The Brickyard...

I would say that if a polling company were to survey Americans across the country as to what the role of the Army Military Police is in the scope of today's national defense, most of them might say "They are cops."   There might be some who, if they have been paying attention would say "They run the military jails."  And there might also be some who know they run the Enemy Prisoner of War Camps.  But I doubt that many would know much if anything about their combat support role as "Light Infantry" kinds of troops.  Now I don't want my combat arms friends thinking that I'm saying MPs are on a level playing field with them in terms of missions and roles.  But I am saying, the role of the MP has changed.  They are not our father's MPs any more.

One of the things we started doing back in the early 80s was taking on a combat multiplier role, thus the Army started to designate certain units as "CS" units.  This changed their role and training.  They began to learn more and more combat skills, field survival skills, and things like "calling for fire," "dismounted land navigation," and "movement to contact (mounted and dismounted)."

One of our favorite exercises was what we called "The Brickyard."  It was an abandoned brickmaking plant which we got permission to use for training.  The mission was to sweep the area, clear the buildings and secure the site for future operations.  There were lots of interesting aspects to this training, including insertion into the area via helicopter (see below).

The troops spent a great deal of time learning these tactics, drawing up and rehearsing their plans, conducting squad and platoon drills, learning and executing leader drills, and so on.  This consumed the better part of a three-month training window, and when the actual week came to carry-out the exercise, so did the freezing temps and snow. 

This was one of the leader briefings prior to the troops departing the rally point.

Here the troops were getting one last bit of warmth.  They had just finished doing a weapons and ammo check.

They are now off to the objective.

The "point man" (left) has moved into position to get a quick look at the objective.  The other picture shows some of the assault team moving into position via an abandoned garage.  This team moved around the kiln shown here and another team moved and mirrored them down the other side of the brick kilns.  The outside perimeter guards provided security and a snatch team for any bad guys who might try to get in or out. 

The pictures below show the bad guys who were playing the role of OPFOR (Opposing Forces).  They were local residents, former military and some local law enforcement officers.  We also had some of our guys and Soldiers from other units who were not busy at this time along to help out.

All in all, this kind of training was very productive and probably a little ahead of it's time for MPs.  But it proved very beneficial when these same kinds of troops went to Kuwait, and to Iraq and Afghanistan later on.  The MP Corps decided to put a lot of money and time into this kind of training for it's Combat Support units and built a wide array of urban terrain/mock villages at various posts.

On a personal note, once we had secured the site we spent the night there.  This was down in a valley out in a very remote location.  I think I mentioned snow earlier -- well we traveled light into this mission and really didn't have much in the way of cover, or blankets, etc.  This was the absolute coldest night I ever spent in the field.  All of us were wet, the wind picked up and it got really, really cold.  Even the chopper ride back to the base was cold.


People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf. - George Orwell

Hooah