On Saturday 13^th March the Squadron Commanders and Wing Staff Officers of Warwickshire & Birmingham Wing held their annual CO's Conference at DCAE Cosford.

The conference hosted by Wing Commander Pravin Ladwa Officer Commanding Warwickshire & Birmingham Wing is an annual forum in which Squadron Commanders and Wing Staff get together to discuss a wide variety of subjects covering cadet training and administrative matters.

However this year the conference took an unexpected turn for seven of the delegates as Wing Commander Ladwa opened proceedings by suggesting that they were improperly dressed.

Wing Commander Ladwa, ever mindful that his officers should be correctly dressed at all times called out the seven, one by one and announced their promotions and presenting them with rank slides which represented their new ranks.

The promotions from Flight Lieutenant to Squadron Leader were:

· Sqn Ldr Foster – Wing Staff Officer

· Sqn Ldr Mumford - Wing Staff Officer

The promotions from Flying Officer to Flight Lieutenant were:

· Flt Lt Hobbins – Officer Commanding 8F Squadron

· Flt Lt Coles - Officer Commanding 489 Squadron

· Flt Lt Aftab - Officer Commanding 2504 Squadron

· Flt Lt Hulme - Officer Commanding 480 Squadron

· Flt Lt Rayner – 163 Squadron

Wg Cdr Ladwa also presented Cadet Forces Medal (CFM) Clasps to the following officers:

· Flt Lt Upton – First Clasp representing 18 years service

· Flt Lt Hodges – Third Clasp representing 36 years service

On making the presentations Wg Cdr Ladwa said, “I am absolutely delighted to be able to make these promotions and present these awards. It has been very difficult to keep these well deserved promotions quiet until now but I wanted to make the formal announcements here today in front of the conference.”

Presentations completed the conference was underway with wing staff officers making their annual reports and explaining some of the latest changes and targets for the coming year.

Guest speaker, Mr Mal Davidson, HQAC Child Protection Officer, gave an excellent presentation covering a wide range of Child Protection issues including the introduction of the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA).

Flt Lt Paula Smith of 637 VGS was also present to give the conference an update on the happenings within the gliding fraternity.