Mom blames JDF for son's death - Says army crushed young recruits dream

Says army crushed young recruit's dream

Nyoka Jarrett McLeod feels there is more to her son's untimely death than the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) has disclosed. Her son, Romario McLeod, an army recruit, died apparently by drowning, while undergoing training on Friday.

"I don't understand how he could be in a confined area and was allowed to drown. That is very puzzling. They killed him. They shattered my son's dream. That's how I feel, and I will never forgive the JDF for it," Jarrett McLeod said yesterday. "I didn't send him to die, I sent Romario to achieve his goal."

Romario, 21, always wanted to become a soldier and he appeared set to graduate on June 4 and become a full-fledged member of the army.

"He completed all the tasks so far with good grades and had only three weeks left. They told me he was an exceptional soldier, and a very good example to the others," Jarrett McLeod told THE STAR.

Romario left his home in Longbough, Clarendon, a small district near Aenon Town, for training at the JDF's sites last December. His mother never saw him again until April 9 when she visited the camp for family day.

DECIDED NOT TO GO HOME

"In training, he had an injury. He strained a muscle and they said he decided not to come home, and because of the level of determination he exhibited they kept him. I told him to come home, and he said, 'Mommy, I left home to be a soldier and I'm not coming back until I'm a soldier'."

But Romario, who attended Edwin Allen High School and later Holmwood Technical, would never set his foot back in his community.

"The young men in the community were looking forward to seeing him come back and being the first person from this community to become a soldier. They said he went to fulfil his dream of becoming a soldier and make us proud," the mother said.

Councillor for the Aenon Town Division, Delroy Dawson, said Romario was an example for other young men in the community. "He was a well-mannered young man. I've never seen him on the road idling or know of him as one to get into trouble. Nobody in the community has one bad thing to say about him," he said.

Major Basil Jarrett, media affairs officer for the JDF, said investigations into Friday's incident thus far do not suggest negligence on the part of the military.

He said McLeod was the only one in the pool at the time of the incident and was being supervised by at least six lifeguards.

"He wasn't doing anything that suggested something was wrong. He was carrying on just like the other recruits, and then he went under water for a couple seconds when the lifeguards decided to pull him out. After they pulled him out, he was breathing. There was an ambulance on scene and by the time the ambulance got him to the medical post, doctors there pronounced him dead," Jarrett explained. "The training is very rigorous, it is very intense, and it is necessary that we push recruits to the limit. When they become soldiers in the JDF, the job demands that much from them."