HOURS after hosting a very joyous church service to mark its anniversary and after Chief-of- Staff Brigadier Mark Phillips stated that the Guyana Defence Force will be around forever, the organisation was plunged into a state of mourning after one of its officers perished in a vehicular accident and three others hospitalised.

Lieutenant Ronald Gonsalves, a father of two, was killed after the car he was travelling in crashed into a utility pole on Mandela Avenue in the vicinity of the Rubis Gas Station.
According to persons on the scene, the car was heading along Mandela Avenue at a fast rate when it suddenly slammed into the utility pole splitting it in two, with splinters plunging through the car window and fatally injuring the officer.
Gonsalves, 31 is a resident of Linden who is also married. Also in the vehicle with him at the time were three other army ranks, identified as Lieutenant John Flores, Lieutenant Antonio Eastman and Lieutenant Rickford Warden, who were all injured in the accident but were listed as stable at the Georgetown Public Hospital where they were rushed for medical attention.
This newspaper was informed that it was Lieutenant Eastman who was driving the car at the time of the accident.
Yesterday the GDF issued a statement in relation to the accident and assured that the Guyana Police Force and the Guyana Defence Force were investigating the matter.