Two Lance Cor­po­rals of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Reg­i­ment (TTR) have re­ceived com­men­da­tions from Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, Fitzger­ald Hinds MP, for “their keen sense of aware­ness and quick ac­tion in ap­pre­hend­ing three rob­bery sus­pects on An­tigua Road, in the vicin­i­ty of the Cu­mu­to Bar­racks, on 25 May 2022.”

An of­fi­cial re­lease from the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty de­tails the sol­diers’ ac­tions on that day.

“The sol­diers—Lance Cor­po­ral Garfield Mitchell and Lance Cor­po­ral Keron King—who were off-du­ty at the time, were com­mut­ing in a pri­vate mo­tor ve­hi­cle when they ob­served three men be­hav­ing sus­pi­cious­ly around a parked de­liv­ery truck. The Lance Cor­po­rals stopped to make en­quiries and the three men ran off in­to near­by bush­es. Demon­strat­ing gal­lantry, con­sis­tent with their mil­i­tary train­ing, the sol­diers pur­sued and ap­pre­hend­ed the men. The three sus­pects were de­tained and hand­ed over to the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice,” the min­istry’s re­lease re­port­ed.

Minister of National Security, Fitzgerald Hinds MP, presents a Certificate of Commendation to Lance Corporal Garfield Mitchell of the Trinidad and Tobago Regiment, at a Ceremony held on Friday 22 July 2022, at Knowsley Building, Queen’s Park Savannah, Port of Spain. (Image courtesy Ministry of National Security)

Lance Cor­po­rals Mitchell and King re­ceived Com­men­da­tions at a Cer­e­mo­ny held in their ho­n­our on Fri­day 22 Ju­ly 2022, at Knowsley Build­ing, #1 Queen’s Park West, Port of Spain.

Speak­ing at the brief Com­men­da­tion Cer­e­mo­ny, Min­is­ter Hinds ac­knowl­edged the sol­diers for their ded­i­ca­tion to du­ty, not­ing that they did not hes­i­tate to ren­der as­sis­tance to the de­liv­ery truck dri­ver in dis­tress and there­by, pre­vent­ed a rob­bery from oc­cur­ring.

“Lance Cor­po­ral Garfield Mitchell and Lance Cor­po­ral Keron King, with your ac­tions, you have demon­strat­ed an un­der­stand­ing of the key role the Reg­i­ment plays in the coun­try’s crime-fight­ing ef­forts and even more crit­i­cal­ly, your role as a de­ter­rent to those who con­sid­er in­dulging in ne­far­i­ous ac­tiv­i­ties. For that, I com­mend you,” Min­is­ter Hinds told the men.

Minister of National Security, Fitzgerald Hinds MP, presents a Certificate of Commendation to Lance Corporal Keron King of the Trinidad and Tobago Regiment, at a Ceremony held on Friday 22 July 2022, at Knowsley Building, Queen’s Park Savannah, Port of Spain. (Image courtesy Ministry of National Security)

He urged them to con­tin­ue to serve the na­tion “with prin­ci­ple and vigour” and al­so to en­sure they re­main pos­i­tive role mod­els to the na­tion’s young peo­ple.

The Min­is­ter al­so took the op­por­tu­ni­ty to ex­tend best wish­es to all men and women of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Reg­i­ment on the oc­ca­sion of their 60th An­niver­sary as a for­ma­tion of the Trinidad and To­ba­go De­fence Force, in stead­fast ser­vice to the na­tion.

Al­so in at­ten­dance at the Com­men­da­tion Cer­e­mo­ny were Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary (Ag.) of the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, Gary Joseph; Chief of De­fence Staff, Air Vice Mar­shal Dar­ryl Daniel; and Com­mand­ing Of­fi­cer (Ag.) of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Reg­i­ment, Colonel Mal­colm Nedd.