The history of the Military Police Corp dates back all the way to the revolutionary war when they were a unit of light dragoons established as the Marechaussee Corps 1 June 1778 given the mission of police, as well as prisoner of war duties. During the course of American history their roll would sometimes change as well as unit organization.
Photo of WWI Military Policemen non copyrighted.
A recon patrol of Co A 720th MP Bn moves down a road during operation “Stabilize.” 1-3 April 1968
US Army Photo Sp/4 HawesARMY LINEAGE SERIES
MILITARY POLICE
compiled by
Robert K. Wright, Jr.
CENTER OF MILITARY HISTORY
UNITED STATES ARMY
WASHINGTON, D.C., 1992
Introduction
The Military Police Corps achieved permanent status in the U.S. Army on 26 September 1941, yet its traditions of duty, service, and security date back to the Revolutionary War. Over the last two centuries the military police-or provost marshals as they were called during much of their history-evolved from a group of miscellaneous units and men organized on a temporary basis in time of national emergency to perform a limited range of law and order responsibilities into today's highly organized and trained combat support force. During the 1980s military police units carried out many of the wide-ranging duties they have assumed in the Army, such as fighting in Grenada; guarding the summer Olympics in Seoul, Korea; helping to quell civil disturbances in the Virgin Islands in the aftermath of Hurricane Hugo; and playing an essential role in JUST CAUSE, the Army's operation in Panama in 1989-1990. Based on a tradition of service that stretches back more than two hundred years, military police have come to be recognized as an important element of the Army in both peace and war.
The Military Police Corps traces its beginnings to the formation of a provost unit, the Marechaussee Corps, in the Continental Army.1 Authorized by Congress on 27 May 1778 with a name borrowed from the French term for provost troops, the special unit was assigned by General George Washington to perform those necessary police functions required in camp and in the field. The first American military police unit was organized along the lines of a regular Continental Army company with 1 captain, 4 lieutenants, 1 clerk, 1 quartermaster sergeant, 2 trumpeters, 2 sergeants, 5 corporals, 43 provosts, and 4 executioners. Reflecting the unit's special requirements for speed and equipment, the corps was mounted and accoutered as light dragoons.
Washington appointed Bartholomew Von Heer provost marshal of the Continental Army and commander of the Marechaussee Corps with the rank of captain. Von Heer and his men were expected to patrol the camp and its vicinity in order to detain fugitives and arrest rioters and thieves. During combat the unit was to patrol behind the Army's socalled second line where it would secure the rear by rounding up stragglers and preventing desertions. It also assumed what in later times would be called the "early warning" responsibility, that is, keeping watch against enemy attack from the rear. The Marechaussee Corps also supervised relations with the sutlers, the merchants who supplied the Army, and assumed general responsibility for the collection, security, and movement of prisoners of war. A second, larger military police force, this one organized in 1779 by the Commonwealth of Virginia, administered the prisoner-of-war compound established at Charlottesville to secure the British and German soldiers captured at Saratoga. Although the existence of both units was short-lived-the prisoner guards were disbanded in
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1781; the Marechaussee Corps at the end of the Revolution in 1783- their functions as well as their extraordinary mobility and communications capability established a legacy for the provost units that would follow.
No other military police units were formally organized in the U.S. Army until the outbreak of the Civil War, although commanders during that extended period often detailed certain officers and men to perform similar functions. This method, deemed unsatisfactory in many respects, nevertheless helped maintain order and discipline during the War of 1812, the Mexican War, and frequent clashes with Indian tribes along the frontier.
Increasingly during this period the Army came to assume new responsibilities that called for units capable of extending national security authority along the new nation's frontiers. Serving essentially as military police, federal troops played a vital role throughout the settlement of the trans-Appalachian West. Because of the proximity of Army outposts and the general scarcity of civil law enforcement authority, settlers looked to the military as the primary source of law and order.
Not only were federal units used to police many of the towns and lines of communications along the new American frontier, they also assumed responsibility for quelling some of the civil disturbances which occurred during the period. An important example of federal troops being used in this manner occurred in the summer of 1794 during the so-called Whiskey Rebellion. Faced with a large-scale threat to law and order by farmers in western Pennsylvania who were up in arms against the newly imposed excise tax on whiskey, President Washington ordered the federalization of militia units, which marched in force to the scene of the troubles.2 While not military police in the strict sense of the term, these troops assumed police duties, made numerous arrests, and occupied several counties, performing provost marshal functions that would become standard in the future.
A commander's military police responsibilities received greater recognition in 1821 when the War Department tried, through a series of general regulations, to establish a uniformity of organizations within the Army. Article 58 of these regulations, entitled "General Police," outlined the duties of military police and recommended that commanders select personnel of superior intelligence and physical ability to perform these duties. Significantly, throughout the Army's history these qualities have always been identified as prerequisites for the soldiers selected to perform military police duties. But the regulation made no provision for special training for these provost troops, nor did it order the organization of military police units, maintaining that military police forces would, in usual circumstances, be assigned temporary status within larger military organizations.3
The Civil War created an urgent need for provost marshals and military police units within the federal Army. As early as 18 July 1861, Brig. Gen. Irvin McDowell, the Union Army's first field commander, authorized the commander of each regiment in the Department of Northeastern Virginia to select a commissioned officer as regimental provost marshal along with a permanent guard of ten enlisted men. McDowell was responding to reports of widespread
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marauding in the ranks as his units marched across northern Virginia on the way to Bull Run. He wanted these units assigned the "special and sole duty" of preserving property from depredation and of arresting "all wrong-doers, of whatever regiment or corps they may be." Wrongdoers, he went on to order, "will be reported to headquarters, and the least that will be done to them will be to send them to the Alexandria jail." In those early days of the war, commanders were particularly sensitive to the political implications of interfering with local law enforcement, and McDowell also made it clear that his provosts were not to arrest civilians. His troops were to fight the enemy, "not to judge and punish the unarmed and helpless, however guilty they may be." 4
In the wake of the Union's defeat at Bull Run, the newly appointed commander of the Army of the Potomac, Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, reported "with much regret" that large numbers of soldiers stationed in the vicinity of the capital were in the habit of frequenting the streets and hotels of the city. Calling the practice "eminently prejudicial to good order and military discipline," he appointed Col. Andrew Porter provost marshal of Washington and assigned him the duty of keeping the officers and men in camp unless under special pass. 5 He gave Porter some 1,000 officers and men-all the Regulars in the city, including infantry, cavalry, and artillery units-to suppress gambling, marauding, and looting in the capital area and to intercept stragglers and fugitives from nearby Army units. To carry out its mission, the provost guard was allowed to impose curfews on soldiers, all of whom were obliged to carry passes. Eventually, Porter was also empowered to search citizens, seize weapons and contraband, and make arrests.6 Thus began the gradual extension of the jurisdiction of provost marshals during the Civil War from responsibility for maintaining law and order within the military to include the protection and, to some extent, the control of the civilian population.
Although organized military police units were relatively rare in the Union Army, General McClellan established the Office of Provost Marshal General of the Army of the Potomac and appointed Colonel Porter, lately returned from his duties in Washington, to command the unit. McClellan gave Porter a sizable force to carry out military police functions in his army, including battalions from the 8th and 17th Infantry and the entire 2d Cavalry, as well as several units of Regular artillery. McClellan later enumerated the duties of his provost marshal, which, in addition to those already made familiar by Porter's troops in Washington, included regulation of places of public accommodation and amusement, distribution of passes to civilians for purposes of trade within the lines, and "searches, seizures, and arrests" within the army area.7
Porter coordinated, but did not supervise, the activities of the provost units McClellan was also organizing in the separate divisions of the Army of the Potomac. Following Porter's appointment, McClellan ordered each of his division commanders to organize a provost guard within his command. Serving under a divisional provost marshal, again with an enlisted strength of ten men, these units were primarily responsible for protecting civilian property from the sometimes sticky hands of soldiers on the march as well as all other duties associated with the discipline and orderly activities of the army. They
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also carried on the many collateral duties already made familiar in the Continental Army. They supervised and otherwise inspected the trade between local private merchants and Army units and individual soldiers, and they also assumed certain intelligence responsibilities, collecting and disseminating information on enemy forces.
Rivaling the work of military police in the field, provost marshals also assumed the enormous task of enforcing the nation's first conscription law. When demands for manpower led the Union to abandon its dependence on volunteer enlistments and turn to conscription, Congress created the Office of the Provost Marshal General of the Army on 3 March 1863 and appointed James B. Fry to the position in the rank of colonel of cavalry.8 The new draft law charged the provost marshal general with overseeing the administration and enforcement of military recruitment and conscription along with a number of other quasi-military police duties associated with the war effort. It also empowered Fry to arrest summarily anyone engaged in impeding or avoiding conscription.9
The energetic Fry quickly organized a small army of civilian bureaucrats to supervise the draft calls. To assist him in this and an ever-increasing number of other duties largely unrelated to the draft, the War Department authorized the creation on 28 April 1863 of a new organization, the Invalid Corps (later renamed the Veteran Reserve Corps). Manned by soldiers wounded on the battlefield or weakened by illness and judged unfit for further frontline service, this special force reached a strength of more than 30,000 officers and men by the end of the war. Its units served as provost guards in large cities and towns, escorts for prisoners of war, security guards for railroads, and during the raid on Washington in 1864, they were committed to battle when the enemy penetrated into rear areas.
