Active 11 July 2003 - present Branch Army Air Corps Garrison/HQ RAF Barkston Heath | Country United Kingdom Role Training | |
Motto(s) English: Nothing Is Impossible | ||
674 Squadron is a unit of the British Army Air Corps. It conducts elementary flying training for British Army pilots and occasionally for overseas military pilots.
Contents
Formation
The number 674 was one of several allocated to the RAF AOP Squadrons during the second world war, however no squadron was commissioned before the numbers were transferred to the Army Air Corps in 1957. The number remained unused until the emergence of a distinct army and navy presence at the Defence Elementary Flying Training School necessitated restructuring into two separate squadrons. 674 Squadron was selected because it was the next available unused number.
A formation parade and ceremony was held at RAF Barkston Heath on 11 July 2003, the first Officer Commanding being Major A M Mills AAC and the first Army Sergeant QFI, Sergeant Ian Trolley AAC (the most junior ranked Army person ever to become a Military QFI). The squadron was inaugurated by Major General Richard Gerrard-Wright CB CBE DL on behalf of the Chief of the Defence Staff, General Sir Mike Walker. The Chief of the Defence Staff granted the squadron its own march, 'The Lincolnshire Poacher'.
Heraldry
The squadron motto 'Nothing Is Impossible' was selected by the Regimental Committee of the Army Air Corps in order to perpetuate the memory of the Glider Pilot Regiment which bore the same motto.
The squadron crest bears the Sphynx of the Royal Lincolnshire Regiment, chosen because of the squadron's initial location at Barkston Heath in Lincolnshire and the close association of the Chief of the Defence Staff with the Army Air Corps (he was the Regimental Colonel) and the Royal Anglian Regiment, the successor to the Royal Lincolnshire Regiment.