It’s been 33 days since Able Sea­man Kieron Si­mon dis­ap­peared in a nar­co-sub­ma­rine as it sank off the coast of Grena­da and his fam­i­ly con­tin­ues to anx­ious­ly await word from the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty as to re­cov­ery ef­forts of the deep sea ves­sel.

Rel­a­tives say they feel aban­doned and dis­missed.

Si­mon, a fa­ther of two boys aged three and sev­en, dis­ap­peared in the se­mi-sub­mersible on Feb­ru­ary 21, as he par­tic­i­pat­ed in a drug bust dur­ing a mul­ti-na­tion­al train­ing ex­er­cise.

The dec­o­rat­ed of­fi­cer was part of a T&T con­tin­gent of se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cials col­lab­o­rat­ing with re­gion­al coun­ter­parts out at sea, when the sub­ma­rine which con­tained three Colom­bian na­tion­als and a quan­ti­ty of co­caine, al­leged­ly sur­faced.

It was re­port­ed that as Si­mon and an­oth­er of­fi­cer board­ed the ves­sel to ap­pre­hend the al­leged traf­fick­ers and re­cov­er the nar­cotics – some­one pulled the plug, caus­ing the sub­ma­rine’s hatch to close, trap­ping Si­mon on board as the ves­sel sank.

The sec­ond coast­guard of­fi­cer was re­port­ed­ly thrown in­to the sea but was lat­er res­cued.

One day af­ter the in­ci­dent, for­mer Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Fitzger­ald Hinds as­sured Si­mon’s fam­i­ly and the na­tion, that all arms of na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty were work­ing to lo­cate the sub­ma­rine and res­cue Si­mon.

How­ev­er, that as­sur­ance has not ma­te­ri­alised and ac­cord­ing to Si­mon’s broth­er Kevlon Si­mon, “Some­thing is not right.”

In an in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia on Tues­day, Kevlon begged for an­swers as to what re­al­ly hap­pened to his broth­er.

Claim­ing the fam­i­ly had on­ly been ap­prised once by lo­cal Coast Guard of­fi­cials, ear­ly af­ter the in­ci­dent oc­curred, Kevlon said they were told then that ef­forts would have been made to pro­cure a ves­sel from South Africa, which had the ca­pa­bil­i­ty of bring­ing the sub­ma­rine up from a depth of 300 me­tres or 1,000 feet which is where it was al­leged to have sunk.

Since then to now, he said there has been no word from any­one at the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty (MNS) in­clud­ing the for­mer and cur­rent min­is­ters.

Chok­ing back tears, Kevlon said, “If I don’t call the Coast Guard, there are no an­swers...and still even when I call, there are no an­swers.”

He crit­i­cised the au­thor­i­ties as he said, “My broth­er served for 18 years in the T&T Coast Guard and he doesn’t de­serve this.”

Re­veal­ing Kieron had joined the TTCG in 2009 and had served in var­i­ous posts dur­ing that time to now, he said, “He was not a nor­mal of­fi­cer and I find that there is no thanks.”

“He spent 18 years ded­i­cat­ed to the job, serv­ing faith­ful­ly and now...to this? This is the thanks he get­ting?”

Kevlon said his fam­i­ly had been left with too many ques­tions and not enough an­swers, and that, “No­body had reached out to us.”

In­di­cat­ing Kieron’s two chil­dren had now been left with­out a fa­ther, Kevlon said the fam­i­ly was still reel­ing from the death of their moth­er a year ago, which had been pre­ced­ed by the pass­ing of their fa­ther a year be­fore her.

Kevlon cried as he said the fam­i­ly had not been of­fered any sort of emer­gency or tem­po­rary com­pen­sa­tion, de­spite the years of ser­vice to coun­try.

“Coast Guard not call­ing. The Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty not call­ing. Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter not call­ing. Look to­day (yes­ter­day) had foot­ball and the Prime Min­is­ter jump­ing up with two fin­gers in the air,” he said.

He de­mand­ed, “No­body not say­ing noth­ing and they keep­ing it hush-hush.”

Vow­ing to keep up the pres­sure un­til an­swers are pro­vid­ed to the fam­i­ly as to what re­al­ly hap­pened, Kevlon said he does not be­lieve his broth­er’s body is ac­tu­al­ly in the sub­ma­rine.

Pressed to pro­vide an up­date on the sit­u­a­tion on Tues­day, act­ing Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Ju­nior Ben­jamin said the in­ves­ti­ga­tion was on­go­ing and that re­sults should be forth­com­ing soon.

Un­able to sim­ply ac­cept this, Kevlon went on, “I don’t be­lieve noth­ing they say­ing up to now. It is just not adding up.”

Asked how Ke­iron’s chil­dren were do­ing since their fa­ther’s dis­ap­pear­ance, Kevlon said the younger child lived abroad while his el­dest son had been ask­ing to see his fa­ther.

"What is tak­ing them this long to get this equip­ment to bring a man who served 18 years? What stop­ping them from do­ing that?

“This is not right or just or fair. This man served his coun­try and now his coun­try has aban­doned him.”

On Tues­day, Kevlon post­ed a heart­felt trib­ute in ho­n­our of Kieron on so­cial me­dia, in which he wrote, “My broth­er Kieron was not just a name on a ros­ter. He was a son, a broth­er, a fa­ther, a cousin, a friend and a ded­i­cat­ed ser­vant to his coun­try.

"If this is how they han­dle the loss of some­one who ded­i­cat­ed his life to ser­vice, who will stand for you when your time comes? My broth­er is be­ing treat­ed as just an­oth­er ca­su­al­ty, an­oth­er name lost at sea, with­out care, with­out ur­gency, with­out re­spect.”

To those who were present with Kieron on the morn­ing, Kevlon ap­pealed for an­swers.

“You were with him that morn­ing, you know some­thing. Si­lence does not erase the truth. My broth­er’s mantra was that no­body gets left be­hind. If it were any of you in trou­ble, he would have risked his life to bring you back home. And yet, here we are, watch­ing as his life is dis­re­gard­ed as if it nev­er mat­tered.”

He end­ed, “Kieron, my dear broth­er, our hearts ache for you. We miss you, we love you and we hold on­to the hope that one day, we will see you again. Un­til then, we will not stop speak­ing your name, and we will not stop de­mand­ing an­swers. Dear broth­er, you are not for­got­ten.”