Photos: 2015 Bermuda Regiment Camp Begins
[Updated] The 2015 Bermuda Regiment Recruit Camp got underway this morning [Jan 11], with young men and women waiting outside the gates of Warwick Camp for the 8.00am start.
The start of the annual Recruit Camp tends to attract spectators each year, and this year was no different, with friends and family gathering to watch this morning’s proceedings.
Over the next two weeks the recruits will rise early each morning for training including; physical training, drill, weapon, field craft lessons and more.
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While some of those entering the gates of Warwick Camp are volunteers, many are conscripts, and the phasing out of conscription has been discussed for the past few years, with both political parties signalling their support for ending the practice.
Earlier this year, Premier Michael Dunkley, who also serves as Minister of National Security, said: “The move to an all-volunteer force will not be without its challenges and the means by which the Government proposes to mitigate those challenges is through a phased end to conscription working towards the last ballot for recruits in 2015 for 2016’s Recruit Camp and a completion of service for those soldiers in 2019.”
Update 6.21pm: The Regiment said a total of 115 new soldiers started the Recruit Camp today, with the 60-plus volunteers a new record for the Regiment. More information and a video is here.
Click to enlarge photos:
absolute waste of young men’s time.
Yeah. I would much prefer to see our young men speeding on their bikes or sitting on walls. Far more beneficial.
@ Sky Pilot, I guess you really did not look at all the photo’s there were several Women in there also, needless to say they are the biggest hero’s that show people like you no tennis balls, and further more I would rather see our young man above ground doing something positive then to be underground doing nothing. all four of my son served in the Army,they all did their time. One went back into it full time and is making a career of it and loves the job and another has a good full time Job but decided to also go back to the Army as a full time volunteer. so may be if your plane that your flying can reach a higher altitude, you wont be smelling all the vapors up in the cock pit were you are, you may just get cleaner air at 32,000 feet. and see clearer skies ahead, safe travels Sky Pilot hope you don’t hit turbulence out in the ocean and THE REGIMENT has to be sent out to your rescue search with the marine police.OH my bad, the MP on the shoulders stands for Military Police.
Hard to tell with your awful punctuation but are you saying these recruits are “heroes”??? Come on now….
Good for them but heroes they are not.
Duane, I’m happy to hear that your sons have done well. However, I’m pretty sure they would have done well anyway because you were a dedicated father.
But seriously though. Do we need them to spend three years doing this? I say allow those that enjoy it to stay after year one. But why cant we have them volunteer their time and give back by helping the Police, Fire, St johns, KBB, Hospitals Auxillary, Red Cross, CADA etc.
There are many , many, much more useful ways to have our youngsters give back to the Community. We must think outside the box. Who knows, if your sons had been given this opportunity. One could have decided to become a police office after joining BPS, or an EMT or Doctor after assisting St. Johns, a construction company owner after helping Habit for Humanity!
I have to say I kind of agree with @sky pilot. Three years worth of learning how to march in a straight line and shoot a gun is excessive!
Yes, sore of the guys (and girls) need direction and discipline but this sexist, and abusive military style training is not the answer. Wouldn’t it make more sense to encourage these men and women to give there time to the Bermuda Police, St. Johns Ambulance, Bda Fire Department, Spirit of Bermuda, Habitat For Humanity, Salvation Army, Young Life, CADA or the dozens of other organizations, and charities looking for help and volunteers.
Our Youth, girls and boys should be forced to contribute to Bermuda and give back for Free Education, Health Insurance etc. I don’t think that anyone would say that the Bda Regiment offers the best return on our investment , nor does it offer the best learning experience possible.
Do I believe that the Bda Regiment serves no purpose and has no value – of course not. One year is enough. Anyone that has ever attended knows years two and three are filled with evenings of playing hurry up and wait, polishing guns and trips overseas.
Instead of forcing 200 men to go to Jamaiaca or North Carolina to march in the mountains and play war games, would it not make more sense to send 50 to Haiti (for example) or other places and have them build a home or school for Habitat for Humanity or a similar project. There has to be a better way.
for some this will be a turning point in their lives. make the most of this opportunity boys (and some girls again I see).
Yes a turning point for some but not always for the good unfortunately.
I know a LOT of people who have been in the regiment and only a few come out the same they went in.
None have come out any worse . Ask the many hundreds of mothers who have seen a massive turn around in their son’s attitudes .
And please, none of this utter BS about gangsta training because they get to handle firearms there .
I know several who have come out worse! IN fact I know of a couple that now openly admit that they are marksmen when it comes to shooting and guess what…………..they are still on the corner selling drugs and apart of that gang life.
Point is this, many will come out and have better lives, but some will come out and use their newly acquired skills to do harm in the community.
They were useless to the community before they went into the regiment, not because of it .
And I think that there’s more than enough evidence that there’s no ‘marksmen’ as such in these gangstas doing the shootings around here .
They were trained with rifles and UZIs not handguns and seeing that only ‘good boys’ are getting killed or the target success ratio to bullets fired is low they could hardly describe themselves as marksmen.
