About 60 members of the Cayman Islands Regiment took part in realistic training designed to deal with building collapses from events such as earthquakes.
Part of Dolphin Cove in West Bay was turned over to the country’s troopers on Saturday, 12 Oct., for humanitarian and disaster relief work. A section of a block was filled with debris, wires and fake walls that needed to be drilled through, to create a tough working environment designed to test skills learned in the classroom.
Eric Goff, 29, an airport security officer who joined the one-day exercise from the section based on Cayman Brac, said about the training, “You get more hands-on when you get inside the building and the more you see, the more you learn.”
Jermaine Lue, who marked his 40th birthday on the exercise and works in the security industry, said he had wanted to join the Jamaica Defence Force as a young man, but his parents were not keen.
“When I came to Cayman, I got the opportunity to do it,” he said. “I can learn things and employ them in my civilian life – that’s one of the positives – so far it’s been a plus in every way you can think of.”
Tayvanis Oyog, 33, a Department of Environment research officer, said he joined because he wanted to test his ability to pass the training.
Oyog, from West Bay, added, “I wasn’t sure I could do it, so I tried it to see. You learn skills that you wouldn’t normally get, or have to pay a lot of money to get.”
Major General Mark Lancaster, the director of the UK Army Reserve, who is also the honorary colonel of the Cayman force, said he had campaigned for the formation of defence forces in all the UK overseas territories several years ago.
“To see how this regiment had developed, it’s remarkable that we have the capability we have today and all the skills required to do that,” he said.
“I’m really very proud of them. They provide a capability to all three islands, where we are able to support the other emergency services. We continue to go from strength to strength.”
Regiment commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel Roger Carter, a veteran of the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force, who also served as his country’s defence attache in Washington, said his job was to organise the regiment into what it will look like in 10 to 15 years.
He added the troopers were mostly devoted to disaster relief work, and got urban search-and-rescue and medical training.
“The other thing we do very well is logistics, not only for ourselves, but also for the other agencies,” he said, adding that the regiment’s command vehicle had already been used by police, and its ambulance, a rugged off-road-capable Unimog, could reach spots inaccessible to civilian ambulances.
“We are the agency other agencies call on when they need more support – we are Cayman’s insurance policy.”
Related Videos
