Recovered from 2008 Edtion for Army and Combined Cadet Forces.

Henry Ossian Flipper (21 March 1856 - 3 May 1940) was an American soldier, former slave, and the first African American to graduate from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1877, earning a commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in the US Army.

Although the first air cadet unit was raised in Bournmouth in 1928, the first squadrons to be formed in a privately funded national organisation were part of the Air Defence Cadet Corps in 1938. Thousands of youngsters joined and were able to learn about aircraft, aerodynamics, navigation, mechanics and other subjects not taught in schools. The organization was to become known as The Air Training Corps (ATC) and as war loomed it was considered a useful RAF recruitment tool to attract potential airmen and ground crew. ??Throughout the war ATC cadets supported the home defences by fire watching, as messengers and as observers, working alongside the Home Guard, the fire services and other vital organisations. During the second half of the 1900s the corps continued to thrive. Girls were now included and retired RAF officers and other ranks continued to take an active part in each squadron. There are now over 900 squadrons within the UK, providing the same skills to modern youth and teaching them the importance of personal responsibility and teamwork via annual camps at RAF stations, adventure training and flight experience. ??This book looks at all aspects of the Air Cadet's history and tradition, including the RAF sections of the Combined Cadet Force attached to public and grammar schools. It concludes with an analysis of what subjects and courses are currently available with many past and present illustrations.??As seen in The York Press and The Scarborough News.

I was not more than eight years old when I first heard about West Point, and then I was told that it was Uncle Sam's Military School; that the young men there were called cadets; that they were soldiers, and that they wore pretty uniforms with brass buttons on them. The impression made upon me at the time was such that I never tired talking and asking questions about West Point. I soon learned to indicate the site on the map, and I longed to go there, that I might be a cadet and wear brass buttons. I talked about it so much that my good mother made me a coat generous with brass buttons. I called it my cadet coat, and wore it constantly. Ah! for the day I should be a big boy and be a real cadet. With a wooden gun I played soldier, and when the war broke out and the soldiers camped in our old fair grounds, I was in their camp at every opportunity. The camp was about half-way between our home farm and father's store in town, and many is the time I have been scolded for being so much at the camp. My only regret at that time was that I was not old enough to enlist, for I loved to watch the drills and linger around the camp-fires, listening to stories of the war.