In the fall of 1990, units began to gear-up for a war with Iraq. This would be a war that included a call-up of Reserve MP units, units that would be doing everything from front-line fighting to securing the hundreds of thousands of Enemy Prisoners of War, to Combat Support to Combat Service Support duties. Almost every Army Reserve MP unit in the inventory was alerted, mobilized and deployed. That period in the fall of 1990 was very interesting for many Soldiers, male and female, some of whom never thought they would ever hear a shot fired in anger.
At that time, I was quickly transfered from being the Battalion S-3 of an MP battalion to being a company commander of an MP (CS) unit. Some deployments followed doctrine and saw the units assigned to do their regular jobs in war. However, lots of units were just thrown against the wall to serve where the Army needed them. Thus the assignment for the 447th MP Co. This unit had been in the desert before and our leadership
just assumed we would be there shortly. However, that was not to be the case and the unit ended up in Germany, backfilling VII Corps who pulled several of its MP units out of Germany when the Corps deployed. That left a gaping hole in the security posture at the various bases where families still lived. About 2 weeks prior to Christmas, the 447th, along with 2 USARNG units -- from California and Missouri -- arrived in Germany. When I think of Germany at Christmas I usually think of lots of snow. Well, that's exactly what happened. It started snowing the instant our plane touched down and didn't stop for a while. The Germans blamed those crazy Ohioans for bringing all that snow. It was more than they had had for quite some time. One thing that quickly impressed us was learning to drive on mountain roads covered with black ice.Because the battalion that had command and control for this area lost 5 units when the Corps left and only got 3 units as backfill, our mission was a rather large one. We had law and order and base security responsibilities for two US facilities (Pirmasens and Zweibrucken), we had port security operations in Bremmerhaven, and rail operations security
for ammunition trains which went from Germany to the ports for shipments to the war. The company HQ was stationed in Pirmasens and I got to see all of my troops about once a month. I was on the road quite a bit. Part of my own patrol area took me to the border of Germany and France. When I would drive there on weekends, sometimes in civilian clothes because of where we were, I would often take things like milk and bread to some of the older civilians who lived there and were unable to get out in the snow. Our charge by the commanding CG for that area was to physically see every US dependent every single day to ensure they were OK. Not all of them lived on bases and lots of the retired folks lived out in German villages spread all over the place. We got to know them quite well. Sometimes they would even invite us to stay for a sandwich. A lot of times when I was driving through the mountains I would ask myself things like ... who traveled this road before me ... what US troops might have fought on this ground before ... might Roman legions have traveled this ground long ago.Especially after the shooting was ended in
Kuwait, we would have some time to get out and look 
at the rest of the country. I particularly enjoyed looking at all the old ruins of the castles in the southwestern part of Germany. I found it fascinating how they used terrain and outposts to establish defenses in layers and supported the security of the main castle. In the spring of '91, I would gather the First Sergeant, my platoon leaders and platoon sergeants and operations cell and we would travel to the castles and look at these buildings from a military strategy position, kind of a leader development session. These sessions really proved useful for equating doctrine from books to reality on the ground, reality that stood the test of
time against numerous enemies.I developed some strong friendships
with that deployment. I remember the day we left and boarded the bus to go to the airport. As with all commanders, I had spent almost all my time looking after my troops' preparations and making sure their families knew their Soldier was in good hands. So much so, that some of my NCOs thought I might have neglected my own family's needs. I remember one of my platoon sergeants, SFC Mike Roller, telling my wife as we boarded that bus, "Don't worry, M'am. He's spent all his time taking care of us. Now we'll take care of him." I'm not sure I knew then all that I was getting in to, but I guessed this was one of those carpe diem moments in life and I was going to do my best. But as Churchill once said, "Sometimes it is not enough to do our best; we must do what is required."“Courage is being scared to death—and saddling up anyway.” (John Wayne)
Hooah
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