During a ceremony which took place on Friday July 20 at the Marigot barracks, twelve freshly trained reservists received their insignia from the prefect Sylvie Feucher, the second vice-president of the COM Yawo Nyuidadzi, and Pascale Alix-Laborde, regional councilor.
These twelve new reservists, mainly women (only one man), were among the 80 volunteers who showed up at the recruitment day held last March. The gendarmerie of Saint-Martin had until then less than a dozen reservists. Coming from civil society, their role is to "participate directly in the internal security of the country without waiting for the time of crisis management and local prevention" summarized Lieutenant-Colonel Sébastien Manzoni before welcoming them to within the gendarmerie which is "now for [them] a new family".
Before receiving their badge, the twelve new reservists underwent a fifteen-day training course supervised by Commander Jean, adviser to the Guadeloupe Operational Reserve which has 300 members (and on whom Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthélemy depend), retired from the gendarmerie and himself a reservist. The program was "very busy" he admits to salute the will and motivation of his students. They were thus trained in the mastery of the opponent with a weapon and without a weapon, as well as in theory to learn to walk in step, the functioning of the gendarmerie, ranks, radio and ethics.
The objective of this operational reserve is to “break the distance by creating proximity” between the gendarmes and the population, explains Lieutenant-Colonel Sébastien Manzoni. "The goal is for them to be outside, in contact with the population," he adds. Reservists will also be called upon to reinforce the gendarmerie teams when managing large events and public gatherings.
Mercedes Castillo Daisy works in the service of foreigners in the prefecture and has been a reservist since 2011. "As a reservist, you can calm down a lot of situations because you have knowledge of the terrain and languages."
Each month, the reservists give their availability for the current month according to working hours in civilian life, and a schedule is worked out within the gendarmerie.
(More details on www.soualigapost.com)
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