Deployments at record pace

Military Police,  April, 2005  by Brian C. Sankey

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The Global War on Terrorism and current military operations in Iraq have required an unprecedented level of operational deployments across the breadth of the Military Police Corps, both Active Army and Army Reserve. The Criminal Investigation Division Command (CIDC) is sharing that burden along with the rest of the Military Police Corps, as the soldiers of the 1001st Military Police Battalion (CID) can attest.

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In August 2004, the CIDC was gearing up to support Operation Iraqi Freedom and had several hurdles to negotiate. One of those hurdles was to train and deploy two detachments to replace those already in the combat zone. Typical CID detachments are geographically separated from the battalion headquarters and are often dispersed throughout a given area of responsibility. This alone can result in command and control challenges when organizing, resourcing, and conducting training. When the 1001st Military Police Battalion (CID) was ordered to receive and assemble 2 independent, multicomponent units composed of soldiers from 15 parent units from all over the globe, these challenges increased dramatically.

To accomplish the mission, the CID turned to the 6th Military Police Group. The mission began with an order from the 6th Military Police Group to the 1001st Military Police Battalion (CID) to provide an Active Army detachment headquarters--the 48th Military Police Detachment (CID) from Fort Carson, Colorado--and a nucleus of eight soldiers. To round out that detachment, additional agents and support soldiers were needed from Fort Sill, Oklahoma: Fort Leavenworth and Fort Riley, Kansas: Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri; and Fort Carson. The battalion was also tasked to receive and integrate 12 additional soldiers from Hawaii; Korea; Fort Huachuca, Arizona: and Fort Lewis, Washington, and to coordinate with the Army Reserves for the arrival of the 380th Military Police Detachment (CID). The additional Army Reserve soldiers needed to round out the 380th Military Police Detachment (CID) were just as widely dispersed, with individuals coming from two Regional Readiness Commands and four subordinate units.

Several staffs, including those of the Fifth Army, the US Army CIDC, and others, coordinated to assemble and build these two units. Assembly of the two units at Fort Riley occurred after some home station training on individual tasks such as Warrior Task Training, driver training, combat lifesaver training, and individual weapons qualification. In late November 2004, all 40 soldiers descended on Fort Riley to prepare in earnest for Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Training at Fort Riley for deploying Army Reserve units is routinely handled through the 648th Area Support Group and the 3d Brigade, 75th Training Support Division. Tapping into the existing force projection abilities of these organizations and of the Fort Riley community, the 1001st Military Police Battalion (CID) supervised the training of Active Army and Reserve Component soldiers, focusing on CID-specific training for theater operations. The battalion also coordinated the transport of unit equipment and personnel while working around the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays for the deploying soldiers, instructors, and staff. The training was compressed into 25 days between those holidays, with continuous training and deployment preparation to meet theater requirements. By design, all of the soldiers got a week of holiday leave in anticipation of an early January deployment.

Training highlights included interservice training conducted by members of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations from Wichita, Kansas, and San Antonio, Texas: CID mission-essential task list training: weapons qualification base defense operations: military operations on urbanized terrain: convoy operations; and a unit live-fire exercise. Both detachments were validated for deployment by their respective headquarters while training on all of Central Command's required tasks for units, soldiers, and leaders.

The commander of the 1001st Military Police Battalion (CID) said of the effort of the deploying soldiers, trainers, and battalion staff, "In a nutshell, we took 40 individuals from almost as many units, brought them together for certification and deployment, and launched them as two cohesive, trained, and combat-ready (multicomponent) CID detachments in less than 30 days. What these soldiers and the battalion accomplished in that time is nothing short of remarkable."

The executive officer of the 380th Military Police Detachment, a Vietnam veteran and retired police officer, said there was a big difference in the training he got at Fort Riley compared to the training he got before going to Vietnam. "Back then, I got out of advanced individual training and had my orders cut immediately for Vietnam. The training that we are going through now directly relates to the situations we may find ourselves in (in) Iraq."

The two units successfully certified and deployed in early January. They will provide general criminal investigative support throughout Kuwait and Iraq, operating in some of the toughest environments in the theater. They will be responsible for all types of criminal investigations, from drug offenses to personal security operations to responding to terrorist attacks like the one that took the lives of 13 soldiers in Mosul, Iraq, in December 2004. CID soldiers continue to work side by side with the rest of the Army and the Military Police Corps, sharing the same risks daily. What began as 40 individual Active Army and Army Reserve CID soldiers from numerous locations around the world evolved into two cohesive CID detachments capable of "doing what has to be done" in the Iraqi theater of operations.