WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Sept. 27, 2013) -- The Soldiers whose regimental crest bears the words "assist, protect and defend," celebrated the 72nd anniversary of the Military Police Corps at Fort Belvoir, Va., Sept. 26.
Gathering at the officer's club for a formal but low-key remembrance of fallen military police and to reaffirm their oath to the corps, about 150 MPs, their spouses, veterans and wounded warriors toasted the president, the country, the Army, the regiment and their lost comrades.
Following the toast and oath reaffirmation, the Army's provost marshal general, Maj. Gen. David E. Quantock, opened the evening praising the military police of today for their professionalism and readiness in providing police transition team training, detainee operations and conducting missions with special operations forces.
"This is not the military police of old and although we stand on their shoulders, we're about looking forward. forging the future," said Quantock, who also oversees the Criminal Investigation Command and Army Corrections Command. "We know where the Army is going, and we want to be there to enable our commanders, because as small as we are, we have a huge part to play in making them successful.
"At the end of the day, it's about assisting, protecting and defending by being an enabler for our combat forces, our combat support forces and our combat service support forces," he added, before welcoming guest speaker Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. John F. Campbell.
Campbell began his remarks saying that whenever he gets a chance to speak before groups, he always talks about the current fight, and that there are still 50,000 service members and civilians in harm's way, and the nation continues to be at war in an era of fiscal uncertainty which will continue for some time.
He also reminded the MPs to never forget the nation's wounded warriors or those who paid the ultimate sacrifice -- 287 military police have lost their lives in combat and 2,610 have been wounded in action over the last 12 years, he said.
Campbell recognized four MPs in the audience who, on an early morning in August, had been running on the Capitol Mall when a jogger was hit by a city bus. The runner was losing blood rapidly from one of his femoral arteries, but two of the Soldiers stopped the bleeding by fashioning a tourniquet from their shirts while the other two directed traffic. Campbell said thanks to the MPs' quick, decisive actions, the man survived and continues toward a full recovery.
The vice chief also talked about the transition the Army is presently moving through and which could take until 2020 to accomplish. Readiness will have to be balanced along with end strength and modernization to keep the Army from hollowing out.
As the Army downsizes its end strength, so too will a variety of family programs, he noted.
"Believe me, the chief and the secretary of the Army are committed to maintaining all of those critical family programs that we have out there -- and I said critical family programs," Campbell said. "We cannot afford all the programs. We have to get out there and talk about expectation management and let you know and be transparent with you.
"We can't be redundant because we can't afford that, but we absolutely have to make sure that the programs which mean the most to our families and our Soldiers are held on to because we're about people and taking care of our people," he said.
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Related Links:
Vice Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. John F. Campbell
Army.mil: Inside the Army News
U.S. Army Military Police School
United States Army Military Police Corps Regiment on Facebook
Vice Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. John F. Campbell on Facebook
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