One of their most important functions remained to guard the many district draft offices established by the provost marshal general to supervise the selection of men under the provisions of the draft act. That legislation proved extremely unpopular and placed the Invalid Corps in a perilous position when massive resistance to conscription spread across the North. Their most notable service came in the valiant but futile effort to preserve order at the outbreak of the riots that shook New York City in July 1863. Few in number, the provost troops were quickly overwhelmed. The riots continued unimpeded until Washington brought in more than 100,000 combat troops, ending what would become the nation's deadliest civil disturbance. 10
Following the pattern set at the end of the Revolutionary War, the Office of Provost Marshal General was discontinued in 1866. In fact, despite the appointment of Brig. Gen. Arthur MacArthur as military governor and provost marshal general of Manila in the Philippines after the War with Spain in 1898, the creation of a permanent military police branch in the Army would not be seriously considered until the latter stages of World War I. Ironically, it was during this period of organizational neglect that the term "military police" first came into vogue in Army circles.
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World War I marked a significant step in the military police's journey toward permanent branch status within the Army. Once again the Army organized units both at the War Department level and in the field to carry out military police duties. Following America's entry into the war in 1917, the War Department appointed Maj. Enoch H. Crowder provost marshal general of the Army. Again the paramount mission of this official and the units placed under his command was to administer a selective service law. In July 1917 General John J. Pershing appointed Lt. Col. Hanson E. Ely as provost marshal general of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) to advise him "on military police and provost marshal matters." And finally, in May 1918, the War Department created yet another military police organization on the Army staff, the Criminal Investigation Division (CID).
Charged with investigating criminal wrongdoing within the service, the CID was organized along the lines of a detective squad similar to those found in any large city police department of the era. Initially the CID consisted of eight companies, each with 5 officers and 100 enlisted men. Its members were selected by the provost marshals in the various army areas from among those soldiers with civilian experience as police detectives, lawyers, and journalists. Its full organizational structure was not established until the last weeks of the war. During 1918 the CID was involved in some 4,500 cases pertaining to the investigation of black market activities, fraudulent passes sold in troop areas, worthless check-cashing operations, mail theft, and theft and illegal sale of government supplies.11
Anticipating the need for military police in the AEF, the War Department approved a divisional table of organization in May 1917 that included authorization of a headquarters and two military police companies, a total of 316 officers and men in each division. Based on this guidance, the AEF organized two military police companies in the 1st Division in July, marking the first use of an organization officially called military police. General Pershing's plan called for placing these companies in the divisional train. Divisional returns of 4 September 1917 listed 95 men in the 1st Division's train headquarters and two military police companies with a strength of 150 and 152 officers and men respectively.12 To supplement the direct support units, a general support military police regiment, the First Army Headquarters Regiment, was formed by converting a French-speaking New Hampshire National Guard infantry organization and filling it out with men with civilian experience as detectives.
During the war the AEF organized military police units in sixty-one separate divisions, but in July 1918 Pershing also received permission to organize military police units in each corps and army with additional separate companies posted to the various sections of the Service of Supply, the Training Depot, and "to tactical units as may be necessary." 13 Ironically, the increase in the number of military police companies resulted in a weakening in the strength of all military police companies in the AEF, because Pershing was forced to cut down on the size and number of divisional military police units in order to provide trained manpower for the new units.14 In the months following the end of hostilities, the AEF could count military police battalions
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in each of its three armies with a fourth battalion attached to the AEF's general headquarters at Chaumont, France.
The AEF's military police performed all those activities made familiar in earlier wars but with some significant additions. A constant concern of senior commanders in this era of massive military units fighting on wide fronts was the control of traffic in the rear areas and prevention of unauthorized individuals from entering the zones of operations. Borrowing a method devised by the French, Brig. Gen. Harry H. Bandholtz, a successor to Ely as the AEF provost marshal general, organized military police units to check all individuals traveling in leave areas, major cities, and examining points in rear Army areas.
World War I also altered the Army's traditional way of administering and caring for prisoners of war. In distinction to most earlier conflicts, where prisoners of war were usually held for short periods of time until exchanges could be effected, World War I created massive numbers of prisoners that had to be confined for long periods. During the ten-month period in which the United States processed foreign troops through its temporary prisoner-of-war camps, escort guard companies of military police handled some 48,000 prisoners. These guard companies were responsible for transporting all prisoners from division cages to a central prisoner-of-war enclosure. Reminiscent of the Civil War, soldiers judged unfit for full combat duty manned these companies.
Although the need for military police was universally recognized and thousands of men were performing military police functions throughout the Army, the pressing need for their services left selection of personnel haphazard and specialized professional training limited. General Bandholtz had established a service school at Autun, France, during the last months of the war that trained and graduated over 4,000 officers and men during its brief existence. Nevertheless, familiar patterns continued to persist. Men, usually with no experience in such duties, were drafted out of military units and thrust into military police organizations where they were expected to learn on the job.
The existence of a formal branch, especially if perpetuated in the peacetime Army, would allow for the systematic selection of personnel based on aptitude and fitness for these duties. It would also lead to a permanent training establishment where men could receive specialized instruction before assignment to regularly organized military police units throughout the Army. Then military police could be expected to have special supervision during a systemized training program before assignment to units. The promises implicit in the formation of such a corps were not to be fulfilled. Although under wartime legislation, Congress finally authorized establishment of a Military Police Corps, it was not unti1 the closing weeks of the war, on 15 October 1918. 15
The new corps was to consist of the Provost Marshal General Department, AEF, all military police units in the AEF, and "additional personnel." The basic organizational unit remained the military police company, which as of October 1918 consisted of 205 officers and men. Equipment for the AEF military police company was listed in the new legislation. Including 50 horses, 6 mules, 1 wagon, 18 motorcycles, and 105 bicycles, it was one of the most mobile organizations in the Army.
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With the cessation of hostilities, the military police in the AEF were made extra busy by the hordes of American GIs who took unauthorized leave to see "Paree" and the other fabled sights of a Europe now at peace. At the time of the Armistice agreement, the strength of the new corps stood at 463 officers and 15,912 men, who were stationed throughout France and with those troops of the Third Army who would participate in the occupation of the Rhineland.
In an effort to preserve the new branch as the Army entered its usual postwar drawdown in strength and also to preserve and document the role played by military police during the war, General Bandholtz requested all division commanders to submit reports concerning military police activities in their areas. Most of these reports strongly endorsed the work of the corps, and subsequently Bandholtz proposed to the War Department that a permanent military police corps be retained in the Regular Army. Citing the inadequacies in assigning nonspecialists to such technically demanding duties, he stressed the obvious point that a permanent corps would ensure the existence of stable and efficient military police units in future emergencies.16
Although Congress rejected the idea of a permanent corps, it did ratify the permanent organization of military police units in the Army in the National Defense Act of 1920. To save spaces in the Regular divisions, Congress combined the headquarters company and military police company. It also organized a Military Police Branch in the Officers' Reserve Corps. In the 1920s military police duties were once again performed by troops drawn from posts, camps, and stations and tactical units, usually on the basis of rosters drawn up by local commanders. Provost marshals existed in the reserve commands but never above the corps area level. Despite its organizational preservation in the severely reduced postwar Army, the military police function was again allowed to drift.
With the outbreak of war in Europe in 1939 the creation of a military police corps became almost a necessity. In conjunction with a rising national concern over possible subversion and the perceived need to control hostile aliens, the Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson appointed Maj. Gen. Allen W. Guillon, the adjutant general of the Army, as acting provost marshal on 31 July 1941. To meet the demands associated with an army mobilizing for war, the War Department also recognized that a centralized authority above the corps level was necessary. On 26 September 1941, the official birthday of the corps, the secretary of war established the Military Police Corps as a permanent branch of the Army.17
The duties of the new branch were published the day the United States declared war.18 The military police became responsible for investigating all crimes and offenses committed by persons "subject to military law within the area under the control of the organization to which they are assigned or attached." The branch was also charged with fighting crime, enforcing all police regulations pertaining to their area, reporting violations of orders "given by them in the proper execution of their duties regardless of the grade or status of the offender," and preventing the commission of acts "which are subversive of discipline or that cast discredit in any way on the
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United States Army." The branch was expected to perform those duties traditionally associated with their specialty controlling the movement of traffic both in the battlefield area as well as in camps, posts, and stations; safeguarding soldiers from violence or accidents; recovering lost, stolen, and abandoned property within the Army; and relieving combat organizations of the custody of prisoners of war and operating the prisoner-of-war system-along with some new military duties, including assisting in destroying hostile airborne troops when combat troops were unavailable or inadequate to the task.
The enforcement of military laws and regulations, the maintenance of order, and the control of traffic remained the most important wartime duties of the military police. But as usual in wartime, the corps was also expected to assume some duties more usually associated with civilian law enforcement. These included protecting designated buildings, public works, and localities of special importance from pillage, sabotage, and damage; supervising and controlling the evacuation and repatriation of civilian populations; assisting in the enforcement of gas defense, passive antiaircraft measures, and blackouts; and performing security investigations and other general measures for security and secrecy.
To perform military police responsibilities in the field, the War Department authorized larger military police units, with the battalion (later in the war it changed to group) prescribed as the largest unit in higher headquarters. It created the position of provost marshal general to serve on the staff of these headquarters to assist the commanders "in the supervision and operation of police matters." Describing it as a wartime measure, the War Department also authorized the appointment of a provost marshal general at each general headquarters or theater of operations and on the staff of all divisions and higher units. In distinction to those serving in the tactical units, these general headquarters officers, with certain exceptions, were assigned to the special staff and exercised no command function over the military police units in the command.
