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
11 Spring 2016 I n our development experience, military police were the "do it all" Soldiers of the Global War on Terrorism— often at the expense of our policing skills and functions, which make us unique and ever important. We understood our roles in the main effort on the battlefeld and fought as infantry. But the future success of our companies relies on returning to our doctrine foundation. For example, as mili- tary police, we can operate as teams; we are not always part of the typical squads of Afghanistan and Iraq. Ensuring that we know and understand our doctrine is the frst step in training Soldiers to standard. Wars are won at the team level if we can doctrinally operate as a team. We can accom- plish any mission as a squad or higher. The following quote from Field Manual (FM) 6-0, and Staff Organi- zation and Operations, conveys the message that we are try- ing to teach: "The police skills and mind-set of the military police Soldier form the basic building block for the Military Police Corps Regiment. Forming three of these uniquely trained Soldiers into a team forms the basic military police team that is the foundation and centerpiece of tactical mili- tary police organizations." 1 After taking command of the 58th Military Police Com- pany, the frst sergeant and I knew that the challenges we would face in training Soldiers to standard would be based on two major factors: high operational tempo and limited resources. Four months into command, we company leaders got our frst opportunity to execute training. The challenges that we thought were going to be major problems (including developing junior leaders, returning to doctrinal concepts, and understanding how to train in a resource-constrained environment while simultaneously conducting sustainment operations) turned out to be part of an issue that was devel- oped through the ever-evolving transition of the company. Understanding these topics provided focus on the company deployment and redeployment to the Pohakuloa Training Area (PTA), located on the Island of Hawaii. Soldiers who have trained at Schofeld Barracks, Hawaii, are aware of the limited training resources that come with being confned to an island with sensitive cultural and envi- ronmental concerns. This issue affects all units regardless of the location, but we accomplished training objec- tives by deploying to the PTA. While this was our company's frst green cycle in almost a year, we all knew the importance of quality training time for Soldiers and their junior leaders. Before the event, staff sergeants and sergeants had limited opportunities to train their Soldiers. Additional- ly, platoon leaders and platoon sergeants (most of whom were new to the company) had never ex- perienced such dedicated training opportunities. High operational tempos had always ensured that Soldiers were tasked with many missions, from law enforcement to general installation support, and were not often available for dedi- cated training outside of a green cycle. We developed the unit training plan by plac- ing the priorities on squad certifcation; mount- ed, live-fre exercises; and advanced range den- sity. The advantage of training at PTA versus a Soldiers react to direct fre as part of a squad certifcation lane.