Mr. J. Richard Blankenship, appointed in December 2001, announced his resignation as ambassador on June 9, 2003, and left the country on July 19. But yesterday he was back – as a guest on Island FM’s talk show “Parliament Street”.
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\n“If we tripled the size of the Defence Force to protect the borders and fisheries stock there is going to be a lot of training going on and we’ll have many vessels,” said Mr. Blankenship.
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\nFibreglass, he said, could be used in the construction of the boats just as it is used in the construction of many US Coast Guard ships.
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\n“We don’t need grey hull steel boats in this shallow water and if we could use that to kicj off a new industry and start cranking out patrol boats… I think it would increase the border patrol and it would create a new industry,” said the former ambassador.
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Source: The Tribune<\/B><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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