Military Police provide U.S. Customs support in Jordan

AMMAN, JORDAN

09.27.2018

Story by Staff Sgt. Charlotte Reavis 

143d Sustainment Command (Expeditionary)

JOINT TRAINING CENTER, Jordan – Military police companies provide various types of support across the United States Army. The 236th MP Company, based out of San Antonio, Texas, provides U. S. Customs support.
“Our mission here is to help units and personnel who are training in Jordan get back into the United States,” said Staff Sgt. Shannon Owens, the non-commissioned officer-in-charge of the 236th MPs at JTC. “We search their personnel, equipment and vehicles for dirt, contraband and anything that is not allowed to go back to the United States per customs border protection and U. S. Agriculture.”
When units return stateside, they often carry a lot of extra equipment they cannot carry on their individual persons, so they ship that equipment back to their home station a variety of ways. It is the job of the customs team to ensure the personnel and equipment return as clean as possible.
Owens stated they perform different inspections for personnel, connexes and vehicles that must return stateside. If personnel have any kind of excessive amounts of dirt on their person or bags, they must clean it off before they will be allowed on the plane.
“We can do any type of vehicle,” Owens said. “Tanks, Humvees, you name it, we have inspected it. What we are looking for is dirt, grease, fuel levels. They have to be under a quarter of a tank to go back by vessel or strategic air.”
He said they also make sure there are no contraband items such as live or spent ammunition, weapons, drugs or even things like seeds or grass that may disrupt the ecological system in the United States.
“The impact to the mission for us is to help not allowing contraband to get back or agricultural things that could offset our environment in the United States: seeds, grasses or ants, infestations, things of that nature,” the Austin, Texas native said.
Owens said the most important thing to know about customs is how you are going to ship your equipment back home and to ensure you contact your customs team at least 120 days before leaving the country.
“We have information that we can send the units, preferably 120 days out and then 90, 60 and 30,” he said. “We send them their customs brief, it explains everything from wash rack procedures to people returning by planes, what information they need, forms and so forth.”
When they go out to inspect units, they do not wear the typical Army uniform. Instead, they wear a blue polo and gray pants.
“This is something we adopted from the last MP Company, 366, out of El Paso, Texas.” Owens said. “It’s something that helps us with the rank structure, so the soldiers cannot identify what rank we are and we can do our job efficiently without rank being involved. It facilitates a smoother transition for us.”
Owens also stated that his small team is unlike any other in the area because they do 100 percent bag and personnel checks themselves, without the assistance of bag scanners. This means that they watch each person take out all the contents of their bags and equipment and go through as much as they can to ensure there is no contraband at all.
He said the biggest thing they are looking for right now is any kind of ammunition or weapon trying to get smuggled back.
“Overall it’s been a nice mission,” he said. “When we have missions, we work, and when we don’t have missions, we are training getting prepared for the next mission.”

• Date Taken: 09.27.2018
• Date Posted: 10.11.2018 08:17
• Story ID: 295980
• Location: AMMAN, JO