US Army sets up camp in Dangriga
The Stann Creek District has been occupied by foreign soldiers. A base camp has been established just outside Dangriga and supplies continue to arrive daily. But its not an invasion, it’s a mission of peace and the soldiers from fifteen States in the U.S. are not carrying guns but shovels, hammers and stethoscopes. New Horizons 2000 soldiers are working along with members of the BDF to Provide medical attention and build seven new schools for villagers in rural areas. Janelle Chanona was invited to the opening ceremonies this week and got a tour of the camp, which is really a town unto itself.
During ceremonies yesterday, various government officials of both the United States and Belize got out the shovels and “dug” to the future of New Horizons 2000, marking the official start of the project.
Janelle Chanona
But while we were celebrating international relations, the American soldiers were already hard at work, drilling for water and building schools like this one at Light of the Valley.
Most of the soldiers here don’t have any real training in construction. As army reservists, these men and women have regular jobs or go to college, but every year they give up two full weeks to the army. It might not be the middle of the wet season but they still had to get used to building Belize style.
Adjuntant General Bennett Landreneau, Louisiana National Guard
“There are some difficulties that we don’t experience in Louisiana but that’s the beauty of this partnership is that we working shoulder to shoulder with the Belize Defense Force engineers. And they are helping to train our engineers in some of the peculiarities of the construction materials for instance that we face here in Belize that may not see in the United States or may not see in Louisiana.”
The U.S. Army has worked in Belize from as early as 1987 but the New Horizons exercise has been conducted since 1995 on a rotational basis about every three years. Most of the projects have been schools and wells, others included building roads. US Ambassador to Belize Carolyn Curiel says this year New Horizons almost didn’t make it to Belize.
Carolyn Curiel, US Ambassador to Belize
“This year we almost didn’t get New Horizons, Hurricane Mitch really drained our resources. A lot of the guys you see here, from the Louisiana National Guard, they were rebuilding Honduras, but without barely a break, they came back and they’re back at it.”
General Bennett Landreneau
“We hope this reinforces the message that we care about our friends in Belize and I stand before you today to emphasize that caring and support. For Louisiana, this is a very special relationship that we have with the country of Belize.”
By the end of May, almost 3,500 soldiers would have worked in Belize. Since this is a training exercise as well as a good deed, the army has set up camp. From topside, base camp looks like it’s ready for a war. It’s a fully self sustaining city complete with it’s own water plant, electricity, communications port, grocery store, laundry facilities, a homemade bar, transportation units army motif and literally tons of food. The officers will tell you life here isn’t what it’s cracked up to be with the sand-flies and the intense heat but with some entertaining distractions and some touches of home, it ain’t all that bad either.
Another part of the project will be to provide free, basic medical care to Belizeans. So far none of the soldiers have had any major injuries so the medic teams are eager to start working. The army brought most of it’s own supplies but they will be writing checks to Belizean companies for things like cement, blocks and mortar and by the American estimations, that will amount to over four million Belize dollars.
The soldiers are working hard and fast, in fact some of the projects are already ahead of schedule, something the Minister of Works, Henry Canton, wants to take advantage of.
Henry Canton, Minister of Works
“They are on a schedule and I’m asking that if they are ahead of schedule, like in the case of the water wells and stuff…that they allow us to not have the equipment sit. To bend the schedule a little bit and allow us to get more instead of having the equipment sit, that’s what I was trying to get across. Or in the case of Gales Point, we are also making the request, we need classrooms, but we really need more than three classrooms, we really need six classrooms. We’re hoping that Government could put the materials, and the BDF could provide the labour and we could use their equipment and supervision. So those are the two things we are trying to push them at.”
General Bennett Landreneau
“New Horizons 2000 is not just about building schools, digging wells and providing health care, rather New Horizons is about building bonds between governments, bonds between soldiers and most of all, bonds between the people of our two country. New Horizon 2000 is all about people and friendships between people.”
Janelle Chanona for News Five.
Forty members of the Belize Defense Force are working with the American soldiers. Over fifteen states, including Alaska and Puerto Rico are participating this year. New Horizons will end in May. Louisiana National Guard soldiers worked on the Boom/Hattieville Road in 1997.
