Military police re-establish foundation of lethal warrior training

Photo By Staff Sgt. Jessica Forester | A U.S. Army Reserve military police Soldiers with the 302nd Military Police Company, based out of Grand Prairie, Texas, conducts a high crawl under barbed wire while participating in lethal warrior skills training during Operation Blue Shield Aug. 7, 2018, at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin. Operation Blue Shield is a functional exercise, broken down into two-week cycles, centered on squad and team-level training with a focus on internment, resettlement, detainee operations and combat support. During each two-week cycle, Solders train on internment operations, weapons qualification, biometrics, reflexive fire, and Military Operations on Urban Terrain (MOUT). (U.S. Army Reserve photo by Sgt. Jessica Forester)  

FORT MCCOY, WI, UNITED STATES

08.09.2018

Story by Sgt. Jessica Forester 

Exercise News Day

FORT MCCOY, Wis. – U.S. Army Reserve military police Soldiers are participating in lethal warrior training at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, as part of Operation Blue Shield, a 2-week training exercise running through the month of August.

Operation Blue Shield is a functional exercise designed to train, challenge and improve Soldiers’ primary skill sets and core MP competencies. Each year, Operation Blue Shield trains 1,000-1,500 Army Reserve Soldiers.

Pfc. Taylor Bussiere, a military police Soldier with the 302nd Military Police Company, based out of Grand Prairie, Texas, says this is her unit’s second year attending this training and believes these lanes help make America’s Army Reserve a more capable, combat-ready, lethal force.

Soldiers began with training lanes that focused on their basic skills. These lanes were known as lethal warrior training, and they included land navigation, performing tactical voice communications and operating a military single channel radio system, evaluating casualties and performing first aid, and reacting to a chemical or biological attack. The 302nd MP CO. recently completed a gas chamber drill during their monthly battle assembly.

“The reinforcement of the training here, and being able to use that training during battle assembly is very beneficial and will keep us combat-ready,” said Bussiere.

In addition to their lethal warrior tasks, MP soldiers will train on internment and detainee operations, weapons qualification, biometrics as well as reflexive fire, Military Operations on Urban Terrain (MOUT), non-lethal tasers, and MP battle drills.

America’s Army Reserve MPs account for 50 percent of the corrections and detentions personnel in the Army. In comparison, the active component accounts for only 11.7 percent of detainee operations MPs.

“All these individual Soldier tasks and battle drills are a foundation that we’ve lost touch with after years of combat in a non-standard area,” said Lt. Col. Joseph Adamson, commander of the 384th Military Police Battalion, from Fort Wayne, Indiana. “Seeing these (noncommissioned officers) embrace the field craft and share it with other soldiers is really encouraging.”

The 200th Military Police Command trains police Soldiers, leaders and units who can be smoothly incorporated into the total U.S. force composed of the active Army, the U.S. Army Reserve and the National Guard.

Adamson said he looks forward to the confidence his Soldiers develop in their ability to perform their duties both in garrison and in a deployed environment.

“They have to have confidence in their team and in their abilities to move toward that desired end state,” said Adamson. “A lot of Soldiers, when they’re riding home on the bus, they’re 8-feet tall and bullet-proof because they completed more than they thought they could accomplish. They have a sense of purpose and direction.”

• Date Taken: 08.09.2018
• Date Posted: 08.09.2018 13:28
• Story ID: 287965
• Location: FORT MCCOY, WI, US