From eagle's nest to soaring high in the skies : a discussion of the value, training & future of the Australian Air Force Cadets, and a short history of the broader cadet movement in Australia

Since 1941, tens of thousands of young Australians have undertaken training in an organization which was originally founded as the Air Training Corps (ATC), later (circa 1976) to become the AIRTC, and which since 2001, has been known as the Australian Air Force Cadets. The AAFC, and its predecessor voluntary organisations before it, form part of the ‘air element’ of the Australian Defence Force Cadets (ADFC) Scheme, the other two Cadet services including the Australian Army Cadets (AAC) and the Australian Naval Cadets (ANC). Operating overwhelmingly as a volunteer organization, the ADFC today boasts approximately 27,000 young Australians aged between 13 and 20 years, and they are “supervised, trained and mentored” by a small volunteer, though professional force of some 2,600 Instructors of Cadets (IOC) and Officers of Cadets (OOC).