First Lt. Regina F. Woronowicz officer in charge of the 709th Military Police Battalion Leadership Professional Development live fire exercise in the Grafenwoehr Training Area and native of Seattle, Wash. communicates with range control as she prepar...

First Lt. Yaimiset Perez of the 18th Military Police Brigade, 21st Theater Sustainment Command is closely monitored while she fires at a pop-up target during a 709th MP Battalion Leadership Professional Development live fire exercise in the Grafenwoe...

Second Lt. Thomas Dickson of the 18th Military Police Brigade, 21st Theater Sustainment Command shakes hands with Sgt. 1st Class Tony Sweat of 1the 18th MP Bde., a noncommissioned officer assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters, 709th MP Battalion ...

GRAFENWOEHR, Germany - The 21st Theater Sustainment Command's 709th Military Police "Warrior" Battalion gathered mid-grade and senior-grade leaders at the Grafenwoehr Training Area for four days of leader professional development sessions conducted Oct. 21- 24.

"The participants conducted a squad-level live fire exercise in order to challenge their technical competencies and foster camaraderie," stated 1st Lt. Regina F. Woronowicz, the session officer in charge and a native of Seattle, Washington.

Squad leaders then took their Soldiers on an eight- mile training course through the forest while dealing with situations such as evacuating a Soldier with simulated wounds, reacting to enemy forces, searching prisoners, finding a weapon stock pile and building relationships with theoretical local national police.

"The exercise helped me better understand the roles and responsibilities of my noncommissioned officers," said 1st Lt. Jeremy Lewis, a squad leader from Headquarters and Headquarters, 709th MP Bn. and native of Poplar Bluff, Missouri.

The operation was also observed and graded by senior "Warrior" staff.

"The exercise enabled raters and senior raters to assess the tactical and technical abilities of their leaders and provide a venue for those with robust deployment experiences to share tactics, techniques and procedures," said Woronowicz.

The raters also observed an exercise that involved the Soldiers maneuvering through a heavily wooded, uneven terrain while firing live ammunition at pop-up targets under the orders of their squad-leaders.

The event involving the live ammo was executed only after several rounds of rehearsals with non-lethal ammunition.

According to Woronowicz, the end state was to successfully accomplish the live fire mission without injury.