FORT MCCOY, Wis. –
Many military units go to Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, for one thing — great training.
As for the 300th Military Police Brigade, they take advantage of some of the great resources a military police unit can utilize to meet their training objective. Spartan Warrior III is a two-week training exercise that brings battalions and companies within the 300th to Fort McCoy, training on both MP and basic soldier skills.
The Soldiers were able to orchestrate numerous situational training exercises, weapon qualifications of all sorts, developing leadership skills and training on practical individual skills.
The commander of the 300th, Col. Joseph Adamson feels that the exercise is incredibly important for the Soldiers. “Spartan Warrior III provides an opportunity for leaders to lead and all to function in their Military Occupational Specialty, all while improving readiness and building the bonds that support us when called upon to serve.”
Long, dusty, winding roads help the military police combat support train and meet their units’ training standards, as an enemy prisoner of war housing facility helps provide detainee operations and processing for the detainment operation units.
“We are getting after all three MP disciplines: detention operations, security and mobility support, and police operations,” said Adamson. “We have many specialty MOS’s that facilitate success in our MP disciplines.”
“We could not be successful without the efforts of our engineers, administrative professionals, supply professionals, medical professionals and more,” added Adamson.
The use of the Leader Reaction Course allowed Soldiers to lead and communicate through numerous obstacles, and the use of the rappel tower and gas chamber brought energy to the soldiers.
The 300th incorporated individual training into their schedule which allows soldiers to train on rappel towers, squad-dismounted land navigation, chemical exposure training, Leader Reaction Course, less lethal training, and crew-served weapon training.
“This year we incorporated what I call ‘retention training’ into Spartan Warrior,” said Adamson. “We built in opportunities for Soldiers to do that ‘recruiting poster’ stuff that everyone sees.
“The training is going very well, and the Soldiers are learning a lot,” said Capt. Kou Yang, company commander of the 347th Military Police Company. “Some of the training that we did, they haven’t done in a long time since basic training. Overall the training has brought a lot of the soldiers together as far as teamwork, while having a mindset of being in an austere environment.”
Combat support units worked alongside detention operations units during many situational training exercises. Soldiers were able to apprehend detainees, transfer them to a detention operation unit and go through the many stages of in-processing.
“Working with other units has worked out fairly well,” said Sgt. 1st Class Daniel McGuigan, an internment / resettlement specialist with the 384th Military Police Battalion. “A lot of times the facilities that we get to use are not as good. We might be in-processing a detainee who is a baseball card.”
“Having physical bodies and having decent stations with actual working cells are great when it comes to getting visualization on an idea on what we are going to be dealing with,” added McGuigan.
With the success of Spartan Warrior III, Adamson sees bigger and better things for the 300th.
“Command Sgt. Maj. Carrie Bruzzese and I would like Soldiers to leave Spartan Warrior III tired, a bit sore, proud of what they’ve done, and reenergized to build towards a great Spartan Warrior IV in April 2023,” added Adamson.