‘Head-over’ /bush /Benny) 8. Cam cream / Cork&Candle 9. Scrim-Scarf 10. Webbing (V useful for carrying everything else! ) 11. Waterproofs 12. Bungees (four) plus Elastic Bands 13. Pencil & note paper (kept dry at all times) 14. Insect Repellent 15. Pocket Knife / multi-tool 16. Plastic bag for personal rubbish 17. Cooker and Mess tins, Tin opener 18. Mug, Knife, fork, spoon 19. Matches (kept dry at all times) 20. Toilet paper (in a sealed plastic bag) 21. “Map Illuminator” |
| 11. Bungees allow you to rig up a shelter VERY quickly, and effectively. The elastic bags can either help with the shelter, or can be used as arm bags, or leg bands to fasten foliage onto you person to help you merge with your surroundings. Bungees do NOT need to be expensive, as they are easily lost especially in the dark. Better to lose a couple of cheap ones.
12. For note taking at ANY time. 13. An evening exercise can be rather badly spoilt by the participation of uninvited insects. FIND an insect repellent that works for you. They are NOT all the same. As a guide though, the Surplus shops may try to sell you the MOD issue stuff – don’t bother it is RUBBISH 14. A small pocket knife, or cheap multi tool can be a useful piece of equipment in a range of situations. It is NOT expected that you will have a need for anything heavier than a small pocket knife though. All acquisitions are to be shown to Uniformed Staff BEFORE the exercise to confirm suitability. If you fancy pushing the boundaries we set, be prepared to be told you have overstepped them. 15. A small rubbish bag, or carrier bag will allow you to take ALL your waste with you off the exercise area, leaving it as though we had never been there. 16. Cookers come in a variety of styles, from Gas powered, to liquid burners, and solid fuel cookers. BE FAMILIAR with the cooker you have chosen. They all have advantages and disadvantages, and YOU need to be happy to live with the style you have chosen. If you are cooking you will need something to cook in , and eat out of. Food containers have a varied means of being opened, so depending upon what YOU have taken, YOU might need a can opener in one form or another. 17. Plastic accessories do NOT usually work well. A Reasonable metal “set” will last you YEARS 18. Safety matches are usually all you can get these days, although you will in some places find the “storm proof” matches. A lighter – so long as it works, can be just as useful. A few matches makes a good standby though. 19. Fairly self explanatory. Wet paper does not ‘work’ very well. 20. At night you take up to 30 minutes to gain your “night vision”. This can be lost is (literally) the flash of a light. A Map illuminator has both a red and a green LED, and does NOT ruin your night vision, but DOES allow you to see the coloured features of a standard issue map. (red or green on their own do NOT allow you to see all the map’s features). These CAN be sourced commercially but they can be expensive. It is not impossible to MAKE one of these, and it is my intention to start a “production line” at the unit to fabricate a few. ASTHMA – It would be appreciated if BEFORE starting any exercise, those cadets who may suffer an asthma attack during the course of the event, make themselves known to the Directing Staff. It is all too easy to forget that a cadet does not have asthma when we normally only see them in conditions which are unlikely to trigger an attack. Dependant upon the actual exercise – where it is, when (day/night – summer /spring/autumn/winter), how long we will be out for and so forth – then a whole other range of options may come into play. Going out on exercise with other units, using military training areas, with ex-military staff , or doing specifically military skills training, can also play a part is determining what equipment you will either need, or find very useful. |
| Notes:
1. If every cadet on the exercise carries a few small items, the total amount of equipment available is enormous, with the added advantage that you do not need a single first aid kit to arrive before you can start treating a casualty. 2. The best means of signalling through varied countryside is by whistle. Either a pea-whistle or police whistle. If on a lanyard it is easier to locate about your person. 3. Even during a relatively short exercise you expel a huge amount of energy, and moisture. De-odorant only makes the issue worse surprisingly, and you should allow your body to sweat. You DO need to replenish the water though – hence the water bottle. 4. It gets dark remarkably quickly, and you can often find yourself unable to see where you need to be going, or to find things you may have mislaid. A spare set of batteries is always a good idea. 5. In order that the public see us as Air Cadets and not just ‘another bunch in camouflage kit” we normally insist on you having you beret with you. You will NOT need to wear it ON the exercise though, and, like your F3822 logbook, it should be “Stashed” in a plastic bag of some sort. 6. Hat. “Soldiering is 98% boredom and 2% pure adrenalin” – thereby suggesting that you are likely to spend times sat “doing nothing” and you get cold quickly after exertion. The hat also allows you to become camouflaged more easily. The gloves serve exactly the same purpose. Hat options include the popular “Head-over” which is multi-functional and can be used a scarf, snood, balaclava, or forage-cap. Otherwise a plain woolly “benny” or a balaclava works well. For warmer weather, and ease of camouflage, a bush hat can be useful. 7. Cam Cream allows the user to become “more tactical”. Application is best done using a buddy technique – you put their’s on, they put your’s on. REMOVAL is best achieved using Johnson’s Baby Wipes (no imitations) 8. The scrim scarf functions not only as a scarf, but aids camouflage big time as well. 9. Webbing is obtainable at modest cost, and the squadron had some parts it can LOAN as a starting point. The keen cadets may splash out and buy the new issue PLC kit, but the older “58 Pattern” is just as usable for cadet purposes. It allows the day-to-day items which you will want with you on the exercise to be carried on a yoke, and the load is spread, and can be VERY comfortable to wear even for prolonged periods. Pouches come in various sizes, and hence a “set” can be built gradually. You do NOT need all the set at once. 10. When the weather turns foul, you need to be prepared. When wet you get cold and lose efficiency VERY quickly. Hypothermia is a real risk when you get wet, even in Britain, and even in a British ‘Summer’ |
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