Combined cadet force: young boys playing sailor, soldier, airman in the 1950s.(PERSPECTIVES)

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

I was a skinny 15-year-old Canadian, my battledress wet from the dew as I crawled with my rifle under the barbed wire around the aerodrome--we were about to attack. Wartime! No, I was in the Combined Cadet Force at school in England.

A compulsory part of public school life was belonging to the Combined Cadet Force (CCF). One day a week would be spent in uniform, either navy, army or Royal Air Force, being trained in drill, on the rifle range, learning the rudiments of flight or sailing. This was serious stuff as public schools…