Ten officer cadets inclusive of a lone female officer Stacy Cadogan demonstrated military tactics and manoeuvres necessary in their quest to become soldiers in the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) as the Colonel Ulric Pilgrim/Camp Stephenson training school at Timehri hosted Cadets Day yesterday.
The exercise which forms part of the Standard Officers’ Course (SOC) Number 45 was also witnessed by Commander- in- Chief of the Armed Forces, President Donald Ramotar, Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, GDF Chief-of-Staff Gary Best and other senior officers.
The course that also trains officers for the Joint Services and the defence forces of the regions, commenced on March 26, this year with 36 male and 2 female recruits in line with the objective of promoting and training junior leaders for the GDF.
The few that remained after the course commenced were seen not as a demerit to the Force but an indication of their commitment to duty and their desire to conquer the rigours of military training.
Georgetown : The demonstrations, accompanied by detailed explanations were thrilling, entertaining, stimulating and educational, amazing onlookers as the officers undertook a dangerous mission of rappelling from the Bell 412 helicopter to pursue suspects who played the role as high profile criminals.
Their precision in hitting fast-moving targets was witnessed in the falling plate shoot taken from 100 metres away, including the skills to disassemble and reassemble different categories of weapons blindfolded. They were also tasked with providing detailed explanation of the weapons on display.
Training was regarded as the foundation of the army by the Commander- in- Chief who promised that his Administration will continue to invest its available resources.
“We will continue… to build on our training, to look at your capital expenditure, to try to equip, as far as that is practicable… the defence force so that you can carry our your duty and perform your tasks while developing your personalities within the defence force,” President Ramotar said.
He urged the officers to “carry the good name of the army” and more particularly invest in their own education so that the army’s reputation as a highly respected institution can be sustained.
The Colonel Ulric Pilgrim/Camp Stephenson School is considered the army’s main operations and training base which, from today’s demonstrations has been meeting the objectives for which it was established, Commodore Best said.
He charged the officers to always strive for good conduct, zero tolerance for disobedience and protection of the school’s integrity.
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