SCHOFIELD BARRACKS, Hawaii - A personal security detachment team, most commonly referred to as a PSD, has the awesome responsibility of protecting, escorting, and navigating battlefield leaders safely across the battlefield.
A PSD team not only ensures the principal gets to and from key leader engagements, but is also responsible for the principal's safety. The well being of the principal is paramount to PSD Soldiers and these special types of Soldiers are willing to place themselves between the principal and harms way at any given time.
In January, of this year, a PSD team was created by selecting some of the best Soldiers from throughout the 552nd Military Police Company, 728th MP Battalion, 8th MP Brigade, for an upcoming PSD mission in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.
"These Soldiers were selected based off the criteria of the mission," said 1st Sgt. Michael Biehl, senior enlisted, 552nd MP Co., 728th MP Bn. "The platoon leaderships worked with their platoons to see which one of their Soldiers best met the criteria, operations also put together a list of which Soldiers best met the criteria. Then the command team [552nd MP Co.] sat down with the platoon leaderships as well as operations to compare lists and see which Soldiers were at the top of everybody's list."
Biehl continued, "after we had identified the Soldiers, I sat down with each one of these Soldiers individually to see if they were a good fit for the PSD mission, so these Soldiers are the best fit, and the best Soldiers for this mission."
Once the Soldiers were selected for the PSD they were sent as a team to the additional skill identifier [ASI] producing school at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. A three-week PSD School, and since they've been back, they've been training as a team.
"We sent them as a group, and that's how we've been keeping it since. We're taking a group of individuals and molding them into a cohesive team that is going to have some pretty important responsibilities down range," said Sgt. 1st Class Jason Miller, platoon sergeant, 1st platoon, 552nd MP Co.
"They are doing everything together. They are one hundred percent focused on PSD and building that unit cohesion. I think this [PSD selection and mission] is admirable; they got selected for a reason. It's not like they got randomly selected; as far as MPs, we like to send the best, and these are the best," concluded Miller.
The 552nd MP Co. has been training and evaluating the PSD on a wide-range of tasks, some of which have included providing protective services; conducting military police security operations; and conducting maneuver and mobility support operations.
The First Sergeant reflected on the PSD's progress thus far.
"The 552nd MP Company's PSD is already working well together, and they are going to continue to improve. I believe if we had to push them out tomorrow, they'd all be ready to go; and more than capable of doing their jobs. The PSD will only continue to build upon their training and only continue to improve over these next couple of training cycles; I am confident that we have the right Soldiers," said Biehl.
Related Links:
The Official Facebook Page of the 8th Military Police Brigade
The Official Facebook Page of the 8th Theater Sustainment Command
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