Basseterre, St. Kitts, April 19, 2013 (SKNIS): Members of the security forces in St. Kitts and Nevis have been saluted by First Sergeant Elbert John Nettles III of the Florida National Guard (FLNG) for their knowledge and discipline during a five-day infantry exchange programme.
The April 15-19 training saw personnel of the St. Kitts and Nevis Defence Force (SKNDF) and the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force (RSCNPF) sharing best practices with five members of the FLNG and executing various scenarios such as house clearing, cordon and search, traffic control, pre check and inspection and troop leader procedure.
First Sergeant Nettles told SKNIS that he was impressed with the participants.
“I think it went very, very well,” he said. “They’re very well trained, very well disciplined and actually made our exchange of information a lot easier for us to do. … The participants themselves I think, performed very well, they had a very positive attitude, were very receptive to different ideas and [by] being open helped up us to exchange the information a lot easier.”
SKNDF Lance Corporal Gustav Lewis shared that the instructors were very professional and communicated well allowing the participants to grasp the scenarios.
Woman Sergeant Donna Henderson of the RSCNPF shared the same sentiments. As a supervisor of the Delta Squad Unit, which comprises members of the SKNDF and RSCNPF, Sergeant Henderson explained that the information was quite useful.
“Training with the Defence Force, encompasses camaraderie … and it also helps us to learn each other’s tasks,” she stated. “Police usually do entries and searches. If we are maybe short on a man we can pull a soldier [if necessary] as they are now equipped with certain information that they can take on the task.”
The infantry exchange programme was held at the Police Training Complex.