NORTHFIELD, Vermont, March 3, 2018 – The 172nd Law Enforcement Detachment, Garrison Support Command, Vermont National Guard, conducted a culminating exercise that included a military police investigation scenario, a crash investigation scenario, and then an active shooter response scenario at the Vermont National Guard Readiness and Regional Technology Center.
“We basically have been teaching five or six tasks over the last five months and we worked it into a round robin situation so we could actually evaluate the tasks that we had today,” said U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class James Perkins, M-day operations non-commissioned officer, 172nd LED.
This is a shift in training from what the unit focused on in the past. In October the unit was officially stood up as the 172nd LED after separating from the 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Mountain) during the brigade’s reorganization. The unit transferred to the GSC as a state asset.
“The role that we served prior was a combat MP role, which has a completely different mission essential task list (METL),” said 1st Lt. Patrick Slaney, commander, 172nd LED.
After standing up as a law enforcement detachment, the unit began focusing on investigation and special reaction team training. The training is structured so they can meet their new mission essential tasks and fulfill their purpose as law enforcement.
“We would typically be attached to a brigade,” said Slaney. “We would provide support for security for a wartime function and as a peace-time function we provide support as law enforcement.”
The 172nd LED brings in experience from the civilian world that aids the unit in its new law enforcement role by providing them with experienced Soldiers who can support the training.
“We have representatives form three different states for law enforcement. We have state troopers from Vermont and New Hampshire. We have sheriffs, and we have Soldiers that are on tactical teams in their respective departments and municipalities,” said Slaney. “It’s nice to have that outside influence that those Soldiers experience at an everyday basis like best practices and things along those lines.”
Those experienced Soldiers are helping to train the unit and pass on their skills so everyone is ready for annual training (AT) at Fort Drum this summer.
“This year for AT we’re going out to Fort Drum to pair up with the active-duty military police over there,” said Perkins. “This is to get us trained up as much as we can for that mission set.”