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
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In addition, many women served in Operations Desert
Shield, Desert Storm, and Desert Sabre from 1990 to 1991.
In 1994, women were fnally allowed to serve with ground
combat troops; and they have been doing so ever since. The
frst death of a military policewoman on duty occurred on
26 October 2003; since then, many more women have lost
their lives serving their country.
Today, women make up about 25 percent of the Mili-
tary Police Corps. They are required to meet the same ba-
sic training and advanced individual training standards as
men—with the exception of the Army physical ftness test,
for which there are separate standards. They serve as driv-
ers and gunners, maintaining and carrying their own basic
loads for their assigned weapons. They are assigned M2s,
M4s, M9s, M249s, M240Bs, and MK19s; and they must
maintain qualifcations every 6 months. They are required
to execute the duties of their positions just as any male Sol-
dier would be. And in the feld, they share living quarters
with male Soldiers.
The integration has not been easy. Many of the women
who have been successful in the Military Police Corps have
surely had their fair share of negative experiences as they
made their way through the ranks. It is fair to assume that
this integration was as largely unpopular in its infancy as
the integration of women into ground combat units has been
recently. To this day, some male offcers and enlisted Sol-
diers, regardless of military occupational specialty, do not
believe that women belong in the military at all. In general,
women must consistently try harder than men to receive the
same level of respect within their own military occupational
specialties.
Despite the challenges faced by women in the military,
many women have demonstrated the capability to serve in
ground combat roles—and many of them have been from
the Military Police Corps. For example, Sergeant Leigh Ann
Hester, 617th Military Police Company, received the Silver
Star Medal for her actions during an ambush by anti-Iraqi
fghters while on a supply convoy in 2005. And Specialist
Cristine Gallagher, 64th Military Police Company, was as-
signed to a military police squad that supported an infan-
try company on Combat Outpost Fortress, Kunar Province,
Afghanistan, from 2010 to 2011. There, she participated in
numerous dismounted missions, including Operation Enter-
prise and Operations Strong Eagle I, II, and III (most nota-
bly, the infamous Hornet's Nest), and kept up with the best
of them. She earned so much respect from her squad and the
infantrymen with whom she fought that the infantry offcers
and senior noncommissioned offcers nominated her for the
Combat Infantryman Badge.
This does not mean that all women should serve in
ground combat units; many should not. The Army should
back away from its stance of generally allowing women to
serve in ground combat units to instead allowing women
who can meet the current physical and mental standards to
serve in ground combat units. With the rise in popularity of
modern exercise programs, it is entirely possible that there
are women in the military who have the physical ability to
hang with the men and meet those standards; they just need
to be motivated to do so.
In many cases, the "equal opportunity Army" does not re-
ally provide equal opportunity for women. Women don't al-
ways receive the same level of respect as men when working
with personnel from all-male units. The Army must work on
changing the mind-set of men in the ground combat feld.
Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention train-
ing often exacerbates tenuous relationships by adding the
incident fear factor. It's not that these programs are invalid;
however, good programs can sometimes also have negative
consequences. This just reinforces the idea that women who
attempt to fll these billets must be exceptional, and they
must be willing to prove themselves over and over again.
It has taken more than 70 years for the Army and the
Military Police Corps to integrate women to the point that
they are accepted and have a signifcant potential for suc-
cess. But there is still work to be done. Whether there is
agreement with the policy (or not) and whether there is be-
lief in the capability of women in ground combat roles (or
not), the time is coming for women to fll those roles. Per-
haps, by following the lead of the Military Police Corps, the
ground combat branches of the military will take less time to
accept and integrate women into their ranks.
Anne W. Chapman, "Mixed-Gender Basic Training: The U.S.
Army Experience, 1973–2004," U.S. Army Training and Doc-
trine Command, Fort Monroe, Virginia, 2008, p. 161.
Ronald Craig, "History of Women in the Military Po-
lice Corps," MPRA Quarterly, The Dragoon, Vol. 22, No. 2,
Winter 2011, pp. 36–37,