Soldiers may serve longer

Officers in the Barbados Defence Force (BDF) who still have much to offer can now serve their country for a little while longer, even after reaching their compulsory age of retirement.

This is one of the several proposed changes to the Defence (Amendment) Bill, 2021, which also seeks to permit the defence board to appoint a retired high-ranking officer of the BDF as its Chief of Staff if necessary.

Leading off the debate, Attorney General Dale Marshall explained that in the BDF, individuals were required to retire at certain ages depending on their rank.

Describing it as a “peculiar retirement arrangement”, the AG said an officer at the rank of Colonel or higher in the BDF must retire at the age of 55; an individual at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel must retire at 50; a Major must retire at 47, while a Captain or officer of a lower rank must retire at 45.

Marshall said this arrangement meant in some cases highly-trained and skilled officers were forced to leave the BDF even though they had a contribution to make.

He explained to the House of Assembly that the amendment would allow those retired officers to still serve the BDF as a reserve until the age of 65.

Currently, he said, persons at the rank of Colonel could not go to the rank of reserves after reaching the age of retirement.

“The truth is this age of compulsory retirement capped at 55, individuals who still have a lot to offer, find that they reach a particular point and then they must go.

“…We recognize the individuals past the age of 55 have tremendous worth. Now this is really a defence debate but it in fact has a larger context,” the AG said.

Marshall contended that the BDF was not opening itself to its best options by being limited in its choices of Chief of Staff.

He said the Defense Board would be able to appoint a retired officer of the BDF whose rank was not lower than Lieutenant Colonel or its equivalent and who was over the age of 55 but not older than 65, as Chief of Staff in extraordinary circumstances.

He maintained that the amendment would not allow for persons from outside the BDF to be made Chief of Staff.

The AG said the Governor General still had the power to make appointments on the advice of the defence board, and it was about giving the board a larger class of individuals to take the institution forward.

“We are empowering the defense board with the opportunity to consider a larger class of individuals, in terms of making an appointment of Chief of Staff,” Marshall said.

Additionally, the AG said the amendment was also seeking to validate the appointment of a former Chief of Staff “that took place some years ago” unlawfully.

He said everything that was done during his tenure had to be validated.

“One of the finest military officers of this country became Chief of Staff at the age of 59 and served until the age of 64. Unfortunately, this was not noticed and in truth and in fact, what was a period of great success under that individual’s leadership is now in a small way tainted by the fact that in law he could not have been appointed to the post of Chief of Staff.” (RB)