Aspirant Baxter from St. Maarten was congratulated for best performance.
PHILIPSBURG/WILLEMSTAD--After a full year of training, with aspirant Baxter from St. Maarten as best-performing trainee, twenty aspirants received their Coast Guard certificates and diplomas for Extraordinary Police Officer.
The group was lauded by Dutch Caribbean Coast Guard Director Frank Boots and Alpha Falbru, Director of the “Opleidingsinstituut Rechtshandhaving en Veiligheidszorg” (ORV).
The aspirants received their diplomas and certificates during an official ceremony at Parera Naval Base in Curaçao as their loved ones looked on. The aspirants are now full members of the Coast Guard and will be strengthening the various Coast Guard substations in St. Maarten, Curaçao and Aruba.
The group started the Basic Coast Guard Training, “Basis Opleiding Kustwacht” (BOK), in August 2021, followed by four weeks of an intensive team training regime, the so-called “Samen Sterk periode”, in which they are put to the test both mentally and physically.
After the first training weeks, the BOK started with lessons in basic skills and advanced shooting skills, seamanship skills, different legal subjects, nautical courses and boarding procedures. The aspirants have endured many physical, mental and theoretical challenges and are now ready to protect and help their communities.
Both Boots and Falbru addressed the new coastguards during the official ceremony. For more than a year, the young aspirants have been looking forward to this day and it is time to celebrate their achievement.
After working hard and being away from their homes for a long time, they are officially coastguards. They have their diplomas in their hands and the real work at the Coast Guard can begin.
The new coastguards will soon go to the Coast Guard substations in their respective countries where they will be deployed at sea together with their fellow coastguards.
