AS THE SUN set on the parade square at St Ann’s Fort last Saturday filling the sky with brilliant hues of orange, the command of the Barbados Cadet Corps was changing hands in what was the first handing over ceremony in the 112-year-old organisation.
Lieutenant Colonel Errol Brathwaite stood apart from his military counterparts. His khaki uniform seemed sharper, his shoes had a bit more shine, and his hat sat on his head at just the right angle.
The sunset ceremony is a signal of sorts for the commandant and educator and is the realisation of a dream that started when he was in primary school. Sitting with EASY in the Officer’s Mess Hall soon after officially taking charge, and as his military and civilian guests mingled to celebrate the occasion, Lieutenant Colonel Brathwaite spoke of his love for the Cadet Corps, gave a peek into the plans he has, and was full of gratitude for his predecessor, Lieutenant Colonel James Bradshaw.
“When I was at primary school I wanted to be a Cub Scout but coming from a poor family, we couldn’t afford to buy the uniform so I watched on with great sadness. At Parkinson, first formers and two second forms used to be at the annex which is now the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, but when they built the new block in the Pine they closed the annex and all the students were there.
“That was 1982 and shortly after that I joined Cadets when I was 12 years old. I saw the Cadets parade at Parkinson and there was my love again – that uniform. When I enquired I recognised you didn’t have to pay for the uniform, even now you don’t have to pay for it.
“Here it is, something that I’ve always wanted to do now presents itself looking even better than the Scouts, and I knew that I was joining. I joined and that desire has always been there to continue,” he said.
The commandant liked the precision and the drills which he said “really captured my imagination” and he liked to see the “person in charge giving commands and everybody just moving together, marching, and when he said halt and everybody saluting together”.
He didn’t join because he needed order and discipline in his life although he admitted with a chuckle, that he used to get into fights at school.
“I remember I was in a fight in second form and one of the senior cadets came to me and spoke sternly. I didn’t fight after that,” he said before bursting into laughter at the memory.
While not consumed with his life as a cadet, Brathwaite said the tenets such as respect, responsibility, preparation and planning wove their way into his everyday actions and still do today.
“I came from a small family – three sisters and myself – very, very rigid controls at home so we couldn’t be outside running about and all of those things. As you know boys and girls would have their quarrels, and as I was the only boy, the Cadet Corps gave me the avenue to channel all of my energies by doing something or engaging in a set of challenging activities that I enjoyed. The drills and trying to outdress other people to see who can look the best, who can come out and don’t have any threads hanging off their uniform, attention to detail, the high shine on the shoes.
“A few months after I joined, you were commended for how you turned out. So I decided one day that ‘these fellas can’t dress better than me’. I had a pair of black shoes and I decided I would put some varnish on those shoes, I varnished them and brought them to school and brought some plastic bags and put them there and walked around in a different pair of shoes all day. That evening, when I put on my shoes and fell in there was no way anybody’s shoes could look better than mine and that was in my school uniform.
“It was always that kind of thing, the competition and being your very best for me. Then we started to go to camp. Before I was competing with guys at Parkinson and there I realised that students from all the schools in Barbados turned up. It was a different standard, plus Parkinson had a small group, and now we were seeing senior guys from sixth form. It was scary ‘cause you were seeing guys with shave marks, those in sixth form with senior rank like sergeant major and . . . there was something to aspire to.”
Being in the Cadets also gave Brathwaite a chance to prove that good things happened in the fifth form schools as he was beating students from sixth form schools in drill, weapons and skills at arms. It was the impetus to other boys to strive and achieve.
It is those experiences combined that he wants youngsters today to have and enjoy – the healthy rivalry among schools and cadets in other regions, coming up through the ranks and having what he called the “rites of passing” which some mothers fear.
“The shouting is to give clear instructions or directives particularly on the square. You would see a fella shouting sometimes if he wants to drive fear in somebody but otherwise that’s not the norm. Most of the time you see guys doing push-ups at camp but you’re highly stimulated . . . . Unless you were in it you wouldn’t understand fully. It is the best experience ever.”
Brathwaite wants to increase the number of young people joining the organisation that marries discipline with fun and life skills. Asked why the numbers have dwindled he said : “I don’t think it’s not that they don’t want to be in a disciplined organisation, but it is more that we don’t have enough adult leaders in the schools, namely teachers who are officers based at the schools.
“So that in some situations we have officers who work in the private sector coming to schools and that is not as easy to coordinate as if you had some person there on the ground. It has to do with adult leadership and having teachers who are interested in joining the organisation. A lot of people shy away from the military. It is a lot of work but there are benefits.”
To get more teachers and children involved, the organisation is about engaging the public more and “getting rid of some of the myths”.
“We have kept the Cadet Corps as a closely guarded secret for too long. We have come to the stage where every time you move, you must see something about Cadets,” Brathwaite said.
The commandant will also undertake the task of raising the standards which he said have declined. He will be starting with the officers.
“If they are going to be responsible for training then they have to be above reproach and understand the exact areas in which the organisation needs to improve.”
He said there were some “challenging years” in the corps but Bradshaw, who tested his map reading skills at a camp several years ago, “had steadied the ship”.
With his elevation he is in charge of some officers who were involved before him and showed him the way.
“He [Bradshaw] joined the organisation as an officer in 1984 and before that he himself was a cadet at Combermere. Most of the cadets would have come out of the older secondary schools so it is unusual for someone from a newer secondary school to be in charge.
“A lot of the officers there [in Corp] were officers when I was a cadet. Major Powlett became an officer in 1986, the parade commander Major John Morodore was my officer at school, he was responsible for me and there are a few others who are still there who were officers, not for a very long time, but when I was a cadet.”
As principal of Ellerslie Secondary, the first school outside of the “grammar schools” to establish a unit, he said he has heard “a few times” that he was too strict.
“Even in a civilian job, it is not easy. It is about management and you have to understand situations . . . . People expect me to be all military but the military teaches you some other things. It is about getting the job done and motivating people . . . . If I come hard-core military I can’t win, so I have to appeal to different senses but still get the job done and make my teachers feel comfortable and move on with minimal interruption.”
As to finding the balance between managing both organisations, he said it was “easy”.
“I’ve always been doing this. In the capacities I’ve served, my last appointment was officer responsible for planning and development of the Cadet Corps. In addition to that I was president of the Teachers’ Cooperative Credit Union, I worked with the National Cultural Foundation as judge for 20 years and chief judge for over six years and with the Community Independence Secretariat where I was a judge for the parish projects for several years. I’ve cut out several of those things to focus on this and Ellerslie.
“This has taken prominence in my life more so than anything else. I am extremely happy that I am living my dream,” he said, beaming. (GBM)