On an Island where there is staggering wealth and status is often based on the number of toys one has, Major Brian Gonsalves made a startling decision.

He gave up a large pay cheque to follow his dream and serve his country.

Maj. Gonsalves was an assistant vice president at Aon, a brokerage firm, until he quit to become the Training Officer at the Bermuda Regiment.

The Major began his career in the Regiment in 1984 and has moved up the ranks over the years but, until recently, maintained a full time job at the same time.

?I?ve always wanted an opportunity to work full time (for Regiment),? he said. ?But I had reservations because as a full time officer you are no longer on the front line, you spend quite a lot of time doing administrative work.?

Maj. Gonsalves was one of the three men in the running for former Lt. Col. Edward Lamb?s job as Commanding Officer of the Bermuda Regiment. He did not get the job, instead it went to Maj. William White.

Despite his failure to secure the top post, he said he remains interested in the job and hopes his new role will put him in a better position to pursue it in the future.

?I see the role as an opportunity to cover another aspect of the Regiment,? he said. ?It closes the circle of my experience... It will give me better insight.?

One of the biggest differences between his new full-time job and his old one at Aon is dealing with a small budget, he admitted.

?The Government has left the Regiment out in the cold for a long time,? Maj. Gonsalves said. ?We don?t have the funding. Officers are way underpaid when compared to other services. And that?s not good, it makes it harder to retain staff.

?We have had some new initiatives recently and we are starting to turn things around. In the end we want a better quality Regiment.?

Maj. Gonsalves said he is looking forward to an increase in cross- service and joint-service training.

The Regiment will hopefully be holding more training with the Police, Fire Department and other departments on the Island.

And over his tenure as Training Officer, he is committed to making the training process more efficient and exciting. ?I am looking forward to trimming the fat in the training process,? he said. ?There is no point in giving someone a rifle if they don?t have the proper training. But we are looking at ways to streamline it so the men might come for a longer time but not have to come as often.?

He also hopes that Regiment soldiers will be called upon to put their training to use in real world situations.

?No one likes to play in their own playground,? he said. ?Young people are going to school overseas and staying to work there. The Regiment should be able to offer something like that ? allow soldiers to participate in international peacekeeping and help out like we did in Grenada.

?At the moment we can?t afford to do that and we don?t have enough people, but a pay increase and better tools could encourage more people to join.

?It would be an opportunity to broaden people?s horizons, especially for young Bermudians. At the moment the people who do go overseas for training come back psyched.

?They get to fire live rounds, jump out of helicopters ? they love it.?

But the Training Officer said Regiment also has a vital role to play here in Bermuda as it is one of the only places that people from all backgrounds, all races and all classes come together and work as a team.

?Time in the Regiment helps ease class and race issues,? he said. ?You get to see the white boy from Fairylands bleeds just like you and that he?s a good guy....

?The Regiment forces you to come together and recognise that there is no black, white, rich, poor, town, country. They come together and they work as a team and they have fun together. It?s a melting pot.

He acknowledged that he has taken a ?huge? salary cut and laughed it off by saying he has a supportive and understanding wife.

?If you want to do well in life you have to do something you have a passion for,? he said. ?It was not an easy decision but it?s a service to my community and something I like doing. I now get to put my time into my country.?