April 5, 2011Dear Sir,I have been wanting to express my feelings on Bermudians serving their time in the Bermuda Regiment for some time now. I understand it sounds good to say “serve your country”, but honestly, nowadays people are busy trying to make ends meet. Yes, I only go once a week, do a weekend camp once a month and a two-week camp once a year. It doesn’t seem like much, but consider this. People have rent, loans, bills and families to support. Working five to seven days a week gets tiring in itself, but then when you add on a weekend camp where you sometimes need to stay awake for 23 hours at a time then go work the next day, it gets ridiculous. I work two jobs to make ends meet. I just do not have the energy to “serve my country”. People might say, well you get paid while you’re at Regiment and you get two weeks paid while you get a free ticket to North Carolina, Jamaica or Canada. I think I will pass on the 14 days of wet socks, blistered feet, pulled muscles, being hungry 4am in the morning because I need to stay awake and pretend there are enemies in the area.Hard working people don’t need to be rushing to get to Warwick Camp after work to play Soldier, play pretend riots while getting hit with rocks, potatoes, wooden logs and rubber bullets, having to stay as late as 10.30pm because I dont have creases in my pants, getting charged $200 because I forgot to shave my peach fuzz off my chin and the list goes on an on. Why even have the Regiment in operation? How many millions of dollars does the Regiment waste each year? The Regiment does not teach Bermudians’ discipline, just look at the people who show up every Camp Day. Does that not show enough discipline? All expenses paid to North Carolina? I don’t think so, who wants to give me $100 for my hotel room to rest in with another Bermudian for one to two days. Don’t show up for a camp night get charged $120 but get paid just $27 if you show up. People are tired of playing soldier and having to go work sore and tired the next day! Our time is valuable. Put an end to this Regiment, please!SOLDIER OF MISFORTUNESmith’s