JDF is conducting public duties in the UK
as part of Exercise Calypso Hop
Coverage by Jamaica Tourist Board
A contingent of 140 officers and men of the First Battalion The Jamaica Regiment are currently in the United Kingdom participating in the annual training exchange between the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) and the British Armed Forces, Exercise Red Stripe/Calypso Hop.
As part of the exchange exercise, the Jamaican troops have been performing Public Duties in London as part of The Queen’s Guard. The Jamaicans are undertaking ceremonial guard duties at Buckingham Palace, St James’s Palace, the Tower of London, and at Windsor Castle.
This is the second time that the JDF has been invited by the British Armed Forces to perform such Public Duties as part of Exercise Red Stripe/Calypso Hop. Jamaica is probably the only Commonwealth country apart from Australia and Canada to have been given this honour. The JDF last performed these ceremonial duties in 1999.
This year, for the first time, a composite band, comprising elements of the Jamaica Military Band and the Jamaica Regiment Band, accompanies the JDF’s ceremonial guards. When the band is not performing ceremonial duties, it conducts public band concerts in London, much to the delight of the Londoners and visitors. The band concerts are being coordinated by the Jamaican High Commission and the Jamaica Tourist Board office in London.
This year’s exchange began on July 14, and is scheduled to end on August 28. Since 1967, the JDF and the British Armed Forces have been participating in Exercise Red Stripe/Calypso Hop, an annual military company-sized (140 men) exchange exercise. Exercise Red Stripe is the name of the local leg of the exchange with British troops training in Jamaica and Exercise Calypso Hop is the overseas leg, with Jamaican troops training in the UK. The Jamaican soldiers engage in field exercises over new terrain in a temperate climate, from which they gain significant training exposure using the British training facilities. The British troops also benefit from their training exposure in a tropical climate and the semi-jungle environs in eastern Jamaica.
Exercise Calypso Hop is the JDF’s largest non-operational deployment outside Jamaica and the exercise that the JDF troops look forward to the most. Jamaicans travelling to or living in London are invited to attend the JDF guard mounts and parades.
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