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205th Military Police Battalion prepares for upcoming deployment
By: Ashley Ward
Missouri National Guard Public Affairs
POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. – Soldiers from the 205th Military Police Battalion, located in Poplar Bluff, recently completed a training exercise in preparation for the unit’s upcoming deployment to Afghanistan.
The training, which was conducted during the unit’s September and October drill weekends, was designed to prepare the battalion’s command staff for their roles overseas.
“As we are preparing to mobilize and gaining new Soldiers, we are bringing together a completely new staff,” said Lt. Col. Aaron Stover, commander of the 205th Military Police Battalion. “This training was an excellent opportunity for the staff to feel out each other's strengths and weaknesses and begin to gel as team.”
A key element in developing that sense of teamwork was the group’s study and application of the military decision making process, a seven-step method for making decisions in a tactical environment.
“The training we received covered everything that was involved with making a plan. We learned how to filter out the information that we were given and put it together and make it work,” said Sgt. Michael Medlock, property book noncommissioned officer for the 205th.
Using a sanitized and unclassified operation order from Afghanistan, the staff was able to hone their skills by responding to and learning from relevant operational issues currently facing troops in the region.
The training exercises made it clear how important successful teamwork is to accomplishing the mission.
“I didn't realize that there was so much involved when putting something like this together,” said Medlock. “It made me realize how much we have to depend on the other sections and the information they have in order to make the mission successful.”
Stover said that he credits the group’s progress to the Soldiers themselves, who approached the training enthusiastically, with an open mind and ready to learn.
“I could not ask for a better staff, the transformation was amazing,” he said.
Stover also praised the Battalion Staff Training Team from the Battle Command Training Center in Fort Leavenworth, Kan. for their hands-on teaching style, which he says was instrumental to the Soldiers’ success.
“The BSTT did an outstanding job making this training as realistic as possible for our troops,” said Stover. “After seeing the staff in action, I feel confident in our team’s ability to mobilize, deploy and successfully complete our mission.”
The 205th Military Police Battalion will begin pre-mobilization training in February 2010 and will deploy to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in March of the same year. The battalion is expected to complete its deployment in April 2011.
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Posted: 11/4/2009 11:05:25 AM
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