Dear Editor,
It has been exactly one month, but I can no longer stranglehold myself into a position of silence, so I am here to scream, “Bloody Murder”! The Progressive Liberal Party came to power in September of 2021, following that there was promised an expansive review of the public service which led to the suspension of promotions. The Minister of The Public Service, The Honorable Pia Glover Rolle, pronounced that promotions would be reviewed and ready in time for Christmas. Admittedly, I was at first titillated by this undertaking but after it had all been said and done and promotions of The Royal Bahamas Defence Force were completed, they looked more like Christmas presents and not necessarily the advancements and promotions of enlisted men for the purpose of filling necessary billets. To some, my dismay may be considered that of gadfly actions but to the men to whom it matters most, the promotion of 42 Force Chief Petty Officers, approximately 19 months after the promotion of 32 Force Chief Petty Officers for a total of 78 Force Chief Petty Officers or approximately 6% of the Force’s make-up, to be serving at its highest senior noncommissioned officer rating, is bloody murder.
Dear Editor, In May 2020, Commodore Raymond King took command of The Royal Bahamas Defence Force and shortly thereafter there was a massive promotional exercise within the ranks and files of that organization; a promotion so big that the jokes in the mess areas are that it took 6 days to get everyone on the list. Dr. King argued that although unordinary, there was nothing unethical about his promotional list, since there had been lulls in the promotion before his coming to the top chair. A simple look at his second promotion reveals quite the contrary as there are more of the top senior noncommissioned officers promoted in this exercise than there were in the previous exercise. I imagine that this is much to the chagrin of the men and women that serve in the ranks beneath this enlisted rating, that was once a rating associated with the men and the women that had become the best and the brightest in the forces fleet; now it has been reduced to the equivalence of a self-help manual give away in an Oprah Winfrey live studio audience. The new running joke in the mess areas aboard the ship in case the commander is unaware, is that there was once a time that both the Flamingo and the Blue Marlin were considered endangered species; now if one wishes to spot a Blue Marlin or a Flamingo, you need only visit the senior enlisted mess area of the HMBS Coral Harbour. To cheapen the rating of Force Chief to nothing more than a running joke in the mess areas of their juniors or to have it seen as nothing more than a Christmas present, retirement token or much worse, a rank not exempted from duty watches, as opposed to the once glorious standing it held, where the stare of a Force Chief could melt a Marine right where he stood or the bark of an instruction, even at a Lieutenant could cause heart arrhythmia, is bloody murder.
I do not claim to know the mind of the Commander and I assure you that I am not a member in the King’s court but someone, somewhere, must tell the King that the most recent promotion has him looking like the court’s jester. A basic Google search would easily reveal that the rank of a naval captain is equivalent to that of a Colonel in the U.S Army. A further Google search would reveal that a Colonel in the U.S Army has command over generally 3,000 to 6,000 soldiers at any given time. Regrettably, the Commander of the Royal Bahamas Defence Force, whether willingly or under duress, in his infinite wisdom or otherwise, deemed it necessary for him to have in his command structure almost one dozen naval captains as his administrative command team. For the Royal Bahamas Defence Force to be made up of approximately 1,580 people and for 6% of that force to be made up of the rank of Force Chief Petty Officer, I must then argue that to additionally add 11 captains to this organization, must be bloody murder.
I fear that the Commander seems to be unwilling to upset people that serve under his command. Dr. King is a Commander, a naval Commander and this is in fact a military, the award for Mr. Congeniality simply doesn’t exist here. It is my prayer that he understands, that in order to be effective in his tenure he is going to have to frustrate some people. I get it, his degree is in organizational leadership and largely, it is the intention of people with that qualification to try and work in an environment that is nonvolatile, but I again say, this is a military and so the Commander has to make himself comfortable with upsetting people, regardless of whether they are his squadmates, roommates, shipmates or helpmate. I sit and I smile because I am fully aware that by this time the Captains and the Force Chiefs of the Royal Bahamas Defence Force must all be wondering who this man is, this Leyvon Miller, a resigned Able Seaman and where does he get his authority to speak to men at our rank. Well, they may be correct and so I will digress and return to the ranks that I am aptly qualified to speak to.
The incident that took place at the Government House grounds that involved four enlisted marines on April 29, 2019 was bloody murder. To allow those Marines to leave the scene of that murder to proceed on any form of leave was bloody murder. To reintroduce those Marines back into active duty after two years and hide them in billets such as capital development, information technology, administration registry and base civil construction was also bloody murder. More egregious than that, to have promoted every single person that testified in the court case of the murder at Government House must be considered bloody murder.
What the Commander must now answer, not just to the men and the women of the deck who find themselves perplexed but also to the Bahamian people is, do we reward bloody murder? What is arguable is that members of this force, having to work with newly-promoted marines who all still have the taint of the suspicion of murder hovering over them as they work similar duties as they did the night of the April 29, 2019, is bloody murder.
I offer the Commander this, if a Marine testifies before a jury that he, while on sentry duties fell asleep after hiding his service weapon in a block and having it removed from him all while sleeping, only to be awakened by two shots (although the victim sustained five shots), to see a man in a camouflage outfit that he assumed was Calvin Hanna because he, “wasn’t fully conscious” as well as admit in open court that it was not his first time hiding his weapon in the block and you approve his promotion, that is bloody murder.
Further, if not one but two Marines testify that while in an area approximately 14 feet by 10 feet, they saw a man that they identified to be Jevon Seymour, that camera footage later identified was nowhere near the scene of the crime and you permit those two men to also be promoted, that is bloody murder.
Lastly, if you promote a Marine who, while on duty as a sentry in an open area allowed an assailant to fire a weapon five times in that area, while in possession of a service weapon without returning a single shot and his best excuse after the act was that he fired several times but his weapon jammed, only for weapon experts and examiners to testify that the weapon was fully functional, that is bloody murder.
Dear Editor, the promotions of 2021 leave the King with blood on his hands, and I fear if he doesn’t clean it up quickly, the Royal Bahamas Defence Force may find itself pronounced dead by gunshot wounds to the torso and right upper extremities with multiple injuries including a lung contusion, fractured vertebrae and a collection of blood in the chest cavity. Oh King, you must fire them all. To the offended, I won’t be as easy to kill.
Leyvon A Miller, JP
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