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(CNS): Colonel Roger Carter, a career military man from Trinidad and Tobago, has been appointed as the new commanding officer of the Cayman Islands Regiment and is expected to take up the post in April. Carter was selected following an open competitive recruitment process that attracted a broad field of candidates, officials from the governor’s office said. They were interviewed by a panel that included Commander Robert Scotland of the Cayman Islands Coast Guard and chaired by Governor Martyn Roper.
Carter succeeds Lieutenant Colonel Simon Watson, a former UK Royal Dragoon Guard, who was appointed three years ago to establish the regiment. Sir Alden McLaughlin, who spearheaded the initiative while he was premier, said at the time that it would provide a pathway for Caymanians to receive training and become officers.
In a press release announcing the appointment of Col Carter, Roper expressed his gratitude to Col Watson for setting up the regiment from scratch with UK training and assistance, particularly given the global pandemic. Roper said the regiment added value to Cayman’s humanitarian and disaster relief efforts, providing additional resilience to the emergency services in many ways.
The Cayman Regiment has focused on helping with severe weather events and other community issues, from storms to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is able to deploy quickly to clear roads, deliver first aid, desalinate seawater and feed hundreds of people using a self-sufficient solar-powered kitchen.
According to the governor’s office, Col Carter, who joined the army in Trinidad in 1989, is an experienced officer with significant humanitarian and disaster relief expertise. In 2011 he was appointed assistant chief staff officer (operations) at the National Military Headquarters, where he was responsible for joint, inter-agency and multi-national operations as well as management of the Inter-Agency Counter Terrorism Team.
He was defence and military attaché to Washington DC with accreditation to Canada, and the head of delegation to the Inter-American Defense Board from 2018 to 2021. Col Carter has an MSc in National Security and Strategic Studies and is pursuing a PhD in Criminology.
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