In light of Guyana’s ongoing tensions with Spanish-speaking neighbour Venezuela, Army Chief-of-Staff George Lewis announced that in 2016, 1300 ranks of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) have received additional military training.
Army Chief-of-Staff, Brigadier George Lewis addressing his junior ranks on Wednesday at Army headquarters, Camp Ayanganna
In the breakdown of the numbers, Brigadier Lewis revealed that 100 officers and 1200 other ranks were trained in military courses. He made the disclosures at the hosting of Soldiers’ Day at Camp Ayanganna on Wednesday afternoon.
It was disclosed that the 1300 total reflects a 30 per cent increase in comparison to the number of ranks who were trained last year. Additionally, the Chief-of-Staff also remarked that the year 2016 also saw 100 GDF officers and other ranks being trained at tertiary institutions, including the University of Guyana (UG).
Brigadier Lewis, while noting that the Army has had an excellent year, also pointed out that its 2016 initiatives have brought the Force closer to achieving its mandate of “providing territorial security”. The Brigadier also disclosed some of the other measures that the Force executed in 2016 to boost its military capacity.
“Soldiers [were] deployed to our borders and performed their duties in a professional, efficient and effective manner. We also conducted a number of other heightened security operations throughout Guyana in preparation for Local Government Elections (LGE). We also successfully executed Exercise Home Guard, which is a field tactical exercise to test our proficiency in the Ituni, Tacama areas,” the Chief-of-Staff explained.
The Brigadier added that the Army was continuing to enhance its accounting systems and operations in keeping with Government regulations.
“I believe that when we look at our successes against our challenges that the Guyana Defence Force had an excellent year; we are proud of ourselves and commit to performing better in 2017,” Lewis stressed.