The War Department initially organized three new battalions and four separate companies of military police from already existing assets. It also transferred all officers and enlisted men performing military police duties as well as all units performing such functions to the new corps. As a consequence, by mid-1942 the number of military police units had increased to seventeen battalions organized under the tables of organization. By that time, as the Army was rapidly expanding toward its full wartime strength, military police companies had become increasingly specialized as planning became more sophisticated. Some served exclusively as zone of interior guards, escort guards, and post, camp, and station garrisons. Others focused on duties relating to prisoners of war or in security processing while still another large number of companies became exclusively involved in criminal investigations. The corps, which started with a paltry 2,000 men in 1941, grew to a strength of more than 200,000 during the course of the war.
As a result of the rapid expansion of the military police and the everincreasing need for trained personnel, the corps created the Military Police Service School at the Arlington Cantonment, Fort Myer, Virginia, on 19
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December 1941. The school was similar to the one established in France in 1918 for training military police in the AEF. Its curriculum emphasized internal security and intelligence functions. The Provost Marshal General's School, as it was renamed on 15 January 1942, had four basic departments: Military Law, Traffic Control, Police Methods, and Criminal Investigation. The corps also established a replacement training center and a unit training center. By V-J Day some 40,000 men had processed through the replacement training center.
Based on its experiences during the war and faced with the challenge of a new conflict in Korea, the Department of the Army issued new guidance concerning the responsibilities and organization of the military police in September 1950.19 It redefined the responsibilities of the provost marshals who henceforth would not only advise the commander on policy matters, but directly supervise the operations of the military police of the command.
The Korean War also introduced a new duty for military police. The war witnessed a dramatic increase in black market activities associated with an army fighting in a third world nation. In previous decades control of the black market fell to civil affairs units, but the massiveness of the problem that began to appear in 1951 quickly involved the resources of the military police and, eventually, the corps added control and eradication of black market activities to its list of responsibilities.20 Noting that the destruction caused by military operations and the usual local shortages of supplies in occupied territories created an extensive demand for items such as cigarettes, gasoline, food, weapons, and vehicles, the Department of the Army called on the military police, subject to the Uniform Code of Military justice, to detect and apprehend military personnel and civilians participating in black-marketing.
In ensuing decades America's involvement in Southeast Asia brought about yet another significant expansion in military police responsibilities, underscoring new and varied uses for military police in a war without defined rear areas. In addition to their usual wartime functions, military police units served in a direct combat support role. They provided convoy security, often escorting supplies and equipment through districts subject to direct enemy attack. They controlled traffic throughout the four combat zones where front lines had ceased to exist in the usual sense of the word. They secured highways and bridges against both local subversives and North Vietnamese regulars. They joined combat troops in the hazardous task of locating and destroying enemy tunnels. They supervised the movement of refugees and the control of political detainees in a war where determining friends and enemies could be a deadly decision. Military police also became frontline fighters during the successful effort to repel the North Vietnamese during the Tet offensive in 1968. At one point in the war military police were given exclusive responsibility for a specific tactical area, including responsibility for civic action functions in that area.21
This increase in responsibility was recognized organizationally by the expansion in the number of military police units in Vietnam and by their organization for command and control purposes under a military police brigade.22 The seven military police battalions that served in Vietnam were organized into three military police groups: the 8th performed all criminal
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investigative work in the theater; the 16th provided command and control of all military police units assigned to the I and II tactical zones; the 89th controlled those units in zones III and IV. These units in turn were organized under the 18th Military Police Brigade, the first military police unit of its level to be employed in the Army. The brigade commander also served as provost marshal of the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam.
During 1968 the Army Chief of Staff, acknowledging the Military Police Corps' active involvement in support of military operations in Vietnam, approved changing the branch's identification from combat service support to combat support. This change was clearly justified by the responsibilities assumed by the corps in Vietnam where military police units were organized, trained, and equipped to perform operations in a combat support role. As a combat support branch, the Military Police Corps was placed under the U.S. Army Regimental System in September 1986.23
The experience of Vietnam and the implementation of AirLand Battle doctrine for the battlefield of the future placed further responsibilities upon the military police in recent years. In 1988 the Army redefined and enlarged the branch's battlefield mission as first outlined in the publication of AirLand doctrine in 1986. Army doctrine posited that where in previous wars military police usually performed a rear security role, the battlefield of the future would find the need for protection against rear area threats vastly increased.24 The military police in the rear area must be ready and able for short periods of time to assume a direct combat role. The battle of the future, the new doctrine presupposed, would be fast paced and short in duration. Therefore the military police unit, with its special ability to move and communicate with great speed and with its possession of unusually heavy firepower for such a highly mobile unit, could significantly enhance a commander's combat options. In addition, its versatility in controlling traffic and troop movement would allow commanders to mobilize much more quickly than in the past. In a future when a small force structure would be used in low intensity conflicts worldwide, military police could be expected to play an increasingly important operational role.
The assets that make the Military Police Corps so valuable in contemporary battlefield doctrine are actually quite similar to those possessed by the Marechaussee Corps in the Revolutionary War. While traveling a difficult road to organizational permanence and recognition as an organic element of the Army's fighting team, military police have along the way carefully adapted their mobility and communications capability to a myriad of new duties and responsibilities, leaving the corps ready to assume greater responsibilities and duties in the Army of the future.
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NOTES
1. The following discussion of the military police in the American Revolution is based on Robert K. Wright, Jr., The Continental Army (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1983) , pp. 134, 137, and 161. See also The Corps of Military Police, unpublished study prepared by the Organizational History and Honors Branch (OHB), Center of Military History (CMH), in 1953, and Military Police Corps Regimental History (Fort McClellan, Ala.: U.S. Military Police School, 1987), p. 3, for some of the undocumented information that follows in this introduction.
2. For a recent account of the Whiskey Rebellion that describes the development of this military police function in great detail, see Robert W. Coakley, The Role of Federal Military Forces in Domestic Disorders, 1789-1878 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1988), pp. 28-68.
3. Article 58, General Regulations for the United States Army, 1821.
4. GO 18, Dept of Northeastern Virginia, 18 July 1861, reprinted in The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1880) (hereafter cited as OR), ser. 1, vol. 2, pp. 743-44.
5. GO 2, Division of the Potomac, 30 July 1861, OR, ser. 1, vol. 2, p. 769. See also General Reports no. 1 of Maj Gen George B. McClellan, U.S. Army, of the operations of the Army of the Potomac from 27 July 1861 to 17 March 1862 in OR, ser. 1, vol. 5, p. 30.
6. GO 4, Division of the Potomac, 16 August 1861., OR, ser. 1, vol. 5, pp. 564-65. General McClellan later reported that, thanks to Porter, Washington had become "one of the most quiet cities in the Union." See General Reports no. 1 of Maj Gen George B. McClellan, p. 12.
7. General Reports no. 1 of Maj Gen George B. McClellan, p. 30.
8. War Department Cir, 5 June 1863. See also Final Report Made to the Secretary of War by the Provost Marshal General, 1866, pp. 1-32.
9. 12 U.S. Statutes 731-37.
10. For a recent account of the role of the provost marshal general and the Invalid Corps in the Civil War draft, see Coakley, The Role of Federal Military Forces in Domestic Disorders, pp. 227-67.
11. Memo, PMG, AEF, for Chief of Staff, AEF, 30 Apr 19, reprinted in United States Army in the World War, 1917-1919, 17 vols. (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1942), 15: 313-20. These responsibilities are now carried out under the supervision of the provost marshal general by the Criminal Investigation Command. For a general enumeration of responsibilities, see The Army Almanac (Harrisburg, Pa.: Stackpole Co., 1959), p. 29.
12. "Report on Organization," 10 Jul 17, reprinted in United States Army in the World War, 1: 97 and 118f£ See also TOs (Tables of Organization) 38 to 41, 3 May 17, 8 Aug 17, and 11 Nov 18, reprinted in The Genesis of the American First Army (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1938).
13. New Hampshire Returns, World War I National Guard Induction Records, copy in OHB, CMH. AEF GO 111, 8 Jul 1918. See also TOs, ser. B, Corps Troops, 1 Nov 18, in United States Army in the World War, 1: 331.
14. A.E.F. GO 200, 9 Nov 18.
15. War Department GO 180, 15 Oct 18. See also The Corps of Military Police, unpublished study, OHB, CMH.
16. These reports are reprinted in The United States Army in the World War, 15: 313-44.
17. AGO, AG 320.2 (9-26-41), SAB 26 Sep 41.
18. Field Manual (FM) 29-5, 8 Dec 41, Military Police, pp. 1-8.
19. FM 19-5, 14 Sep 50, Military Police, pp. 1-4 and 110-16.
20. FM 19-5, 17 Jul 59, The Military Policeman.
21. Military police responsibilities as well as the organization of police units in Vietnam are described in detail in Shelby Stanton, Vietnam Order of Battle (Washington: U.S. News and World Report, 1981), pp. 176-78.
22. Table of Organization and Equipment 19-262F, 8 Feb 65.
23. DA GO 22, 30 May 86.
24. FM 19-1, Military Police Support for the AirLand Battle, 1988.
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Guard Mount for members of the 23rd MP Company 1971 in Chu Lai Vietnam after the Americal. The 3rd platoon was gone at this time as LZ bayonet was turned over to the South Vietnamese. The 198th MP's never had this formal look.A mix of Articles that appreared at the time concerning the 23rd MP Company
A very special Thanks To Les Hines My Friend and Americal Division Veterans Association National Historian, who has devoted his life to the History of the Americal Division
Americal Division Magazine - May, 1968
This is the inaugural issue of the Americal Division Magazine. There were only two issues in 1968. This first issue has a different format from the subsequent issues. This issue appears to use 8"x10" paper folded over like a pamphlet. Nearly all the photos are B&W, unlike subsequent issues that had a full 8"x10" size and used a lot of color photos and graphics.
