Photos: 2012 Recruit Camp Underway
This morning [Jan.15] the Regiment’s Annual Recruit Camp began, with dozens of young men, and some women, waiting outside the gates of Warwick Camp. Over the next two weeks the recruits will rise early each morning for training including; physical training, drill, weapon, field craft lessons and more.
Speaking before the Camp began, Commanding Officer Lt. Col. Brian Gonsalves said, “As you know due to budget cuts, we had to basically halve our enlistment process, so we have just over about 70 recruits and a good number of volunteers.And there are a few females that have volunteered.
“The programme is, for the most part, is the same. The only tweaking has been instead of catering to 160 to 170 recruits, we are now only catering to about 70 or 80 recruits. So the training they leave with will be the same.
“But I believe it will be better. Because there are reduced soldiers, and we have a little more instructors, so the – if you will – recruit to instructor ratio is a little better than it has been in previous years. So I told the Company Commander I expect a better turned out recruit come the end of the camp.”
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Good Luck To My Boyfriend Kevin and My Cousin Keemy
If you were the Government for a day, the regiment had never existed, and you were given the opportunity to use $8 million as effectively as you could for the Benefit of our island, what would you do with it?
Maybe provide more funding for education, the police service, the mirrors program, the sunshine league, financial assistance, maybe even just not use it so it would be $8M less the Government had to borrow for yet another year?
Who on earth would suggest it was a good idea to use it to create a regiment? Just because we have a regiment and have had one for decades, doesn’t mean we should continue to have one.
We need to ask ourselves – what do we really get for our money, and could it not be put to better use elsewhere? Can we afford to continue spending on things we arguably do not really need?
i think $8 million dollars is a drop in the bucket when we have no answers on the over runs at the $60 million Dockyard Pier Fiasco…..let’s campaign on money truly ill spent. this Regiment seems to be a viable employment opportunity for more and more people and it definitely isn’t the army of the 1990s. they seem to be getting better and the recruits have a good attitude from what i have been told. ask some of the recruits and be honest in your reply as to how they see it. i think a walton brown survey or cordell riley is in order
that 8 million you are talking about goes into the hands of 400 bermudians.Not just to one of ‘government buddies’ as we seen in the past few years. and in times like these i say thank you for it. Its an extra pay check just like a part time job and manny are greatful for it. I have seen cases where a bounty check has saved someone from being kicked out of their home.So as much a pain in the ass it can be at times it still does it good.
The last major hurricane hit we had (fabian) cost us 300 million in damages. Many places in the world have slow recovery from natural disasters which causes a downtime in their economy. This downtime has been known to destroy entire towns even in highly developed nations. The logic in the reasons for this is very simple Lt. Logic. If civilians cannot get to work because of downed trees, roofs torn off, huge amounts heavy debris in the road money is not made to make up for the damages. The regiment have saved us time & time again by getting Bermuda up & running from natural disasters. If anyone can recall fabian they will remember that our young men in the regiment were more efficient in piecing Bermuda back together than any other branch of professional workers out there. It only takes two weeks, one night a week & one weekend a month for only three years to get our youngsters some fresh out of high school into shape to serve their country. WELLLL DONE!!! WELLLL DONE!!! to all in the regiment from privates up to the officers.
So if I was government for a day I would have the officers & sergeants of the regiment run the country since they get things done at very little cost. If anyone has ever gone to an officers ball at the regiment they would notice that the food taste as awful as the food served to the troops. This is because it is because no one not even the officers gain luxury out of their positions. Yes I agree that sunshine league should get more funding but we need to look at where other government funding is going for these organizations because the regiment did not take it. As for giving the 8 million to bps out of the regiments pool. NOOOOO!!!! WAY!!! I feel bps doesn’t use the funds they get efficiently at current so if I was in government that wouldn’t happen. The marching that any national security group does is only a quarter show despite popular opinion. The biggest reason for marching is to train a team to work in unison with each other & not to trip your comrades up. This is a very important quality to have in high stress situations & that being said one should check out the way the regiment marches compared to the police during parades. Its quite amusing for a bit till you realize that we rely on bps to work as a team daily.
