Highlights this month at TS Nimrod have included a great promotion parade, some interesting training and a visit from the Area Commander.

Our winter terms are often given over to the more formal aspects of training since it’s too cold and dark to have fun out on the water. Parades, where cadets wear formal uniforms and are inspected as a Ship’s Company before something like an award ceremony or promotions, are one of the more impressive parts of this winter training. At the beginning of the term we held a parade for the promotion of several cadets, to which family and friends were invited. We also held a supper afterwards so that family could meet the committee and officers.

Not all winter training is formal though – we have been doing plenty of leadership exercises where a leader is assigned to take a team through a challenge. Some of these can be quite funny to watch and can involve interesting twists like having a blindfolded team or working with buckets full of water which nobody is allowed to directly touch. These give the Junior NCOs a chance to put into practice all the skills they gained at the leadership courses in Burnham.

Also based at Burnham is our Area Office where CAPT Rankin, our Area Commander, is based. At times throughout the year he travels to visit the cadet units in the South Island. We were lucky enough to receive a visit this week and were able to show off the great hall which the Watersiders’ Union kindly let us use during the winter. CAPT Rankin seemed very happy with how the unit is going and all the improvements we’ve made this year.

This month we have had cadets away on leadership courses to gain the extra skill needed for promotions. Here is CPO Martin’s account of the Senior NCO course in Burnham:

“RILD, GSMEAC  and INTROSH, these were the acronyms I had to learn while I was on my SNCO Couse. I was one of 5 cadets from Dunedin who travelled by bus up to Burnham military camp  to take place in a week’s training that would  see if we had what it takes to become SNCO’s at our unit. The course consists of three terminals, the first one being functional leadership where you had to give and a GSMEAC (Ground, Situation, Mission, Equipment, Admin and Coms) brief and lead your team to complete a task. The 2^nd one was planning and doing a Lesson on a topic that you were given. The third and last terminal   was conducting Parade drill.  The highlight for me was learning all of the new skills taught to you that you need to use in order to pass the terminals and how the officers told you ways you can use these skills outside of Cadet Forces.”

TS Nimrod would also like to thank the Chalmers Community Board for their generous grant allowing us to purchase 10 new buoyancy aids for the unit.

Sea Cadets are a community funded organisation and we could not function without grants and donations from the community. If you would like to make a donation, large or small, please contact our treasurer using the Contact link above.