Cadet Corps coming to Cayman Brac

Students listen intently to Capt Henry, Training Officer
of the Cayman Islands Cadet Corps

Friday,  December 2, 2005

The Cayman Islands Cadet Corps is looking for a few good people to head a new branch of the organization on Cayman Brac.

Captain Ricardo Henry, Training Officer for the Cadet Corps, recently made a trip to the Brac with Lieutenant Dave Thompson, the Recruitment Officer, and found much enthusiasm among students at the Cayman Brac High School.

“The visit was essentially to determine the level of interest by parents and students, and to get some of the feelings of the school and the District Administration about setting up a Cadet Corps on Cayman Brac,” said Capt. Henry.

Everyone seemed very excited, and they would like to get it going in the New Year, he said.

However, when they start this programme, they want to make sure it continues.

Therefore, they have to find someone to lead the cadets who is adequately trained. They are looking for a person with a military or a paramilitary background who can give drill training and is familiar with military activities.

This would include field craft, such as learning how to survive and how to conduct certain rescue missions. The programme also incorporates adventure training, such as rock climbing and diving.

For volunteers who don’t have any paramilitary background, there are training programmes specifically for cadet leaders. Cadet training is basically the same as for the military, bearing in mind child safety laws, said Capt Henry.

The Corps must also recruit female leaders for supervision and integrity, since the cadets are both girls and boys, he noted.

Volunteers would need to offer four hours of their time per week, split into two sessions, and they would have the support for the headquarters on Grand Cayman.

Funds would be another obstacle. The organization is run on Government funds but these are stretched thin.

Capt Henry said he was looking for financial support from District Administration and, with this in mind, he met with District Commissioner Kenny Ryan and Deputy District Commissioner Ernie Scott, who were “pretty enthused”, he said.

“I’m very excited about getting it going on the Brac,” said Capt Henry, who served previously as an officer for the Jamaica Combined Cadet Corps, and joined the organization in Cayman in 2003.

He is trained as a teacher, as a counsellor and as a Christian Minister, he said.

The Cadet Corps was founded in 2001, and is headed by Commander Philip Hyre. The main focus is citizen training within a structured and disciplined environment, said Capt Henry.

 “Cadets learn map and compass use, navigation skills, and how to make an improvised compass, and also leadership training. They are taught skills of rank structure. It is challenging and is designed to be that way,” he said.

“Cadets are taught how to stand up under difficult circumstances and learn endurance. This is life training, so that they can function in the real world.”

Capt Henry noted that there is also an academic component. The Cayman Cadet Corps has the distinction to be the first territory outside the UK to offer BTEC (Business and Technical Education Council) diplomas, equivalent to a GCSE subject.

These diplomas take into account the skills learned in the Corps, but to earn this, Cadets must come up through the ranks. It awards them for work that they have done and acknowledges that the skills they have learned are life skills, he said.

In Grand Cayman, the Corps has around eighty young people enrolled, 80 percent of which are boys.

The ages are generally twelve to nineteen. However, the Corps usually does not take in cadets after the age of sixteen, and then only if they have at least two years left in school.

For eleven year olds, recruitment is a case by case basis, as they have found that some children of this age have difficulty integrating and can find the activities a little arduous.

Young people love it in the Corps, he claimed, adding that some cadets join because their parents make them, but they learned to love it.

Two cadets accompanied them on the trip to Cayman Brac and Capt Henry is sure the Brac students would have seen their excitement.

These were Sergeant Denecia Jairam, a seventeen-year-old college student at UCCI who also works at the Bank of Butterfield, and Corporal Theodore Kelly, a fifteen year old student at John Gray High School.

“After their years in the Cadet Corps, you have a well-rounded person and a civil minded individual with leadership training. The drill produces a cadet who is disciplined, alert and obedient who knows the value of teamwork,” he maintained.

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