By Staff Sgt. Benjamin Crane, 133rd public Affairs
Detachment
BAGRAM AIRFIELD – Soldiers from the 1103rd Military Police Detachment
have been performing their military police mission for several months now and
have been finding opportunities to showcase their skill and hard work in
Afghanistan.
The unit’s number one priority while in country according to
leadership is to provide Law Enforcement support to the Bagram and Kandahar communities
as well as assist in Force Protection Measures in support of base defense operations.
“We are currently in
a solid battle rhythm and have moved past the half-way point of this
deployment. We continue to focus our
efforts on training and maintaining a good rapport with our new Romanian MPs,”
said Capt. Christopher J. McGhee, commander of the 1103rd and provost marshal.
“They have been on ground just over a month and our working relationship with them
continues to improve.”
While the Soldiers
are accomplishing their main mission, they are getting the opportunity to work
on their own personal accomplishments according to McGhee.
“We have had many
Soldiers complete or working to complete their professional development courses,
one Soldier in particular has been working to complete his Bachelor’s degree in
Justice and Public Safety Administration and is currently taking his last class
to complete his degree,” he added.
The Detachment has participated in internal exercises
pertinent to improving operations. Daily
L & O classes are conducted with patrols before starting their shifts. The Soldiers
continue to participate in base defense exercises and have had opportunities to
train with other U.S. forces to include the Air Force and Marines as well as
some of the Coalition partners to include the Czechs and the Georgians.
“The Soldiers performed admirably and worked well with the
other First Responders on the installation as well as other Coalition Forces,”
said McGhee. “Our Soldiers also collaborated with another U.S. force to conduct
another Knock and Talk compliance check of that organization’s Soldiers and
contractors. We assisted their teams in
checking ID’s, LOAs (Letters of Operation), and plain sight searches to ensure
everyone was in compliance with installation policies. This is the second time we have worked with
this unit and assisted them in conducting compliance checks.”
Since the unit has been in theatre, they have had two Soldiers
re-enlist into the Kentucky Army National Guard and five Soldiers from the base
participated in the Army Ten Miler shadow run.
“Everyone did a great job and all finished in less than 2
hrs. It was a great event and I was very
proud to see everyone’s effort in completing the race,” said McGhee.
The MPs were recognized in the ASG-A monthly newsletter as
well for their participation in a community service project where U.S. and
Romanian MPs worked together to clean up one of the installation’s smoking areas
that had been neglected for quite some time.
The unit will continue to maintain the standard set by
fellow Kentuckians as they finish out their deployment and show the true
meaning of what it is to “Fight as Kentuckians” really means.