With this as a skeleton or framework, things started moving quickly. Young Guianese officers recently trained abroad did a very short apprenticeship as junior leaders, for by February 1966, they were already moving into appointments such as Adjutant, Intelligence Officer and Signals Officer. Senior Officers from the BGVF came over as Staff Officers, HQ Company Commander and Paymaster. Senior Officers of the British Army joined the Force and filled appointments as Company Commanders, Quartermaster and Training Officer. By independence day, the flesh had been added to the skeleton. Three companies had been formed and all of the supporting administrative and training units were working. By August another wave of officers from the then defunct BGVF were embodied and gradually a recognisable military format emerged from the clutter of disparate elements only six months before. During this time, the government had moved to formalise under the law what was already a fact in reality. The Defence bill styled: "A Bill entitled an ordinance to provide for Defence and the maintenance of order by the establishment of a Defence Force and to provide for matters connected there-with and incidental thereto". was introduced in the House of Assembly. At 4.40 p.m. on Tuesday 5 April 1966, the Prime Minister, Forbes Burnham, rose to open the historic debate. A week