Army Cadets

Army Cadets may refer to:

Army Cadet Force

The Army Cadet Force (ACF) is a national youth organisation sponsored by the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence and the British Army. It offers education and experience in domains that have high transfer value to military training, including adventurous sports, promoting achievement, discipline and good citizenship. Along with the Sea Cadet Corps and the Air Training Corps, the ACF make up the Community Cadet Forces. It is a separate organisation from the Combined Cadet Force which provides similar training within principally independent schools.

Although sponsored by the Ministry of Defence, the ACF is not part of the British Army or Army Reserve, and as such cadets are not subject to military 'call up'. Some cadets do, however, go on to enlist in the armed forces in later life, and many of the organisation's leaders have been cadets or have a military background.

The Army Cadet Force Association (ACFA) is a registered charity that acts in an advisory role to the Ministry of Defence and other Government bodies on matters connected with the ACF. The Army Cadet Force is also a member of The National Council for Voluntary Youth Services (NCVYS), as an organisation with a voluntary and community youth focus.

Army

An army (from Latin arma "arms, weapons" via Old French armée, "armed" (feminine)) or ground force is a fighting force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or state. It may also include other branches of the military such as the air force via means of aviation corps. Within a national military force, the word army may also mean a field army. They differ from army reserves who are activated only during such times as war or natural disasters.

In several countries, the army is officially called the Land Army to differentiate it from an air force called the Air Army, notably France. In such countries, the word "army" on its own retains its connotation of a land force in common usage. The current largest army in the world, by number of active troops, is the People's Liberation Army of China with 2,250,000 active troops and 800,000 reserve personnel followed by the Indian Army with 1,129,000 active troops and 2,142,900 reserve personnel.

Cadet

A cadet is a trainee. The term is frequently used to refer those training to become an officer in the military, often a person who is a junior trainee. Its meaning may vary between countries. The term is also used in civilian contexts and as a general attributive, for example in its original sense of a branch of a ruling house which is not currently in the direct line of succession.

Etymology

The term comes from the French term "cadet" for younger sons of a noble family.

Military context

In Commonwealth countries, including the United Kingdom, a cadet is a member of one of the cadet forces. In the United Kingdom these are the Combined Cadet Force, the Sea/Royal Marine Cadets, Army Cadets and the Air Training Corps. Military officers in training are called officer cadets.

In Canada, the term "cadet" refers to an officer in training, with the official rank names as Officer Cadet for the Air Force and Army and Naval Cadet for the Navy. It also refers to any member of the Royal Canadian Army Cadets, Royal Canadian Air Cadets or Royal Canadian Sea Cadets. These three organizations are volunteer youth groups administered by the Department of National Defence.

West Lothian

West Lothian (Scots: Wast Lowden, Scottish Gaelic: Lodainn an Iar) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, and a historic county (which was also known as Linlithgowshire). It borders the City of Edinburgh, Falkirk, North Lanarkshire, the Scottish Borders and South Lanarkshire.

The council area was created in 1996, under the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994, with the boundaries of the West Lothian district of the Lothian region.

Towns

Villages

Coat of Arms

The coat of arms is blazoned:

Party per fess argent and azure, a fess counterchanged between in chief a shale bing of five peaks gules and in base an oak tree fructed on a mount Or; the whole surrounded by a bordure argent charged with, in middle chief, a pellet charged with a Maltese cross argent, in dexter chief, a badger’s head contourny erased proper, in sinister chief, a boar’s head erased, in dexter fess, a tower, in sinister fess, a clarion, and in middle base, a lozenge, all sable. The shield is supported on the dexter by a lizard vert and on the sinister by a bitch sable, both armed and langued gules, the latter gorged of a collar wherefrom is issuant a chain reflexing over her back and binding her to base Or; for crest is the coronet of an area council, and for motto: 'Aye for the Common Weal'.