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The plane touching down here brought them one huge step closer, but not yet to where they wanted to be.
The almost 200 Soldiers of the 21st Theater Sustainment Command’s 18th Military Police Brigade headquarters and its 95th Military Police Battalion headquarters, who landed here Dec. 5, had one more leg to travel to reach their desired destination.
They surely appreciated the official welcome home greeting on Ramstein’s flight line, which included Maj. Gen. Yves Fontaine and Command Sgt. Maj. David Wood, the 21st TSC’s commanding general and command sergeant major, but their hearts and minds were a short distance down the road – at the Benjamin Franklin Village Sport Arena in Mannheim.
That’s where their families and friends eagerly awaited the Soldiers of the ever-vigilant brigade after their 15-month deployment.
“It’s a long, drawn out process – a 24 to 30 hour process to get out of Iraq – but when you travel in the right direction, these 24 to 30 hours are not so bad,” said Col. Mark Spindler, brigade commander. “It’s spectacular. It’s awesome but also a little bit surreal to be home. And it is certainly what every Soldier has been looking forward to.”
Lt. Col. John Bogdan, the commander of the 95th MP Battalion, agreed.
“It’s great to be home and will be even better when we make it all the way home to our families,” he said.
A very open and succinct prediction of his first reaction to meeting up with his wife of 15 years and his five children came from Sgt. George Ellis, a signal system
support Soldier with the 18th MP Brigade.
“I will probably cry,” he said.
Nonetheless, the challenges and hardships of the brigade’s third deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom may have been mitigated by their achievements.
Entrusted with law enforcement operations as well as the Baghdad Police Transition Team mission, the Soldiers can be proud of their successful training and mentoring of Iraqi police forces, Colonel Spindler said.
“Our job there was to make them bigger, make them better and then give them all the things they need so they can stand on their own once the government says they’re ready to take over,” he said.
Their largest accomplishment is the new regard for and integration of the Iraqi police forces.
“The big success is that we’re seeing a lot more of the police interacting with the Army, interacting with the national police so they’re doing joint planning, and the coalition is in more of an over-watch position. Their positions are now being solicited. Their ideas are being solicited. There is a real sense of cooperation and
integration,” Colonel Spindler said.
The more than 900 Soldier-strong 95th MP Battalion, which was responsible for the entire east side of Baghdad, coordinated with, trained, mentored, coached and improved the Iraqi police forces in that large geographical area, Colonel Bogdan said.
“During the old regime, the police were largely looked at as an extension of the regime, but now, over time, they have grown into something that is regarded as a police force of the people and for the people,” he said.
