Guardsmen from U.S. territories contribute to Kosovo mission

Story courtesy of North Dakota National Guard

(12/8/09) -- After more than a year of preparation and mobilization training, KFOR 12 Multi-National Task Force-East is well into its peace support mission in Kosovo, and about 100 Soldiers from a U.S. territory are keeping the peace on base here too.

Soldiers of the 661st Military Police Company hail from the U.S. Virgin Islands, collectively St. Croix, St. John, St. Thomas and Water Island. Their mission here ranges from maintaining law and order to providing security escorts for missions involving the Joint Visitors Bureau or the Personal Security Detachment. Capt. Arthur Hector, commander of the 661st, said the unit - like many others - was notified about the deployment more than a year ago. The time, he said, was devoted to getting the unit prepped for the mission.

Training plans were incorporated and requirements for deployment such as weapons qualification, Warrior Training Tasks, battle drills and online classes were met. Hector is from St. Croix, where the main body of the unit resides. He said after moving about a quarter of the unit through MOS-qualification in Puerto Rico, the 661st arrived in Camp Atterbury at roughly the same time as the rest of the task force. "The training was great, but it was a different type of training environment," Hector said. "A lot of the training went very well, especially at Muscatatuck Training Center."

"The training at Muscatatuk was definitely great especially the USD classes, the OC spray and the Taser classes," 1st Sgt. Dale Carty said. "The detainee operations class was informative, but was too long and tedious since we were not going to use that training on this mission."

After successfully completing the necessary tasks there, the unit moved to Hohenfels, where the training tempo increased. "At that time we went through a more intense version of the training, which incorporated scenarios that we had to react to," Hector said. "At Hohenfels the training was rapid and intense, which was good," Carty added. "It gave the unit a firsthand view of how things could be, especially for those Soldiers who were never deployed and had never experienced that kind of intense training before. Although this deployment is a first for some in the 661st, the unit has its share of veterans. "I would say at least 50 percent of the Soldiers here have been deployed before at least once," Hector said. "There are several folks here who are on their third rotation."

Hector is one of those Soldiers. His first deployment was with the 661st, when the unit was called to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to serve as security forces there. His second deployment took him to Iraq, where he served as a battle captain/base defense OIC at Camp Taji.

"The majority of the unit has worked together before because they were one MP Company," Hector said. He said because many of the 661's Soldiers had deployed together before, it made things easier.

Having a first sergeant who knows the unit well is also beneficial. Carty, from St. Thomas, has been with the 661st for 20 years. He was with the 661st during its Guantanamo Bay deployment in 2003.

Hector said although there were newer additions to the unit, morale and unity remained high.

"The MP unit is naturally a close-knit unit, and we've been that way for years," he said. "But we had to pull people in from other units and make sure people connected and the chemistry was right."

"Most of the newer members in the unit are not MP's, so therefore they fall into the (ILO) platoon," Carty said. "I think it took a little while for them to understand the concept of the mission they were involved in, but they have since learned the objective of the mission and the flow has now become much easier."

Hector said the pace had slowed down since the Relief-in-Place/Transfer-of-Authority process completed, which allowed the Soldiers to get some rest and fall into routines.

"After ripping with KFOR 11 and understanding the objective of the mission, the Soldiers have become more comfortable with what is ahead of them," Carty continued.

"It's a slowdown in pace, so to speak, compared to the fast pace we were moving before," Hector said. "So it has been going well and we've been able to execute our missions the way we need to and to the expectations that I've set forth."

Carty said working with the other leadership had enabled events, training and the RIP/TOA process to commence smoothly, allowing all Soldiers - 661st and beyond - to successfully work as one unit.

"The KFOR 12 leadership preplan for this mission has made things accessible for all, and the flow of information has been very helpful I think not only for the 661st MP Co., but for the entire task force on this mission," Carty said.