M i l i t a r y P o l i c e m e n E n f o r c e L a w
The 23rd Military Police Company, the law enforcement branch of the Americal Division, was activated December 8, 1967
On April 13, 1967, half of the 148th Platoon of the 18th MP Brigade and half of the 544th Platoon of the 196th Infantry Brigade came to Chu Lai with Task Force Oregon. Under the operational control of the Provost Marshal's office, the platoons became one, eventually to become the 23rd MP Company. Attached to the company are about 55 Marine and Navy personnel. Besides headquarters security, the MP's are responsible for traffic control and security at the connection point where civilian employees enter the compound each day. The MP's have also shown their interest in civil affairs by becoming sponsors of a village school north of Chu Lai. Working closely with the Vietnamese military police, Americal MP's, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Warren J. Lucas, make sure that law enforcement and security continue in the Americal Division.
09Oct70-Southern Cross Vol. 3 No. 38 Page 8 MPs take to the air in new helicopter patrols By SP5 William J. Hayes
CHU LAI (AMERICAL IO) - The Division's 23rd Military Police Company, following the lead of stateside law enforcement agencies, recently began the first helicopter patrols in Vietnam along Highway One in Quang Ngai and Quang Tin Provinces. The MP officer in the LOH isn't just looking for speeding military vehicles. As a pilot from the division's 123rd Aviation Battalion flies the aircraft, the MP can keep an eye open for persons in off-limits areas, spot sale or transfer of contraband goods in villages, or observe and control convoys anywhere between the sandy coastal areas of northern Quang Tin province to the rich rice fields of southern Quang Ngai Province.
The helicopter patrol concept, developed by Lieutenant Colonel Everett I. Perrin, division provost marshal, augments the company's combined and regular patrols along QL-1 through both provinces that make up the Division's area of operation. To check vehicles' speeds along the highway, an MP officer in the observer's seat of the LOH times vehicles with a stopwatch as they pass painted markers a known distance apart. If there is any question of accuracy, or if the violation is a matter of just a few miles per hour, the driver is given the benefit of the doubt.
"Our objective is not to see how many D.R.s we can write up, but rather to get our military drivers to operate their vehicles more slowly and more safely," said Captain Garrett J. Cumpson, deputy provost marshal.
"We've got to get them to slow down," said LTC Perrin. "With areas along the main highway becoming more densely populated, hazards increase right along with the number of persons living there." The secure areas along main lines of communication in the two provinces have become refuges for persons leaving insecure districts further west. Though the number of persons moving in is tapering off, efforts to develop safe villages between the highway and the South China Sea do not yet keep pace with the influx. For the protection of the individual soldier, and to minimize the chances for sales of contraband material, all towns, villages and hamlets of the First Military Region are off limits to personnel who are not assigned to official duty there.
An AWOL or off-limits soldier evading a ground MP patrol can be spotted quickly from the air as he evades down paths, streets or alleys-or even fields and the wooded areas dotting the roadside. If he chooses to lie motionless to avoid detection by the helicopter it is only a matter of minutes before the methodic search pattern of the ground unit turns him up.
With the 23rd MP Company sky patrol, hedgerows and sidestreets are no longer a screen for the illicit activities, and the vehicles along Highway One are slowing down. And slowing right along with them is the accident rate for the more than 90 miles between LZ Baldy in the north to the southern boundary of the First Military Region.
The Americal Division History - published in 1971.
The 23rd Military Police Company was constituted April 3, 1943 as the Military Police Platoon, Americal Division. For its participation in World War II, the unit received three campaign ribbons, one with arrow head. The Platoon was inactivated following the armistice and remained so except for a short period in the mid 1950's. The Americal Division Military Police perform not only the well publicized police functions with which they are usually associated, but also a variety of other essential combat tasks. Specialists in the field of physical security survey units continually advise commanders of their findings. The military policemen provide general security of the division command post and the detaining and processing of enemy suspects. In coordination with local authorities they monitor and suppress black market activities. In the final result, the military policeman is called upon to be a soldier, diplomat, detective and clerk.
17Jun67-MPs, Vietnam Police Seize US Currency
CHU LAI, (196th INF-IO) - Thirtyone Vietnamese were detained and more than $750 in Military Payment Certificates were confiscated when the 196th Light Infantry Brigade's Military Police platoon and Chu Lai area Vietnamese National Police conducted a "Checkmate" operation recently. Military Police from Task Force Oregon, the III Marine Amphibious Force, and personnel from the brigade's 569th Military Intelligence Detachment also participated in the operation, which took place in the hamlet of Diem Pho, near the main gate of the 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry's base camp. The purpose of the Checkmate was to screen the villagers for identification cards and possession of American money, illegal by Vietnamese law, and to check the shops for contraband and black market goods. "The operation was one of the most successful we have had." said Maj. Lincoln F. Brigham, brigade provost marshal who headed the combined forces. Illegal items confiscated included $764 in MPCs, $5 in American greenbacks, 22 cartons of American cigarettes, 19 rolls of 35mm film, 15 boxes of detergent, and ten bottles of American whiskey. Those detained were held for lack of identification cards, selling black market goods, and other violations of Vietnamese law. The job of the MPs in the operations is to assist and advise the National Police, who are the only ones who do the actual checking and searching. The platoon's gun jeeps provide security. The operations are used to intercept the flow of supplies to the VC, stop the operation of black markets, insert more National Police control over areas that have been primarily VC dominated, and identify known VC and draft dodgers.
19Aug67-Cool Villagers Warm Up To Abn Medics
DUC PHO, (101st ABN-IO) - Accepting the initially cool reception, a Medical Civil Action (MEDCAP) team from the 101st Airborne Division recently entered a small fishing village southeast of here and left six hours later with the gratitude and friendship of the villagers. "It usually works that way in areas where Americans haven't had contact with the people before," said SSgt. Dannie E. Bailey. "At first the Vietnamese are wary of your presence, but when they see you're there to help they accept you." The paratroopers of the 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry were the first Americans to offer assistance to the village. The civil affairs action is part of the overall mission of destroying enemy influence in the I Corps area as part of Task Force Oregon. The division's military police and the Vietnamese National Police, who escorted the MEDCAP team, suspected enemy presence in the area. "The people didn't come out of their homes at first," explained Sgt. William Page. "Sometimes that means Viet Cong might be hidden in nearby ambush positions." This was not the case, however, as interpreters with the American team soon had villagers seeking treatment. Mothers brought their babies and the elderly hobbled towards the doctor's jeep. Soon the line grew to more than 50 persons. The majority of the people were treated for malaria and numerous skin infections. "Soap and water would eliminate most of these sores," said Capt. Richard Porter, a battalion doctor. "We have to teach the people the basics of personnel hygiene before we can expect any permanent improvements. Some of the people crowded around the MP's and National Police, displaying various afflictions as if anyone in uniform could give treatment. "It sure made me feel useless not to be able to help these people," said a paratrooper. "The doctors and medics handled the treatments, but I wish I had the training to help." More than 170 patients were treated during the team's visit. Candy, cigarettes, and soap also were distributed.
25Nov67-MPs Have Unique Role In 196th Inf
CHU LAI, (18th MP-IO) - A platoon of MPs attached to the 196th Light Infantry Brigade have traded their shiny MP helmet liners for camouflaged steel pots. The 18th Military Police Brigade's northernmost MP element serves in a 100 per cent combat role. Specialists Four Ray L. Polgos and Joseph P. Ireian recently demonstrated the nature of their unique role. They were transported by helicopter to the scene of a fire fight to take charge of 18 VC suspects. The two MPs moved quickly and efficiently to evacuate the detainees. In another instance, Viet Cong elements brought fire on the base camp. Within twenty minutes the MPs stationed at the camp had secured the major access road and affected an overall defense plan. Each of the MPs assigned to the Chu Lai Provost Marshall's office performs two months of field duty with one of the four battalions of the 196th. Normally there will be only two MPs sharing the responsibility for administrative and combat controls, physical security, and convoy escorts within each battalion. The remainder of the platoon, stationed at the base camp, provides security for three bridges, mans the bunker defense, runs convoy escorts, maintains a combat ambush control, and provides base camp checkpoints and general security. The activities of the platoon branch into the area of civic action. In a recent instance they helped to relocate a village of 6000 people from Tuyet Diem I on Son Tra I. In the largest program of its kind undertaken in the area to date, 20 of the platoon's military policemen escorted the villagers and their possessions along the eight mile relocation route.
