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V CORPS MILITARY POLICE COMPANY NAMED BEST IN ARMY

V Corps Release

Release Date: 12/31/2003

By Pfc. Lynne M. Steely 18th Military Police Brigade

HEIDELBERG, Germany -- The Army calls them the best military police company of the year, but the soldiers of V Corps' 615th MP Co. say what they do is just second nature.

The 615th, headquartered in Grafenwoehr, Germany, was announced as this year's recipient of the Brig. Gen. Jeremiah P. Holland Award, recognizing them as the most outstanding Military Police Company in the Army for the 2003 fiscal year.

This is the first time the 615th, part of the 793rd MP Battalion of the corps' 18th MP Brigade, has won the award since it was first presented in 1970.

The unit has been deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom since March.

The standards for winning the award are high, and consideration is based on the unit's performance as a whole. Education, weapons qualification, physical fitness scores and unit awards are all used in the determination process.

"Just meeting the standard was not enough," said Sgt. DeLoran Monte' Jackson of the 615th. "We trained hard and worked at it until it became second nature."

The unit has a reenlistment rate of over 150 percent, a 248 Army Physical Fitness Test score average, and a 100 percent weapons qualification rate throughout, encompassing eight different weapon systems. "These are the tools a soldier needs to survive on the battlefield," said Staff Sgt. Rusty Lane of the 615th.

"The unit has done many things that most other MP units would not be able to accomplish," said the 615th's training NCO, Sgt. William Gonzalez. "They've gone from law enforcement to field MPs in less than one week and then deployed with little notification and little or no personal time off. The soldiers in the unit did not complain or lose motivation during the entire time."

Among their long list of accomplishments, the 615th was the first MP unit to arrive at Iraq's Balad Airfield, responding to enemy situations around the base's perimeter and conducting reconnaissance operations outside the perimeter to enhance perimeter defense and locate enemy equipment and locations, said Gonzalez.

Once the unit got to Baghdad, it immediately went to work on reestablishing the city's police stations. They are directly responsible for training and building 17 of the 20 Iraqi Police Stations in western Baghdad. The unit has trained over 500 Iraqi Police officers, and has assisted those officers in the apprehension of several criminals. They continue to assist the IPS with 24-hour reconnaissance and surveillance patrols in the western section of Baghdad.

Aside from building an Iraqi security force, the 615th has sought to stomp out terrorism here. The unit is credited with confiscating the largest weapons cache found to date in Baghdad. Hundreds of criminals and terrorists have been imprisoned or killed as a direct result of police intelligence gathered by the unit and the actions of its soldiers, said Lane.

The unit has been called on several times to assist with task force operations in the Baghdad area.

The 615th has not suffered any major injuries or loss of life during their deployment. Gonzalez attributes this to the intensity and amount of training that the unit has received and continues to conduct.

"The 615th has become a big family," said Gonzalez. "The thing that motivated this company the most is that there is camaraderie and a great sense of pride and esprit de corps in each and every individual assigned to the 615th. All soldiers in this unit have given 100 percent to what they do on a daily basis."

The soldiers work hard, train hard, take their mission seriously and care very deeply for each other, said 615th 1st Sgt. Richard Gardner.

"There is a sense of pride in mission accomplishment and the soldiers of the 615th work hard to make it happen. That's why we're the best," Gardner said.

"What makes the soldiers of the 615th so special is their 'can-do' attitude," said Jackson. "No matter the task or mission given, it was always tackled head-on. We all work as a team and we don't quit until the job is done right.

"From my first day in this unit I have heard it said over and over that the 'Bloodhounds' of the 615th MP Company were the best. Earning this award just acknowledges what we believed to be the truth all along."

Brig. Gen. Jeremiah P. Holland founded the award after his retirement as an MP officer in 1969 to inspire professionalism and pride in active Army military police units