My old CSM, (CSM Dave B. Ret.), sent me a whole shoe box of old pictures from our Army days together. I spent an afternoon going thru them, and stopped when I came across this one. This is one of those pictures that unlocked my memory bank and flooded me with story after story.
Below is a picture of the MP battalion I had the privilege of commanding for 4 years (1994-1998). Due to the perspective of the picture, you don't see the whole battalion, but if my memory serves me well, there could have been about 425-450 troops in this formation (The battalion consisted of the Headquarters Company and 3 subordinate companies.). During my command time, we were required to go maintain our "present for duty" strength at 125% of authorized strength. That's a lot of military word salad meaning we had a whole lot of people in our units. Most other units in the MP Corps were hanging tough at 100-125 Soldiers.
Maintaining those strength levels was quite a challenge. The command staff did a terrific job of supervising all of the "stuff" needed to field a unit of this size. We also had some of the best NCOs whose job it was to train the Soldiers, maintain acceptable logistical levels, feed and pay them. Training was always my number 1 job and I often got in trouble with my superiors who thought there were other priorities that needed more attention. It all worked out. Our subordinate companies were also top notch. I'm sure others may take exception to this, but I don't know if there was a better collection of officers and NCOs, civilian techs and full-time AGRs in the USAR.
During those 4 years, there were some unbelievable stories generated and we had some "unique" characters in the battalion. We had great fun at our Dinings-Out and family days, and our Muta-5s and Muta-6s in the field were outstanding (even the ones in blinding snow storms).
Well, so much for that. I think there will be some other stories in that old shoe box and I can hardly wait to see what the CSM sent me.
Not all brothers and sisters are born of the same mother.
Hooah
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