Bastogne Soldiers learn forensics

Photo By Sgt. Richard Daniels Jr. | Sgt. Jose Velez, alpha company, 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, dusts for finger prints during a Forensic Material Collection and Exploitation Course scenario at Fort Campbell, Ky., March 11. Each scene held new challenges for the Bastogne Soldiers preparing them for their upcoming deployment to Afghanistan.  

FORT CAMPBELL, KENTUCKY, UNITED STATES

03.11.2010

Story by Spc. Richard Daniels Jr. 

1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (AA) Public Affairs

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. - Soldiers of the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division received forensics training at Fort Campbell, Ky., from members of the United States Army Military Police School March 11 in preparation for their deployment to Afghanistan.

Qualified Soldiers from each battalion were selected for the 40 hour block of instruction where they learned the same skills police use to identify and capture criminals.

"The Forensic Material Collection and Exploitation Course is run by the U.S. Army Military Police School," said Kenneth Morse, senior analyst. "It provides training to military policemen as well as other military occupation specialties and commands who have an interest in tactical and forensic site exploitation."

Bastogne Soldiers attending the course received a mission of finding a missing Soldier. In total, they received 13 scenarios, each containing clues linking to the missing Soldier. One event featured a building holding a dark secret.

The basement was a torture chamber on the last mission, said Pvt. 2nd Class Patrick Spoon. "It was the bleak chapter of what was going to be a multiday mission in search of the missing Soldier. It's good to see all the individual tasks that we are on come together very cohesively. Teams come together as the days go and start to build a lot of cohesion."

Collecting finger prints, gathering blood samples, interviewing subjects, and collecting potential clues are just some of the techniques taught to the Soldiers.

"This will help us catch the bad guys", sad Spc. Eric Braman, HHC, 1st Special Troops Battalion, MP platoon. "We find out who is doing what, our areas of operation and where they are at. This will help out other unit that are looking for somebody and we end up capturing them because of our evidence," said Braman.

The instructors understood that idle Soldiers invite more and deadlier attacks down range. So they modified the course to teach Soldiers not only gather all the information, but to do it within a 15 minute timeframe.

"You got to be fast," said Sgt. Shawn Lee, 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, squad leader. "[You] can't be on the scene for too long, if you linger there all day, you're setting yourself up for an ambush."

To accomplish this, Soldiers needed to learn every role of a forensics team and how to utilize their members effectively.

In some of the team events, we had to process rooms and adopted different roles, said Lee. We didn't just learn how to do it; we learned to interact with other members of the team and with forces from other countries.

"It's a very good experience, always working with Soldiers or anyone who is interested in learning something this valuable in theatre to save war fighters' lives. I believe it is a very important skill set and [they can] put it to use in the civilian world, in law enforcement. It works capturing criminals and it works consistently capturing bad guys in theatre.

• Date Taken: 03.11.2010
• Date Posted: 03.16.2010 20:10
• Story ID: 46775
• Location: FORT CAMPBELL, KENTUCKY, US