Gambit
8 January 2004, 00:04
MOS swap to cop
Guard retraining artillerymen to be temporary MPs at home and abroad
By Jane McHugh
Army Times staff writer
Issue Date: January 12, 2004
The National Guard is retraining more than 4,000 troops from other military occupational specialties as temporary military police.
MPs have been in high demand since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. They’re needed to watch detainees from Iraq to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and to provide installation security worldwide. At the same time, they still are needed for other police work.
The demand outstrips supply, and that’s why artillerymen and others are being turned into temporary MPs.
The converted MPs will work one of two roles. Those assigned provisional duty will provide force protection at Army installations in place of regular MPs that are no longer on posts because they are deployed to Operation Iraqi Freedom. And soldiers assigned “in lieu of” status will go to Iraq as MPs.
Col. Frank Grass, chief operations officer for the Army National Guard, said the provisionals will number 2,200 and are in 18 mostly field artillery companies. All but a few companies will revert to field artillery after their deployments, he said.
The provisionals will serve as backfill at installations in the United States, Hawaii and Germany, he said.
Another 2,000 National Guard soldiers from different career fields, including field artillery and air defense artillery, will be retrained as in-lieu-of MPs, destined for Iraq and armed with individual weapons to protect convoys and perform other security tasks, Grass said.
“The goal of the Army is to put them in uparmored Humvees,” he said. They, too, will revert to their original tasks after deployment, he said.
The mobilization of both provisional and in-lieu-of MPs started in November and will continue throughout the calendar year, Grass said.
The retraining “is basically a stop-gap measure until we can get other MP units on the ground,” said Col. James Barrineau, chief of the Army force management directorate at the National Guard Bureau. “Several years ago when the force structure was being planned, there was a different national security situation. Now we’re playing catch-up and doing things we have to do to meet new requirements,” he said.
The MP shortage is being addressed by Army and Defense Department planners who are reorganizing and restructuring the force in light of Operation Iraqi Freedom, said an Army official who requested anonymity. A realignment plan is due out within 60 to 90 days and is likely to “not put so much stress on reserve units to be the first deploying outfits,” he said.
“There is an act of rebalancing going on within the Army right now to make it more of an expeditionary and modular force. And that includes a requirement for more military police,” the official said.
A minority of the Guard’s 82 MP companies have not been activated, Grass said. But at least 30 percent are on their second rotation, he said.
To help meet the demand, the Guard came up with a plan to tap artillery forces, which have not had a significant role in the war on terrorism.
Uniquely, field artillery units already perform MP-type tasks as part of their specialty. They provide their own security, whether moving or stationary, and easily can be trained, Grass said.
Training for the provisional MPs, which will focus on law enforcement on military installations, will take about a month for privates at the Military Police School at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., pared down from the usual 17-week course. The training for leaders is slightly longer, said Brig. Gen. Stephen J. Curry, school commandant.
The first two companies of 250 provisionals graduated Dec. 19, he said. “I think their morale is good. Nobody wants to change MOSs, but these guys understand the situation,” he said.
The first wave of in-lieu-of MPs began one to two months of training at Fort Dix, N.J., on Dec. 30, Guard officials said. They will be instructed on route reconnaissance, crew-served weapons and route security — “nothing new for us,” said Lt. Joseph Ruotolo, spokesman for Battery A (Forward), 1st Battalion, 109th Field Artillery Regiment, one of the first units to report for training.
These Paladin soldiers have been told they’ll serve at Tallil Air Base in Iraq and are glad to get the opportunity to serve in the war, he said.
“A lot of them are asking the question, ‘Why are they picking armor and artillery units to perform security tasks?’ But what we’re being asked to do is something we do anyway,” he said.
The 109th is from Pennsylvania, as are nearly half the in-lieu-of MPs, said Lt. Col. Chris Cleaver, spokesman for the Pennsylvania National Guard.
Another Guard unit from New Jersey, the 3rd Battalion, 112th Field Artillery, is sending soldiers as both in-lieu-of MPs and provisionals, said its battalion commander, Lt. Col. Steven Ferrari.
“For the most part, the reaction is pretty positive. It’s just a fact that MP units all of a sudden have become highly sought. And the force structure on the active Army side just wasn’t there,” he said.
