KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, March 22 — Able Bodied Seaman, Damian Franklyn, is the first Vincentian law enforcement officer to have successfully graduated from the United States Naval Ordnance Disposal School in Florida.
Franklyn, who enlisted in the Royal St. Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force eight years ago, left St. Vincent and the Grenadines on June 28, 2012, to pursue a nine months certificate in Explosive Ordnance Disposal.
He returned to this country on March 12, 2013, shortly after his graduation as a certified technician in the field of explosives.
“All the study areas were brand new. The areas they dealt with, we didn’t deal with them here. I learnt a lot of theory and practical work,” 27-year-old Franklyn said.
He said he was trained in the identification of explosives, how to render such devices safe and dispose of them. He also said he learnt how to use his tools safely, protect himself, others as well as property.
However, he said much of what he learnt, requiring an overall pass rate of 85 per cent, has been deemed classified information and he will only be able to share such information with a selected group of people.
Franklyn said several persons in his programme, drawn from different parts of the world, were unable to meet the 85 percent threshold.
He said that he will like to organize a team of law enforcement officers to work with them in the area, because his line of work achieves its greatest success with teams. He said that he would also like to get the tools and software programmes required to fulfill the task.
Acting Commander of the Coastguard, Brenton Cain, said the hierarchy in the Ministry of National Security and the Police Force felt it was imperative to have someone in SVG trained to have the required expertise to deal with threats that involve explosives.
He said as a result of Franklyn’s training, which is quite costly, SVG had to forego training opportunities in other areas.
“This is only the first step. We are working diligently to get another person to be trained in this area, because it requires team work to achieve the goal,” Cain said.
(Police Public Relations Dept.)