I joined the 800th MP Brigade when they were already deployed.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
The mission statement was ordered, and it sent the 800th MP Brigade, effective the first of July, up to Baghdad. I joined my brigade to take command at the end of June.
I am a military police officer and I have served on two deployments; my first was to Iraq, in a medical unit, and my second deployment was to Kuwait, as a military police platoon leader.
I knew how many MPs I had assigned to the brigade, how many military prison operations I would be running, but we needed to evaluate how many criminal prison operations we could support.
I joined the army after 9/11, after the Iraq war was started. I joined in part because I wanted to go fight on the front lines.
You know, I was a regular on the Friday afternoon drill squad. Um, which... The year after I left school, I went back and thanked the sergeant major because I was so fit.
There was a military police brigade with over 3,400 soldiers getting ready to go home because their mission - prisoner-of-war operations - was finished.
While shooting 'The Unit', I went to the Middle East twice to see the troops. I met some great men and women.
I was commanding officer of a supersonic fighter squadron, F-8 Crusaders.
I served two tours in Iraq, in the Marine Corps.
Over this August district work period, like many of my colleagues, I spent a lot of time with the men and women in uniform from my home State. The 196th Field Artillery Brigade just got back from a year in Afghanistan.