The Guyana Defence Force (GDF) must create an environment that eliminates all residual barriers, structural and cultural, so as to allow for the effective integration of all regular and reserve units, says Chief-of-Staff, Brigadier General Michael Atherly.

Delivering the feature address at the conclusion of an annual reservists’ camp at Base Seweyo on the Linden-Soesdyke Highway, the army head explained that this is the route to take because “our national, socio-economic and political situation tells us this is the way we should go.”

However, Atherly admitted, the socio-political, economic and security situation in Guyana continues to change more rapidly than the slowly evolving structure of the GDF, therefore, the army needs to build up and integrate its reserve forces with the other ranks.

This, he claimed, can provide the country’s foremost protectors “with the flexibility necessary to keep abreast with, and meet some of the new security challenges that [the army] now face[s], while [it] continue[s] to look for restructuring measures to modernise the force.”

The GDF’s training programmes must also be fashioned to produce a versatile and well-rounded reservist who is adequately crossed-trained and oriented towards his professional role, Atherly said.

“A balanced mixture of all arms, special to arms and academic training, must be applied to produce useful soldiers and efficient sub-units. Leadership training at the other-ranks and officer levels must reflect an awareness of changes taking place nationally and internationally; the management of such changes and adaptations relevant to the military. Our regulars must look after and help to train all reservist-ready and part-time men and women to make them feel confident in us as their leaders,” the Chief-of-Staff said.

The annual camp, he pointed out, must help the army to maximise the core advantages of having good reserve forces.

When properly trained and resourced, the reserve components can provide the skills, training, equipment and capability to deal with many of the security problems and concerns confronting the nation, Atherly told the gathering.

Reservists, he said, can also be programmed for taking on some of the non-traditional missions that the army may be required to undertake. “Our reserves, therefore, ought to be a main feature of any modernisation arrangements we may wish to make to promote sustained professional development and efficiency in the military.

Our goal as we move into the coming year must be a seamless force of regular and reserve troops possessing the capability to meet the full range of possible military operations. This should include border integrity and internal security operations.”

Another area of the military which can benefit significantly through better integration of active and reserve elements, Atherly said, is intelligence gathering.

But the bottom line, he stressed, is that all who lead in the army must now “buy in” to the concept of regulars and reserves sharing roles and missions.