Guard retraining artillerymen to be temporary MPs at home and abroad
By Jane McHugh
Army Times staff writer
Issue Date: January 12, 2004
The National Guard is retraining more than 4,000 troops from other military occupational specialties as temporary military police.
MPs have been in high demand since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. They’re needed to watch detainees from Iraq to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and to provide installation security worldwide. At the same time, they still are needed for other police work.
The demand outstrips supply, and that’s why artillerymen and others are being turned into temporary MPs.
The converted MPs will work one of two roles. Those assigned provisional duty will provide force protection at Army installations in place of regular MPs that are no longer on posts because they are deployed to Operation Iraqi Freedom. And soldiers assigned “in lieu of” status will go to Iraq as MPs.
Col. Frank Grass, chief operations officer for the Army National Guard, said the provisionals will number 2,200 and are in 18 mostly field artillery companies. All but a few companies will revert to field artillery after their deployments, he said.
The provisionals will serve as backfill at installations in the United States, Hawaii and Germany, he said.
Another 2,000 National Guard soldiers from different career fields, including field artillery and air defense artillery, will be retrained as in-lieu-of MPs, destined for Iraq and armed with individual weapons to protect convoys and perform other security tasks, Grass said.
“The goal of the Army is to put them in uparmored Humvees,” he said. They, too, will revert to their original tasks after deployment, he said.
The mobilization of both provisional and in-lieu-of MPs started in November and will continue throughout the calendar year, Grass said.
The retraining “is basically a stop-gap measure until we can get other MP units on the ground,” said Col. James Barrineau, chief of the Army force management directorate at the National Guard Bureau. “Several years ago when the force structure was being planned, there was a different national security situation. Now we’re playing catch-up and doing things we have to do to meet new requirements,” he said.
The MP shortage is being addressed by Army and Defense Department planners who are reorganizing and restructuring the force in light of Operation Iraqi Freedom, said an Army official who requested anonymity. A realignment plan is due out within 60 to 90 days and is likely to “not put so much stress on reserve units to be the first deploying outfits,” he said.
“There is an act of rebalancing going on within the Army right now to make it more of an expeditionary and modular force. And that includes a requirement for more military police,” the official said.
A minority of the Guard’s 82 MP companies have not been activated, Grass said. But at least 30 percent are on their second rotation, he said.
To help meet the demand, the Guard came up with a plan to tap artillery forces, which have not had a significant role in the war on terrorism.
Uniquely, field artillery units already perform MP-type tasks as part of their specialty. They provide their own security, whether moving or stationary, and easily can be trained, Grass said.
Training for the provisional MPs, which will focus on law enforcement on military installations, will take about a month for privates at the Military Police School at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., pared down from the usual 17-week course. The training for leaders is slightly longer, said Brig. Gen. Stephen J. Curry, school commandant.
The first two companies of 250 provisionals graduated Dec. 19, he said. “I think their morale is good. Nobody wants to change MOSs, but these guys understand the situation,” he said.
The first wave of in-lieu-of MPs began one to two months of training at Fort Dix, N.J., on Dec. 30, Guard officials said. They will be instructed on route reconnaissance, crew-served weapons and route security — “nothing new for us,” said Lt. Joseph Ruotolo, spokesman for Battery A (Forward), 1st Battalion, 109th Field Artillery Regiment, one of the first units to report for training.
These Paladin soldiers have been told they’ll serve at Tallil Air Base in Iraq and are glad to get the opportunity to serve in the war, he said.
“A lot of them are asking the question, ‘Why are they picking armor and artillery units to perform security tasks?’ But what we’re being asked to do is something we do anyway,” he said.
The 109th is from Pennsylvania, as are nearly half the in-lieu-of MPs, said Lt. Col. Chris Cleaver, spokesman for the Pennsylvania National Guard.
Another Guard unit from New Jersey, the 3rd Battalion, 112th Field Artillery, is sending soldiers as both in-lieu-of MPs and provisionals, said its battalion commander, Lt. Col. Steven Ferrari.
“For the most part, the reaction is pretty positive. It’s just a fact that MP units all of a sudden have become highly sought. And the force structure on the active Army side just wasn’t there,” he said.