[Brian McIlmoyle]

I bet if you scratch a lot of folks here you will find former cadets...underneath.

I was in Cadets.... well 30 years ago now... so it was a bit different then.. we were typically issued rifles when we went on exercise... sure they were Enfields...

But sometimes they issued FNs But only when the Local Reserve unit NCOs were accompanying us in the field... we used to dig in.. do patrols and attacks....

And we went to the range and fired FNs 3 times a year.....

For god's sake they even gassed us once! ( but they got in a lot of crap for doing it )

Cadets were conceived as a stepping stone into the service.... it still is to a degree in the UK... but in Canada... I really don't see the point anymore.

Politically correct thinking and the drive of liberal society is systematically wringing all the adventure out of youth....