Courtesy Photo | With matching serial numbers, a DD form 2258 and a lock are placed on each mobile...... read more read more
Pfc. Joshua R. Ford
MNC-I PAO
Camp Victory, Iraq -- Last year $170 billion worth of U.S. crops were destroyed due to foreign insects, bacteria and diseases found in the soil.
How did these foreign species get to the U.S.? The answer could be that someone decided to stow away a souvenir and bring it back home. That's one of the many reasons why there's a customs office.
Customs is a serious process to ensure a safe redeployment, the safety of U.S. citizens and to protect the U.S. by not letting in foreign species, said 1st Lt. Ross M. Kurtz, Multi--National Corps - Iraq Provost Marshall Office's law and order officer-in-charge.
"Customs monitor what an individual can or can't take back to their original location from Iraq," Kurtz said.
Units must schedule customs inspections and be inspected before redeploying.
The inspection request is then tasked to a Military Police brigade in the requesting unit's area of operation, said Sgt. 1st Class Scott Lease, Customs Program Manager 313th Military Police Brigade.
Before MPs start the process, the requesting unit's command should perform a pre-inspection. This makes the process shorter and easier for both the unit being searched and the MPs, Kurtz added.
When the MPs arrive, they brief the outgoing unit on what they can and can't take back. The unit then has the opportunity to ask questions and is given a 15-minute amnesty period before the search, Lease said.
"During the amnesty period, people are allowed to go through their belongings and take any questionable or illegal items to the amnesty point," Lease added.
Some of the illegal items on the list include firearms, switch blades, explosives, controlled substances, artifacts, soil and counterfeit currency.
"Chain of commands have been 'squaring away" their units prior to us inspecting them, so we really don't have a problem with finding illegal items," added Lease.
After the briefing and the amnesty period, a K-9 unit and MPs inspect the outgoing baggage and equipment to make sure that nobody has hidden any illegal items and that all equipment and personal belongings are free of dirt, mud and sand, said Kurtz.
After the inspection, the equipment is blocked and sealed, Lease said.
Blocking a mobile storage unit makes sure that items don't shift during the ride home, Lease said.
Sealing is the final step. During this step an MP places a signed form on the inside and outside of the storage unit and a lock on each door.
If the serial number on the forms and the locks don't match when they get back to the U.S., the mobile storage unit will be shipped back to where it came from and inspected again.
"Once we look at it and it's in the blocked and sealed mobile storage unit that's it. It's sealed and we're shipping it," said Sgt. 1st Class Carl N. Church, 313th Customs Inspection Non commissioned officer-in- charge.
"The length of this process depends on how many people, how much equipment they are redeploying with and if the unit was pre-inspected," Lease said.
"The biggest inspection so far required us to search 21 mobile storage units with 15 people, and it took five hours," said Church.
Military police are not the only ones who can become certified customs inspectors. Almost anyone with certain rank and in certain units can become a certified customs inspector, said Kurtz.
Customs inspectors cannot inspect their own companies because it creates a conflict of interest, said Kurtz.
Colonel Arnaldo Claudio, Multi--National Corps - Iraq Provost marshal, has made customs a high priority, both to keep service members and civilians safe and get inspections done in Iraq rather than Kuwait.
"We are not doing this to get people in trouble. We are doing this to follow General Order 1A and ensure the safety of others," Kurtz said.
An XVIII Airborne Corps asset may schedule an inspection by contacting the XVIII Airborne Corps Law and Order Office at (318) 822- 1635.
| Date Taken: | 10.16.2005 |
| Date Posted: | 10.16.2005 15:21 |
| Story ID: | 3363 |
| Location: | CAMP VICTORY, IQ |
| Web Views: | 88 |
| Downloads: | 16 |
This work, Customs helps ensure safe redeployment, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
