Click on a question to see the answer

• How long have you been an instructor in the ACF?

  I've been in the ACF as an adult for 5 years, but I was also a cadet for 4 years before that.

• What's your current role in the ACF?

  I have just taken over as a detachment commander. This means I now run a detachment and have staff and cadets to look after. It's a lot of responsibility and hard work but I really enjoy the challenge.

• What do you do for a job?

  I am a police officer on a community safety team.

• How does the ACF impact on your full time job?

  Because I work shifts with the police I can't always be at the detachment, but I have good staff and cadets who will run things in my absence. There are also some weekends I can't make, again because of my shift work, but there's so much going on in the ACF calendar that plenty of opportunities to attend weekend activities come around.

• What's your favourite thing about being an ACF instructor?

  It would have to be the fun element. A combination of working to develop teenagers from my local area, getting into green kit and playing soldiers and the other opportunities that are available to adult instructors add up to a really exciting and fun activity.

• What's your least favourite thing about being an ACF instructor?

  That would probably have to be the paperwork. To make sure all the activities we do are safe we have to document everything carefully which means there's quite a bit of paperwork for me as a detachment commander. Fortunately there are also a lot of people in this organisation that will help and support you with this side of things, so you never feel swamped. Never-the-less if I had the choice I would never fill in another form again!