The Veterans Association of Ghana (VAG) has bemoaned the fallen standard of training for military personnel in the country.

Speaking on the sidelines of the 76th Remembrance Day Service held in Kumasi on Thursday, 11 November 2021, the Ashanti Regional Chairman of VAG, Ex-Warrant Officer One (WO1) George Appiah, told Class91.3FM’s Ashanti regional correspondent, Elisha Adarkwah, that: “It’s based on the training”.

“The standard of training now has fallen compared to our time”, he observed.

“That is why the discipline is dying out”.

“So, the training; they should improve it like the former days”, he said, adding: “We were doing so many exercises”.

“We were having exercises: exercise teamwork, tiger path, battalion exercises, unit drills competition…” he listed.

He called for a reintegration of the old exercises to improve the current standard of training for military personnel in the country.

WO1 Appiah said: “All these now, they’re no more in the service”.

“So, we want them to be revisited”.

“We want them to be integrated now into the armed forces so that the standard of the training will be improved”.

A soldier, he noted, “needs to do exercise always; you don’t need to stay in the barracks, at least, once in a quarter, you move out to the field, you go and exercise and come back to enjoy with your wife”.

He said: “The standard of discipline in the service is dying down because all these things are no more happening” and “I feel bad.”

Stressing that the health needs of soldiers are a contributory factor to ensuring the personnel stay strong and fit, he noted that previously, health measures such as monthly injections were put in place to ensure that soldiers were very strong.

“If really they want the army to go back to its former status, all these things must be brought back,” WO1 Appiah stated.