FORT KNOX, Ky. — For the third time in the last four years, military police officers from Fort Knox have earned the highest law enforcement related honor from U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command.
The TRADOC deputy commander, Lt. Gen. Maria Gervais, joined members of 34th Military Police and 905 Military Working Dog Detachments in Waybur Theater March 24 to celebrate their winning of the Brig. Gen. David H. Stem Award for best military police detachment in TRADOC, and officially present it to them.
“This just doesn’t happen by accident,” said Gervais. “This happens because you have great leaders … and this cohesive team.”
The award was established in 1985 as the Liberty Award before being renamed in honor of Stem two years later. Stem served as Commandant of the U.S. Military Police School and chief of the Military Police Corps and Regiment in 1987 when he died in an airplane crash over Missouri.
Since then, Fort Knox units have won the award several times in the detachment category, including the last three years in a row. Officials with the unit said this latest award is extra special.
“This one is unique because we did it during a pandemic. We were able to accomplish so much with all the shutdowns and restrictions; doing as much training as we did and still supporting the community,” said Sgt. 1st Class Richard McNulty, the 34th and 905th MP senior enlisted advisor and kennel master.
The award covers six major areas, including unit readiness, police work and training. In charge of training last year, Sgt. 1st Class Joshua Holland said while he and the units’ leaders set the stage for the win, they were not the only important elements.
“The Soldiers are ultimately the ones that allowed the detachments to win this,” said Holland. “I just plan the training, but they’re the ones who execute it. They grasped the concepts of what training we were trying to get after and got behind it. They dove into it and made it successful.”
Part of the detachments’ training efforts in 2021 included incorporating law enforcement units from outside the installation’s gates. One such training event included Kentucky K-9 law enforcement agencies Aug. 2-5, 2021.
During that training, McNulty said they gleaned a lot of knowledge training alongside metro K-9 units: “They go on a lot of real world calls that we don’t necessarily see in this area.”
Holland said it’s that kind of award-winning legacy that he hopes Soldiers stationed at Fort Knox will continue to build on long after he and McNulty have moved on.
“Every place I’ve been stationed, I’ve tried to leave some sort of mark,” said Holland. “I hope that when I leave here in six months, some of the training mechanisms that I’ve implemented will hopefully continue to make this organization even more successful than it already is.”
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