GDF marks 50 years of integrated military training for male and female ranks

May 17, 2026 News

---

(Kaieteur News) – It has been 50 years since the Guyana Defence Force launched the Officer Cadet Course Number 6. The feat is being highlighted Alumni of Guyana Defence Force Officer Cadet Course Number 6 and will begin celebrating their anniversary on Saturday May 16, 2026.

According to a release from the GDF, the Officer Cadet Course Number 6 also holds historic significance, because this was the first time that women and men were trained together and held to the same standards.

Prior to 1976, there was no co-ed military training in Guyana or anywhere in the anglophone Caribbean. GDF Officer Cadet Course Number 6 also produced the first female Indigenous officer of the GDF, Second Lieutenant Joyce Smith.

To commemorate and celebrate this significant anniversary and historic event, a series of activities are planned beginning with a private cocktail reception on Saturday, May 16, followed by a church service on Sunday, May 17 at Christ Church Anglican Church, Waterloo Street, Georgetown; this service is open to the public. Later that day, the Course Six Alumni will be the guest of the Chief of Defence Staff Brigadier Omar Khan MSS, at a military Tattoo at Base Camp Ayanganna. Over the next seven months, a series of activities will be held to celebrate this historic event. A calendar of activities will be released.

The GDF Officer Course No. 6 commenced on Sunday, May 16, 1976. Sixty-six Cadets were in attendance, nine female and fifty-seven male the Guyana Defence Force Headquarters, Camp Ayanganna. This was to become a historic course; not only was it the largest Officer Cadet course ever assembled, but it was the first to have men and women training together.

The nine women were; Ingrid King, Jasoda Kishun, Verian Mentis, Marilyn Pestano, Paulette Polard, Bridgette Smith, Joyce Smith, Yvonne Smith and Marlyn Telford. Co-ed training is now the norm in the GDF, but this was not the case fifty years ago, these women were the trailblazers.

In May 1976, two of Guyana’s neighbours (Venezuela and Suriname), had shown that they were willing to use military force to support their territorial claims. Guyana was forced to enhance its deterrent and defence capability.

Learning from its unpreparedness at the time of the seizure of Ankoko Island, the Guyana government embarked on enlarging the GDF; providing it with more money and manpower. More officers and men were needed; GDF Officer Cadet Course Number 6 became the largest Officer Cadet Course ever assembled by the GDF.

The United Nations (UN) had designated 1975 as International Women’s Year. A world conference was held in Mexico City on the status of women. The conference established a set of goals for countries to attain by 1986, in order to advance women’s rights around the world. On Thursday January 15, 1976, a State Paper on the equality of women was presented in the National Assembly of Guyana.

These two historical events set the stage for the transformative agenda that followed; female army recruits training with their male counterparts on Basic Recruit Course No. 1- 1976; women being selected to be trained as pilots and female and male Officer Cadets training together.

The release noted that as Guyana commemorates its Golden Jubilee, the GDF pauses to remember and place into context this significant moment in time. The Course began mere days before Guyana celebrated its 10^th year as an independent nation. The Guyana Defence Force, just ten years old, had assumed the moniker, the ‘People’s Army’; a Force searching for an identity as it grew and prepared to meet its mandate to defend the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Guyana.

This was that moment in time when nine women and fifty-seven men stepped forward and marched into history. Some notable alumni of GDF  Officer Cadet Course Number Six are: Retired Justice Brassington Reynolds MSM, Colonel Lawrence Paul MSM (Deceased), Former Deputy Chief of Staff GDF, Colonel Lindon Ross MSM (Deceased), Former Deputy Director of Culture, Ministry of Culture Youth and Sports, Major Derrick Lawrence AA, Former Director – Corps of Wardens, Ministry of Natural Resources, Lt. Col Yvonne Smith, Former Confidential Secretary to (Sandra Granger) First Lady of Guyana; Capt. Ovid Walton (Deceased), Former Regional Chairman Upper Demerara – Berbice; Verian Mentis – Barker-  Author, Blogger (xpressblogg.com); Mark Anthony Archer AA, Author, Former Director of Communications Ministry of the Presidency,  Patrick Stephens Former Vice President Orphans International Guyana, Member Board of Governors Brickdam Secondary School, Major Dr. Meer Khan – Dentist.

---

• Alumni, Guyana Defence Force, military training, Officer Cadet Course

---