Military Police contains information about military police functions in maneuver and mobility support, area security, law and order, internment/resettlement, and police intelligence operations.
Issue link: https://militarypolice.epubxp.com/i/655275
9 Spring 2016 By Major Early Howard, Jr. D uring the past decade of t, the main warfght- ing focus of the Army became the brigade combat team (BCT). The BCT was supported with one or- ganic military police platoon to conduct military police mis- sions that were assigned. After the Army's realignment of force structure and the removal of the military police pla- toon, divisions and BCTs had no organic military police ca- pabilities beyond a small staff element. Habitual relation- ships were developed to show maneuver commanders the capabilities that military police can provide and to create a desire for these capabilities in garrison and on deployments. Habitual training and operational relationships between military police forces and BCTs were established to ensure that III Corps provided its subordinate BCTs with the ca- pabilities required for assigned missions and future opera- tions. 1 The formalization of these relationships was impera- tive for optimizing the use of III Corps military police forces and for ensuring that BCT commanders have the capabili- ties needed to succeed. The 89th Military Police Brigade es- tablished habitual relationships with BCTs to support the current fght, protect the force through combat readiness, and help forge the future of military police forces within III Corps. The III Corps commander, Lieutenant General Sean Mc- Farland, concurred with the concept and feasibility of a ha- bitual relationship and codifed it with an offcial order for all III Corps units. Military police habitual relationships are nondoctrinal command relationships that require close coor- dination between the parent military police battalion head- quarters, the gaining BCT headquarters, and the division provost marshal's offce. 2 Habitual relationships are defned and implemented by the following: • Military police companies are in direct support (DS) to BCTs for BCT collective training, combat training center (CTC) rotations, and operational requirements on order. • During collective training in garrison and CTC rotations, military police companies are tactical control in DS to their aligned BCTs. • Concurrent deployments with their aligned BCTs may not occur, and the relationship may be determined by the combatant command. • Military police companies will only be in a DS role while participating in collective training events or deployments. While in garrison, military police companies are unavail- able to their aligned BCTs for garrison mission tasking. Normal command and support relationships are clarifed when the augmented BCT conducts detailed mission analy- sis for augmentation with military police forces. BCT commanders have expressed concerns about mili- tary police being "on time" units, not receiving training with the BCT before a CTC rotation or deployment. Military police units arrive at CTC rotations and deployments unfa- miliar with the standard operating procedures and tactics, techniques, and procedures of supported commands. Under the guidance of Colonel Ross T. Guieb, 89th Military Police Brigade commander, a functional alignment concept was de- veloped to provide needed military police capabilities due to the removal of military police platoons from BCTs. The alignment of military police forces to maneuver units is based according to the assigned installation. Military po- lice battalions assigned to the 89th Military Police Brigade provided one military police company in DS to each III Corps BCT for training and possible deployment. Home station training opportunities integrated military police companies with their BCT counterparts and helped establish relationships, unity of effort, and a common op- erating picture before CTC rotations. While in a DS role to each BCT for collective training, military police gained valu- able warfghting experience, confdence in their abilities, and an understanding of combined arms maneuver and wide area security. Colonel David Hodne, Commander, 1st Stryker BCT, 4th Infantry Division stated: "I think much of our success in the wide area security effort resulted directly from the habitual relationship with the 984th Military Police Company [759th Military Police Battalion, 89th Military Police Brigade]. We would have been hard-pressed to establish the roles and re- sponsibilities at the National Training Center [Fort Irwin, California] without conducting our previous training with the same unit at Pinon Canyon [Colorado]. The commander of Operations Group observed that the BCT force protec- tion (clearly enabled by the 984th) was a signifcant factor in defeating the irregular force threat in the BCT security area. Many threat forces were defeated through the use of traffc control points, aggressive security patrols, and com- mand posts and support areas well covered and concealed by terrain."