Leadership & Management

Self-Reflection

“Leadership isn’t taught in classrooms. It’s earned in the mud, on 2 hours of sleep, with 40kg on your back and 7 lives depending on your next order.”

This Junior Leaders Course (JL14) wasn’t a course. It was selection, survival, and command. This was the highest leadership qualification in the RAF Air Cadets. This course broke me to built me and for that, I am eternally grateful to all QJL and staff for everything.

The course ran from September to Easter with over 120 cadets and only 58 finishing. I am proud to say that I was one.

Selection: The First Filter

Weekend 1:

• 1.5-mile run, press-ups, sit-ups — pass or go home
• Leadership tasks, personal presentation, fieldcraft exam
• Interview with Squadron Leader, OC Junior Leaders
• Sunday: squad endurance run — no clock, just endurance

Phase 1: Theory Meets Sweat

Core leadership doctrine:

• Command tasks — issue orders, receive fire
• Time management — 5-minute warnings, 30-second executions
• Fitness escalation — shave seconds off runs, add reps
  Outside the wire:
• Memorized orders format, battle procedure, patrol reports
• Trained solo — hill sprints in boots, running in my local park rucksack full of dead weight
  The workload crushed time. But I adapted.

Phase 2: Tactical Reality

No more classrooms.

• Tactical living — cook, sleep, shit in the field
• Blank fire, smoke grenades, section attacks
• Patrol types: fighting, recce, ambush, clearance

We moved as sections of 8.
I rotated:

• Section Commander — plan, brief, lead
• 2IC — manage ammo, casualties, comms
• Rifleman — execute, adapt, survive
  This was when the course became legendary.

Test Phase: 10 Days, 7 in the Field – STANTA

The final crucible

• 7-day continuous ops — Deployed into STANTA; Aka Stanford Training Area, by Merlin Helicopters: Blood pumping, rifles shooting blanks and getting into cover as soon as we land!
• <3 hours sleep total some nights
• Missions:
  • Squadron-level night assault
  • Seize and hold a FOB
  • Fighting In Built Up Area (FIBUA)
  • Building clearance under fire
  • 10km speed march, 40kg kit, whilst sleep deprived.

Day 7:
Final squadron assault — live blanks, Flare Parachute, smoke; it was the best firework show I ever felt. We cleared the objective. Marched back to camp — full kit.

I hurt everywhere. But I was grinning.

Graduation: RAF Honington Officer’s Mess

• Hot shower. First in a week.
• Real food. Not rat-pack.
• Debrief: Passed.”
• Dinner with the legends — Qualified JLs, staff in a room filled with the finest silver wear and the RAF band playing for us.

I still wear that mental badge like armour with honour.

[Certificate to be uploaded]