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04.02.2010 General News

CDS visits military installations at 1st Garrison

04.02.2010 LISTEN
By David Fianko Okyere - Ghanaian Chronicle

Lt. Gen. Peter Augustine Blay, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), last Wednesday undertook a familiarisation tour of the various units under the 1st Garrison of the Ghana Armed Forces in the Tema region.

The visit, which took him to all eight units forming the 1st Garrison, offered him the opportunity to interact with the soldiers, and also to gain at firsthand, information about the operations of the Garrison, as well as know the logistics situation to improve their lots.

The CDS's first point of call was the Headquarters of the Eastern Naval Command, which doubles as the Tema Naval base, at Tema Manhean, where a Guard of Honour parade was held in his honour.

The Commander of the Naval Base, who is also the Flag Officer Commanding the Eastern Naval Base and the Garrison Commander, Commodore Addison, conducted him round the premises.

He later held a closed-door meeting with all the unit commanders of the Garrison, including the commanders of the Eastern Naval Command, Naval Base Tema, Basic Leadership Training School, Ghana Navy Band, 1st Battalion Base Ammunitions Depot, 1 Forces Movement Unit and Armed Forces Recruit Training School (ARTS), where he assured the command that he would see to it that problems facing them were solved.

Briefing the media later, Lt. (GN) Andy La-Anyane, Public Relations Officer (PRO) from the Public Relations Directorate accompanying the CDS, disclosed that the Army Chief advised the soldiers to co-exist with the civilian communities in the country.

At the Armed Recruit Training School (ARTS) at Shai Hills, the CDS had a chat with the contractor building new accommodation for recruits at the school, and told him to speed up work on the project, since by June this year, new recruits will be housed there.

Major Arthur Kuyipuyah, Commanding Officer (CO) of the ARTS at Shai Hills, appealed to the CDS to help provide the school with a water tanker, poly-tank, and a medical laboratory, for the school's MRS.

Colonel Akai Nettey, Director General, Engineers & Logistics, assured the unit that their logistical problems would soon be a thing of the past, saying that a Korean company had been contracted to help improve on the infrastructure development of the armed forces.

At Michel Camp, where the CDS brought his tour to an end, the CO of the 1st Infantry Battalion, Colonel B. B. Owusu, took the CDS and members of the media to land, which he alleged belongs to the Armed Forces, but which was being encroached upon by residents around the barracks.

The CDS directed him to check all available documents on the land, so that the appropriate steps would be made to reclaim the land, and urged the soldiers however to co-exist with their civilian counterparts peacefully.

A durbar was organised in honour of the armed forces boss, where Commodore Addison expressed appreciation for the CDS' visit to the 1st Garrison, which he explained as, “What the Navy refers to as the 1st Port of Call”.

The CDS called on the soldiers to be abreast with the hallmark of the armed forces, which is evident in the values it stand for, which according to him, are duty, loyalty, discipline, honesty and courage.

This, he said, every soldier must be conversant with, in order to be proud of, saying, “If you adhere to these values, you will be proud of yourself as a soldier.”

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