Cadeting helped shape society

Barbados has had 114 glorious years of cadeting and historian, and past member of Barbados Cadet Corps, Trevor Marshall is of the belief that without the contribution of cadeting, Barbados would not be what it is today.

His comments came as he delivered a lecture during the Cadet Week celebrations, which took place at Solidarity House Wednesday night.

“Indeed, it is my contention that without the cadets, Barbados would be worse off than it is today,” he said.

“The cadets transformed boys into military men. This is how pubescent boys were now transformed into serious looking and thinking young men. This was a signal to young men that their use was not just callow, irresponsible, rough and crude and had no training. These were the crème de la crème of the society and it has remained that way, except now the crème de la crème also wear lipstick.”

He noted that persons would have joined cadets as a way to gain some direction and discipline in there lives. He highlighted that they gained this through the unglamorous character building and training exercises where they learned a number of honourable skills.

Throughout his lecture, which was titled “Cadeting and its Impact on Barbadian Society”, Marshall highlighted a number of different persons who would have gone through cadets, learned the disciplines and went on to help shape the society by doing great things in Barbados.

“Many people have given back to the Barbadian society as a result of being a part of the Cadet Corps,” he said.

“There was nothing glamorous about cadets except when you went on parades and people complimented the tidiness. Potential cadets should know that even though it is unglamorous, it is character building and it trains you in many different skills.”

He also added that when he was growing up, there were no females in the cadet corps but that has changed for the better as the Cadet corps has had and now has – many great women.