Uncle Sam supplies B.D.F. with bullets
It was not a particularly fancy or high tech gift … but what more could an army wish for than half a million bullets? News Five’s Kendra Griffith reports from Price Barracks, Ladyville.
Brig. Gen. Lloyd Gillett, Commander, B.D.F.
?Today we are here to receive five hundred and thirty-six thousand rounds of live five point five-six ammunition valued at two hundred and seventy-five thousand eight hundred and forty dollars from the United States Government.?
Kendra Griffith, Reporting
According to Commander of the Belize Defence Force, Brigadier General Lloyd Gillett, the donation will come in handy as the army uses an average of a hundred thousand bullets a year for training purposes.
Brig. Gen. Lloyd Gillett
?The ammunition will be used to maintain the operational readiness of the B.D.F. We on an annual basis have a personal weapons test that we need to do and each soldier needs to go on the range and fire his weapon on and pass at a certain score. Also, we have recruits in training and we have other training courses that we carry out throughout the year and this ammunition replenishes the old one that we expend and it also allows us to rotate the ammunition that have operationally deployed.?
Robert Dieter, U.S. Ambassador to Belize
?This ammunition was provided through the Foreign Military Financing or the F.M.F. programme. It?s a programme of grant assistance intending to support the modernisation and maintenance of defence forces in developing countries with firm democratic traditions. The embassy?s military liaison office will continue to work closely with the B.D.F. to determine the best ways to utilise future F.M.F. funding. We have already signed agreements for the delivery of new firearms, body armour, communication equipment and vehicles for the B.D.F. and the Belize National Coast Guard.?
Both General Gillett and U.S. Ambassador to Belize Robert Dieter, agree that the donations not only assist Belize, but also our neighbours.
Brig. Gen. Lloyd Gillett
?With this assistance the B.D.F. continues to make a contribution to regional and hemispheric security by providing a credible deterrence against external aggression, while denying the use of its lands and interior waters to drug smugglers, human smugglers, arms traffickers and terrorists.?
Robert Dieter
?One of the things we are trying to support here in Belize as well is a humanitarian assistance in getting a light engineering company started in Belize that could help in a regional context to support in the event of natural disasters or other emergencies. I think more and more when a disaster strikes in the region it?s helpful to be able to call on resources from a number of different countries who can respond.?
But the United States government is just one of the countries helping Belize?s military … consistent ally Taiwan today also made a donation to the army.
This morning Taiwanese Ambassador to Belize Joseph Shih handed over a Human Resource Management System encompassing software, two servers, two network switches, one wireless switch, and manuals and training for operators.
Brig. Gen. Lloyd Gillett
?We have an intranet that we?ve develop, so the people in Punta Gorda will be able to access the files of all the individuals in their battalion and anywhere. If you are in a company in Cayo you will be able to access that information. And so it?s all a part of introducing technology, trying to create efficiencies within the B.D.F.?
According to General Gillett, for the first time two Taiwanese officers will be participating in a jungle warfare instructor course scheduled for later this month in Belize.
Kendra Griffith reporting for News Five.
In related news, the B.D.F., National Fire Service and police are inviting residents to come out on Friday night and support the annual tattoo. The event is being held at the Marion Jones Stadium starting at five-thirty. Tickets are three dollars for adults, two for kids.