News
TCI Regiment, Tradewinds
#TurksandCaicos, August 14, 2023 – In July 2023 the TCI Regiment sent a contingent of marines to attend exercise TRADEWINDS in Guyana. Tradewinds 23 training focus areas included human rights awareness, anti-trafficking operations, marksmanship, jungle warfare, military support to law enforcement, small unit and confined area security tactics, airborne operations, cybersecurity, humanitarian aid and disaster relief, and maritime skills.
Participants trained across Guyana, in Georgetown, Camp Ayanganna, Camp Stephenson, Camp Seweyo, Air Base
The Turks and Caicos Islands Regiment continued with growth and development across its newly formed organization; as a territorial infantry and engineer reserve unit of the British
Armed forces, the ‘Regiment’ as its locally known recently participated in US -Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) sponsored Tradewinds which was held in Guyana, South America July 14th -28th 2023.
The Military Contingent force and home defense unit entrusted 19 of its members as ambassadors for the TCI in one of the largest joint exercises of Military Forces within the Caribbean Region where 1,500 plus participants from the USA and 21 partner nations trained in a multi – domain exercise. The TCI being an attachment to the Royal Bermuda Regiment operated and trained alongside Guyana (host nation), Bahamas, Belize, Bermuda, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Dominican Republic, France, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, Mexico, the Netherlands, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, the United Kingdom, and the United States. 
The TCI Regiment’s ISTAR Officer, Lieutenant Earl Henry, lead the 18-member team and was happy to report Mission Success for the troops he led:
‘’Since 1984 Tradewinds was designed to expand the Caribbean Region’s capability to mitigate, plan for, and increase regional training capacity towards interoperability and respond to crisis. We are very grateful to the TCI Government, H.E. Governor Dileeni Daniel – Selvaratnam, and the Royal Bermuda Regiment who afforded us a vast delivery of experiences inside of a twoweek military camp. Despite a steep learning curve everyone worked hard, remained professional and it was enjoyable. This now allows the TCI Regiment an opportunity to develop new and refine existing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) within the organization; especially in areas where we increase readiness, promote human rights, and adhere to shared international norms and values.”
The official Facebook page of U.S. Army South, the Army Component Command to U.S. Southern Command shared
a testament of a few marines of the Turks and Caicos Islands Regiment during their tenure at the camp using #FacesOfTradewinds.
Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) Regiment Marine Dalton Daniel.
“TRADEWINDS 23 has been tough, so far, but I’m really enjoying it. You know, I’m learning a lot, meeting people from other countries and getting the opportunity to improve my training. Hopefully, what I’ve learned here I can pass back to the rest of the TCI Regiment. I knew some of the other [service members] from Bermuda because we worked the Coronation together so I was really cool to see them again.
I’m really glad that I had this opportunity to come to Guyana to be a part of TRADEWINDS so I really appreciate everything.”
Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) Regiment Marine Ronica Ewing.
“TRADEWINDS has been challenging but it’s been fun as well…I get to meet people from different backgrounds. Some people from the different regiments as well. I learned how each regiment operates so I can take things from each one and take it back home to improve the regiment that we now have, which has only been in operation for about three years now.
The best thing is learning about the different weapons that they use and also getting that more hands-on military experience… what to expect and so forth. Another thing is, it is preparing me mentally. So when people look at us, they see we’re just normal people, but what they don’t see is the things that we have to go through, the things preparing us for what is about to take place if a conflict were to take place. I’ve met quite a few people. We have a lot in common.”
Overall, members of the Nineteen (19) member team are now safely back in the Beautiful by Nature Turks and Caicos Islands and have already commenced educating new and existing members of the ‘Regiment ‘on what was learned during US SOUTHCOM Tradewinds Guyana 2023.