27Jan69-Conexes can hold world of treasure
CHU LAI - GI ingenuity in Vietnam has turned a Korean War experiment in logistics into a 1,500-pound treasure chest with a myriad of uses. The treasure chest is officially labeled as an Army-Air Force Conex Container, and they rank along with sand bags, helmets and weapons as the most plentiful items used by today's soldier. Statistically, a conex is a steel box, eight-feet, six-inches in length, six-feet, three-inches wide, eight-feet, ten-inches high, and is used for shipping everything and anything from tape recorders to M16's. A Conex Container weighs 1,542 pounds when empty and will transport a maximum load of 9,000-pounds. The cost of a single container is estimated to be $800. Once the two doors on the container are properly secured, the conex becomes a veritable vault, practically impossible to be broken into. This automatically reduces a lot of pilferage. "We use the containers mainly for the shipment of critical items such as tape recorders, watches and camera equipment," said James E. White, warehouse manager for the Chu Lai post exchange facilities here. "If it weren't for the containers, half of the merchandise would probably be damaged beyond repair by the time we received it," Mr. White claimed. The experimental use of conex containers began during the Korean War. Part of the success of the experiments was the fact that the containers could be dropped to field troops by parachute with a minimum amount of damage to their contents. Sand bags stacked around a conex will make one of the most durable bunkers to be found in Vietnam. An air-conditioner placed inside a conex turns it into a booth for delicate machines that might be damaged by the heat. Military Policemen in Vietnam have been known to use conex containers as temporary stockades for confining prisoners. Some of the steel boxes, with appropriate equipment added, have become passable photography darkrooms, while other serve as secure storerooms. A few minor adjustments to a conex, and you have a dandy kennel for Army Scout Dogs. Almost every company in Vietnam uses a conex for an arms and ammunition room. When you think about it, a conex container is a great deal like a birthday present. You never know what you will find when you open it.Vol. 2 No. 139 THURSDAY September 5, 1968
Americal News Sheet
MIRACLE WEATHER REPORT FRIDAYCloudy skies with light rain the morning decreasing in the afternoon. High 85, low 70. Winds northeast at 10 knots to 20 knots. (B-6)
AMERICAL DIVISION NEWS
CHU LAI (AMERICAL IO)--Action remained scattered during yesterday in the Americal Division's southern I Corps Tactical zone as Division forces accounted for 19 VC and two NVA killed and one weapon captured. Increased action in the Quang Ngai Province yesterday resulted in 15 VC killed and 16 suspects detained by 11th Inf. Bde's "Jungle Warriors". A company of the 4th Bn., 3rd Inf. had a big day yesterday as the "Old Guard" soldiers killed one evading VC and detained 16 suspects 12 miles west of Quang Ngai City. The command and control helicopter of the battalion killed another three VC carrying packs in a river ten miles west of QuangNgai City. Four VC bodies were found yesterday in a hut four miles southeast of Duc Pho by troops of a (A Company) 1st Bn., 20th Inf. company The four dead VC were killed in a contact Tuesday night which netted eight other VC. In that contact a secondary explosion resulted from the attack by hand grenades and M-79 fire. Another 1st Bn., 20th Inf. company killed one VC near Sa Huynh yesterday. Soldiers of a 3rd Bn., 1st Inf. company found the bodies of four VC in freshly dug graves near a trail six miles west of Quang Ngai City yesterday. The four VC died of wounds from white phosphorous. Tuesday night another company of the battalion killed one VC near the same site. The 11th Inf. Bde's Military Police killed an evading VC in a tunnel yesterday and found one M-26 hand grenade, money, and a radio in a hut nearby, eight miles north of the "Jungle Warriors" home.
Vol. 2. No. 165 Tuesday October 1, 1968 MIRACLE WEATHER REPORT WEDNESDAY Partly Cloudy Evening Showers High 86 Low 73
AMERICAL DIVISION NEWS
AMERICAL NEWS SHEET MG Charles M. Gettys, Commanding MAJ Paul B. Parham, IO Telephone: Chu Lai 3212 or 2414 This News Sheet is published daily under the supervision of the IO, Americal Division APO96374 as an authorized Army publication. Views and opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the Department of the Army.
Avoid Immersion Foot!
1. Massage your feet 2. Change socks often 3. Sometimes wear boots without socks 4. Lace boots from 3d hole at bottom 5. Expose your feet to the sun 6. Wear shower shoes in base camp Avoid immersion foot --- Take care of your feet.
Vol. 2. No. 167 Thursday October 3, 1968 MIRACLE WEATHER REPORT FRIDAY Mostly Cloudy Chance of Showers High 89 Low 76 (B-6)
DRIVE CAREFULLY-Don't Become a Statistic. Vietnam's roads were not built for the trucks and equipment the U.S. Armed Forces use. One day of driving on a Vietnamese road will tell you that. When you drove back in the WORLD you had to drive in accordance with the laws of your state. It's the same thing here.Back home you altered your driving methods under certain conditions; rain, darkness, heavy traffic. Vietnam should be no different. It is your responsibility to obey local traffic laws and to DRIVE SAFELY!
WEAPONS SAFETY IS EVERYBODY'S BUSINESS
1. Never point a weapon at anyone unless you intend to use it. 2. Always carry your weapon on "safe". Check it periodically. 3. DO NOT chamber a round unless use of your weapon is imminent. 4. Keep the barrel free from all obstructions. 5. When not in the field or on guard duty, DO NOT insert a magazine or clip in the weapon. Carry them in ammo pouches. 6. Clear your weapon before entering a building, and before cleaning it. Use a clearing barrel or point the muzzle in the air. 7. Use common sense and caution when handling firearms and ammunition. Avoid horseplay with weapons. Treat them with respect and care.
24Jan69-Marine-ARVN Cordon Flushes 156 From VC Tunnel Complex By J02 DAVE WARSH S&S Staff Correspondent
SAIGON - Fighting flared near Quang Ngai City along South Vietnam's central coastlands Tuesday as Americal Div. troopers pressed efforts to keep Communists in the area at bay, military spokesmen said. As GIs, Vietnamese government troops and Marines cautiously tightened a cordon around a Viet Cong-held peninsula about seven miles north of the coastal city of Quang Ngai, two sharp fights flared a few miles away. In the two battles and a dozen smaller clashes, Americal troops and Marines killed at least 87 Red soldiers and captured at least four more. And about six miles north of Quang Ngai, the 8,00 GIs, Marines and ARVN soldiers of operations "Bold Mariner" and "Russell Beach" slowly searched inside their cordon an a VC-held peninsula. The circle's most spectacular turn so far came Sunday when 156 persons - including 55 VC militiamen-were flushed from a huge tunnel complex on the peninsula.
Meanwhile ............... In another day of light and scattered fighting around most of South Vietnam, the most noteworthy-according to U.S. headquarters-was the action around Quang Ngai. The 11th Inf. Brigade, Americal Div. troops who surprised an unknown-size Red force in a supposedly abandoned village Monday kept their hold on the area. So far 17 Reds are known dead in the fighting, while U.S. casualties remain light. About six miles to the north, division military policemen patrolling in boats spotted about 100 Communist soldiers clustered on the shore. The MPs called for a Navy Swift boat, which killed at least 10 Reds with mortar and machine-gun fire. The MPs landed and captured another four wounded Communists and seven suspects.
OLUME 3 NUMBER 13 TRIDENT Apr 04, 1969 Page 1
ENEMY MINE, RIFLE FIRE FAIL TO STOP BRIGADE MPS
It was the afternoon of what had been a quiet day and a convoy escorted by the first platoon of the 23rd Military Police Company in support of the Americal Division's 11th Infantry Brigade, was moving from Sa Huynh to Duc Pho along Highway 1. Suddenly, a jeep, which was the last vehicle in the convoy, hit a command-detonated mine. Specialist Four (SP4) Peter A. Jewell (Canaan, Maine), the machinegunner on the jeep, was thrown from his vehicle by the force of the explosion. Enemy small arms fire and automatic weapons fire was immediately directed on the jeep. SP4 Mark S. Jordan (Xenia, Ohio), who was driving, stayed behind the wheel of the jeep for a distance of 100 meters before it swerved off the road and landed in a rice paddy. It was only then he realized the SP4 Jewell was missing. "I couldn't see Jewell anywhere," the MP said, "Then I looked back at where the explosion had occurred and he was low- (MP CONT ON PAGE 4) (MPS CONT FROM PAGE 1) crawling through the 100 yards of rice paddies to my position. When SP4 Jewell reached the damaged jeep, he immediately began firing the M-60 at the enemy position although covered with painful wounds and bruises. Fire from the enemy on both sides of the road was still being directed at him. While SP4 Jewell manned the machinegun, SP4 Jordan grabbed the radio and began calling for help. Two APCs from E Troop, 1st Cav., answered the call and began placing devastating fire on the enemy positions. The two MPs then boarded one of the APCs and the disabled jeep was extracted from the rice paddy. SP4 Jewell made SGT E-5 the next day.
11TH INFANTRY BRIGADE TRIDENT VOLUME ? NUMBER 16 April 27, 1969
NOTICE TO DOG OWNERS
All pet dogs on LZ Bronco are now required to wear tags indicating that they have had rabies shots according to the Military Police. All dogs not wearing these tags will be destroyed. Pet owners can have their dogs vaccinated every Monday morning at 1000 by the installation veterinarian at the 59th Infantry Scout Dog kennel. After vaccination, the veterinarian will issue a receipt to the owner and file another copy of it. Military Police advise all pet owners with unvaccinated dogs to keep them chained or penned up until they can take the animal to get its shot.SOUTHERN CROSS This is the fourth issue of the Southern Cross. The first issues were published intermittently approximately monthly, then later in 1969 they were published weekly.
01Aug68-Southern Cross Vol. 1 No. 4. Page 3 MP Saves Woman By Thinking Fast
DUC PHO--Quick thinking and good judgment by an 11th Inf. Bde. military policeman may have saved the life of a Vietnamese woman who was seriously injured recently by a falling brick. SGT James J. Ellis was on a mission near Sa Huynh when he was stopped by a frantic woman. "By the way she acted, I understood that someone in the village had been injured, so I followed here," he said. The woman directed Ellis to a hut where about 50 people had gathered. As Ellis pushed open the shutters for light, he saw that the woman was covered with blood. "She had a sandbag tied around here head and a blood-soaked rag under it. When I removed the dressing, I saw there was a deep gash in her head and a vein was broken. "All I could do was apply direct pressure and rush her to a medical point. I had some men help carry her to a jeep," he said. The injured woman was rushed to the 264th Trans. Det. aid station at Sa Huynh where SSG Jerry W. Hoggs, a medic, administered further emergency treatment. In a few minutes she was on the way to the 9th Spt. Bn. clearing station at LZ Bronco. Hoggs, praising Ellis' actions, said: "Had it not been for the quick judgment of SGT Ellis, the woman could have bled to death."
