Commander-in-Chief, President David Granger, presented Lieutenant (Lt) Britany Van Lange with her Instrument of Commission on June 27 last, solemnising her status as an officer of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF).
Trained at the United States Military Academy (West Point), Lt Van Lange began her military career as an officer cadet on the Guyana Defence Force Standard Officer Course 48 (SOC48), a release from the GDF said yesterday.
The release said that the young officer credits her short GDF officer cadet training with preparing her for BEAST, a boot-camp type of orientation to the US military.
“I had enlisted to be trained as an officer of the GDF. Although the time spent training locally was short, it prepared was sufficient to give an appreciable grounding in things military,” she said. “I am happy to be back in Guyana where this all started for me, though I must say that I have entered a somewhat steep learning curve,” she shared.
The West Point graduate earned a Bachelors Degree with a major in Engineering Psychology and a minor in Eurasian studies.
“My military career is only now beginning and it is difficult to say at this point how I would see it progressing. I have so much to learn. Maybe, in a year from now, when I have become fully acclimatised to the GDF, its role and my role as an officer, I might find my niche. For now, I plan on continuing to learn and adapt, and, in that process, to demonstrate my capabilities for being the leader I have been trained to be,” Lt Van Lange said, according to the GDF.
