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could be worse, and now it is
14 years ago
General
Alright. I've been having a bad week. Out of nowhere it feels I got hit with something I didn't expect and was completely unprepared to handle. I've not been doing well the past few days, and today found out something from another direction.
A few months ago I came on orders for Korea. I wasn't happy about it and tried to get out of it. My unit submitted paperwork twice requesting cancellation of the orders, submitted my paperwork from traffic school to G1 office, made phone calls. Last week I still haven't heard anything back and decided I need to face the reality that I'm gonna be reassigned no matter how much I kick and scream about it. Worth noting is that this isn't just me- all the soldiers assigned as MPI detectives and another guy from traffic from this unit are also on orders for Korea (one of them literally just got back from the school) and their request for change in status aren't being answered as well. I found out why.
With the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan MPs have been pretty widely deployed. To compensate for the number of MPs overseas the Army hired civilian police officers on bases. A lot of the Army doesn't like seeing normal cops on a military post, but the reality is they know their shit and are professional. Most MPs on the other hand have spent the vast majority of their careers working combat duties. For the past decade it seems like the MP corps has looked at our law enforcement role as the bitch POG job that's below them. Most of the people with rank who are MPs made that rank in combat zones and don't know a whole lot about policing. Obviously, this is a problem.
It's more so a problem because the MP battalion here has been trying to take over more control of things. As I said, civilians for a while have been the majority of the cops on base. This is changing with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan winding down; all of a sudden we have a lot of MPs with very little (if any) police experience without a mission. The MP battalion is making it's move now and playing politics. Civilian cops here are getting cut, battalion officers are being put into administrative positions usually run by civilians, and now the garrison MPs are going to go away too.
As an MP assigned to the garrison we had somewhat different rules. Our unit pretty much only existed to keep track of us and we'd go to work at the station every day falling under the direction of our civilian supervisors. About as little playing Army as possible while still wearing the uniform, and it gave us a good buffer from the politics of a military instillation. For a while they've been talking about having us fall under the MP battalion so they could have better control, and I guess now that's happening. From what I understand in the next few months as most of us from garrison PCS to out of the country and civilian police are dismissed, the MP battalion is going to assume responsibility for providing 'permanent' law&order MPs who go by their rules and play their games. Considering the battalion's leadership is more concerned with how their MP's address officers than the fact that none of their damned people can find their way to a 911 call in under 10 minutes, this is worrying.
Honestly I'm just really depressed about everything right now. The job I've done for the past year and a half is going to go to shit, I'm getting sent somewhere I don't want to go working for an organization I don't respect anymore, and my emotional support that I've relied on for a long time disappeared from under my feet. I'm really discontent with the way my life's going right now.
A few months ago I came on orders for Korea. I wasn't happy about it and tried to get out of it. My unit submitted paperwork twice requesting cancellation of the orders, submitted my paperwork from traffic school to G1 office, made phone calls. Last week I still haven't heard anything back and decided I need to face the reality that I'm gonna be reassigned no matter how much I kick and scream about it. Worth noting is that this isn't just me- all the soldiers assigned as MPI detectives and another guy from traffic from this unit are also on orders for Korea (one of them literally just got back from the school) and their request for change in status aren't being answered as well. I found out why.
With the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan MPs have been pretty widely deployed. To compensate for the number of MPs overseas the Army hired civilian police officers on bases. A lot of the Army doesn't like seeing normal cops on a military post, but the reality is they know their shit and are professional. Most MPs on the other hand have spent the vast majority of their careers working combat duties. For the past decade it seems like the MP corps has looked at our law enforcement role as the bitch POG job that's below them. Most of the people with rank who are MPs made that rank in combat zones and don't know a whole lot about policing. Obviously, this is a problem.
It's more so a problem because the MP battalion here has been trying to take over more control of things. As I said, civilians for a while have been the majority of the cops on base. This is changing with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan winding down; all of a sudden we have a lot of MPs with very little (if any) police experience without a mission. The MP battalion is making it's move now and playing politics. Civilian cops here are getting cut, battalion officers are being put into administrative positions usually run by civilians, and now the garrison MPs are going to go away too.
As an MP assigned to the garrison we had somewhat different rules. Our unit pretty much only existed to keep track of us and we'd go to work at the station every day falling under the direction of our civilian supervisors. About as little playing Army as possible while still wearing the uniform, and it gave us a good buffer from the politics of a military instillation. For a while they've been talking about having us fall under the MP battalion so they could have better control, and I guess now that's happening. From what I understand in the next few months as most of us from garrison PCS to out of the country and civilian police are dismissed, the MP battalion is going to assume responsibility for providing 'permanent' law&order MPs who go by their rules and play their games. Considering the battalion's leadership is more concerned with how their MP's address officers than the fact that none of their damned people can find their way to a 911 call in under 10 minutes, this is worrying.
Honestly I'm just really depressed about everything right now. The job I've done for the past year and a half is going to go to shit, I'm getting sent somewhere I don't want to go working for an organization I don't respect anymore, and my emotional support that I've relied on for a long time disappeared from under my feet. I'm really discontent with the way my life's going right now.
Public office is for people who are more concerned for others than themselves: but those kinds of people RARELY if ever actually WORK in public office, because either they're doing more active important shit or because they never had lunch once with the senator's nephew
I completely understand not respecting the organization anymore. I have been like that since mid/late 2009. xÞ
Just hang in there dude, before you know it your enlistment will be over and you will ETS into the real world where you will be able to live your life the way you want to.
Sorry if that sounds insensitive, but we're all at the needs of the army. If you're saying that MP's cant do the job PERIOD ever...then I say bullshit cause I remember back when they did all that stuff before the wars. If it's a matter of not presently meeting the standard... well. Performance can be improved.
On the other hand, I'm sorry to hear you're gonna get your life disrupted.
Get a hold of a major instillation's blotter brief. Shit's happening that shouldn't be on a military instillation at far higher frequency than should be acceptable. MPs honestly aren't up to the standards of their off-post counterparts. MPI sections are over worked and under manned, CID is a joke. The military has changed and criminal problems are getting worse. We're not addressing it by improving the police force though, we're addressing it by trying to tighten our belts when it's already escalated beyond that.
And no, I have no intention of being an MP any longer than I have to. I enlisted because I ran out of money for college and wanted to be a cop. I felt that deploying would be the responsible thing for me to do and maybe I could gain some skills in the filed along the way; either way I'd be able to get the sort of job I wanted after my contract. I've met my two goals and now I'm just trying to ride my time out before the nonstop bullshit gets to me.
How much longer do you have?