Photo By Amabilia Payen | Stepping on the scale to be weighed, soldiers with the 747th Military Police Company,...... read more read more
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FORT BLISS, Texas - The 747th Military Police Company from the Massachusetts National Guard deployed from the Arrival/Departure Air Control Group to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, March 20, to conduct detainee operations at Gitmo. A few members of the Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 211th MP Battalion, also deployed with 747th MP Company.
All members of this deployment spent nearly a month, here, training on detainee operations and focusing on soldier resiliency. According to Lt. Col. Margaret White, assigned to HHC, 211th MP Bn. and future camp commander for Gitmo, the training that the Directorate of Mobilization and Deployment provided was a solid foundation which will be refined at Gitmo as part of their relief-in-place plan.
“We have a solid plan for that,” said White. “I am very confident that by the time we are done with that, they will have no problems with the requirements of the mission.”
“I think the entire unit is pretty excited to go,” said Capt. Tyler Field, company commander. “It’s definitely good training that we got down here.”
Team leader and citizen soldier, Sgt. Peter Castillo, says civilian employee experience that most of the members of the unit have ties well into the mission at Gitmo.
“The benefit of being a National Guard company is the fact that a lot of us have civilian experience that is somewhat relatable,” said Castillo. “Whether it is civilian law enforcement, police officers, or correction officers, there are a lot of us out here that are civilian law enforcement around the state. I think that the training here helped a lot of us get into that mindset of what we were going to be doing overseas.”
Castillo is a police officer with the Veterans Affairs.
The Gitmo mission, according to White, has different challenges than other deployments.
“It’s an important mission,” said White. “There are other stressors that soldiers will face and that is one of the most important things that we will be focusing on is soldier resiliency.”
White is confident that the soldiers are more than ready for the Gitmo mission and wanted to reassure family members back home that they have nothing to worry about.
“They are excited about providing this contribution to our national security and the leadership will make sure that we take care of them throughout the mission,” said White. “We look forward to seeing you when we come home.”
| Date Taken: | 03.20.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 03.31.2014 16:47 |
| Story ID: | 123370 |
| Location: | FORT BLISS, TEXAS, US |
| Hometown: | WARE, MASSACHUSETTS, US |
| Web Views: | 600 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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