Perhaps that is true Redbeard, but at the same time, every year some of these young men’s lives are ruined. How? Each year after the Jamaica trip, many are temped, and others bullied into smuggling Marijuana into Bermuda. Is it their own fault perhaps it is for trying. However, one guy I knew was forced to bring back a package because his brother owed someone lots of money.
i never did believe in karma…
RIGHT……bullied into bringing marijuana back to the island. Maybe that one person who was is true, but there many many more who will do it just to make that quick buck. Especially given the hard times that the island is feeling now.
And if none of the conscripts turned up they would have been forced to close today..oh well one mre year and I won’t have to go.
@ Pacifist, you better pray when your turn comes you are not faced with real war, because the potential of our soldiers being sent into battle is more real today then ever, if Great Britain gets struck by all out war they have the right to call on our regiment to be their water boys.because the first sign of real war then men will run away from battle and i bet our women will run towards the battle.
Be real man, these guys would all get annihilated in a real war. Hey are not battle capable nor will that ever be with the equipment that the Regiment posses. Old rifles and firearms that are outdated. No one even uses rifles in real wars man. Are these guys being trained to dodge mortar shells and the like? Are they being field tested on surface to air strikes? Are they being tested on what to do should they encounter a tank or the like??? The most our regiment will be good for in a real war is to bring supplies to the real soldiers.
Sounds like the words of someone with no military or tactical training whatsoever.
Wrong. Law in Bermuda clearly states the regiment now can not be called upon for active military service overseas. This law came into effect after ww2. Perhaps you should look that up before scaremongering people to go to war
Looks like a few of those spectators who are having a good laugh could use use a couple weeks up early every morning for a few hours of excerise.
Wouldn’t be so entertaining if they were being hustled up to the parade ground now would it?
Tax payers dollars hard at waste. Stop conscription.
The Gonna Government was gonna stop it. Announced it at least a few times but, like so many other announcements of great things ‘gonna’ happen, it didn’t.
Now the hot potatoe is in the OBA’s hands. I know that they are very busy in repair mode but surely ending conscription cannot be that difficult.
for once i agree with @traingledrifter, they only conscript in north korea, cuba, iran, mexico, russia, syria and so on, does bermuda want to still be in that bracket.
ps. another word for conscription is military slavery look it up i just did
Burundi, Kuwait, Mali, Venezuela, Singapore, Mauritania, Israel, Benin, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Niger, Senegal, Taiwan, Togo, Vietnam, Austria, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Denmark, Estonia, Ecuador, Finland, Greece, Guatemala, Moldova, Mongolia, Norway, Paraguay, Tunisia, Turkey, Uzbekistan, UAE, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Cote d’Ivorie, Eritrea, Egypt, Georgia, Kuwait, Laos, Turkmenistan, Myanmar, South Korea, Cuba, Cyprus, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea, Mozambique, Mauritania, Libya, Kyrgyzstan, Togo, Yemen, Sudan, Somalia, Kazakhstan, Iran, Sao Tome and Principe, Belarus, Switzerland, Ukraine. Did I miss any? Oh yeah, USA.
Unfortunately the bullying will continue up there. No need to be shouted at or bullied. It’s other ways for discipline instead of the name calling and pushing and forcefulness. Good luck to them. A lot of them are joining for the financial aspect, can’t say I blame them for that.
Personally, I never understood the need to so call “discipline” someone by having them locked up, abused (in many ways), embarrassing them, bullying them because their shoes or brass were not shiny!
I am not a better man today because of anything I saw or did there! Unfortunately, others (many without father figures) seemed to believe that this is the way you treat others that are not ranked as high as you are.
Don’t believe me? Spend the day on any construction site.
This s*** again yawn
What happened to to OBA promise to abolish regiment? I spent 3 month up there before I was able to figure a way out (work, studies, family didn’t work so had to resort to more creative measures involving a “bad back”) so I can attest first hand what an absolute joke that place is. Both the PLP and the OBA should be ashamed they have let this go on for so long. Close that place immediately; we can sweep up our own yards post hurricane and maybe some of the 5 zillion government employees on the tax payer payroll could go out and take care of the public areas?? One more thing; all that “you get out what you put in” stuff is bs. I honestly did try but there are so many better ways to spend the energies of the youth of Bermuda than marching around a square. The only people who like that place are people with low IQ’s that are plodding along in a mediocre (at best) career and get a power trip out of bossing the lower ranks around. Sorry for making that two more things when I promised only one more.
This is a waste of time, and is disrupting the lives of those who are already contributing to society. The people who might actually need some discipline in their lives don’t show up for this, they don’t go and sign up and get inducted, and the regiment police are too scared to looking for them. The only people who show up are working people, either straight out of high school or back from university. They are try to get their lives started, contributing their tax dollars into the economy, and now they have to show up at Warwick Camp once a week, as well as certain weekends for over three years.
Conscription needs to be done away with
all u idiots fighting against this regiment makes me laugh…it’s a cake walk up there…just like our prison…so stop ******* about it and get on with your life.
Another $7 million of taxpayer’s money up in smoke this year on the toy soldiers. It is probably time to start using that money to reduce our deficit rather than continue this charade.
But when you need them they aren’t so “toy” anymore. The Regiment’s Boat Troop has more individuals qualified to conduct SAR diving operations than the BPS marine section. What’s “toy” about that?
Great, so they can help retrieve all the cars that seem to be trying to go overboard. We need boot camp, for drivers, not soldiers.