17Aug68-Southern Cross Vol. 1 No. 5. Page 1 Vietnamese Police Unit Helping 11th
LZ BRONCO--"Jungle Warriors" engaged in intensive search missions are getting help from a new platoon of Vietnamese policemen. A platoon from the Vietnamese National Police Field Force (NPFF), a highly-trained team of combat policemen from Quang Ngai, is currently under the operational control of the 11th Bde.'s provost marshal. The first 24 NPFF's arrived here recently and underwent a week's training in airmobile operations and an orientation on brigade operations in southern Quang Ngai Province. Highly Trained MAJ John L. Pittman, brigade provost marshal, said the policemen are "highly trained and efficient. Their training combines both police work and infantry tactics for functioning in a combat situation, especially in counter-insurgency operations. "They are not trained or equipped as assault troops, but are intended to work in a supporting role with the infantry." The platoon's specialists, while remaining under the control fo the provost marshal's office, will be temporarily attached to the brigade's maneuver battalions. "This won't include regular combat sweeps," Pittman said, "but rather intensified searches of hamlets, villages or other areas, or search and cordon missions." He said the platoon has specialists in demolitions and psychological warfare, field interrogation teams, intelligence personnel and special search squads. "These men are also trained in identifying Vietnamese dialects," the Hollywood, Ala., native said. Tell Location "By listening to a man speak they can tell what part of South Vietnam is from, or if he is from the north." SSG Lones R. Warren of Taylors, S.C., NCO adviser to the national police group said brigade MP's have worked with the NPFF before. "We've had considerable success working together in the past. I've seen them work before, and they're good," he commented.
10Nov68-Southern Cross Vol. 1 No. 11 Page 3
Vietnamese Girls Serve As Policewomen, Nurses
LZ BALDY -- When two new "Chargers" landed on the VIP pad here recently, everyone at the 196th Inf. Bde. base camp knew things were looking up. The pretty new "Chargers" were Miss Hanh and Miss Duoc, National Policewomen from Hoi An. "These girls spent three weeks in Da Nang getting special training in searching for and confiscating contraband items," said MAJ Frederic F. DeMetrovich (Salt Lake City, Utah), brigade provost marshal. Female Friskers The policewomen's main duty is at the base camp gate searching the Vietnamese women who work for the 196th. They perform the same duty by checking and handling women detainees. "The girls are also available to assist the Provost Marshal's Office both on Baldy and in the surrounding hamlets," added SGT Thieu, PMO interpreter. Charged-Up 'Chargers' "This is the first time either has gone to the field and both volunteered to work for the 196th," said Thieu, who is responsible for their welfare on Baldy. The new arrivals are part of a 46-woman group located at Quang Nam Province headquarters in Hoi An and work closely in assisting the area's 2,000-man National Police Field Force.
27Apr69-Southern Cross Vol. 2 No. 09 Page 3
27Apr69-Southern Cross Vol. 2 No. 09 Page 6 Combat In Review
APC SAVES TRAPPED MPs By SP4 DONALD YOST
DUC PHO The day had been notably guiet as the first platoon of the 23d Military Police Co. escorted a convoy between Sa Haynh and here along Highway 1. Suddenly, the last jeep in the convoy struck a com mand detonated mine, and heavy enemy small arms and automatic weapons fire was directed at the jeep. SP4 Peter A. Jewell (Canaan. Me.), machinegun ner on the jeep, was hurled from the vehicle by the force of the explosion. SP4 Mark S. Jordan ( Xenia, Ohio ) stayed behind the wheel of the jeep For 100 yards before it careened off the road and landed upright in a rice paddy. Only then did Jordan realize that Jewell was missing, Fast answer "I couldn't see him any where," Jordan said, "until I looked back and saw him low crawling toward me through the rice paddies." When Jewell reached the damaged jeep under heavy enemy crossfire, he im mediately turned the machinegun on the enemy position despite painful bruises and abrasions. While Jewell manned the machinegun, Jordan grabbed the radio and called help. Two armored personnel car riers of E Trp., 1st Cav. responded with devastating fire on the enemy. The two MPs boarded an AFC, and the disabled jeep was extracted from the paddy. "If it hadn't been for those APCs, we'd probably still be out there," said Jewell. A day later, wrapped in bandages and still in pain, SP4 Jewell became SGT Jewell. (11th IO)
30June69-Southern Cross Vol. 2 No. 14 Page 2
Battle Weary, but Proud by MSG Bonesio
Graphic Art: credited to Sergeant Alfred Anthony Jr.. Ink drawing of two soldiers. One soldier is wearing a jungle hat and a fairly heavy beard. The pose looks like a "Clint Eastwood" shot of the soldier smoking a cigar. The second soldier is a more stateside type pose of PFC carrying an M-16 pointing straight up. The rifle is held in place against his back by the soldier pushing the rifle sling out to the front. A company returns to its base camp following extended operations in the jungles, mountains and rice paddies of Vietnam. The men are unshaven, physically and mentally weary, their clothing and equipment bear the stains of the terrain and the sweat of their efforts and toil. Not visible but doubtlessly present in every one of these men is pride--in his unit and in himself. Each has done his job for the team and the unit has accomplished its mission. They have SOLDIERED! These troopers have three goals in mind, clean up their gear and themselves, to have a good hot meal, and relax. With weapons and equipment cleaned and oiled, sporting fresh clothing after a shave and bathing, they have in effect "scraped the mud from the silver wreath of their CIB." The third item, relaxing, will be up to [the] individual; writing home, reading, viewing a movie, sacking out on a bunk, soaking up sun and water at a beach, or a few cold ones at the club. Unfortunately, there are some people who are immature and believe that soldiering ceases upon coming out of the bush. They feel that they must adhere to the television or Hollywood version of the combat returnee as one who must "tear down" the local bar and "tear up" anyone who doesn't agree with his attitude or actions. The individual who expresses disdain for authority by deliberate failure to exercise military courtesy and is lax in personal appearance, disregarding uniform regulations, is placing a film of tarnish on "The Badge." This same person thinks that upon his return to "the world" he must epitomize the combat veteran as one of sloppy appearance -bareheaded with his hat tucked through the shoulder epaulet, uniform coat unbuttoned, tie pulled loose with shirt unfastened at the collar. Would you believe? A camouflage material bush hat with the Army Green uniform? The same uniform with trousers bloused above jungle boots? Childish, of course! yet these are instances of uniform violations recorded on DR's by military policemen. There is no excuse for personnel assigned to duties at a static headquarters area presenting an appearance far below par for the course. A combat trooper who does not have the basic comforts, showers, laundry, barbering service, is bound to feel resentment toward a rear area soldier who has these facilities available but does not utilize them. Any soldier who appears in public with the attitude that slovenly dress, uncouth actions, and a foul mouth depict a combat veteran only demonstrates a lack of pride in himself and in his unit. We can only assume this person has failed in his duties or has not produced during the unit's mission. The next time you stand before a shaving mirror think for a moment and ask yourself these questions. Am I soldiering "all the way?" Does my appearance, attitude or actions require a corrective application of brasso to remove tarnish from my "Badge". (Note: Brasso is a commercial brand of cleaner used by many soldiers to polish their brass belt buckle, and other brass items for inspections.)
30June69-Southern Cross Vol. 2 No. 14 Page 6
Combat In Review VC Handicrafts Class An Explosive Session
LZ BRONCO--An unusual incident outside the main gate of the 11th Bde. headquarters here cost five VC their lives and wounded four others. The group of nine apparently had an accident as they were making hand grenades in a hootch near the access road connecting the village of Duc Pho to the base camp. An explosion at noon sent Military Police from the 1st Plt., 23rd MP Co., who were patrolling the village to investigate. "At first I thought it was an M-79 round that had exploded," commented SP4 David Chrystal (Walker, Iowa), "but when we arrived we knew it must have been a much larger blast." "We found four still alive and evacuated them to the aid station on LZ Bronco." SFC Frank Lewis (Geneva, Ala.) and SP5 Paul Patrick (Belle Plain, Kan.) of the 123rd Ordnance Det. were called to the scene. Lewis remarked, "apparently they were making coke-can type grenades when one went off causing a chain reaction. We recovered two homemade grenades, a small vial of black powder, and six flashlight batteries." 1LT John McNoun (St. Peters, Mo.), Asst. Bde. S-2 stated, "Under interrogation, two wounded suspects claimed they were making grenades to sell to the Volunteer Informant Program, but we believe they had other purposes in mind." Later two of the wounded suspects confessed to being VC. (11th IO).
U.S., Viets Work TogetherAllied Police Enforce Law By PFC DENNIS SELBY
CHU LAI--In any war cooperation between allies is a must if their goals are to be achieved. The Vietnamese-American military and National Police relationship is an excellent example of such teamwork. The 146th MP platoon, with headquarters at Phu Bai, is under the operational control of the Americal's 23rd MP Co. at Chu Lai. The unit is concerned with escorting convoys and transporting and guarding prisoners of war. Two seven-man squads of the 146th, one located at Tam Ky and the other at Quang Ngai, are responsible for maintaining order in the two cities and along Highway 1. Work Together Combined ARVN, U.S. MP and National Police patrols take care of any violations they encounter. The patrols consist of an American, an ARVN MP, and a "Canh Sat" or National Policeman. According to MAJ Lonnie S. Priest (Marion, Ill.), division deputy provost marshal, "a mutual respect of each policeman's responsibilities and abilities is the basis of an excellent working relationship." One of the major problems encountered by policemen everywhere is the problem of jurisdiction. In the RVN, military police control their own personnel whereas the National Police have jurisdiction over the civilian populace. A good example of the benefits of combined patrols is a traffic accident involving both American and Vietnamese personnel.
