10th Military Police Battalion (Provisional)
"Mountain Guardians"
The 10th Military Police Battalion was formed on 1 May 1990 to provide a provisional command and control headquarters for 3 Military Police Companies and the Fort Drum Provost Marshal Office. The soldiers and civilians serving the 10th Military Police Battalion provided multilateral support to the 10th Mountain Division and Fort Drum. They subsequently saw service in the Sinai, Desert Storm, Panama, Somalia, Florida, Haiti and Bosnia. The 10th Military Police Battalion was comprised of the 177th Military Police Detachment, the 511th Military Police Company, and the 10th Military Police Company.
The Headquarters element traced it lineage back to the inception of Pine Camp and could most likely tie itself to the 68th Military Police Detachment, which was activated in February 1975. The 68th Military Police Detachment evolved into the Law Enforcement Activity as Camp Drum grew into Fort Drum.
On 20 October 2005 the Provisional Battalion was inactivated and the 91st Military Police Battalion, 10th Sustainment Brigade was activated. 511th Military Police Company became part of the 91st Military Police Battalion. The 10th Military Police Company and 177th Military Police Detachment were inactivated.
10th Military Police Company
The 10th Military Police Company could trace its connection with the 10th Mountain Division to 27 August 1942 when it was constituted in the Army of the United States as Military Police Platoon, Mountain Training Center. It was activated on 14 September 1942 at Camp Carson, Colorado. The unit was redesignated on 18 June 1948 as the 10th Military Police Company and assigned to the 10th Infantry Division. It was allotted on 25 June 1948 to the Regular Army and activated on 1 July 1948 at Fort Riley, Kansas.
It was deactivated on 1 July 1957 in Germany and relieved from assignment to the 10th Infantry Division (later designated as the 10th Mountain Division). On 1 February 1985 the unit was assigned to the 10th Mountain Division and activated at Fort Drum, New York.
511th Military Police Company
The 511th Military Police Company was a Corp Support Military Police Company. The 511th was constituted on 12 December 1942 in the Army of the United States as the 1125th Military Police Company. The unit was activated on 1 January 1943 at Brookly Field, Alabama and inactivated 25 March 1946 in Japan. The company was then redesigned on 1 November 1970 as the 511th Military Police Company allotted to the Regular Army, and activated at Fort Dix, New Jersey. The 511th moved to Fort Drum in 1989 in support of the 10th Mountain Division (LI).
177th Military Police Detachment
The 177th includes both the headquarters staff and soldiers that supported the Provost Marshall Office. Its mission was to provide 24-hour provost marshal operations, military police and traffic accident investigations, military working dog, and force protection support to the Fort Drun Community; maintains liaison with federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies; support installation contingency operations and FORSCOM directed deployments. It also performed functions as the 10th Military Police Battalion (Provisional Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment.
The history of the 177th Military Police Detachment dates back to 6 April 1966, when it was activated at Fort Riley, Kansas, under authority of General Order 63, Headquarters, Fifth US Army. Major Everett Hayes became the first Commanding Officer. During July 1966, the detachment received orders to deploy to the Republic of Vietnam. Personnel of the 177th Military Police Detachment (Provost Marshall), less the advance party, boarded the ship Weigel on 9 August 1966. On 30 August 1966, the detachment came ashore at Thompson Beach (Red Beach) at 0945 hours and opened operations at 102 Vo Tanh Street, Qui Nhon, RVN.
On 3 September 1966, under General Order 5547, Headquarters, US Army Vietnam (USARV), the 177th Military Police Detachment was assigned to the 89th Military Police Group, APO 96307. The 98th Military Police Group's General Order 39 then attached the detachment to the 504th Military Police Battalion and on 19 October 1966 the detachment began to move from its old location at 102 Vo Tanh Street to the newly renovated PMO/MP station at 9 Mai Xuan Street.
During late 1967, the 504th Military Police Battalion began relocating some of its units. Consequently, C Company support was withdrawn from the 177th Military Police Detachment. To balance this withdrawal, the 93rd Military Police Battalion, on 17 December 1967, placed the 66th Military Police Company in support of the 177th Military Police Detachment (PM). Under the detachments supervision, highway operations on QL 1 and QL 19 were taken by the 66th Military Police Company, while the 127th Military Police Company continued support of Provost Marshall operations in Qui Nhon.
During the Tet Offensive of 1968, the VC attacked Qui Nhon early on the morning of 30 January 1968, capturing the Vietnamese Radio Station, MSS Headquarters, Quan Cahn Station, Railroad Station and part of the Qrirrang Hotel. The 177th Military Police Detachment Compound was located in the middle of the area attacked. Personnel of the unit and other Military Police units were in periodic combat. One attacked Military Policeman was killed and 4 were wounded. At 1830 hours, 3 February 1968, the Military Police Duty Officer, 1LT Dingus Banks, 127th Military Police Company was shot and killed while clearing one of the last remaining VC elements in Qui Nhon.
On 1 December 1968, as the result of the reorganization of the 16th Military Police Group, the 93rd Military Police Battalion expanded their Area of Responsibility to include Pleiku and An Khe. The 177th Military Police Detachment subsequently detached personnel located in Qui Nhon, Pleiku, An Khe, Phu Tai, and Phu Heip, RVN and was inactivated.
The 177th was reactivated in March 1998 in support of the 10th Military Police Battalion and Fort Drum.
