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/567773
31 By Captain Patrick D. Snyder (Retired) I n small-unit deployments, the lives of our most pre- cious assets—the Soldiers under our command—are at risk. To protect them, the U.S. Army Special Opera- tions Command (USASOC) has, over the years, developed a robust antiterrorism program for austere, permissive, and semipermissive operational environments. The antiterror- ism processes, procedures, equipment, and training that are already in place to protect Army Special Operations Forces (ARSOF) can also be used to protect general-purpose units that may be deployed to the same types of operational envi- ronments. As the United States withdraws from Afghanistan, small-unit deployments will become more frequent. Large military formations, such as brigades and divisions, have an inherent level of protection and survival ability based on their size. Smaller units—such as independently operat- ing teams, detachments, and companies—do not enjoy this advantage. The situation becomes even more diffcult when they operate in remote locations without any other U.S. armed forces to provide support or reinforcement. USASOC units face this protection and survival challenge in well over 90 percent of their deployments. On a typical day, USASOC executes 130 missions in 65 countries with small teams and detachments. Often, ARSOF Soldiers are the only U.S. military presence in the country, working with and through partner nations to sup- port mutual goals and objectives to counter threats and achieve regional peace and stability. The protection and antiterrorism challenges involved in the small-unit, world- wide mission environment require a signifcant staff sup- port structure and access to diverse, nonstandard training and specialized equipment. The antiterrorism program at USASOC is based on more than 50 years of experience and is kept current by using lessons learned collected from the teams and detachments. As a consequence, ARSOF has de- veloped practices and procedures that will be valuable to other organizations as deployments continue to morph into smaller operations in more diverse locations. The antiterrorism staff support for deploying teams be- gins at USASOC Headquarters, where the Soldier or civil- ian responsible for issuing the deployment order has gradu- ated from the Antiterrorism Offcer Basic Course–Level II. This ensures that appropriate antiterrorism guidance is factored into every phase of the operation and included in all deployment orders. At each level of command—brigade, regiment, and group—there is a full-time Soldier or civil- ian. This allows the supporting antiterrorism offcer (ATO) to develop the particular expertise to fully support the de- ploying teams. The ATO develops intimate knowledge of the unit area of responsibility, including contacts in the theater special operations commands and on various U.S. embassy staffs. This facilitates gathering threat information and tai- loring predeployment training. The requirement for the full-time ATO is driven by the operational tempo. Regardless of size, every time a unit is deployed, it has to complete the same administrative ac- tions. The task set is the same when deploying groups of four, 12, or 500 Soldiers. ARSOF battalions routinely deploy multiple teams to various countries to conduct specialized missions on separate schedules. There, they will encoun- ter threats unique to those particular operational environ- ments. The workload generated by this deployment schedule would quickly overwhelm a single noncommissioned offcer on additional duty orders as the ATO—which is the normal practice for general-purpose forces. One particularly valuable, but often overlooked, resource is open-source information—current events information from local news media. Classifed information about terror- ist threats is important; however, the threats that are more relevant to a deploying team may include criminals, civil un- rest, or disruptions of the local infrastructure. A riot caused by a clash between striking workers and police can be as deadly as a terrorist bomb. USASOC subscribes to a commer- cial Web-based service; international, no-cost news services; and U.S. government sources to provide up-to-the-minute information to the units. 1, 2, 3 Based on our experience, the "Often, ARSOF Soldiers are the only U.S. military presence in the country, working with and through partner nations to sup- port mutual goals and objectives to coun- ter threats and achieve regional peace and stability." Fall 2015