Language Barrier An Americal MP arriving on the scene would have trouble trying to discover the extent of injuries or even gather and consolidate the events leading to the accident, simply because of the language barrier. However, this problem is eliminated when combined patrols are present to speak to people without struggling with a foreign tongue. 1LT Peter S. Tiffany (Carmichael, Calif.), the 146th platoon leader said, "When combined patrols are sent out, we try to let the same men work together as much as possible. This makes for better understandin
g and friendships also are created." (Americal IO)20August69-Southern Cross Vol. 2 No. 21 Page 6
Combat In ReviewMPs SLOW PROHIBITED TRADE By SFC HERB NESMITH
SON TINH day in any day out large civilian trucks weave in and out of the crowded pedes trian motorcycle and bicycle traffic of highway 1 like broken field runners heading for a touchdown. Near this tiny village three miles northeast of Quang Ngai City the huge trucks as well as buses, motorcycles, and bi cycles have been stopped in a joint U.S. and South Vietnamese roadblock aimed at slowing down the black market traffic. After only two days the military policemen of the Americal and their South Vietnamese counterparts moved elsewhere because "too many people knew we were setting up along here and they didn't come this way." Food Stuffs But in those two days the roadblock was successful. Con fiscated goods found on all sorts rf vehicles, from large trucks to bicycles, included 144 cans of deydrated egg mix, 24 boxes of powered sugar, 29 cans of apple sauce, 24 cans of shortening, 12 bottles of vinegar, two cases of egg noodles, 20 sheets, and 240 ballpoint pens. A MP official explained that a case of soft drink is sold at the post exchange for $2.40 and can be sold illegally to a Vietnamese black marketeer for twice that. The profiteer in turn sells it to other Vietnamese villagers or fledgling entrepreneurs for a higher price. Finally, one can of the drink is sold for 50 cents on the open market. CPT James S. Koerner Jr. (Green Bay, Wis.) commander of the 23rd MP Co.'s 3rd Plt., at tached to the 198th Inf. Bde., ex pained that foodstuffs comprise the largest portion of the black market goods his men find as they patrol their portion of High way 1, the nation's leading artery of transportation and commerce. "The goods are confiscated and returned to the U.S. supply system," said CPT Koerner. "In addition. any goods we stop cuts down on supplies which might eventually wind up in the hands of the VC, and it gets the items back to the U.S. serviceman for whom they were intended and it helps check South Vietnam's inflation." Vietnamese police halt civilian vehicles traveling along the highway, check drivers' and passengers' identification papers to nab possible draft eva ders and suspected VC. They search the vehicles for both illegal arms and ammunition and black market goods. Americal MPs assist in the search, and advise as to what disposition should be taken with illegally acquired items of U.S. origin. When the joint check points were first set up, about one in every five vehicles was found to be carrying illegal goods. Most of the items were being transported to Quang Ngai City for resale on the economy, or possibly to the VC. .SP4 Charles E. Struder (Jackson, Tenn.), one of the MPs manning a recent checkpoint, said that contraband can be found in all types of vehicles from bicycle to heavy duty trucks and in all quantities. "One man we found to be carrying 20 brand new sheets and two dozen pens and he had it all on a motorcycle," Struder said. "Our first few days' in this area we found all kinds of things,"CPT Koerner added. "Even though we change our location at least once a day and never to the same place two days in a row, apparently the word is out that we're covering this stretch of highway, and there's very little in the way of illegal products coming down the road now." "So one day suddenly we won't be on the highway we'll be out on the side roads check ing vehicles on likely detour routes." Aside from finding black market goods, CPT Koerner sees other advantages to the joint U.S. South Vietnamese checkpoints. "Sometimes there are misunderstandings between Vietnam ese and Americans, and this work helps to solve that. We see how the other man does his job. We learn how to work together and understand each other better." ( 198th IO)
27August69-Southern Cross Vol. 2 No. 22 Page 7
Search For Illegal Weapons
CHU LAI -- Americal Regulation 210-5 (9 Nov 67) prohibits the possession of privately-owned firearms and dangerous weapons. 1SG Dillard Cannon Jr. (Middlesboro, Ky.) of the 23rd Military Police Co. noted that these prohibited weapons, which include switchblade knives, straight razors, folding knives with blades longer than three inches and any size sheath knife not issued by the unit as well as unauthorized firearms, pose a problem within the Americal Division and have resulted in death and serious injury to friendly troops. Privately owned firearms, often of inferior quality and improperly maintained, are particularly dangerous to both the owner and his fellow soldiers. To promote safety and protect-American troops from the un-fortunate incidents that occur when unauthorized weapons are involved, commanders of each unit will conduct frequent shakedown inspections for these prohibited weapons.
08May70-Southern Cross Vol. 3 No. 16 Page 4-5
A Day's Activities On Hwy 1 With The 23d Military Police Company
CHU LAI (Americal IO) -- One of the Division's most varied and challenging jobs is carried on by the 23rd Military Police Company. A few of the many tasks of the 23rd MP Co. include the patrolling of roads, the escorting of convoys, the detention and processing of enemy detainees and the control of civilians leaving and entering Division military installations. For escorting convoys, the MPs use V-100 armored cares and gun jeeps which are mounted with M-60 machineguns. According to Captain Garrett J. Cumpson, 23rd MP Co. executive officer, the MPs travel 400 to 500 miles a week with convoys, usually without incident. In addition to patrolling roads, the MPs also patrol the towns and villages along Highway 1 and near Division bases. In these patrols the Mps work closely with the Vietnamese National Police. Another important responsibility of the MPs is to control the movement of civilians in and out of Division installations. Each civilian must be searched and have his identification papers checked before entering or leaving a U.S. military installation. MPs process about 5,000 Vietnamese civilians through the gates of Chu Lai everyday. In spite of the size of the Division and the extent of its area of operations, the 23rd MP Co. is only an average size company. When asked how one company of MPs manages to serve the needs of the Army's largest division, Captain Cumpson replied, "It keeps us hopping."
11Sep70-Southern Cross Vol. 3 No. 34 Page 2
Operation Amnesty helps drug users By PFC Guy Winkler
CHU LAI (AMERICAL IO) -- The AMERICAL Division this week launched OPERATION AMNESTY to assist personnel with a drub problem to "come clean" without getting involved in legal action. OPERATION AMNESTY is part of a new DOD Marijuana and Drug Suppression Program. Conducted jointly through the Division Provost Marshal, Division Chaplain and medical authorities, OPERATION AMNESTY provides help for persons who are abusing drugs and want to stop. Lieutenant Colonel Everett I. Perrin Jr., Division Provost Marshal, said that person who turn themselves in under OPERATION AMNESTY to either a military policeman, chaplain, doctor or medic will not be subjected to legal penalties as long as they follow two simple steps: 1) voluntarily turn themselves in and, 2) ensure that they are not carrying any drugs in their possession at the time they turn themselves in. Chaplain (LTC.) Teddy R. Pope Jr., division chaplain, said "We're trying to get all the new men who come through the combat center aware of the fact that such a program is available. If there is a man who is not already under investigation and who feels he wants to help, we have offered to be available twenty-four hours a day, everyday.
Vol. 4, No. 7 Chu Lai, Vietnam February 12, 1971 Page 2
MP's get the job done By SP4 Tom Mano
LZ HAWK HILL, (196th Inf. Bde. IO) -- Because of their power to enforce laws, "cops" have been despised, ridiculed and even envied. Parallel to civilian police, the protection and benefits afforded by the military policemen are rarely recognized. Men of the 2nd Platoon ,23rd MP Company are omni-present on Hawk Hill, completing functions which, if left undone, could become disastrous. The first MP to go on duty in the morning is the gate guard. Processing 400 civilian workers can be a tiring job, but sometimes pleasant, with 250 of them being females. These employees are checked for contraband items such as drugs and explosives. But the gate guard's duty is not only concerned with pedestrians. Vehicles are checked for destination, number of passengers and appropriate passes. Another job of the gate guard is to act as an information bureau for Hawk HIll. This entails giving directions, phoning in arrivals of VIPs and releasing times of events. Twice a day a patrol makes a trip to the garbage dump to inspect the disposal of refuse. They check to see if anyone is dumping ammunition or grenades which could be policed up by local VC. Preventing the transaction of marijuana, heroin and other drugs is another of their responsibilities. But their main duty is to prevent GIs who venture to the dump from getting hurt. Dog control is on the MP's most important tasks. Getting bit by a rabid dog can cause convulsions accompanied by delirium and nausea. The 196th Brigade policemen believe it's better to prevent rabies than to treat them. As night creeps on the hill, most people finish up for the day. Not the MPs. There might be larcenies to check on, shootings to investigate or ladies of dubious repute to turn over to the National Police. The 2nd platoon handles a 20 miles stretch of road on Highway One which runs perpendicular to Hawk Hill's access road. They escort convoys from Da Nang to Chu Lai and back with an M-60 machinegun mounted on their jeep. Protection as well as investigation is a major part of controlling this stretch of road. More than one GI has felt relief when he saw MPs descending on the scene of an accident in which he was involved to protect him from irate villagers. The "nerve center" of the platoon is the "desk". From here information is compiled. To achieve the highest degree of coordination and competency, 1st Lieutenant George R. Holland of Holly Springs, Miss., commander of the platoon sleeps in an adjoining room to the "desk". Anytime an emergency arises, he can quickly be aroused to handle the situation. The creed of the MPs on Hawk Hill was very adeptly summed up by Private First Class John W. Boulware of Los Gates, Calif., a night patrolman for the 196th Infantry Brigade. "If we stop someone and he's honest with us, we'll do everything in our power to help him."
