KEVON FELMINE

Se­nior Re­porter

kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt

The T&T Coast Guard has brought one of its own home from Colom­bia, and the ser­vice is in mourn­ing.

Lead­ing Me­chan­ic Kris Cox, who died in Colom­bia while tak­ing part in a dry-dock­ing ex­er­cise, was re­turned to lo­cal soil yes­ter­day, ac­cord­ing to the Coast Guard.

“With heavy hearts, the Trinidad and To­ba­go Coast Guard re­ceives the body of Lead­ing Me­chan­ic Kris Cox, who trag­i­cal­ly passed away in Colom­bia while par­tic­i­pat­ing in a rou­tine dry-dock­ing ex­er­cise,” a TTCG Face­book post said.

The trib­ute de­scribed Cox as more than a co-work­er.

“As his re­mains re­turn home, we stand in solemn trib­ute, ho­n­our­ing a col­league, a broth­er in arms, and a fel­low sailor whose life and ser­vice will not be for­got­ten.”

The ser­vice asked that they han­dle his re­turn with re­spect.

“May his fi­nal jour­ney home be met with the dig­ni­ty, re­spect and ho­n­our he de­serves.”

It closed with a naval farewell: “Fair winds and fol­low­ing seas, Lead­ing Me­chan­ic Cox. Your watch is over, but your mem­o­ry sails on.”

The post fol­lows an an­nounce­ment by the De­fence Force on Oc­to­ber 12 that a Coast Guard sailor had died in Colom­bia while part of a crew sup­port­ing the re­fit and up­grade of a ves­sel. The De­fence Force said pre­lim­i­nary in­for­ma­tion sug­gest­ed the sailor died of nat­ur­al caus­es, but that the cir­cum­stances re­mained sub­ject to re­view and con­fir­ma­tion by the rel­e­vant au­thor­i­ties.

The post did not state Cox’s age, the date of his death, where in Colom­bia he was, or what caused his death. It al­so did not say whether the re­view men­tioned by the De­fence Force has been con­clud­ed, or whether the pre­lim­i­nary find­ing of nat­ur­al caus­es has been con­firmed. No fu­ner­al de­tails were giv­en.