Jamaica Hosts Caribbean Commandants Conference
By: , July 24, 2023
Photo: R. Fraser
Corporal Caroun Bennett (kneeling) of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) Air Wing, demonstrates how to secure a victim to be airlifted to a medical facility, while Major Alphanso Gayle (second right) and Corporal Antjuan Lawrence of the Cayman Islands Cadet Corps, look on. Corporal Gabriela Ashley is strapped for airlift. They were at the Caribbean Cadet Camp exhibition held at Clarendon College on Sunday (July 23).The Full Story
Jamaica will play host to the Caribbean Commandants Conference, which is slated to take place from July 25 to 29.
The event will see Heads of the Cadet Forces across the region converge in Jamaica to discuss training and development opportunities for the Caribbean Cadet Corps.
Staff Officer to the Commandant of the Jamaica Combined Cadet Force, Lieutenant Colonel Simone Foster, told JIS News that this is the first face-to-face conference to be held since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
“This is the gathering of all the regional cadet forces corps. They meet every year to discuss training and development opportunities, knowledge sharing, the plan to share resources and joint activities. This is the strategic arm of the cadet forces in the region,” Lt. Col. Foster said.
She pointed out that the conference will promote regional integration. “The conference is held to plan strategically for the Caribbean region. We go outside of the Caribbean and we provide assistance for countries who don’t have a unit or a force or a corps and we help them to develop the plans to establish one,” Lt. Col. Foster told JIS News.
“We are expecting 15 countries to be in attendance; however, each country is taking another person or two persons with them, because we are also hosting the Staff Officer and Training Officers Conference during the same period. So, we are expecting a minimum of 18 persons that should be here,” she said.
The conference will be held at the Caribbean Military Academy at Up Park Camp in St. Andrew. The opening ceremony will be held at 9:00 a.m. on July 25.
“After the opening ceremony, we will have conference, and this is where deliberations and discussions to plan for the remainder of the year and up to the next conference and camp. We will also update the schedule for the conference and camp for the next five years, so each time the Commandants meet we update the schedule. So, we’ll know for the next five years the countries that will be hosting the biannual conference, as well as the Caribbean Cadet Camp,” Lt. Col. Foster informed.
The conference will be held under the theme ‘Empowering Cadets to Lead’.