New B.D.F. Recruits Pass Out

It was full pomp and circumstance today at the B.D.F.’s Price Barracks Compound, as the best and the brightest of its new recruits were recognized. Weeks of intense physical and mental training have prepared the new soldiers for life in the Belize Defense Force. Andrea Polanco was at today’s passing out ceremony.

Andrea Polanco, Reporting

Intake Number Fifty Nine today joined the Belize Defense Force. Friends and families gathered at the Sir Colville Young Parade Square in Price Barracks Ladyville to bear witness as the recruits matriculate into the rank and file of the B.D.F.

Sypreano Smith, Company Sergeant Major, B.D.F.

“They assembled in October of last year and they have undergone basic training requirement and they have met that. Today we have four officer candidates and we have eighty three total recruits we have passing out today.”

Sypreano Smith

The eighty three new B.D.F. soldiers represent some of the best, as they are the ones who passed the tests after a large group dwindled since they started basic training.

Sypreano Smith

“When they arrived here as civilians the first six weeks of the training is the most rigid part, where they are introduced to garrison life and required to drill. There is a high level of physical demand on them. This is actually the phase where a lot of people actually go home. We started off with one hundred and forty nine and today we have eighty three make that cut to pride themselves as proud members of the Belize Defence Force.”

So, just how rigorous was the training? They had to endure weeks of intensive tests of skills in tactics, arms, military communication and discipline.

Sypreano Smith

“They are required to be up as early as three thirty in the morning and go through a lot of sleep deprivation. They have to do a foot drills, rifle drills, and lotta tactics in terms of the lesions required and for a soldier of the B.D.F. needs to know. They need to be able to shoot and they are now at their peak where we can say they are ready to be employed in their unit and join in a professional capacity.”

Andrea Polanco

“So you believe all of this has adequately prepared them for life with the Force?”

Sypreano Smith

“Yes. Yes. This is what it is all about, to ensure that when they left from the training company that they are qualified and as a private solider, we know that they are competent to be employed.”

So, what’s next for these new soldiers?

Sypreano Smith

“Well, they go on a mandatory leave for two weeks to regain themselves and then after that they are posted out to the infantry battalion where they will be employed in their unit as rifle men or as the tasks require them. Some of them have specialists skills so they will more than likely go right into after passing out.”

Reporting for News Five, I am Andrea Polanco.