Multitasking MPs

Photo By Sgt. Brittany Johnson | Spc. Ben Chambers with Headquarters Company, Special Troops Battalion, 155th Armored Brigade Combat Team searches a detainee for contraband on during the Multi-echelon Brigade Training exercise June 10, 2016 at Fort Hood, Texas. A MiBT is a multicomponent training event that sustains readiness of reserve and active components in accordance wit the U.S. Army’s total force policy. (Mississippi National Guard photo by Sgt. Brittany Johnson, 155th Armored Brigade Combat Team Public Affairs/released)  

FORT HOOD, TEXAS, UNITED STATES

06.10.2016

Story by Spc. Brittany Johnson 

155th Armored Brigade Combat Team

The MP Soldiers perform various duties while participating in a multicomponent training event that sustains readiness of reserve and active components in accordance with the U.S. Army’s Total Force policy, and helps prepare the soldiers for a rotation to the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif. in 2017.
“We have several different tasks that we are responsible for,” said Sgt. Vicky Erkhart, a MP with 155 BSTB.
“We’re doing a portion of FOB (Forward Operating Base) security, but at the same time we’re maintaining MP work by dealing with detainees,” said Spc. John Griggs, an MP with 155 BSTB.
Not only are they balancing several of their Mission Essential Tasks at the same time, but they are also in an unfamiliar environment.
“It’s helping a lot to do this training away from home,” said Griggs. “It gets us out of our comfort zone and challenges us in more ways than one.”
Fort Hood is vastly different training area than what they are use to at Camp Shelby, and training in a different environment helps to expand all of their abilities, such as map reading and land navigation, said Erkhart.
Whether they are securing detainees, provide security or conduct reconnaissance an MP’s job rarely dull.
The 155 BSTB along with additional members of the 155th Armored Brigade Combat Team and other units of the Mississippi National Guard, active Army, and U.S. Army Reserve, are participating in a Multi-echelon Brigade Training Exercise June 3-24, 2016.
They will continue training throughout the rest of the year and into the next in anticipation of their rotation at the NTC to stay vigilant for future missions.

• Date Taken: 06.10.2016
• Date Posted: 06.11.2016 21:25
• Story ID: 200735
• Location: FORT HOOD, TEXAS, US