Military Police

SPRING 2016

Military Police contains information about military police functions in maneuver and mobility support, area security, law and order, internment/resettlement, and police intelligence operations.

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55 Spring 2016 area where a lack of training and preparation is observed among military police units. Despite the operational need to conduct dismounted operations or a combination of mounted and dismounted operations at JRTC, most military police elements attempt to complete each mission mounted, which often leads to mission failure. When dismounted movements are attempted, they are often not properly executed. This highlights a lack of proper training at home stations. Mix- ing mounted and dismounted movements and planning into training before deployment will help Soldiers become more comfortable in a wider variety of mission sets on the battle- feld. Assigned and Guest Military police observers-coaches trainers (OCTs) at JRTC are in short supply since manning is still based on a brigade special troops battalion model rather than on the pairing of a military police company to a BCT when it de- ploys. Because the brigade special troops battalion model contained only a single platoon of military police Soldiers, only fve OCTs were needed at JRTC. This meant that the training could be facilitated using an experienced platoon leader, a platoon sergeant, and three squad leaders. JRTC is currently authorized only one commissioned offcer and three NCO OCTs for military police companies. This legacy authorization is insuffcient to support an entire company deployment to JRTC. A company element needs four com- missioned offcer and 13 NCO OCTs to properly cover the movements of a military police company down to the squad level. Serving as a guest OCT is a great way to develop and learn while not actively participating in an exercise. Sending leaders from units that will participate in a later rotation will give them a good idea of how to train troops for a future JRTC rotation. It is important to send high-quality guest OCTs since they will be helping adjacent units and the Military Police Corps as a whole to become stronger. More permanently assigned OCTs are needed to en- sure that military police units receive the realistic, rigor- ous, and relevant training they deserve. Offcer and NCO OCTs should be deliberately appointed with quality in mind. While the current authorization of two provost OCTs is suf- fcient, an additional 11 company OCTs would ensure proper training support. This would also relieve operational units of most of the burden of losing Soldiers to serve as guest OCTs, while preserving the opportunity to send their best Soldiers as guest OCTs to learn the latest institutional and doctrinal training and then return to share their knowledge with their units. The following PMO table of distribution and allowances would not change under the proposal: • One captain (commanding offcer OCT—post-command assignment). • One frst sergeant (frst sergeant OCT—post-frst ser- geant assignment). • One captain (platoon leader OCT—post-Captain's Career Course—1-year assignment while awaiting command at a follow-on assignment). • Two sergeants frst class (platoon sergeant OCTs— post-platoon sergeant assignments). • Seven staff sergeants (squad leader OCTs—post-squad leader assignments). A brigade provost sergeant (MOS 31E) (right) teaches a class on detainee collection point operations to military police Soldiers (left) tasked to conduct detainee operations.

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