February 2022

Welcome back to Your Alumni Magazine. Great to see that you made it through 2021 without too much damage. What a year. I won’t go into the finer details as you are no doubt full bottle with Covid-19.  But what a year for our Cadets. Although we didn’t see them reach the heights as planned for their 80^th we did see some great achievements. Sincere thanks once again to those who have taken time to provide material and feedback. I would like to acknowledge the work of Paul Rosenzweig for some great material, in particular the work of the Aviation Operations Wing and the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. I would also like to thank Rob Nieuwenhoven, Warren Bishop and Peter Boughen for their contribution to the Quiz.
 
We have a couple of regular readers who help with spotting material that may interest one or two of our alumni. You may like to help if you would like to tell us of your time as a Cadet or some of your achievements since. Your Feedback helps us shape the content we include in your Newsletter so please keep it coming. We don’t anticipate that our readers will read the entire magazine, but we hope that there is something there for you.
 
For those who don’t regularly check on the AAFC Web page, https://www.airforcecadets.gov.au/  you might like to check out the great new format. We are very pleased to report that our Alumni is accessible through the AAFC page as we continue to send out our email link to our subscribers on the first of February, May, August and November.
 
Are you ready for your fill with another Alumni Magazine?  It never ceases to amaze me that when I catch up with people and find that they are ex Cadets; they all have great tales of how the Cadets moulded their life and that they wouldn’t be where they are today if it hadn’t been for those years in the Air Training Corps, AirTC or AAFC. Why am I mentioning this? Well with all that material out there, it would be even better if we could share your story. Hopefully we have provided a few hours of light relief for you over more than 30 editions.
 
Remember, if you like what you read in your magazine, you are most welcome to share and invite your friends who are ex Cadet or Staff members to join.  If you don’t like what you are reading please tell us, AlumniDirector@aircadetsalumni.org.au  We love to receive your letters. We hope that our magazine can remind you of your time in our great organization. We are always on the lookout for articles and photographs that you may like to share.
 
There is some great reading again and all the material is just one click away from the Contents page. We have a few stories that may remind you of your past glories and stories from some of our alumni. Just some of the articles include a Podcast with Flight Lieutenant Aimee Heal, the second-ever female member of the RAAF’s aerobatic display team The Roulettes, Air Force Cadet to Major General, (an ex Ingham Cadet), a great video showing Peter Jackson’s Military Treasures and so much more.  Remember, you can check out the Contents page to go directly to the article you would like to read.
 
Please update your email address when you change providers Perhaps it may have changed when you changed providers. We understand that you may be accessing the newsletter from the web site, but sometimes we just might like to contact you direct. In particular, those who have a Cadetnet or Defence email address may have trouble with our emails. There are still plenty of Defence email accounts in our database. You might like to check with your friends to see if they have been getting our emails. Our regular Newsletter is sent by email at 1000 on 1 November, 1 February, 1 May and 1 August. Registration is FREE and is open to all ex Cadets, ex Staff, current Staff, both uniform and civilian. We also invite our friends from likeminded organizations.
 
If you think you have missed out on some of the earlier Alumni Newsletters, the good news is you haven’t! They are available on the Air Cadets Alumni website, www.aircadetsalumni.org.au and go to the Bulletin Board. We can now see a new initiative where our Air Cadet Alumni web site can be accessed via the AAFC Web page, https://www.airforcecadets.gov.au/  
 
Until May

Fly Safe

John Griffiths, MBE    
Alumni Director