Ke­jan Haynes

Lead Ed­i­tor - News­gath­er­ing

ke­jan.haynes@guardian.co.tt

One year af­ter Able Sea­man Kieron Si­mon went miss­ing at sea, the Trinidad and To­ba­go Coast Guard (TTCG) for­mal­ly ho­n­oured his life and ser­vice.

Si­mon dis­ap­peared dur­ing a joint op­er­a­tion to in­ter­cept a se­mi-sub­mersible ves­sel re­port­ed­ly car­ry­ing a large quan­ti­ty of drugs bound for Trinidad and To­ba­go. Of­fi­cers de­tained three Span­ish-speak­ing men dur­ing the ex­er­cise. The ves­sel was lat­er de­lib­er­ate­ly sunk and went down with its car­go. Si­mon is be­lieved to have gone down with it. His body was nev­er re­cov­ered.

A com­mem­o­ra­tive ser­vice, or­gan­ised by the TTCG, was held at the St Michael and All An­gels An­gli­can Church in Diego Mar­tin.

Fam­i­ly mem­bers re­mem­bered Si­mon as a proud fa­ther and a man who loved life, Car­ni­val and God.

Fel­low sailors de­scribed him as the con­sum­mate Coast Guards­man who car­ried him­self with pride wher­ev­er he went, say­ing the na­tion had lost a good man at sea.

His friend and col­league, Me­chan­ic Ryan Ja­groop, said Si­mon was known among his peers as “Mr Coast Guard.”

“He was proud to be Coast Guard — in every way he ex­em­pli­fied it. The way he wore his kit, the way he car­ried him­self, with dis­ci­pline and true broth­er­hood,” Ja­groop said.

He added that he could speak “for hours” about Si­mon, in­clud­ing his love for cook­ing.

“Let us take up the man­tle he has left for us — with in­tegri­ty and pride as he stood. Let us con­tin­ue for­ward re­mem­ber­ing what he has done for his ser­vice and for his coun­try, be­cause he tru­ly be­lieved he was do­ing a good thing,” Ja­groop said.

Close fam­i­ly friend Renelle Ram­nar­ine said Si­mon left home that day be­liev­ing it was just an­oth­er call to du­ty.

“To him, it was a du­ty — a reg­u­lar work day and a call to guard and de­fend his coun­try,” she said.

She not­ed that Si­mon’s sons are now grow­ing up with­out their fa­ther.

“Kieron was not just a man. He was a force. And though he is no longer with us in flesh, his spir­it will nev­er leave us,” Ram­nar­ine added.

In a so­cial me­dia post, Si­mon’s cousin, Wav­el Fras­er, thanked the Coast Guard for host­ing a pa­rade in recog­ni­tion of his ser­vice but said it does not an­swer the fam­i­ly’s lin­ger­ing ques­tions.

“A ser­vice will nev­er be enough to qui­et the ques­tions that re­main in our hearts,” Fras­er wrote.

He said the fam­i­ly con­tin­ues to search for truth and hopes for clo­sure.

“Kieron was more than a uni­form. He was laugh­ter. He was strength. He was fam­i­ly. And he is deeply, painful­ly missed.”

In a state­ment, the Coast Guard said it re­calls “with pride the ded­i­ca­tion to du­ty, courage and pa­tri­ot­ic spir­it demon­strat­ed by Able Sea­man Si­mon through­out his ca­reer.”

The TTCG al­so ac­knowl­edged the dan­gers faced dur­ing mar­itime op­er­a­tions and reaf­firmed its com­mit­ment to safe­guard­ing cit­i­zens in keep­ing with its mot­to, “Ser­vice Be­fore Self,” adding, “We re­mem­ber Able Sea­man Kieron Si­mon.”