• GDF’s Historic Course Six Marks 50 Years of Breaking Barriers

AT 19, Verian Mentis-Barker did not yet understand she was part of a historic turning point.

She only knew she wanted to continue her studies when she entered what would become the Guyana Defence Force’s Course Number Six, the first officer training programme to place men and women under the same standards.

Fifty years later, that experience stands as a defining moment in Guyana’s military history, one that broke long-held gender barriers and reshaped discipline, identity and service in the GDF.

Beginning this weekend with a series of commemorative events, Course Six alumni are coming together to mark a golden jubilee that is as much about national pride as it is personal triumph.

Speaking to the Pepperpot Magazine, Mentis-Barker reflects on a journey that began in uncertainty but ultimately helped set a precedent for women in uniform across Guyana and the Anglophone Caribbean.

Born in the township of New Amsterdam, Mentis-Barker was making history even before she joined the military. Fresh out of high school, she was among the first batch of students to attend the University of Guyana under a contract that provided payment.

She first heard about Course Six through a simple notice posted at the university. While it caught her attention, it was not something she saw as monumental at the time.

“We learned that somebody had put a notice up. Of course, that was no official information; that was just a conversation at lunch. That was 1976,” she told the Pepperpot Magazine.

Even when she joined the course, she was not immediately aware of its significance. When asked whether she had any idea she was part of history on her first day of training, she said, “No way. I was 19, and all I wanted to do was get back to school.”

It was not until she ventured deeper into the journey that she realised this was more than a shortcut back to school; it was a profession, one she said she had to adapt to.

“At the time, as a younger person who was not very exposed or experienced, that was not something I looked forward to. In retrospect, it is one of the best things that has happened in my life.”

In May 1976, Guyana was at a major turning point in history. As a brand-new independent state among larger counterparts and neighbouring states that were strengthening their military capacity, the new nation of Guyana was forced to enhance its deterrent and defensive capabilities.

The government embarked on enlarging the GDF, providing it with more workforce. More officers and men were needed, and Course Number Six became the largest Officer Cadet Course ever assembled by the GDF.

While it was a landmark step, Mentis-Barker noted that it came with challenges. Among the biggest challenges for her was learning to take orders and adapting to the discipline that accompanied them.

Reflecting on that journey, she stated that at just 19, the importance of the training was not clear to her.

“Learning to take orders, learning to support yourself, your emotions and your personality, and understanding that there is a force of guidance that requires you to do a specific thing for a specific end — you do not have that kind of vision at 19,” she reflected.

On Sunday, May 16th, 1976, Officer Cadet Course Number Six reported to the Guyana Defence Force Headquarters at Camp Ayanganna. Sixty-six cadets were in attendance: nine female and fifty-seven male.

It was to become a historic course. Not only was it the largest Officer Cadet Course ever assembled by the GDF, but it was also the first to have men and women training together in Guyana and across the Anglophone Caribbean.

Co-ed training is now the norm in the GDF, but fifty years ago, these women were the trailblazers.

This milestone, however, came at the cost of considerable physical exertion. Mentis-Barker shared that the strenuous training, which unfolded over several months, was as challenging as it was rewarding.

“I would say that for women overall, it was physical. But that’s the charm in the whole thing, because in the end, with women and men working together to achieve one goal, the discipline I didn’t know I had, or was capable of showing, came out,” she said.

“Having to listen, having to be shouted at, and responding not back, but in kind with commitment to the exercise — that is what came out of being in one of those organisations.”

During the late 1960s and into the 1970s, Guyana faced several territorial and security challenges along its borders, contributing to heightened regional tensions and an evolutionary period for the GDF.

Course Six was a central part of that evolution. An unprecedented, unplanned camaraderie developed among the cadets, a togetherness born not of choice, but of necessity.

“I had to depend on you, and you had to depend on me. We were receiving instructions to do things that we were not accustomed to being spoken to about,” she noted.

By the course’s end, men and women were not only working together but also on par.

“In the end, men and women worked together to achieve one goal. Mr Man could not be faster than me, and me, the physically weaker woman, had to step up so as not to disappoint the males on the course.

“The males were very gracious in the end. There was no man running ahead of a woman, and no woman claiming she could not keep up because she was female. We came to understand our strengths and our weaknesses.”

Course Six concluded on Friday, December 17th, 1976, with forty-five of the initial sixty-six cadets completing the programme.

Six of the initial nine female cadets graduated as Second Lieutenants: Jasoda Kishun, Verian Mentis, Paulette Pollard, Brigette Smith, Joyce Smith, the first Indigenous female officer of the GDF, and Marlyn Telford.

These six women made history and will forever hold the distinction of being the first female cadets to complete an Officer Cadet Course conducted by the Guyana Defence Force.

Speaking on this legacy, Mentis-Barker said that Course Six was more than a first; it was the blueprint that helped build the defence force Guyana knows today.

“Working with men, working with women, we established a blueprint,” she added.

“In those days, women were not permanent secretaries or holding any high-level ministry roles. Women largely were typists. In the GDF, women were largely in domesticated roles that were prescribed from the outset. With Course Six, we broke that mould,” she said.

This golden jubilee is being marked in a manner befitting its significance. Celebrations commenced on Saturday, May 16th, 2026, with a private cocktail reception, followed on Sunday, May 17th by a thanksgiving church service at the Christ Church Anglican Church on Waterloo Street, Georgetown, open to the public.

Also on Sunday, the Course Six alumni will be guests of the Chief of Defence Staff, Omar Khan MSS, at a Military Tattoo at Base Camp Ayanganna.

A full calendar of activities spanning the next seven months is expected to be released shortly.

For Mentis-Barker, the celebrations carry a deeply personal weight. She says she has no regrets, noting that the experience laid the foundation for success both at home and abroad.

“It catapulted us to a level of maturity we were not even aware of until, like me, when we migrated and realised that that exposure and discipline was like a handbook you carried in your top pocket every day,” she said.

Her time in Course Six showed her what it meant to set goals and see them through, no matter the cost.

“You had a goal, and nobody was going to fulfil it but you. So you knew what you had to do not to derail your steps. In that respect, I have no regrets.”