Leaving the eagle’s nest : a discussion of the history and value of the Australian Air Force Cadets (& the broader cadet corps movement in Australia)

SINCE 1941, tens of thousands of young Australians have undertaken training in the Air Training Corps (ATC), later (circa 1976) to become the AIRTC, and which in 2001, was renamed as the Australian Air Force Cadets. The AAFC, and its previous iterations, form 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 entirely as a volunteer organization, the ADFC today boasts tens of thousands young Australians aged between 13 and 18 years, which are supervised, trained and mentored by a small volunteer, professional force of Instructors of Cadets (IOC) and Officers of Cadets (OOC).