Commandant of the Cadet Force Dwight Lewis has been elevated to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.{{more}}

The new Cadet Force Act, which was passed in the House of Assembly on the 30th October, 2007, mandates that the rank of Lieutenant Colonel is bestowed on the person appointed as Commandant. Accordingly, the recent appointment of former Major Dwight Lewis as Commandant of the Cadet Force under the new act may have been deemed procedural, since at the time of his appointment he was the serving Commandant. However, it has ushered in a new era in the local cadet movement, as he is the first Commandant to be inducted into the substantive rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

The rank structure in the Cadet Force is based on that of the regular army, thus a Lieutenant Colonel will normally command a battalion, which usually comprises around 300 and more military personnel.

Given the current expansion of the Cadet Force, which now has a nominal strength of over 500 Cadets, Colonel Lewis’ command is consistent with his rank. The Commandant of Cadets, therefore, can now be easily classified among the top senior commanders in the Local Forces.

Colonel Lewis’ military career as a member of the Cadet Force spans thirty-three years, and for almost half of that period he has been at the helm of the Cadet Force. He also served as Aide-de-Camp to the Governor General from 1992 to 2001. Colonel Lewis was awarded the Caribbean Cadet Medal in 2006 from the Jamaica Combined Cadet Force and was also honoured by the Barbados Cadet Corps in that year for exceptional and meritorious service to the local and regional cadet movement. He possesses a number of other accolades as a community worker and sports administrator.

Professionally, Colonel Lewis is a graduate lecturer at the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Community College, Division of Technical and Vocational Education.