Antiquated.
Antiquated? These young men and women will learn a great deal about themselves. They will come out of this with integrity, self respect, confidence and most importantly discipline.
As soon as those that constantly oppose the Regiment and what it stands for the better off we will be. Look at it from the small points I have listed and not from a hater of the colonial regime and you will soon realize that the Regiment can only do our society good.
If the benefits you listed were actually true then why doesn’t the government mandate conscription for ALL Bermudians (male and female) and not just the lucky few men who are chosen each year? If people actually took away the things you say they do then why does nobody (generally) volunteer to serve in the regiment? I mean, why take the chance of not being a lucky conscript and potentially pass on such valuable life-skill training? Why is it the government’s job to instill discipline, self-confidence and the other cookie-cutter ‘benefits’ you mentioned anyway? Surely the parents of Bermuda’s children have been working on these things for 18+ years, no? If not, why don’t we conscript parents into ‘parenting class’ and/or lock them up for failing to do so by the time their kids are 18+…resulting in the spending of $8,000,000(?)/year that we don’t have? Heck, let’s put them in yearly recruit camp too! Oh wait, they must have jobs/responsibilities….things young people don’t have, right? And what about those that already posses good discipline, integrity, etc? Why are they forced into the regiment when they already have all the regiment has to offer? You obviously haven’t spent much time up at Warwick Camp because if you have you would know that the only thing the regiment is good for is teaching conscripts the much needed skill of poor time management (hurry up and wait, anybody?), crass and vulgar language, enlightenment into Bermuda’s widespread problem of sexist/racist/homophobic thinking, the fact that people really believe we face the possibility of a terrorist attack(!), as well as the often overlooked fact that 150+ (now 80) Bermudians are trained in the ‘art’ of killing each year…and we wonder why we face a shooting epidemic island-wide? Let’s just hope that nobody is sexually-assaulted during camp this year… I would hate to see what benefit you think that would teach somebody!
Please – the system is antiquated. There are so many other models that would be more cost effective and better serve the community individuals involved. Nothing to do with the colonial regime.
Like?
Why does serving your country need to involve a military approach?
i’ll say one thing…our interests have definitely changed. we comment more on murders, finance, politics. FINALLY!! we are getting priorities!!
They’ll never take me alive!!
Pure & simple, the Regiment, in its present form, is a complete waste of money.
Yes there should be some sort of community service, for all, not just a few conscripted. The fire service can be partially a volunteer organization, like it once was & like so many in small towns across the US. Many service charitys need help, not just financial. Community service can be hurricane clean up under the direction of landscaping & construction companys, people who do this sort of thing as a part of their normal business.
The Regiment itself should still exist but only as the band & a much reduced ceremonial capacity which would more than likely attract people who really want to be there. Such people might form a drill team similar to a US Marine precision drill squad (something to see live) instead of the sloppy bunch we have now.
For those who do not want to choose a community service there will always be the weekend roadside cleanup detail so want to or not they will contribute to the Islands well being.
The Regiment is not a social service for wayward youth.
The number of those that have been recruited have been reduced due to budget cuts but they’re getting new uniforms so the money that they have “saved” by reducing the number of recuits has now been spent on uniforms…hmmmmmm
Never mind the latest & greatest weapons they get from time to time.
Seen how many vehicles the Regiment has these days?
The Regiment has had the same weapons for over 20+ years. Well maintained from recruit to recruit.
The vehicles that they have are all hand-me-downs from the Police Force that they fix up for Regiment Service.
Ok aside from the extremely out of shape RO at the gate, anyone else notice the RO’s look like pip squeaks. I mean nothing about them make commands respects…..and whats with the white gloves…..taking a church offering?? Its quite amusing I must say, to see people that would never say boo to you in the streets but act like boss’s up there.
all the best to my sister Tomeeka who joined love you have fun