Eight Armed Forces of Malta (AFM) officer-cadets were awarded for their achievements by AFM Commander Brigadier Carmel Vassallo on Wednesday following their successful completion of a 10-month course.

Officer-cadets Nicholas Grech, Joseph Gatt, Amadeo Busuttil, Simon Titley, Roderick Azzopardi, Matthew Camilleri, Sharon Bellizzi and Maurizio Scicluna went through a developed military training programme aimed at educating and developing qualities of leadership, character and intellect demanded of an army officer.

The course was divided in four phases. Phase 1 was aimed at teaching the basic military skills of those soldiers the future-officers are expected to lead and command in the future. Phase 2 focused on leadership, initiative and the role of the officer. Phase 3 focused on all aspects of “Operations Other than War” while Phase 4 saw more adventurous training as it also included specialised heavy weapons training using the RPG-7 anti-tank rocket-launcher, and the 12.7mm calibre Browning machine-gun, plus a 5-day Training Camp was held at the AFM’s Qortin Base in Gozo.

On Sunday, six officer-cadets left Malta for the Italian Army’s School of Infantry in Cesano, Rome to attend a seven-month course. The remaining two cadets will also be attending academies and schools in the UK and Italy later this year. It is expected that in 2008, most of these AFM cadets will attend the United States Army’s Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia for their Infantry Officer Basic Course.