Photo By Staff Sgt. Angela Parady | The Maine State Police were called in to assist during an exercise as part of the...... read more read more
BANGOR, Maine - The Maine State Police were called in to assist during an exercise as part of the Maine Army National Guard’s 488th Military Police Company’s annual training. The event was based on the idea of a botched terrorist plan to bring chaos to the city of Portland. National Guard troops were called in to secure important sites, such as the power plant on Cousin’s Island, and the Portland Water District.
The exercise helped the members of the 488th who returned from Afghanistan last year find their role in assisting state level emergencies again.
As the military focuses less on overseas conflict engagement, and National Guard units are redirected to their primary missions, it will be important for these men and women to understand where they fit in, said Spc. Cory Charpentier, a military policeman in the 488th Military Police Company.
On Cousin’s Island, the military police were tasked with maintaining a secure site, and performing vehicle checks on cars entering and departing. The National Guard was already in place and assisting the Yarmouth Police when the reports came in saying that explosives may have been placed by a fictional terrorist group. As they began their search of the area, they called the state police.
Charpentier, who lives in Monmouth, said that training like this is important to build camaraderie between agencies in the event of a future incident. It also reminds the soldiers of their role supporting law enforcement in times of serious incident here in the states.
“I think that the more we do this, working with local law enforcement, the easier I think it will be to separate our combat mission from our civilian law enforcement mission,” he said.
“If something really serious happens, we all jump together,” he said. “I am very confident that we can be successful working with local enforcement in the future, and to help back up local law enforcement to assist when they have expended all of their resources.”
Shane Northrup, a trooper in the Maine State Police, said that he and his canine, Preston, responded to the call of an explosives threat at the power facility. There, the team searched the entire outer perimeter and key strategic locations within the facility.
“Working with the Guard guys, it’s fun,” he said. “You get to meet people from all over the state. Its also a necessity. Working together is a huge asset for us. What took place here today would require half our department to respond to, which just isn’t feasible for normal situations. Without the National Guard, we would not have been able to do half of what we did.”
He continued, “A lot of times we wouldn’t be able to accomplish a mission because we physically do not have enough people."
Northrup said that the exercise helped get everyone to understand one another. He said seeing familiar faces at the different training events help develop working relationships.
“Just being here today, just understanding a lot of the lingo, the jargon that the military uses, versus what we use in law enforcement, was helpful,” he said. “By the end of the exercise I had picked up enough so that I understood everything being said.”
Charpentier followed up, saying that during the exercise the different agencies all worked very well together.
“We showed them how military police work; they showed us how they work. It was good to bounce ideas off each other, come up with plan, so if something does happen, we have an idea of what we want to do."
| Date Taken: | 06.24.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 06.24.2014 10:14 |
| Story ID: | 134186 |
| Location: | BANGOR, ME, US |
| Hometown: | MONMOUTH, ME, US |
| Hometown: | WESTBROOK, ME, US |
| Web Views: | 448 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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