My lad did a year or so of Army Cadets. He enjoyed it, but wanted to take it seriously as he was considering a military career. He was frustrated because many of them just turned up for the social side of things, (which seemed to involve standing round smoking and swearing....) and the leadership was a bit fluffy. However, the expeditions and overnight stuff were good fun, and he was selected for the NE Regional Rugby team so had a great weekend over in Brecon where they beat the Welsh team for the first time in living memory! He gave up in the end, he just got fed up with the kids who weren't interested in learning anything, and prevented the whole group from progressing.