The body of a Guyana Defence Force (GDF) rank was yesterday pulled from the Essequibo River at Makouria.
He was later identified as 28-year-old Kevin Calder of 2716 Pilot Street, New Amsterdam, Berbice.
According to a GDF press statement, Calder drowned yesterday morning in the Essequibo River at the Colonel Robert Mitchell Jungle and Amphibious Training School (CRMJATS) where he served as its Medic. It was reported that Calder and a fellow soldier were swimming in the river at about 7:30am when he encountered difficulties and sank beneath the water. Reports further state that attempts to render assistance to the drowning rank were in vain.
The army said that a search team was immediately dispatched and around 9:00am, recovered Calder’s lifeless body which was airlifted by helicopter to Base Camp Ayanganna.
Relatives say that Calder was stationed at CRMJATS for about two years. Sister of the deceased, Althea Stuart, herself a Captain in the army, explained that she had received a call yesterday morning informing her that her younger brother had drowned.
Stuart, who was among the officers responsible for training Calder, said that the family had not been given any further details surrounding her brother’s death. The man’s mother, Hermina Thomas, said she was in church when she received a call from a relative telling her that her son had died.
The party which identified Stuart’s body consisted of friends and family, several of whom were GDF ranks and officers.
The army reported that a Board of Inquiry will be launched shortly to investigate the circumstances surrounding Calder’s death.
Calder’s death comes about five months after the drowning of Ordinary Rating Darwin Simon, 22, of Lot 47, Norton Street, Werk-en-Rust, who fell overboard at the Coastguard’s floating base in the Pomeroon River, where he was stationed. According to the army, Simon and two other ranks had just finished mooring their boat alongside the floating base when he fell into the river.
Calder leaves to mourn his wife and a three-year-old son.
