A Decade of Service Celebrated
The Cayman Islands Cadet Corps (CICC) is celebrating its 10th anniversary this July, marking a decade of providing Cayman’s youth with a structured, beneficial programme.
Along with celebrations for this milestone, the Caymanian cadets also hosted the 25th annual Caribbean Cadet Camp (CCC) for the first time, making the last two weeks busy ones for the Cadet Corps.
Bobeth O’Garro, Acting Commandant and Lieutenant Colonel of the CICC and one of only two full-time Corps employees, said that she and the other senior officers believe the event was a success.
“These gatherings are an excellent way to ensure that a high standard of cadet training is maintained throughout the region. It builds camaraderie, breaks down cultural barriers and provides cadets with the opportunity to serve as an ambassador,” she explained.
The site of the camp was a completely transformed Red Bay Primary School, which was changed into “Camp Semper Paratus,” Latin for “Camp Always Ready.” The name of the camp does well to embody the spirit of the CICC, shown by their motto, “Leading the way. Who endures wins.”
The camp allows Corps members from all over the Caribbean to convene in one location to train and learn together.
Cadets from Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago, including officers and other ranking positions, all participated in the training sessions, including a course on mass casualty management, first aid and WebEOC, a crisis information management system that is web-based and is used to provide live information to emergency managers in order for them to make sound decisions quickly.
The camp was wrapped up with a 48-hour long field exercise completed in the Frank Sound area, where cadets were required to accumulate all the skills they had learned while a part of their respective corps and put them to use.
However, before the visitors arrived, Cayman’s cadets went through a week of training on their own as they prepared for their star training and for any possible promotions.
“This camp saw our first batch of past cadets returning as adult instructors and officers – proof of the fact that being a cadet prepares you to be an active citizen for the rest of your life. In some cases, these officers came from the cadets who joined the Corps at its inception. Many of them have gone on to tertiary education, with some pursuing jobs in law enforcement,” Mrs. O’Garro explained.
“Cadetting provides participants the opportunity to develop leadership skills and to explore various areas of interest,” Mrs. O’Garro said. “My favourite part of being a member of the Cadet Corps, from a leadership perspective, is watching the cadets grow and gain self esteem. I also enjoy the community service projects we engage in, in which we teach our cadets to be good citizens, giving back to our community.”
The CICC has clearly been successful in this regard. “We are proud to say that our cadets, especially those who have been enrolled in the programme for more than two years, show remarkable maturity and responsibility. Moreover they stay out of trouble,” Mrs. O’Garro proudly states.
The CICC intends to continue on for what will hopefully be another strong 10 years, with the addition of music training for those cadets who are musically inclined. Mrs. O’Garro hopes that the cadet programme will continue to grow, and will attract new members for their next season.
As for herself, Mrs. O’Garro secured another first for the CICC when she was appointed the first-ever female Commandant to be a chairperson of the Caribbean Commandant Association at the CCC.
Front page photo: Cadets perform in the closing parade on July 15th.
