FORT BENNING, Ga., (Sept. 30, 2015) -- Recognizing more than seven decades of outstanding Military Police Corps accomplishments, the 209th Military Police Detachment and the Criminal Investigation Command celebrated Sept. 25 with a commemorative run.
"We support the Army, we support our community and we support other agencies as well to combat crime and terrorism," said Capt. Rolando Valdes, commander, 209th MP Det.
The run was meant to promote esprit de corps within the detachment and embrace 74 years of history, Valdes said. He noted that the actual anniversary was Sept. 26.
"We continue to protect our homefront, here and globally," Valdes said.
The Military Police Corps achieved permanent status in the U.S. Army in 1941, yet its traditions of duty, service, and security date back to the Revolutionary War, according to Army Live, the official blog of the U.S. Army.
"The military police 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; providing security for 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 200 years, military police have come to be recognized as an important element of the Army in both peace and war," according to Army Live.
For Staff Sgt. David Bannach, 209th MP Det., the mission to assist, protect and defend never stops. He said when MP Soldiers are not helping to fight a war or police a country, they're protecting installations and enforcing the law back in the United States.
"You go from one mission straight to another mission with a little bit of training in between," Bannach said. "You fight the battle, then you serve as law enforcement. It's just go, go, go. (It is) constantly being on your toes and being able to adapt to the environment that you're in."
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