Thir­ty-five stu­dents and 15 teach­ers from Lochmaben Ro­man Catholic School in Ce­dros toured the US Navy de­stroy­er USS Grave­ly (DDG-107) on Oc­to­ber 27 in Port of Spain ac­cord­ing to a re­lease sent by the US Em­bassy. The vis­it fol­lowed re­cent in­fra­struc­ture up­grades and do­na­tions to the school by the Unit­ed States South­ern Com­mand (US­SOUTH­COM).

Sailors and of­fi­cers from the Grave­ly host­ed the group and gave them a guid­ed tour of the ship.

The Grave­ly, an Ar­leigh Burke-class de­stroy­er, is in Trinidad and To­ba­go as part of on­go­ing co­op­er­a­tion be­tween the Unit­ed States and the Trinidad and To­ba­go De­fence Force (TTDF), in­clud­ing joint train­ing ex­er­cis­es to strength­en re­gion­al se­cu­ri­ty.

In Au­gust 2025, US Navy Seabees car­ried out struc­tur­al, elec­tri­cal, and sewage sys­tem up­grades at the school dur­ing Op­er­a­tion Con­tin­u­ing Promise and the USNS Com­fort’s vis­it. The fol­low­ing month, US­SOUTH­COM and the US Em­bassy do­nat­ed com­put­ers, a print­er, fur­ni­ture, and oth­er learn­ing ma­te­ri­als.

US Em­bassy Chargé d’Af­faires Dr Jenifer Nei­d­hart de Or­tiz said the ship vis­it high­light­ed the close ties be­tween both coun­tries. “It was an ab­solute plea­sure to meet the kids and their teach­ers on board—they asked great ques­tions and their pres­ence on board was a de­light for our sailors,” she said.

School prin­ci­pal Bev­er­ley Find­ley de­scribed the vis­it as a “once-in-a-life­time op­por­tu­ni­ty” that ex­posed stu­dents to new ex­pe­ri­ences and strength­ened their ap­pre­ci­a­tion for learn­ing.

Last week, Ce­dros res­i­dents ex­pressed cu­rios­i­ty and cau­tion about the ship’s vis­it, which car­ries about 300 US sailors. 

Some par­ents out­side the school said they had no con­cerns about send­ing their chil­dren to the tour. “We have a good re­la­tion­ship with the US Em­bassy. We are hap­py Lochmaben RC stu­dents have been in­vit­ed to tour the ship. We have no fear about that,” one par­ent said.