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Courtney Weatherburne reporting
Many find the rigid protocols that the BDF follow tedious, others find it amusing but it is no show or joke for these 72 recruits. They stood stoically, in impeccable formation and executed all commands in front of their families and guests.

The graduation ceremony began with the inspection of the recruits by Governor General Sir Colville Young:

Thereafter, the recruits marched both in slow and quick time.

Ret. Col. George Lovell, C.E.O., Ministry of National Security
"You have made it through your recruit training and now moving to the real world of soldering. I challenge you to continue the BDF tradition of being professional in executing your duties wherever you may called upon to perform them. You are now joining the ranks of an organization that has earn the respect of the citizens of this country and the others who have come in contact with the Belize Defence Force."

The presentation of awards followed. Four recruits were recognized for their outstanding performance during the training sessions. Following the presentation of awards, National Security CEO Lieutenant Cornel Retired George Lovell addressed the recruits.

Then came the exciting most anticipated segment of the ceremony, the display by the recruits. The recruits started off by demonstrating the sentry drills which entail securing an area.

Then the recruits demonstrated what is known as a mock battle drill which portrays a highly sophisticated operation. Soldiers need to be assiduous and prepared for anything. After the ceremony, we spoke with General Jones about the process behind the training sessions and the road ahead for the recruits:

Brigadier General David Jones
"Prior to them being assemble here we do a countrywide test and exam for them to come and join us at the Belize Defence Force. With almost six hundred that sit the entrance exam and then its usually about two months after, they come here and they assemble. The first three weeks is what we refer to as the stress time. They endure all sorts of stress in the first week, where they have to be up at four in the morning, then they have to be up doing their chores by five and they go on physical training, they do runs, they do tasks. For that first week, we normally have about twenty to thirty guys that drop out, so within the first three weeks that's when you'd have fifty, or even sixty of them drop out of the training. When training continues now they learn field-craft, they do tactics…how to fight in a battle during war time, and how to operate in the garrison during peace time. They also learn first aid so if people get injured either in the garrison or on the battlefield they are able to repair or even help their fallen comrades with first aid."

"These new soldiers will now be deployed countrywide. We've got locations here at Price Barracks, but for the most part they will be in Punta Gorda and the Cayo District, so some will go to Cayo, some will go to Punta Gorda and some will go to the Orange Walk District. So they will immediately be prepared to go on operational duties along the border and do patrols for us."

We also spoke to Captain Eric Neal, Officer commanding the BDF training company and he gave us more insight into the process behind the training and the performance of the recruits

Capt. Eric Neal, OC BDF training company
"Before training begun we bwgan to ask questions; what are the basic requirements that a civilian needs to do to become an effective soldier and having done that we then decided to formulate a training program taking into consideration that each individual has a different way of learning. We understood the fact that each person came with their different capabilities, so understanding the individual we then started to plan our classes after which we realize that there was a slight situation with some of them, in the sense that some of them came from parts of the country where they only spoke Spanish. They could understand English, but they had a hard time responding in English. So utilizing the authentic assessment we then tested those persons understanding their unique capabilities and evidently they performed just as good as anybody else. With had 100% passing, 70% and above; the highest being a 91% average - the best so far in the Belize Defence Force."

We caught up with Angelo Wright, the Champion Recruit to get his feedback from the training.

Angelo Wright, Champion Recruit
"I feel very great, lots of hard work and dedication and lots of efforts. What can I say, its hard work, lots of stress, but like we say you have to be strong, not only physically but mentally."

So all 72 recruits have successfully completed this crucial stage and have far exceeded standards, but their rigorous and relentless journey to the BDF ranks has just started.

The recruitment process began on April 6th and ended on June 6th.