Bringing it all together, event culminates training for new Okinawa MP company

Photo By Cpl. Thomas Provost | Jeff Hunt, a Biometrics Automated Toolset system instructor from Marine Air Ground Task Force Integrated Systems Training Center on Camp Hansen, Okinawa, demonstrates how to use a finger print scanner to Marines from Military Police Company, during a class on the BAT system, Dec. 4. The BAT system class was part of the first quarterly culmination exercise MP Co. has conducted since the unit's activation in August.  

12.14.2009

Story by Lance Cpl. Thomas Provost 

III Marine Expeditionary Force   

Marines from Military Police Company, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, III Marine Expeditionary Force, put skills they have sharpened during the past five months to the test during a culminating exercise with unloaded weapons designed to mimic a real-world operation at the Central Training Area near Camp Hansen.

Training started, Dec. 1 and Dec. 4, they learned about the Biometrics Automated Toolset system.

The BAT system is an asset being used by U.S. forces in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Horn of Africa to track and catalog insurgents and individuals of interest.

It collects finger prints, iris scans, facial photos and biographical information of individuals to create one record of them using three recognition tools - a retina scanner, a finger print scanner and a digital camera.

The information is collected is then stored in a database so when a person of interest is scanned into the system, either that individual's record can be accessed or if scanned for the first time, a record on them can be started. The database can be accessed wherever the BAT system is employed, said Capt. James Dollard, commanding officer of MP Co.

The majority of Marines in the company had never handled the BAT system before.
"I'm not a big electronics fan, but it's pretty simple to use," said Lance Cpl. Justin P. Nabors, military police with the company. "Im pretty sure that, down the road in a month or two, if we had to use it, I would be able to use it with proficiency."

It is a lot more difficult for someone to learn the BAT system without proper training and someone to help walk them through the process, said Jeff Hunt, a BAT system instructor from Marine Air Ground Task Force Integrated Systems Training Center on Camp Hansen. It is important for this unit to have this training now rather than in the heat of a combat environment, he added.

The BAT system class was just a small part of the week-long exercise. Patrolling, close quarters battle, counterinsurgency techniques and detention operations, things all units do while deployed in combat zones, were the main focus of the culmination exercise, said Dollard.

The company took everything they had trained for and applied it to a realistic scenario to solidify standard operation procedures and evaluate their operational readiness, said Dollard.

Along with small unit tactics, individual Marines' confidence was also sharpened.
"Lance corporals have stepped up and have been opening their mouths, being more vocal, making command decisions, which are very important. In the event that higher leadership goes down, that lower echelon can step up and take responsibility," said

Cpl. Melvin L. Peyton, a squad leader with 2nd platoon, MP Co. "Over the past five months of establishing and building up this company and with all the training evolutions we have done, I'm totally confident getting tasked with a mission."

Confirmed by the culmination exercise, anything that may come down the pike, whether it is identifying individuals using the BAT system in the Horn of Africa or counterinsurgency operations in Afghanistan, MP Co. is prepared.

• Date Taken: 12.14.2009
• Date Posted: 12.14.2009 02:36
• Story ID: 42712