Fainting on parade

SOLDIERS and members of the armed services of whatever country are expected not only to be physically fit but also prepared for action in the most difficult and inhospitable places and conditions. Their tough and rigorous training is supposed to make them battle-ready, fit to undertake any operation, no matter how exhausting, in defence of their country's sovereignty or aimed at maintaining its peace and civil order. Whether the members of our Defence Force are up to that level of physical preparedness is now in doubt, having regard to the unprecedented number of faintings we have seen during military parades over the last week or so.

On Sunday morning, the large crowd watching the Independence Day Parade on the Queen's Park Savannah went abuzz with surprise and speculation as at least seven young members of the protective services fainted one by one on the sun-splashed parade ground. One of them, a female soldier, collapsed on the hot pitch and had to be taken away on a stretcher. These embarrassing incidents came as a dismal "follow up" to what transpired a week ago at the 41st anniversary celebrations of the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force at Teteron Barracks when a total of 14 soldiers collapsed while performing a ceremonial drill before President Maxwell Richards. During the two-hour afternoon (4.30 to 6.30) parade, soldiers and coast guardsmen were seen either collapsing or kneeling down on one knee in apparent distress. At one point it seemed as if the parade ground was under attack by an unseen enemy as two and three servicemen fell at the same time. Members of the medical squad on standby were kept busy, rushing on to the parade ground to ferry away the "victims" either on stretchers or to assist them in limping off. During the prayer session, it appeared that the men on parade were assaulted by another and different force as nine of them fainted. To add a final touch of irony, the faintings occurred while Brigadier Ancil Antoine was wishing good health to President Richards and advocating reform of the military health care system.

Now faintings during such military events are nothing new. We have had on occasion the odd soldier or policeman succumbing to heat exhaustion and having to retire from the parade. But the collapse of so many supposedly able-bodied defence personnel while engaged in nothing more strenuous than ceremonial parades is a matter that must concern the authorities responsible for the security of our country. What if they were called upon to defend the country against invaders or hunt down insurgents in remote and forbidding terrain for an extended period? How fit would they prove for such an exhausting physical challenge? Something has to be wrong, and the idea that our defence force personnel may becoming mamby pamby for lack of vigorous training is worrisome. Is there a regimen for such training? What exercises do our soldiers regularly undertake to keep in good physical shape? The last time we reported the Regiment undertaking serious field training or carrying out "war games" seems to be in the distant past. One woman in the Grand Stand on Sunday blamed the faintings among the soldiers to "the kind of food they feeding them." Who knows, maybe she is right. This speculation certainly seems more to the point than the silly excuse offered by Public Affairs Officer Capt Cheryl Richardson who felt that the soldiers needed to learn "relaxation techniques." In our view, exactly the opposite is required.