Vol. 4, No. 18 Chu Lai, Vietnam April 30, 1971 Page 2
April, traffic safety month By SP4 Ron Cryderman
CHU LAI (23rd Inf. Div.) -- Due to the mounting number of traffic accidents in the Southern Sector of Military Region 1, the office of the Provost Marshal recently began a Traffic Safety Program for the month of April. During 1970 a total of 534 traffic accidents resulted in 212 injuries and 40 deaths. In the first two months of 1971, 94 accidents with 63 injuries and 12 deaths have been recorded. A wide range of accident preventing steps are to be taken by the Provost Marshal in coordination with the 23rd Military Police company. The program is separated into two parts. The first part in trying to make vehicle drivers more aware of their driving habits, is to have all commanders conduct traffic safety classes. Brigade Provost Marshals will make tours within their brigades to speak on problems that cause most accidents and what is needed to curb the increase of the casualty rate. The second part of the safety program is a step-up of the local traffic law enforcement. "This will include sending more MP patrols on Highway One, intensified LOH (light observation helicopter) patrols of Highway One and spot checks of all vehicle safety equipment", said 1st Lieutenant James M. Brakord (Farmington, Mich.), Provost Marshal operations officer. Another measure to make all drivers conscious of their driving habits is a display in front of the Provost Marshal building. It consists of a severely damaged jeep parked behind white crosses, each cross representing one death within this year.
Vol. 4, No. 22 Chu Lai, Vietnam June 04, 1971 Page 1
Second largest ever Drug raid valued at $30 million By Sp/4 Fred Abatemarco
CHU LAI (23rd Inf. Div. IO) - Using information received from a former drug user and a subsequent investigation, the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) of the 23rd Infantry Division recently conducted a drug raid in Duc Pho which resulted in a seizure of narcotics said to be valued at approximately $30 million. The joint narcotics squad, which consists of a field force of National Police, Military Police investigators and provincial police, arrested a Vietnamese female believed to be participating in the operation of the primary narcotics source in Quang Ngai Province. One Vietnamese male suspected of being a drug pusher was on the premises at the time of the raid and was also arrested. The cache is the second largest ever seized by authorities in the Republic of Vietnam. Seventeen pounds of heroin and 20 kilos of marijuana were confiscated along with assorted quantities of opium, morphine, benoctol and immonoctol. A total of 1,650,000 piastres were also seized, suspected of being the profits of drug sales. The establishment had been under suspicion of drug trafficking for a number of weeks, but it wasn't until the cooperation of a former drug user was solicited by the CID that the necessary search warrants could be acquired. A sketch of the location was provided along with particulars concerning the type of operation. Within three days the strike force of local and military police were able to proceed with the apprehension and seizure.
Vol. 4, No. 22 Chu Lai, Vietnam June 04, 1971 Page 3
Imposter salutes 1st Sgt discloses fake identity By PFC Arnold S. Egan
DA NANG, (196th Inf. Bde IO)-- What does a man do when his brother, who's in the Army plans on going AWOL? Wesley Storer (Yarmouth, Maine), was confronted with that problem and he thought he had the solution. It was really quite simple, he would take his brother's place. Even thought Wesley was classified 4F, because of a skiing accident, he was ready to give his services for his younger brother, Specialist Four Glen R. Storer. After all, he knew going AWOL was bad business and he thought he could fill in to keep his brother out of trouble. Of course the guise failed once Wesley arrived at his brother's unit, Reconnaissance Platoon, Company E, 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry, 196th Infantry Brigade at LZ Hawk Hill. Without his sideburns and with his hair cut the older Storer was able to closely resemble his brother. He even went to considerable effort in memorizing procedures, the phonetic alphabet, and some of the colloquial phrases the Army uses. By looking at pictures of the younger Storer's friends and through much quizzing and requizzing, Wesley felt confident to start the trip to the Republic of Vietnam. The trip from California to Tan Son Nhut AFB in Saigon was uneventful, because Wesley was able to evade direct confrontation with other Army personnel. He had passed the first test and began to grow even more confident in his ability to complete the masquerade. His confidence wasn't dimmed when he arrived at Chu Lai for further movement to the battalion's rear area. He thought the disguise might just work. But it didn't. Once at Hawk Hill, Wesley quickly became entangled in [the] tight web. "It was the little things which made me believe this man was not Glen Storer," said one of the platoon members. For instance, he didn't know what PFC or Spec Four meant. He asked what the birds and flowers on the collars meant." "Yeah, said another man. "He even saluted the First Sergeant." "The real soldier always had a deck of cards with him, but this man didn't. Glen ate like a horse, but this man asked for a single sandwich," said a third platoon member. Wearing his camouflage jungle fatigues and "bush hat", Wesley Storer was marched to the Adjutant of the 2nd of the 1st, Captain Francis G. Downey (Los Angeles) where he was questioned. Realizing his attempt to cover for his brother had failed, he quickly confessed. "Well sir, I'm his brother," said Wesley. "I knew Glen was going AWOL and I didn't want him to get into trouble so I took his place. I'd do anything for my brother, sir, anything. I was going to take his place over here until the tour was over and then he would finish up in the states." The Military Police were informed and took custody of the older brother. He was then transported to higher authorities to return to the United States.
Vol. 4, No. 26 Chu Lai, Vietnam July 02, 1971 Page 2
BG Wittwer
CHU LAI (23rd Inf. Div. IO) - Brigadier General Wallace K. Wittwer, USARV Provost Marshal and 18th Military Police Brigade commander, recently visited the 300th Military Police Company here. The 300th MP's are part of the 18th MP Brigade, and the call by Wittwer was his final visit to the unit prior to his reassignment to the USAREUR Provost Marshal. During his visit, Wittwer called on Major General James L. Baldwin, commanding general, 23d Infantry Division; the division Provost Marshal's Office and the 300th MP Company.
Vol. 4, No. 34 Chu Lai, Vietnam August 27, 1971 Page 1
Call 69 Mhz for MP aid By MSG Bill Pickett
CHU LAI, (23d Div. IO -- Military Police (MP) monitoring stations have been established at seven Military Region 1 locations to give persons outside the MP organization access by radio to the nearest MP station. According to the XXIV Corps Provost Marshal Office, personnel with radios who observe or become aware of a crime in progress may now contact the nearest MP station through a common administrative radio frequency. Suspected transactions in narcotics or dangerous drugs, off limits violations, traffic accidents or any other emergency may be reported. The corps provost marshal noted that this capability will be particularly useful to helicopter pilots, should they observe a reportable incident from the air. The common frequency assigned is 69.00 Mhz, and will be used for Military Police related transmissions only. Monitoring stations, operating around the clock, are manned by Americal Division personnel at Chu Lai, Hoi An, Tam Ky and Quang Ngai. The 504th MP Battalion will monitor the same frequency in the areas of Quang Tri, Phu Bai and Da Nang. Should an individual desire to notify MPs of his observations by radio, he simply switches to the common frequency and makes his report. He gives his own identification, type of incident, location, and an indication of special considerations involved, such as serious injury or an armed assailant in a crime. A message will go out from the control station to the MP patrol nearest the scene, and in a matter of minutes the area can be covered. Anyone with a radio, from a back pack to one mounted in a helicopter, can assist in crime control and prevention, and the Military Police can respond rapidly for the protection of the potential victims and the apprehension of law breakers. All persons are encouraged to cooperate in the program; the command frequency, monitored 24 hours daily is 69 Mhz.
THE SECURITY boat covers the lead boat during a 198th Infantry Brigade patrol. On alert is Pfc. Ivan D Hyde. The "River Rats" work in pairs when patrolling.
A very special Thanks To Les Hines My Friend and Americal Division Veterans Association National Historian, who has devoted his life to the History of the Americal Division
"MP" to most soldiers rings the bell of road guard, traffic cop and DR giver-outer. This impression is far from the truth in the daily activities of combat military policemen of the Americal Division's 198th Infantry Brigade who patrol Viet Cong infested rivers and roadways north and south of here. Whether patrolling the rivers in 16-foot Boston Whalers or cruising the highways in gun-jeeps, the 198th MP's are combat geared for action and have fought their way through numerous enemy engagements.
The major missions of the 40-man MP force are patrolling two major river complexes (An Tan and Tra Bong) and Highway One from Tam Ky to Binh Son. "We stop the flow of U.S. materials and black market goods going to the VC," said Spec.4 Jerry D. Lear. Lear, who has been patrolling the network of waterways north and south of Chu Lai for six months, said that combat MP's have a more challenging role. "Here there's a job to do. Back in the States we were a lot of spit and polish, but over here we're in combat," Lear said. A young MP, Lear has not issued a single DR since he's been in Vietnam. Instead he sports a steel helmet that has a large dent in it a dent that came from an enemy AK-47 round during a firefight on the Tra Bong River. To patrol the miles of wandering rivers north and south of here the combat policemen use 16-foot Boston Whalers outfitted with 80 and 85 horsepower motors and M-60 machine guns. Dubbed the "River Rats," the 198th MPs man an outpost on each of the two rivers and patrol the water 24 hours a day. During the hours of darkness the "River Rates" set up floating ambushes to catch unwary Viet Cong sampans.
"We use two boats on a patrol," Lear said. "The first boat stops the sampans and junks while the second boat lags a short distance behind for security. Our boats are the fastest ones on the river."
A Vietnamese National Policeman from district-headquarters accompanies the roving water patrols and checks identification car and picks up Vietnamese draft dodgers. "Security is the most important thing during the river patrols," said Pfc. Kenneth C. Irvin. Irvin, who rides machine-gunner in the security boat during patrolling, said, "It's a lot of different situations -- the Vietnamese, the soldiers, and even the VC. You have to be aware and alert at all times.
