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Daniel Ortiz reporting
81 new BDF recruits passed out today as part of intake number 60, a great accomplishment by young individuals who are now ready to actively serve their country.

They had to go through 17 tough weeks of training to get them field-ready and now these newly graduated soldiers now make up an important part of the expansion of the military.

Hon John Saldivar - Ministry of National Security
"The BDF will have near twice the human resources it had at the beginning of 2012 by the end of 2017. With the 81 soldiers passing out today, this brings our numbers to almost 348 new soldiers that have joined the ranks of the BDF since I took over this ministry. This is addition to 558 police officers, and 156 coast guard officers amounting to a total of 1,062 new personnel who have been employed since 2012. This was done at an approximate cost of 10.6 million dollars."

Brig. Gen. David Jones - Commander, Belize Defence Force
"We just witnessed the passing out parade of recruiting take number 60. They have been in training for 4 months and they are now going to join the ranks of the Belize Defence Force. We've been authorized an additional 200 men about a year ago and are in the process of achieving that. We are three quarters of the way and now these recruits that have been trained in tactics, field craft, first aid and weapon handling, are now going to join the ranks, and manned the boarders and do the patrols that we will require them to do for the interest of national security and sovereignty for Belize. Earlier in training, they are usually up at about 4:30 in the morning. They do what we call 'fatigues' whereby they will do chores around the camp. after that they'll be going for their physical training at least about 5 o' clock in the morning, they start running on the road and they do that for about 45 minutes to an hour or so. And then they go for breakfast and then they go into classes, depending on what is being taught for the day, either first aid, tactics, field craft, weapon handling or whatever military discipline they need to learn for that day."

4 recruits were honored today for their outstanding performance throughout the training.

Brig. Gen. David Jones
"Champion field craft, which is given to the recruit who is able to maneuver himself particularly in the wooded terrain in the jungle, which can move swiftly, quietly, without being seen, can engage and take out enemy quite easily and above the ability of the rest of the soldiers in the intake. Champion PT, which is champion physical training, which is the soldier whom has displayed physical ability throughout the training. Be it on the physical run or on the endurance run that they do in the jungle or in any other terrain that they perform, he is the one that will be left with that extra energy to take up different tasks because of his physical prowess."

Recruit Udiel Barrientos - Champion Field Craft
"The work that I put in was that I executed all the drills that were taught to me theoretically and physically. At our final exercise that took place in Cayo, Mountain Pine Ridge, which was concealment. Concealment means that you can camouflage yourself properly so that the enemy cannot see you. I put in 100% into my work, it was very challenging but like my instructors always told us, we should always be motivated."

Recruit Kalime Lewis - Champion Shot
"I just came and executed what our corporal and Sargent taught us about weapon handling and stuff like that. It was something that I really wanted, so I just put in all my effort, I kept motivated telling myself 'Kalime I can do this', and I just did it because I want to be a sniper for the Belize Defence Force."

Recruit J Martin Carrias - Champion Recruit
"You have to have a strong mentality and fitness, fitness like running, physical fitness per say. It's a tough champion because everybody wants to win this champion but if you have a strong mentality and fitness, you will."

Recruit Peter Pow - Champion Physical Training
"I feel so good that I came in first in the champion PT, I worked very hard for it. I came in first for every running I did. I worked very hard."